Diego Zuna
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|---|---|
| Rank | 32nd senior deputy prime minister of Pacitalia |
| Term of office | 23rd October 2006 — |
| Predecessor | Domenico Benficalzo |
| Successor | Incumbent |
| Birthdate | 9th July, 1954 |
| Place of Birth: | Coronà del Santarém, Margheria, Pacitalia |
| Spouse | Minah Kamadehani Rafsa |
| Children | Ahmad, 15 Safa, 13 |
| Profession | Politician, humanitarian |
| Political party | Pacitalian Social Coalition |
| Languages spoken | Pacitalian, English, Spanish, Farsi, Arabic |
| Degrees | |
 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, 1996
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The Right Honourable Signore Diego Sandro Cristobál Guillermo Zuna de Coronà, born 9th July, 1954 in Coronà del Santarém, Margheria, Pacitalia, is the senior deputy prime minister of the Democratic Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia and a prominent humanitarian activist. He is the thirty-second person to hold the position of senior deputy prime minister, succeeding the late Domenico Benficalzo, when he was named to the cabinet of prime minister Fernando Chiovitti on 23rd October, 2006.
Zuna describes his politics as "somewhat mainstream". He is an economic liberal mainly for his beliefs in low taxation and minimal government intervention in the economy. Socially, he is a libertarian and social democrat in that he believes in slight increases in the level of welfare provision in the state. However, he generally prefers the form of social safety net currently used in Pacitalia but advocates reform of the system.
Early life and education
Born to an upper-class family with notable aristocratic lineage, Zuna attended the Collegiata-Accademiata Terra Graza, an Antigonian all-boys preparatory school located in that province's northern anchor city, Sinfantonera. He graduated from there in 1972 with an secondary-level pre-imperatus specialitat diploma in liberal arts study, and moved on to the prestigious Instituto degli Sienciata Politicata alla Capitale, or Poca. There he spent four years and earned his bachelor's of the arts in political science magna cum laude, with an imperatus specialitat in international diplomacy and humanitarian sciences. Zuna's minor was Mideastern languages, a major contributor to his eventual fluency in Farsi and Arabic.
After leaving Poca in 1976 with his first degree, Zuna was pressured into upgrading it to a Master's by his father, and so, he enrolled in the respected University of Central Antigonia for the fall semester. His time at UCA was marked with his involvement in numerous student protests decrying human rights abuses in Africa and the Mideast, something that would be a foreshadowing of his future career. Zuna earned his Masters' of the Arts in political science, again with magna cum laude honours, in April 1978, and headed to the Universitado Técnico, Artes Liberales y Policiencias (Unital-Po) in Margheria to receive an associate of the arts career certification in human welfare and humanitarian sciences. He aced the two-year program, earning the certification with highest honours from the polytechnical college.
Adult life and career
Zuna started work as an intern for Amnesty International. He was moved into a clerical position in the Nortopalazzo offices, but it was soon discovered his talents were worthy of a much higher level of work. He accepted an offer to move to the Persepolis offices of AI, where he was given a senior role in the new action committee on Mideast human rights. He led the ACMHR to great successes and along the way developed a close working relationship with Parthia's Shah Khosru III, as they both turned their attention to mediating increasing strife on the African continent.
Zuna met his wife, Minah Kamadehani Rafsa, while travelling through Esfahan in 1982. They married the next year and settled in Persepolis.
In recognition of his work in the Mideast, Amnesty International promoted him to their executive board in 1986. His new position allowed him to be much more vocal, and he took full advantage, publicly decrying the UN's practices in Africa and the Mideast. Zuna spent much of his time between 1986 and 1990 moving around Africa documenting human rights progress (and, conversely, abuses) before moving his wife from Persepolis to Kinshasa in 1990 for a two-year stint there. There, they had their first son, Ahmad, born in 1991. Amnesty International promoted Zuna to Head of African Operations, on top of still being an AI executive, in 1992. The Zuna family left Kinshasa for Cairo that same year, but he would hold those two lofty positions until 1997.
Great Central African War
Zuna arrived at his highest level of prominence yet for his work in the Great Central African War. The war erupted in 1996, at the height of Zuna's tenure as head of African operations. On word of the conflict's inception, Zuna raced south to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where he began coordinating, with the UN, relief efforts and the movement of refugees to temporary havens outside the war zone. Under his watch, the UN and Amnesty International cooperated to air-drop nearly Ð30bn of food, medical supplies and clothing at various safe-points in Zaire, the country experiencing a wide majority of the conflict. In August 1996, when the conflict appeared to be cooling slightly, and Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko had sent his foreign minister abroad appealing for further aid, Zuna personally visited, with an Amnesty International entourage, numerous Zairian villages, handing out potable water, boxes of non-perishable food and clothing and shoes for the needy residents. His visit was remarkable in that he did not have a military escort, whether from the UN, the Mobutu government or the rebellious AFDL. From this, Zuna's face was nearly simultaneously paired as the metaphoric representation of aid from the outside world.
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize soon after, Zuna played down the recognition, saying he was "just doing what any human being should be obligated to do", and was "intrigued" to discover that another Pacitalian, journalist and filmmaker Anastasio Coscarelli, had also been nominated for 1996's peace prize. Coscarelli's PBC documentary Holocaust by Hunger: The Zaire War and its Effect on the Rural Poor was arguably viewed at an equal level to Zuna's work, for it was recognised for just as effectively opening up the world's eyes to the atrocities taking place during the war as Zuna's efforts had done.
Zuna won the Nobel Peace Prize over Coscarelli, and accepted citing his "regret that [he] could not share it with Coscarelli". Zuna said of Coscarelli: "He is a true man, and I admire him and his efforts greatly. If you say I deserve this award, then he deserves this too."
