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10 August 2006 - Programme Number 112

SIERRA LEONE: HELP AND EMPOWERMENT FOR WOMEN VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
DR CONGO: UPDATE ON BALLOT HANDLING PROBLEMS

Sierra Leone's civil war may have ended but the effects are still being felt today, especially by women who have suffered from sexual violence. Efforts are still being made by some local NGOs -with the assistance of the UN and other international organisations - to help these victims. One such committed worker is Mrs Juliana Conteh, the Director of the Women in Crisis Centre in Kissy Dockyard, Freetown:
"Their behaviour is wrong at first; most of them were sex workers but after the training, ... when they get back to the community, the life they were living at first, they never go back to that life."

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo there is a tense wait, as the large unwieldy ballot papers and counted and people wait for credible final results to be announced by the Electoral authorities by the end of August. But reports continue to suggest that the handling and counting of these ballots may not be going well. On the line to Kinshasa, UN and Africa contacted the Deputy Head of MONUC - the UN Mission in the DR Congo - Ross Mountain, and asked him about the specific post-election challenges: "We've obviously provided all the support we can, including of course, with MONUC aircraft, as well as other logistics support in this process. This is just, as you probably know, the first round of the elections."

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