UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 114
Week of: Sunday, 20th August, 2006
Recording Date: Thursday, 24th August, 2006
Topical Issue(s):

" DR CONGO / POST-RESULTS FIREFIGHTS IN KINSHASA: The UN's top man in the DR Congo, William Swing, speaks to UN Radio about being trapped in Vice-President Bemba's home by a dramatic firefight outside plus the prospects for the country in the next few weeks.

" SWAHILI AS UN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: We hear from the radical Kenyan MP who came to the UN recently with the idea that an African language should be spoken officially at the United Nations.

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio from New York.

PRESENTER:
Hello and a warm welcome to UN and Africa. I'm Ben Dotsei Malor.

PRESENTER:

After three days of fighting, looting and tension in Kinshasa, between supporters of the two leading politicians, we hear from the top UN official in the DR Congo, William Swing, who had been trapped with other senior diplomats in a basement because of the gunfire outside.
CLIP 1B … TEASER - MR SWING:
"…This is the single most critical situation in all of Africa right now because it's the one crisis that if put right could change the face of Africa and that's what we want. ."

And we'll be asking him about the challenges ahead in the next few days.
CLIP 1 - MR SWING: The big issue now is to make sure that the government institutions start working again and that we put in place compost building measures that will allow the process to go forward to the second round of presidential and the provincial elections but all of that is beginning to fall in place slowly.."

Plus, the African MP, who wants an African language to become one of the official languages of the United Nations.

CLIP-2.. TEASER - KENYAN MP, KOIDI WA WAMWERE: We want Africa to produce a language for the UN. Only then shall we be able to say that the continent is now decolonized. Only then shall we be able to say that indeed the UN is an organization for the entire world and not just for part of the world. This is why UN must urgently consider having Kiswahili as one of the official languages.
"
PRESENTER:

That's all coming your way, in the next fourteen minutes, right here on UN and Africa.

CALM RETURNS TO DR CONGO'S CAPITAL AFTER FIGHTING BETWEEN SUPPORTERS OF TWO LEADING PRESIDENTAIL CANDIDATES

PRESENTER:

It's most unusual to hear about firefights between a President and his Vice but that's what has been happening the capital of the DR Congo, where several people have been killed over the past few days as President Joseph Kabila's Presidential Guards tacked security guards protecting his main political challenger, Vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. The two men emerged as the leading presidential contenders when election results were announced on Sunday 20th August, with Mr Kabila receiving 45 percent of the votes and Mr Bemba coming second with twenty percent. They are now expected to go in for a second round on October 29th. But the prospects of a second round were thrown into serious doubt by the three days of fighting and looting in Kinshasa. The top UN envoy and head of the peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo, William Swing, together with some fifteen top diplomats were trapped in the basement of Mr Bemba's home by the fighting. They were subsequently freed by UN and European Union peacekeepers.
UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, appealed urgently to the presidential candidates to end the violence and now calm has been restored in Kinshasa, with UN and EU troops mounting joint patrols in the city.
We called up UN envoy William Swing in Kinshasa and asked him first how he would describe the situation in the capital?

INTERVIEW WITH MR SWING
"Swing: I think it's better today than it has been all week. As you know we had a shooting and a shoot out on Sunday that continued into Monday and Tuesday. I think that the agreement that was brokered on Monday to separate the forces and get them back to their initial places of deployment has held. It's working. There are violations of it there are some exceptions but we have two mobile teams that are out trying to keep the violations down and we have a regular working group at the ministerial level that is considering these violations so its working a lot better today. Most of the people are back on the streets pedestrians, and car traffic is starting to get heavy again. So I think the country is coming back to normal. The big issue now is to make sure that the government institutions start working again and that we put in place compost building measures that will allow the process to go forward to the second round of presidential and the provincial elections but all of that is beginning to fall in place slowly.

Ben Malor: How worrying was this when the fighting erupted between forces of Mr. Bemba and Mr. Kapila? How worrying was it for you and others in the diplomatic community in Kinshasa that this could unravel and the whole process could get back to square 1?

Swing: It's was quite worrisome. I think it is one of the deeper crises that we've faced in the period of the three year transition. It was worrisome that from two perspectives obviously one with our mandate to protect the civilian population. We were particularly concerned about deaths and there were actually more deaths in those three days than occurred throughout the entire one month political campaign. A lot of these were of course policeman who died in action but we were even more largely concerned about the damage to the electoral process which has been carefully nurtured by the people and by the electoral commission and by the international community. We wanted to be sure that the process didn't lose credibility. It has lost a certain amount of credibility we are trying to help them to restore that by creating conflict building measures to move on to the next round. I think everyone is trying and determined primarily the people absolutely determined and they have a strong partner in the electoral commission they have a strong partner in a lot of the authorities here and they have a very strong partner in the international alliance here of the various countries and organizations represented including of course ourselves the UN.

Ben Malor: You speak Mr. Swing about the people of DR Congo being determined. What about the leaders the two key leaders President Kapila and his main rival Mr. Bemba? You've been speaking to them. What are you picking up? What determination are you picking up from these two key political figures in the DR Congo?

Swing: Our main message to them in threefold. One that the process is at great risk right now. Number 2 there are only 2 people in the country who can address that effectively one these are the two rivals for the presidency in the second round and 3rdly if we let the process fail history will judge us all very unkindly and based on that I think we're talking about how to move forward I think there is a strong understanding on their part that a lot is at stake here I think they and all the other actors here know that. There is a lot at stake for the Congolese people and there is a lot at stake for Africa because as we have tried to state on numerous occasions this is the single most critical situation in all of Africa right now because it's the one crisis that if put right could change the face of Africa and that's what we want.

Ben Malor: How would you describe the response of the UN forces who came to rescue you and the other diplomats from Mr Bemba's house their response to this particular flair up of violence. How good was it?

Swing: I'm very proud of our UN forces here I think they have done exceedingly well under the difficult situation. I'm very pleased with the cooperation and coordination between MONAC and the European Union force UFOR they are working very well together. I think one needs to realize the parameters of what we're talking about. WE have 18,000 troops in the country but 13 of the 15 battalions are in the east part of the country we have 2 battalions for the rest of the country, that portion of the country is larger than Spain and France together. We have here among ourselves fewer than 3,000 troops so that gives you some idea of how one is stretched. But given those parameters its even more impressive at how well the forces have done. I was very pleased and proud over the last 2 days to see that patrols both our military and police patrols, joint patrols with Congolese army and police are very evident and I that is quite reassuring to the people of the Congo who put a lot of trust in the UN.

Ben Malor: Mr. Swing we're personally caught up in the firefight between the 2 sides we understand you sought refuge in the basement of Mr. Bemba's house. Summarize for us what actually happened at what your thoughts were at the time?

Swing: Well we had made a decision earlier in the day that we needed because of the critical nature of what had happened that we needed immediately as the members of CIAT that's the senior ambassadors who are members of a transitional institution. We decided to go see each of the actors separately. We started with Vice president Bemba. We went there that afternoon around 3 o'clock. We started I made my presentation and other ambassadors added on to it. We were about 30 min into our exchange with the vp and small arms fire started going off by automatic fire and by some mortars. So we realized at that point it would be better to leave the part of the house that would be so exposed so we went down to the basement and began making the necessary phone calls I was in touch with President Kabila several times helped to hook up a telephone liaison between the president and the vice president Bemba. We started calling all those who be of some help to get it stopped and then just sort of waited for things till things died down to the point at which we could get out and get back under UN force assistance.

Ben Malor: And briefly the prospects for the days and the weeks ahead Mr Swing.

Swing: Well I think its better today than it was yesterday and yesterday was better than the day before. We're taking it a day at a time. I think the electoral authorities are working very hard. They're trying to catch up the couple of days that were lost when they couldn't move around I think there's a couple of initiatives that are going on between president Kabila and Vice President Bemba supported by the international community that offer promise in the area of conference building methods and getting weapons off the streets and getting some basic rules of the game established of reestablished so I think overall the trend line is cautiously positive and we just have to keep at it. Overall its going to work."

The head of the UN's peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, William Swing.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

AFRICAN LANGUAGE AT THE UN

PRESENTER:

One of the most radical political voices in Kenya is that of member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for Information, KOIGI WA WAMWERE. Mr KOIGI is a man of many dreams and and ideas and one of these dreams is having an African language adopted as one of the official languages of the UN.
During a recent visit to UN headquarters I met him and asked him about his campaign for an African language at the UN?

INTERVIEW WITH MINISTER KOIGI
WAMWERE: When I gave our statement at the Committee of Information, I argued that I should have been giving my statement or been given the Kenyan statement in an African language and Swahili would have bee very ideal or probably Hausa. The fact is that …

MALOR: You don't speak Hausa Koigi wa Wamwere.

WAMWERE: I don't speak Hausa and I don't think that I need to speak Hausa for me to acknowledge it as an African language, just as the Hausa speaking I am sure, would gladly accept that having Kiswahili as one of the official languages of the UN would be a big step forward for the entire continent. So my argument is we have all the other continents, I think have got one of their, each continent has one of its languages as an official language of the UN. Only Africa does not have and no one should tell me that Arabic is an African language because we know that it is a Middle Eastern language. We want Africa to produce a language for the UN. Only then shall we be able to say that the continent is now decolonized. Only then shall we be able to say that indeed the UN is an organization for the entire world and not just for part of the world. This is why UN must urgently consider having Kiswahili as one of the official languages.

MALOR: When you raised this issue in the Committee on Information in the UN here, what kind of reception did you get?

WAMWERE: To be quite honest, I was surprised by the positiveness of the delegates. Many came up to make and said you put your case very very well. It is something that we wanted to push.

MALOR: You are sure that is not just a lot of diplomatic how wash?

WAMWERE: They didn't have to come to me and complement me. And I didn't see them going to complement others merely because they had spoken. I actually think the reason why we don't have Kiswahili adopted as an official language of the UN is probably because African delegates have not pushed hard for it. It is time we did that with everything that we have.

MALOR: But the argument, even if you succeed here at the UN to say 'yes' must be an African language. In Africa itself, you have to convince people. Why Swahili is preferable to Hausa, or Yoruba, or Amharic or Zulu or Xhosa?

WAMWERE: (LAUGHTER) The only reason I think that Swahili would be much easier for the continent is because, first of all, it has quite a lot of people. The entire region of East Africa and central Africa actually speaks this language. And also, because it is related, somehow it has borrowed heavily from Arabic. I would believe that people who are Muslims in Africa would find it a very easy language to learn.

MALOR: Won't that put off the Christians or the non-Muslims?

WAMWREE: No no no. I am quite sure that even the Christians from West Africa if they put their mind to learning Kiswahili, they find that in fact it is an easier language to learn or it is just as easy to learn Kiswahili as it has been to learn English or even Russian. Remember Africans have gone out of their way to learn the most difficult language, forgetting that in fact, their language because of our common roots would be much easier to learn. So if we have learned French, if we have learned Russian, if we have learned English, there should be no problem in our being to learn Hausa or Kiswahili for that matter. And by the way I believe that within Africa it is also high time, that say for instance, West Africa has learned Kiswahili, East Africa has learned Hausa, South Africans learned something from the north and vice versa. We need to put our language at the front. It is the only way we can discover ourselves and our pride and our image.

MALOR: Briefly, I know you have to go, looking ahead now, this campaign to get an African language at the United Nations as an official language, how do you see this evolving? How do you see over the next let's say ten, fifteen years? In your life time do you see Swahili being spoken here at UN headquarters? What is your expectation over the next few years?

WAMWERE: To be quite honest I would be surprised if we lost another ten years before the adoption of Kiswahili as an official language of the UN.

MALOR: Why are you so optimistic?

WAMWERE: Because it is the most logical and reasonable thing for the UN to do.

MALOR: But who is supporting you? Which of African countries are supporting you?

WAMWERE: By the time that I left, I thought I got support from Angola. I got support from South Africa. I got support from Rwanda. I got support from Burundi. Tanzania actually tried to move to move to amend a resolution to have Swahili included. So we have a lot of support already. And my own feeling is that I think that Africa has also come of age and I think we realize that push for what is our own nobody else is going to do it. If this was the first shot fired, I believe, and I would like to believe that other countries are going to follow suite and spread the campaign which I believe the UN should find it easier to adopt today than ten years ago because everyday it becomes more and more difficult to accept the injustice of having an entire continent not having one of its languages counted as a UN international language.

Kenyan Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for Information, KOIGI WA WAMWERE.
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PRESENTER:
… Bringing us to the end of this edition of UN and Africa, with …. Derrick Mbatha, Nyi Nyi Teza and me, Ben Dotsei Malor.
It's nice you could join us. Thank you.
Goodbye.
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(Bring music up and play till the end.)