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UN Radio
UN and Africa
Programme Number: 133
Week of: Sunday, 31st December, 2006
Recording Date: Thursday, 4th January, 2006
Topical Issue(s):
" The UN refugee agency has appealed to Kenyan
authorities to allow Somali civilians who have fled
fighting in their country to enter Kenya. UNHCR says
it is concerned about reports that Kenyan authorities
have forcibly deported the Somalis. UNHCR spokeswoman
in Nairobi, Millicent Mutuli says it is not yet time
to send people back to Somalia.
" UNICEF is supporting a campaign to stop violence
against children in Kenya. Julie Mwabe, a youth consultant
with UNICEF and Leah Asego, a Kenyan primary teacher
talk about the ordeal facing Kenyan children and what
is being done to help them.
" Lieutenant General Randhir Kumar Mehta of the
UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, who recently
visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, says he
is optimistic about the future of the country. However,
he points out that the country is still facing challenges
in reforming its security sector.
Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor/: Diane Bailey
Production Assistant: Nyi Nyi Teza
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwitt
Duration: 15'00"
RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.
Hello and welcome to UN and Africa, I'm Derrick Mbatha.
In today's programme, the United Nations refugee agency
is concerned about the Kenyan authorities' deportation
of some four hundred Somalis who fled fighting in their
country and sought asylum in Kenya.
CLIP 1: MILLICENT MUTULI
"We are continuing to appeal to the government
to allow civilians to come in. We do believe that it
is not yet time to send people back to Somalia".
PRESENTER:
That was Millicent Mutuli, the spokeswoman for the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi
Kenya. You will hear more from her in a moment. We also
look at a campaign to stop violence against children
in Kenya. Julie Mwabe is a youth consultant with the
UN Children's agency, UNICEF.
CLIP 2: JULIE MWABE
"The forms of violence are just getting worse.
It was new like sodomy and incest and a lot of rape
cases, especially of children below the age of 5 and
I think because of that UNICEF decided to start the
campaign. "
And later in the programme you will hear from a United
Nations military officer talking about the challenges
facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.
PRESENTER:
The recent fighting in Somalia has forced hundreds
of Somalis to flee to neighbouring Kenya. However, Kenyan
authorities this week decided to force some of these
Somalis to return to their country. Several trucks carrying
Somalis who had sought refuge near the border town of
Liboi were seen heading back towards Somalia on Wednesday.
The United Nations refugee agency called on Kenya to
allow Somalis at risk to enter the country. While it
fully appreciated that the situation in Somalia is a
serious concern to the Kenyan authorities, UNHCR says
the government also has a humanitarian obligation to
allow civilians to seek asylum on its territory. I discussed
this problem on the line to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi
with Millicent Mutuli, the spokeswoman for the United
Nations refugee agency.
MUTULI: We have received reports that the Kenyan government
has sent back up to 400 Somali refugees who were in
a reception centre in Liboi a border town between Kenya
and Somalia.
MBATHA: What reasons are the Kenyan authorities giving
for not allowing these Somali refugees to enter Kenya?
MUTULI: I must say that at this point we are trying
to seek clarification from the government and at the
same time appealing that they do not send more people
back. We have been on telephone contact with the government
and sent in a letter to the Minister of Immigration
who is also in charge of refugee affairs. We are continuing
to appeal to the government to allow civilians to come
in. We do believe that it is not yet time to send people
back to Somalia.
MBATHA: And who are these refugees actually?
MUTULI: The majority of those who are at the reception
centre in Liboi, the 400 people are mainly women and
children.
MBATHA: And there are already many Somalis at the Dadaab
refugee camps in Kenya. What is happening to those refugees?
MUTULI: Kenya is host to about 165,000 Somali refugees,
many of them, the majority of them are in the Dadaab
camps. I mean these are refugees that have been there
for the most since the last 15 years and we continue
to provide humanitarian assistance to this group.
MBATHA: Millicent you made mention of the fact that
many of the Somali refugees who are fleeing to Kenya
are women and children.
MUTULI: That is correct, that out of this 400, I am
making reference to the 400 people who are reportedly
deported from Kenya. The majority of this group were
women and children.
PRESENTER:
That was Millicent Mutuli, the spokeswoman for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:
A landmark study on violence against children, commissioned
by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, found that violence
against children is a truly global phenomenon. On a
recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya's capital, Diane Bailey
found out about a campaign organized by the government
and UNICEF to stop violence against children.
DIANE: Julie Mwabe talks with young children who have
been beaten, sexually abused and otherwise mistreated.
She shares their stories online on UNICEF's website
as a way of making known how prevalent the problem of
violence against children is.
JULIE: I've heard cases where one of the parents has
maybe died, the mother has died, and the father has
decided to take on the girl who is only 9, and she had
to leave school and take on the mother role, like take
care of the kids, do all the house chores and on top
of that sleep with the father for the last 8 years.
And you have children being burned. And you had one
who actually was HIV-positive, his uncle found out he
was HIV-positive and killed him.
DIANE: Barely out of childhood herself, 22 year old
Julie explains that the campaign, launched in Kenya
last summer, took advantage of mass protests last April
over the murder of a 15 year old boy. Then, too, there
has been more reporting in the media of cases of violence
against children.
JULIE: For the last year or two years, every time you
watch the news there was always a case of violence,
and the forms of violence is just getting worse. It
was new like sodomy and incest and a lot of rape cases,
especially of children below the age of 5 and I think
because of that UNICEF decided to start the campaign.
DIANE: Leah Asego teaches in Ayani Primary School in
Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum. She has taken a personal
interest in the lives of her students, especially those
whose parents have died of AIDS. She is also working
to empower children to avoid incest and rape.
LEAH: There is a song I composed, and we are…I
talked to the whole school from pre-unit up to standard
age and different teachers, and it goes like this: "These
are my private parts, private parts, private parts.
These are my private parts and nobody should touch them,
nobody should see them, nobody should play with them."
And that song is sung right from pre-unit up to standard
age. At least when they go home and sing those songs,
even if the father was having an intention of doing
an incest with the children, they see oh so already
she knows. And even when the uncles at home hear the
song, they know already this child is empowered. The
child knows exactly the things which are not supposed
to be touch, and the child knows the private parts.
DIANE: What Leah Asego is teaching her young charges
is very important, since many children have no way of
knowing that rape or incest is not a normal occurrence.
JULIE: I remember when I talked to someone - she was
having sexual relations with her father - and she never
knew it was wrong because no one had told her. And you
have younger ones who say, they feel pain but they don't
know it's wrong, it's something that they're used to,
and it's the people that they love and trust who are
doing that to them. So this gives innocent children
going through pain, some have had to go through surgery
because of a ruptured uterus and stuff like that.
DIANE: UNICEF and its partners are trying to raise
100 million Kenyan shillings - that's about 1.3 million
U.S. dollars to protect children from violence. As part
of the campaign, outreach workers take Kenyan DJ's and
artists around the country to help break the silence
on this violation of children's rights.
JULIE: We have a Stop Violence Bus, we're intending
it to go to 20 districts in the country, we've already
done three. The bus goes to a district for seven and
in those seven days, there's a lot of mobilization that
takes place and with loudspeakers the bus drives around
the district, just telling people do not beat your children,
and to the children, if this has happened to you, report
it, and do not keep quiet, and trying to break that
silence. And on top of that telling them where to go
for help.
DIANE: Making school an oasis from danger as well as
a place to learn goes a long way to keeping children
safe. UNICEF provides bathrooms and clean drinking water,
and the World Food Programme lunch for every child.
Leah Asego goes door to door to make sure children come
to school.
LEAH: They are now accessing school, and being retained
in school at least because the World Food Programme
also brought food. They're eating in the school. So
they're at least assured of a meal a day. There is plenty
of water, they drink water the way they like. The environment
is conducive, that is child-friendly, and the children
are really enjoying the school.
DIANE: The stop the violence campaign is being organized
by the Kenyan government with support from UNICEF, religious
groups, NGOs and the private sector. For UN and Africa,
this is Diane Bailey.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:
The peace process in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo seems to be on course. Although the country is
still facing security problems in the eastern part,
it is making progress on the political front. With the
appointment of Antoine Gizenga as the Prime Minister
last Saturday, a government is expected to be formed
soon. UN Radio's Zenawit Melesse discussed some of the
challenges facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo
with the Military Adviser in the United Nations Department
of Peacekeeping Operations, Lieutenant-General Randhir
Kumar Mehta, who recently concluded a one week visit
to the country.
MEHTA: Overall there is a great sense of optimism in
the country and along side however there are a few concerns
when you see it from a point of view of a very large
country. Congo, which has seen about 40 years of turbulence,
requires now to have a close look at the security sector
reforms, which means reorganisation of the national
army, their police, the judicial system and the rule
of law. We have certain militia or decedent groups,
who are operating in the East mainly in the Ituri province
in the North Kivu and in the South Kivu and as a result
of their presence there is a sense of impunity, extortion,
ethnic violence as also a certain sequence of, or incidents
of rape, torture, which has got to be stopped. So MONUC
has to remain on guard and support the FARDC all along
in the immediate future.
ZEN: MONUC stressed that the process of Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) has brought some
security and stability in the DRC. Can you tell us the
key role that MONUC has played in this process?
MEHTA: MONUC had employed a unique concept of forcible
disarmament beginning 2005. Through a set of well planned
actions we managed to create conditions that a lot of
armed groups disarmed voluntarily and some had to be
pressurised to disarm so as a result we have had extremely
successful results with over about 18-20 thousand ex-combatants,
militia belligerents having disarmed. But they still
remain about 7-8 thousand of such people, who are required
to join the peace process and therefore, we are conducting
a series of operations both at the ground level involving
FARDC in the lead with MONUC supporting them.
ZEN: There are still significant security and humanitarian
concerns in DRC. For example last month the militia
members, loyal to General Nkunda attacked civilians
in Northern Kivu province. What are you at MONUC doing
to negotiate peace with these groups in order to bring
the humanitarian violations to a halt?
MEHTA: I think our combined efforts are showing the
necessary results on ground. I have in this visit met
the country teams, the agencies, representatives also.
And by in large they were very appreciative of the,
I would say, coordinated approach that MONUC has adopted
under the leadership of the SRSG towards tackling the
issues as a whole. We have taken the first big step
with the successful conclusion of elections, with the
swearing-in of the President, the cabinet to be constituted
shortly. So we should not be put off by Sake it involves
both a political give an understanding as also adequate
military pressures being maintained so that these belligerent
groups come over ground.
ZEN: There have been several success stories about
UN peacekeeping missions, for example, ONUB in Burundi.
As the Military Adviser, how do you perceive the role
of DPKO? And how crucial is it in the work of United
Nations?
MEHTA: We have approximately 90,000 peacekeepers in
the field today, which is a brotherhood comprising military,
which is about 70,000 about 10,000 policemen and about
10-12,000 civilians both national and international.
So when you look at the share statistics that I have
outlined to you I think military has a major role to
play; major role to play as part of the higher political
direction and higher political processes. And certainly
we are required to create conditions so that the political
processes and constitution building etc move at the
best they are required to. So in that context, in the
political context I think we have a major role to play.
PRESENTER:
That was Lieutenant General Randhir Kumar Mehta of
the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
PRESENTER:
And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our
Production Assistant was Nyi Nyi Teza and our sound
engineer was Zach Pruitt. And from me Derrick Mbatha,
good bye for now.
*** CLOSING MUSIC ***
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