|
Programme Number: 135
Week of: Sunday, 14th January, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 18th January, 2007
Topical Issue(s):
" Children in southern Somalia are suffering as
a result of the conflict between the government and
the Islamic Courts. UNICEF representative in Somalia
Christian Baslev-Olesen says that some of these children
have been recruited into militias, while others have
been shot or detained.
" Diamonds are some of the most precious stones
that can bring in the much needed income and help develop
the economies of African countries. However, as Ian
Smillie of Partnership Africa Canada points out, diamonds
have fuelled conflicts in some of these countries. He
says that there are efforts to stop that through the
Kimberly certification scheme.
" Recent clashes between rebel and government
forces in the Central African Republic and Chad have
prompted the UN to send an assessment team to the region.
UN envoy for the Central African Republic General Lamine
Cissé says the trouble spot is at the borders
with the Darfur region of Sudan and Chad.
RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.
PRESENTER:
Hello and welcome to UN and Africa, I'm Derrick Mbatha.
PRESENTER:
In today's programme, children in Somalia bear the
brunt of the conflict between the Transitional Federal
Government of Somalia and the Islamic Courts.
CLIP 1: CHRISTIAN BASLEV-OLESEN
"Our concern is for the children directly affected
by the conflict, the children now being mobilized into
the militia, the children detained because of affiliation
to the former rulers, the children who are now on the
run because of fighting and conflict at their villages
and homes"
PRESENTER:
That was Christian Baslev-Olesen, UNICEF representative
for Somalia. You will hear more from him in a moment.
Also in this programme, Ian Smillie of the Partnership
Africa Canada recalls that diamonds fuelled the vicious
ten-year conflict in Sierra Leone, as they did in other
parts of the continent.
CLIP 2: IAN SMILLIE
"How you could have in a very poor country a
rebel army fighting for that long with sophisticated
weapons just didn't make any sense unless they were
being supported in some way. And of course it was diamonds.
They were looting the diamonds. They were shipping the
diamonds out through Liberia. They had support from
Charles Taylor."
And later, we look at the conflict involving the Central
African Republic, Chad and the troubled Darfur region
of Sudan.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under
until first sentence.)
PRESENTER:
Children in Somalia are bearing the brunt of the conflict
which recently broke out between the forces of the Transitional
Federal Government and the Union of Islamic Courts in
the country. The representative of the UN Children's
Fund for Somalia, Christian Baslev-Olesen says that
the war in southern Somalia has forced his agency to
stop or suspend a number of its programmes which have
been helping the vulnerable people in that area. Blue
Sevigny of UNICEF Radio reports.
NARRATOR: Though the Transitional Federal Government
of Somalia have been able to establish rule over Mogadishu
this week, and this is good news for the struggling
nation, violent war lords that have been inactive for
the past six months or so have also resumed business
in the capital with great consequences for children.
BASLEV-OLESEN: Seven of the war lords from the past
have established militia and a special concern for UNICEF
is that it seems that these war lords do now mobilize
even children to join the militia. Children are seen
as part of the war lords' militia in checkpoints on
the streets of Mogadishu and other places. We have a
number of reported cases where children have been shot
and killed. We have seen cases and been reported of
cases of rape and harassment of women. We have seen
bombardment directly into IDP camps in Mogadishu. We
have a situation where people do fear for the new situation.
NARRATOR: Baslev-Olesen says recruitment of children
into armed forces is not only the work of the war lords
but also something that is seen to some extent with
other parties in the conflict.
BASLEV-OLESEN: It's a huge and great concern to UNICEF
and for that reason we have addressed these issues directly
with the authorities, with the Islamic Courts as well
as with the Transitional Federal Government and all
the parties in the conflict. We are very much concerned
on the number of reports that we do get on children
being forced into have volunteered joined the militia
and the armed forces.
NARRATOR: The effect on children and the whole community
of this kind of this large-scale crisis cannot be underestimated,
says Baslev-Olesen.
BASLEV-OLESEN: Of course, our concern is for the children
directly affected by the conflict. That means the children
now being mobilized into the militia, the children detained
because of affiliation to the former rulers, the children
who are now on the run because of fighting and conflict
at their villages and homes, but we are also very concerned
on ordinary children because we have seen now parents
taking their children out of school out of fear not
to let their children going into streets, getting to
an opportunity where they may be recruited by the militia.
So actually the conflict has directly impact to the
whole population.
NARRATOR: The work of UNICEF and other humanitarian
organizations have been significantly curtailed by the
conflict.
BASLEV-OLESEN: For the time being, unfortunately, we
have to terminate a number of life saving activities.
We have seen a number of harassment of NGOs and humanitarian
workers including UN national staff. We simply do not
have access to the area which was affected by flooding
in December. It is the same area where children and
people are suffering because of lack of food. On the
previous drought definitely people are not getting the
assistance that they need that we have the mandate to
bring because of the conflict and the war.
NARRATOR: You have been listening to Somalia's UNICEF
representative, Christian Baslev-Olesen and his account
of the dire circumstances in Somalia and the effect
on children and the work of UNICEF and its partners.
PRESENTER:
That report was by Blue Sevigny of UNICEF Radio.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:
While some people may still to that old saying that
"diamonds are a girl's" best friend"
to others these very precious stones have been anything
but friendly. As a matter of fact, they have been the
source of serious conflict in a number of African countries.
For example, diamonds from Sierra Leone have been traded
for guns and other weapons to fuel the war in that country
for ten years. Currently there is what is known as the
Kimberly process, a mechanism created by Southern African
diamond producing countries and supported by the United
Nations, to certify that exported diamonds don't come
from conflict areas. Ian Smillie of Partnership Africa
Canada recently participated in a panel discussion at
the United Nations looking at how diamonds have been
used to fund conflict in some countries. So when I caught
up with him I asked him how his organization got involved
in the issue of conflict diamonds.
SMILLIE: My organization Partnership Africa Canada became
interested in the subject in 1999 because of the war
in Sierra Leone. We spent about a year researching the
problem in Sierra Leone because the war by then had
been going nearly ten years and how you could have in
a very poor country a rebel army fighting for that long
with sophisticated weapons just didn't make any sense
unless they were being supported in some way. And of
course it was done. They were looting the diamonds.
They were shipping the diamonds out through Liberia.
They had support from Charles Taylor. And that's how
we got into it.
MBATHA: Are diamonds still playing a role in fuelling
conflict on the African continent?
SMILLIE: Yes. Diamonds are still under embargo from
Liberia. Liberia still hasn't got adequate controls
in place. So there is a UN embargo there. There is a
UN embargo on diamonds from Cote d'Ivoire. All of the
diamonds in Ivory Coast are in the areas that are held
by rebels and a United Nations report last year said
that between nine and 23 million dollars worth of diamonds
have leaked out of Cote d'Ivoire, some of them through
Ghana and other countries. So the Kimberly process is
working to stop that from happening.
MBATHA: And how does it do that? How does it work on
stopping diamonds from areas like Cote d'Ivoire?
SMILLIE: Well the allegations from the United Nations
expert panel was that the diamonds were coming out through
Ghana, that basically the government of Ghana was not
paying close enough attention to the diamonds that were
being presented for export. The government of Ghana
has agreed to tighten up all of its systems over a period
of three months. It's going to do a geological survey
so that there would be a data base so that everybody
would know exactly what kind of diamonds Ghana has and
what volume. There won't be any diamonds shipped out
of Ghana without independent inspection to make sure
that these are Ghanaian and not Ivorian diamonds. And
in February a review team from the Kimberly process
will go to Ghana to see whether the new procedures are
tough enough.
MBATHA: But can one be able to differentiate diamonds
from, let's say Ghana, from those from Cote d'Ivoire?
SMILLIE: Experts say that you can. It is not always
possible in all cases. I mean one diamond from Namibia
may look very much like a diamond from South Africa
but when you get a parcel of diamonds together you will
be able to see probably that the Ghanaian diamonds are
different from Ivorian diamonds. It might not be the
case between all countries but between those two, apparently
you can tell the difference.
MBATHA: Apart from fuelling conflict, what role can
diamonds play on the African continent to help in the
development of the economies of these countries?
SMILLIE: Well diamonds have been important in the development
of the economies of some countries. They have been very
important in the development of South Africa, Namibia,
Botswana, much less so in other countries and in some
places like the Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone they
have been actually nothing but trouble. There has been
the reverse of development. They have actually attracted
violence and corruption and mismanagement. The challenge
now is to go beyond Kimberly, beyond regulation and
look at how these diamonds can actually be turned to
development uses, that it is not just a zero sum game,
that diamonds really can be used for development.
PRESENTER:
That was Ian Smillie of Partnership Africa Canada.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:
Recent clashes between rebel and government forces
in the Central African Republic and Chad have prompted
the United Nations to send a team to assess whether
peacekeepers are needed in the two countries. The Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central
African Republic, General Lamine Cissé was at
United Nations headquarters this week to brief the Security
Council on the situation in that country. UN Radio's
Ransford Cline Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
Briefing journalists after reporting to the Security
Council, General Lamine Cissé said the latest
attacks in the Central African Republic were carried
out Sunday night in the town of Paoua, northwest of
the capital Bangui. He pointed out that it was not clear
whether the attackers were rebels, gunmen who roam the
highways or criminals. General Cissé also said
the trouble spot is at the borders with the Darfur region
of Sudan and Chad.
CUT 1: Lamine Cissé
Last year some rebels crossed the boundary, because
you have three boundaries there, the boundary with Chad,
Sudan and Central Africa, crossed two times the boundary
of Central Africa and attacked Chad up to N'djamena
but they are not rebels coming from inside Central Africa.
NARRATOR:
Within the Central African Republic itself, over 150,000
people have been displaced in the north and east close
to the border with Chad and Darfur. The Humanitarian
Coordinator for the Central African Republic, Toby Lanzer
says the situation in that part of the country is becoming
increasingly grave.
CUT 2: Toby Lanzer
And we have an additional up to 80,000 people who have
been forced to flee from the country. They fled into
countries such as Chad, up to 50,000 who have gone there,
and 30,000 who have gone into Cameroon. Now, in addition
to the people who have been forced to flee from their
homes, you have got about 750,000 people who are what
we call conflict affected. They have been directly affected
by the violence which has been sweeping across the north-east
and the north-western parts of the country in wave after
wave after wave.
NARRATOR:
According to Mr. Lanzer, the Central African Republic
is a paradox because while there is this problem of
violence in one part of the country, things are generally
improving in the country as a whole.
CUT 3: Toby Lanzer
Since the elections that were held in 2005, had a president
in place, a government which is in place, technocrats
coming back to help their country. And if you look at
the macro economic indicators, in 2005 GDP grew by 2.2
per cent and in 2006 by 3.2 per cent.
NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, the Special Representative, General Lamine
Cissé, has noted that financial institutions
such as the International Monetary fund, the World Bank
and the African Development Bank, as well as other countries
including the United States, China and Sweden, are re-engaging
in the Central African Republic. On the political front,
he says there is a dialogue among the parties with the
participation of the UN Peacebuilding Office (BONUCA)
and the UN Development Programme, UNDP.
CUT 4: Lamine Cissé
The process is going on now with a group of wise, BONUCA
and UNDP also. And we think that in one month or one
month and a half we will start the pre-dialogue and
the dialogue. This will end in peace and reconciliation.
NARRATOR:
General Cissé says that all the political players
in the Central African Republic, including the rebels
are participating in the dialogue.
CUT 5: Lamine Cissé
I am a member of the group of wise. We met all the political
leaders, the political parties in Central Africa. We
met also all the trade unions, the NGOs, human rights
NGOs and all the political actors agree for a nationwide
dialogue, an inclusive dialogue that is why we think
that things will go better.
NARRATOR:
That was General Lamine Cissé, the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic.
He says the United Nations team, which will travel to
the region shortly to assess whether the United Nations
should send peacekeepers there, will take all positive
developments into account in its final recommendations.
Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.
SIG TUNE ((Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)
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,
bye for now.
*** CLOSING MUSIC ***
|
