UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 139
Week of: Sunday, 11th February, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 15th February, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" Cote d'Ivoire remains divided between the north and the south despite several attempts to reunite the country. The head of the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire, Pierre Schori, says there is some hope that the political impasse can be broken at the talks between President Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro expected to take place in Burkina Faso.

" Thirty people died on Monday when the boat smuggling them capsized as it approached the Yemeni coast. The UN refugee agency says they were part of the waves of thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians who risk their lives across the Gulf of Aden desperate to escape conflict or to find a better life in Yemen.

" Trafficking in people is a serious problem in Nigeria. However, Shadrack Haruna, a prosecutor from the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, says the government is taking measures to tackle the problem.

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, why does Cote d'Ivoire remain divided between the North and south with no political solution in sight?
CLIP 1: BAN KI-MOON

"A lack of political will and a lack of confidence. It is not so many years ago that there was civil war and a rebellion and with many deaths. So, of course, the scars are still there."

That was Pierre Schori, the outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cote d'Ivoire. You will hear more from him in a moment. Also in this edition, Somalis and Ethiopians continue to die as they make the dangerous voyage across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Jennifer Pagonis is a spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency.
"Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians are waiting in Bosaso in Somalia to make the crossing across the Gulf of Aden. Some estimate the numbers to be more than 9,000 people."

PRESENTER:

And later in the programme, a Nigerian prosecutor talks about his government's efforts to combat trafficking in people.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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Political Impasse Continues in Cote d'Ivoire

PRESENTER:

Cote d'Ivoire remains divided between the north, controlled by Forces Nouvelles and the south under government control despite several agreements to break the impasse. The main actors, President Laurent Gbagbo and the leader of Forces Nouvelles, Guillaume Soro are expected to meet soon to find a way out of this political stalemate. The country, which is under a transitional government of Prime Minister Konan Banny, was supposed to hold elections in October 2005. They were postponed to 2006 and again to this year. I discussed this impasse with Pierre Schori, the outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary General for Cote d'Ivoire who recently came to New York to brief the Security Council for the last time.
SCHORI: It is both at a stalemate when it comes to implementation of the roadmap and Security Council resolutions. At the same time there is some hope now in the fact that the two sides have agreed to sit down and in direct talks in Burkina Faso under the auspices of the Burkina Faso president Campoare.

MBATHA: And when is that expected to take place?

SCHORI: Well, it's ongoing, preparations for it.

MBATHA: What has been blocking the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire?

SCHORI: A lack of political will and a lack of confidence. It is not so many years ago that there was civil war and a rebellion and with many deaths. So, of course, the scars are still there. But on the other hand you can say that if you compare with neighbouring countries like Liberia or Sierra Leone, there it was much much worse and went on for decades. And they now had elections. They have national reconciliation and so on. So it shouldn't be impossible in Cote d'Ivoire. And now the moment of truth has come because you have had twenty two Security Council resolutions since the crisis broke up. And now this one should be for the final period of transition.

MBATHA: Now what is the working relationship between the president and the Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire?

SCHORI: Well the Prime Minister used the metaphor, the tandem that he was biking on a tandem. Last when I saw him he said that he wasn't sure they were on the same bike.

MBATHA: Meaning what?

SCHORI: Well, that they were perhaps not totally in sync.

MBATHA: And in the meantime Cote d'Ivoire remains divided between the north and the south. How is this affecting the ordinary people there?

SCHORI: Well it is affecting, first of all basically the north because normal state activities are not ongoing. You have no banks there. Hospitals work very badly and so on. And, of course, it also affects all the refugees, the internally displaced persons. There are 700,000 of them in Cote d'Ivoire, many in the south around Abidjan who come from the north and want to go back. There are also problems for the southerners to go back north to visit there, if they come from there, relatives and so on. So, it is, of course, a kind of a Berlin Wall.

MBATHA: At some point South Africa tried to mediate. Did that effort help in any way?

SCHORI: Oh yes a lot. A lot of credit should go Thabo Mbeki because twice in 2005 did he gather all the Ivorian leaders to Pretoria where he had them to join and sign a Pretoria Agreement and Pretoria Declaration, which is still the basic foundation of the peace map, roadmap.

MBATHA: As my final question, in a nutshell how would you characterize your experience in Cote d'Ivoire? Was it worth it?

SCHORI: Absolutely. It's my most rewarding experience I have ever had in my life. But it was also revolting because you see this daily misery of people who shouldn't be miserable because the country is rich. And it was, of course a very intense period to be SRSG that you have the responsibility for 10,000 people more or less, for their security not the least. But it also gave you a daily adrenaline shots so it kept you on your toes but sometimes also sleepless at night.

PRESENTER:

That was Pierre Schori the outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cote d'Ivoire.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

PRESENTER:

More People Die As They Cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen

PRESENTER:

Desperate to escape conflict or to find a better life in Yemen, thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives in small boats trying to get across the Gulf of Aden for greener pastures. Some make it to Yemen but others don't. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas has more.
NARRATOR:
Derrick, the latest victims of this dangerous voyage from Somalia to Yemen are thirty people who died on Monday when the boat smuggling them capsized as it approached the Yemeni coast. And only last week, fifteen people, including a pregnant woman died off the coast of Yemen while disembarking in deep water from two smugglers' boats. This kind of tragedy is becoming so routine that reporting the deaths of Somalis and Ethiopians who try to cross to Yemen has become a familiar part of the weekly briefing by the spokespersons of the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond says the number of people who have died in the latest incident may even be higher than thirty as the smugglers keep ferrying people who are desperate to leave their countries.

CUT 1: RON REDMOND

We currently have sketchy, unconfirmed reports that up to 78 may have died. The dead are being buried near the beach. Three other boats with some 120 people aboard dropped their passengers offshore and put out to sea again.

NARRATOR:
Ron Redmond says that January had been slow with no reported arrivals in the first two weeks because of a crackdown on smugglers in Somalia, recent fighting in Somalia and stepped up patrols along the Yemeni coast.
However, in less than a month, there has been a dramatic increase in the smuggling of people form Somalia. According to the agency, in that short period of time, over 1,600 people arrived in Yemen in twenty boats, as the smugglers have adapted their methods.
CUT 2: RON REDMOND
The smugglers have changed tactics and are now arriving at different points along the Yemeni coast. This makes it harder for Yemeni coastal patrols to catch them and for UNHCR and its partners to register and provide assistance to new arrivals. Despite the increase in price for the journey -- from $40 to $100 -- hundreds of desperate people continue taking the risk.

In earlier risky voyages, at least thirty people died trying to cross the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden. Some of the people who survived one ordeal last week were not well received in Yemen, as we hear from Jennifer Pagonis, who is also a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
CUT 3: JENNIFER PAGONIS

Most of the survivors were arrested after arriving on shore. Some were searched by armed men of the authorities before taken inland. We asked clarification from the Yemeni authorities about this. They said that this problem had been caused by bad elements and that they will address the situation.

NARRATOR:

Ms Pagonis says that more people are expected to embark on the dangerous voyage from Somalia across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

CUT 4: JENNIFER PAGONIS

The new arrivals were reporting that thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians are waiting in Bosaso in Somalia to make the crossing across the Gulf of Aden. Some estimate the numbers to be more than 9,000 people. The Somalis are telling us they left their homes before and during the hostilities between the Ethiopian army and the Union of Islamic Court forces but were forced to stay in Bosaso due to rough sea conditions.

NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee says that many of the new arrivals were badly beaten and reported that the smugglers stole their money during the voyage. Reporting for UN and Africa, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.
STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
Nigerian Authorities Fight Trafficking in People
Trafficking in people is a serious problem in Nigeria. But the government there is not simply folding its arms doing nothing about it. Shadrack Haruna, a prosecutor from the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, tells Louise Potterton of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime about what the government is doing to tackle trafficking in people. Mr. Haruna says the Nigerian authorities are taking concrete steps to combat trafficking at the grassroots level throughout the country. Externally, they have entered into bilateral agreements with some of the neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
HARUNA: We have started with Benin Republic. We signed one bilateral agreement on combating trafficking with Benin Republic on the 9th of June 2005. And we have a working agreement. We have a joint surveillance group. We have a joint sensitization group. And we also include into that agreement mutual criminal legal assistance to see that no trafficker escapes.

POTTERTON: Now you are obviously moving in the right direction but are you seeing any results? Your agency has been running now for three years. What are the main achievements?

HARUNA: Yes we have derived a lot of results from it. Right now the external trafficking has been reduced considerably. Internal trafficking has reduced as well. And we have achieved success in prosecution. We have over 25 cases pending in the various high courts in Nigeria. We have prosecuted nine and out of these nine, we have secured eight of those cases conviction. One failed because we hadn't the victim to testify. Then those ones in court which we are pursuing now they are good cases and we hope to secure convictions from them. And in the area of victim care, we have rehabilitated so many of them.

POTTERTON: How does this actually work, this rehabilitation because these women or these men or children who are victims of trafficking have been probably through a very horrific ordeal?

HARUNA: The first thing we start with is to get any contact with social workers who are psychologists and some of them are psycho-socio experts. They try to get them, take them to safe houses where they have to counsel them, bring them back to reality because some of them have really gone through a lot of trauma. And when they are back to reality, then the question will be asked what do you want to do? And some of them it is after the social workers have worked with them, seeing that yes they are capable of standing in the witness box to testify against the traffickers that the prosecutors will have contact with them. And thereafter, having been counselled and given evidence in court, the question will be what would you like to do because we don't them re-trafficked. So they exploit possibilities and tell us well we want to do this, and we have experts who would advise them.

POTTERTON: This sounds fantastic, but we did hear a lot about the victims. But who are traffickers?

HARUNA: That is the problem we have. In so many cases, part of the handicap we have in prosecuting the traffickers is because most of the traffickers stay in destination country. They need not come to Nigeria before they recruit them any longer. Some of them are being recruited through the Internet. Some are being recruited through intermediaries. We have had a special example from Saudi Arabia where the Saudi government deported about fifteen Nigerians. And out of these fifteen, there were two traffickers and some of them, the victims to those traffickers. So in the course of interview the investigators discovered that we have traffickers here, we have victims here and these victims are victims of these traffickers. So they were prosecuted successfully in court and got good conviction for the offence.

POTTERTON: Finally what about tackling the problem before it has even started? What are you doing to inform potential victims that traffickers may be operating in their villages or towns?

HARUNA: Yes. The preventive measure is very easy. Apart from the Public Enlightenment Department going out to sensitize the public, sensitize the areas we consider to be vulnerable or to be endemic to trafficking, once in a while we also have what we call sensitization visits to some of the traditional rulers, the faith based organizations and NGOs within that group. And our network, part of their mandate is also to sensitize the market women, the local communities and everybody.

PRESENTER:

That was Shadrack Haruna, a prosecutor from the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons speaking with Louise Potterton of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna.
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, please join us for another edition of UN and Africa next week. Until then, bye bye.

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