UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 153
Week of: Sunday, 20th May, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 24th May, 2007
Topical Issue(s):
• UN Radio

" The International Criminal Court announces that it will investigate war crimes allegedly committed in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. The Prosecutor for the Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo says the ICC took the decision after receiving a referral from the government.

" The economic hardships the people of Zimbabwe are facing are seriously affecting the well being of children. UNICEF says Zimbabweans have achieved impressive results in the areas of education and fighting AIDS under difficult conditions, so they need support.

" The UN envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, says that all the parties involved in the Darfur crisis now realize that there is need to start negotiation for a political solution to this problem. He says both the government and the rebel movements seem to understand that there is no military solution to the crisis.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor/co-producer: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistants: Florence Poblete-Enriquez
Studio Engineer: Zach Prewitt
Duration: 15'00"

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

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PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I'm Derrick Mbatha.

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PRESENTER: In today's programme, the International Criminal Court says it will investigate war crimes in the Central African Republic.

CLIP 1: LUIS MORENO OCAMPO
"In this case the unusual thing is that there are four times more allegations on rapes than on killings."

PRESENTER: You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, UNICEF calls on donors to help alleviate the suffering of Zimbabwean children.

CLIP 2: JAMES ELDER
"Zimbabwean families and communities have been nothing short of miraculous in their ability to cope with the current crisis. But the stress on them now is almost overwhelming."

PRESENTER: And later in the programme, the United Nations Special Envoy for Darfur says parties to the crisis now understand that there is need for a political solution.

So stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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PRESENTER: International Criminal Court Probes Crimes in Central African Republic

The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, announced this week that it will investigate war crimes allegedly committed in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. The crimes relate to the violence which broke out after current Francois Bozize tried to stage a coup against Ange-Felix Patasse. I spoke on the line to The Hague with the court's Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo who said it is the government of the Central African Republic which has referred the matter to the court and as soon as it has cleared certain matters it will start the investigation.

OCAMPO: The first phase is to collect evidence about the crimes allegedly committed. In this case, the unusual thing is that there are four times more allegations of rapes than on killings. Normally it's in the contrary. Normally the killings are well known. Normally people are afraid to report rape. The allegations of rapes are four times the killings, and that will put a special challenge for us because we are not looking for who were the rapists themselves; we are trying to find if someone gave instructions or guidelines to authorize these people to commit these crimes. .

DERRICK: How do you go about finding out who gave the orders to commit rape?

OCAMPO: That is what we'll try to do.

DERRICK: Do you plan to talk to some of the victims of these rapes?

OCAMPO: Of course. And of course we have to prove the individual cases. One of the things we are doing is giving voice to the victims. We are transforming their stories in (to) evidence. That is part of my job.

DERRICK: So I assume that you will be sending investigators into the Central African Republic?

OCAMPO: We will collect the information from there, of course.

DERRICK: And how has the government of the Central African Republic responded to your announcement? Is it going to cooperate with the investigation?

OCAMPO: They referred the case to us. We informed them about this, so it's a normal cooperation with the court. They are the third party.

DERRICK: I understand the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, is somehow implicated in these allegations. Can you tell me about that?

OCAMPO: We are impartial so the first phase is to collect information about the crimes committed and try to understand who could be responsible. So I can't say anything about this now. It's the beginning of the investigation. Give me one year-and-a-half and I will tell you!

DERRICK: How soon do you expect to start and complete this investigation?

OCAMPO: Normally we estimate one-year-and-a-half to complete investigations, depend on the cases. In Northern Uganda it was faster, in Congo it was little slower, in Darfur it was more or less 18 months. So it depends on the cases.

DERRICK: From your reading of the situation, is this going to present some special problems for you?

OCAMPO: Yes, the biggest problem will be because there are different NGOs and even the UN collected a lot of statements about victims, so to prove the rapes will be easy, I suppose, relatively easy. But the biggest challenge will be to prove that someone organized this.

DERRICK: What is the significance of this investigation in the whole system of international criminal justice?

OCAMPO: The ICC is here, it's a permanent court. We will enforce the law. That is the consistent message we are sending. We will enforce the law, and the law has to be respected. If someone commits these types of crimes, there will be no impunity. This was a decision taken by 120 states in 1998 and now we are enforcing this idea. The world committed to end impunity for these types of crimes and many states are committed to support the court in its activities. So the message is: the law has to be respected. There cannot be impunity for these types of massive crimes.

PRESENTER: That was Luis Moreno Ocampo is the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

UNICEF Says Zimbabwean Children Need International Support

PRESENTER: As in any crisis, the children of Zimbabwe are suffering as a result of the economic and political problems in their country. Discussion of Zimbabwe these days tend to focus more on the political problems that the country is facing while ignoring the humanitarian situation of the people who are really struggling to make ends meet. UNICEF does not want the world to forget about the children of Zimbabwe as the country's inflation reached almost 4,000 per cent. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.

NARRATOR: The political and economic problems in Zimbabwe are badly hurting the country's children. So, officials of the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, were in Geneva on Tuesday to plead with donors to help alleviate the suffering of the children. On the ground in Zimbabwe UNICEF continues to help the communities cope with the challenges facing them but it doesn't have sufficient funding. So the children's agency has appealed for $10 million but so far has received only twenty five per cent of that amount. Added to that, the agency needs another three million dollars for its feeding programme. In fairness, UNICEF has received support from the European Commission as well as governments of the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden, to meet some of the children's needs. Donors are of course concerned about giving money directly to the government. Roeland Monasch is Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Zimbabwe.

CUT 1: Roeland Monasch
Most of that aid is going directly to the communities. Yes we buy vaccines through the government but there is no money going to the government. We provide blankets to the communities directly. We make sure that children are getting school fees paid.

NARRATOR: UNICEF's number two man in Zimbabwe says his agency has learned that giving the money directly to the communities produces results.

CUT 2: Roeland Monasch
That's why we still have ninety per cent of children in school. It's unbelievable. School is not for free in Zimbabwe but 90 per cent of children are still going to school, including most of the orphans. And that's because of the commitments of the communities and the families that have the best interest of the child.

NARRATOR: One good example of the determination of Zimbabweans to educate their children is a seventy one year old woman in Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe. UNICEF's Chief of Communication James Elder met her recently.

CUT 3: James Elder
The maize that she had grown to be self sufficient is very dry. They live off a few scrawny chickens. She is a seventy-one year old woman. She is working fifteen hour days in her small informal sector because, in her words, keeping the children healthy is one of her two priorities. The other is getting and keeping them in school.

NARRATOR: However, Roeland Monasch warns that lack of funds is having a negative impact on the quality of education in Zimbabwe.

CUT 4: Roeland Monasch
In the past every child in Zimbabwe had her own school books. Now it's ten children for one school book. The quality of education is going down very quickly. For example, Grade Seven exams, which is the big exam in Zimbabwe's primary school, only a third passes Grade Seven. The rest fails. It shows that they are not learning that much or many of them are not learning at school. It's is a safe and protected environment and that for us in UNICEF is so important that they go to the school, but we need to do something about it and it's very difficult to get money for education systems.

NARRATOR: UNICEF's Chief of Communication, James Elder, says in another area of concern, the fight against HIV and AIDS, Zimbabweans have been able to reduce the number of HIV-infected people, yet there is a huge disparity on the amount provided by the major global funds to Southern African countries to fight HIV and AIDS. Mr. Elder points out that, for example, the average spent in Zimbabwe for an HIV-positive person is $64 compared to more than $400 in Zambia and $500 in Botswana.

CUT 5: James Elder
So I think one of the real messages that we bring is that the Zimbabwean families and communities have been nothing short of miraculous in their abilities to cope with the current crisis but the stress on them now is almost overwhelming and UNICEF would say that Zimbabweans deserve more than the world's outrage. They deserve the world's support.

NARRATOR: In addition to the problems that Zimbabwe is already experiencing, according to Mr. Elder, the country is facing another officially declared drought year. He says this means that families are going to face a serious challenge in meeting their food needs. Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Ransford Cline-Thomas.

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UN Special Envoy Stresses Need for Political Solution to Darfur Crisis

PRESENTER: A political solution to the crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan has been elusive. Of course, those who suffer in any delay to resolve this problem, are the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who now live in camps, because they have been driven off their homes by militia attacks. But now, according to the United Nations Special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, the foundation to create a credible political solution in Darfur has been established. Mr. Eliasson recently told reporters at United Nations Headquarters that the Sudanese government and many, if not all, rebel groups who have been fighting the government, have now committed themselves to a political solution based on the recognition that no military solution is possible. UN Radio's Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte caught up with Mr. Eliasson who reiterated this assessment.

ELIASSON: This has been confirmed also in our conversation with both the government and with the rebel movements, that there is no military solution. During our first visit, Salim Salim, who is my co-negotiator from the African Union, after our first visit we insisted that the bombings, the aerial bombardments must stop from the side of the government and offensive military will stop from the movements. That was respected by both sides from the 11th of February until the 19th of April. On the 19th of April, there was a tragic series of bombings and this, of course, we see as very serious. We have now got a re-commitment of the government to cease the bombardments and we hope they will stick to this. And we hope also that the situation will move in the direction of preparations for negotiations. We have asked the movements to coordinate among themselves as soon as possible their positions and we have also asked for the help of the SPLM, the party that is governing together with the National Congress Party and we very much hope that they will be able to gather the different movements so that we then can move to negotiations.

SAINTE: Now you identified as major challenges, getting several things right: the local picture, the regional situation and the international dimension. How do you see these as converging?

ELIASSON: Well first of all you have to have a balance inside Darfur between those who took up arms and those who represent the tribes in the camps and, of course, civil society. Secondly, this also has to fit into the national picture, we hope that there would be continued cohesion of the country and not tendencies of secession. Thirdly, the neighbours, the region: there have been different perspective on how this conflict should be solved, particularly the relationship between Chad and Sudan is very infected and there are movements across the border and attempts to destabilize both governments in both directions. This has to be done in a coherent way. This convergence of initiatives and that includes also Eritrea, Libya and Egypt. Lastly, there has to be the right constellation also on the international front. And I think mainly this goes for the Security Council and the permanent five. If you look back at the nightmare, the horrible atrocities of 2003 and 2004, one of the problems was the lack of cohesion and lack of common analysis of the measures to be taken at that time.

SAINTE: What would you say the mood is like on the ground at the moment?

ELIASSON: It's a strange mix between hope and desperation. Hope that now when there is less fighting between the government and the rebel movements than there are between the tribal clashes, that at least the government and the movements can get together and start negotiations and by that, create a more peaceful environment on the ground. But also desperation because things can go wrong and have gone wrong in the past and that the situation in which we find ourselves is a very fragile one.

SAINTE: Are you concerned about carrying public opinion at this stage into the next phase so that they understand that you are entering a new phase?

ELIASSON: Well I felt that we focused at this press conference on the political issues and the need to look at the situation as it is and the necessity of the political process, I think, became clear and I hope this is also being reflected. And I think it's time for us to focus on the political issues. Peacekeeping is necessary to deal with the situation in Darfur but peacekeeping is not a solution. For peacekeeping to be effective, there has to be a peace to keep. And that's what we are working on now.

PRESENTER: That was Jan Eliasson, the United Nations Special Envoy for Darfur speaking with UN Radio's Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte.

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PRESENTER: And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Beng Poblete-Enriquez and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwitt. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

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