UN Radio

UN and Africa

Programme Number: 157
Week of: Sunday, 17th June, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 21st June, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, issuing its first verdicts, finds three former rebel leaders guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The three are scheduled to be sentenced, pending an appeal, on 16 July.

Over 800 million people suffer from hunger, and the number is increasing yearly. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has called on the UN Human Rights Council to treat those who flee hunger to be treated as refugees.

Thirty-one year old Serge Maheshe, a journalist with Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot to death on 13 June. Colleagues are mourning the loss of this gifted colleague. Another of his colleagues tells what is known so far about his murder.

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I'm Ransford Cline-Thomas.

PRESENTER:

In the programme today, an expert tells the UN Human Rights Council that refugees fleeing hunger deserve the same rights as other refugees. We'll also be talking about the right to food.

CLIP 1 ZIEGLER:
"The number of the gravely, permanently undernourished people in Africa went up from 81 million people in '72 to 204 million people in 2002."

Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food says those fleeing hunger in Africa should be given refugee status. Later in the programme, we mourn the loss of one of our colleagues in Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

CLIP 2 BONARDOUX
"We don't know that he received death threats, we do know that he did receive some threats".

Michel Bonardoux on the tragic murder of fellow journalist at Radio Okapi, Serge Maheshe. But first, the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone finds 3 former rebel leaders guilty of several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

So stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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PRES: The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has convicted 3 former rebel leaders guilty of several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were each found guilty on 11 charges, including acts of terrorism, murder, rape and recruiting child soldiers. I spoke to Peter Andersen, the spokesman for the Court, about Wednesday's verdict and its significance for Sierra Leone, and international justice.

ANDERSEN: IN ITS FIRST VERDICTS, UN-BACKED SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE FINDS 3 FORMER REBEL LEADERS GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES

SUGG INTRO: The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone this week found 3 former rebel leaders guilty of several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The three - Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu - are scheduled to be sentenced on 16 July and have the right to appeal their convictions. In this interview, the spokesman for the Special Court, Peter Andersen explains to Diane Bailey the significance of the Court's first verdicts.

DURATION: 4'14

PA: The three people were the former leaders of the Armed Forces Special Revolutionary Council that's the group of soldiers that overthrew the government of Sierra Leone in 1997. But during that time and after they were ousted a year later they were alleged to have committed atrocities against the civilian population, and that runs the full gamut of collective punishment, active terrorism, murder, rape, recruitment of child soldiers - which by the way is the first time that, that charge has ever been brought before an international tribunal… looting, and burning, and so-on. And the three of them were found guilty, and 11 of the 13 charges brought by the prosecutor.

DB: You said they were found guilty on 11 of the 13 charges, and they were acquitted of the charges of sexual slavery and other inhuman acts. Why was that?

PA: I'm not exactly sure because we haven't got the reasoning of the judges, but I gather in at least count E. That was "other inhumane acts," that was a category, and the actual allegation was forced marriage, and I believe there was some feeling on the judges on that particular count that it wasn't easy to distinguish it from other sexual crimes in order to have it be a stand-alone crime. I believe that was the reasoning, and there had been some foreshadowing of that in documents prior to today.

DB: Now, who was present in the court when the verdicts were read out and what was the reaction?

PA: I would say there were many people from all over Sierra Leone, because many people were invited by our outreach section. There were [?] Chiefs there, there were Officials, there were people from civil society, there was a cross section from Sierra Leone, and also just ordinary people who came to the gates. They had to start turning people away because we had no more seats in the courtroom, we had no more seats in the over-flow which was the temporary courthouse. My office was taken over by radio; they were using all of the computers from the screening to broadcast all over Sierra Leone. Your counterparts - the UN Radio, and also some private radio stations. So we were completely filled to capacity, and I'm sure there was a lot of interest from the people who were listening to the radio as well. The reaction (as far as I can tell) I think it was fairly muted. People come who wanted to be part of a historic event: historic not only for international justice, but also historic for Sierra Leone, because the whole point of our being here in the country where these acts took place is that we contribute something to reconciliation, and towards addressing impunity, and reestablishing the "rule of law". And I think that thought weighed heavy on many of the people who were here in the hopes for the future.

DB: Now, if these men are found guilty and sentenced. Where will they likely spend their time?

PA: The only thing I can say as to that is that it won't be in Sierra Leone. There are a couple of countries who have come forward to offer to take people. Not enough countries at this point to take, all, who all have been found guilty. So I'm not sure which countries will be matched up with which … convicted people. The tide has suddenly changed from saying, "Indictees" to saying "Convicted people," it's been a long day, so we don't yet know which countries they will go to.

DB: Now, you talked about the reaction in the courtroom and throughout Sierra Leone. What was the reaction of the three men who have been found guilty, and are they likely to appeal?

PA: I'm sure they're likely to appeal. Once there's a lawyer there's always going to be an appeal. But I was in the courtroom for about half or more of the proceedings and I saw them listening very intently. I saw them on video after our screening, and they were asked to stand while the judgments were read out against them. And they were very quiet, they didn't show any emotion as that was happening. So there was no demonstration, there was no outburst as that was happening. It was very businesslike.

DB: Now, as you say this is a historic day for Sierra Leone and for international justice generally, and if you could elaborate a little bit on why making sure that there is no impunity is so important for reconciliation.

PA: Yes, I would say that governance is always an important issue, and when you come out of a conflict, the guarantor of governance is justice. If you don't have a legal system that works, if you don't have that expectation that those convicted, or those guilty of egregious crimes against civilians would be held to account, then you would be able to hold peace for five years, maybe ten years if you're lucky, maybe a generation, but there's always the risk that what's happened in Sierra Leone could be repeated, and that's why there's this importance to have these trials, and have our own contribution to making sure what happened in Sierra Leone will not happen again.

PRES: Peter Andersen, spokesman for the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone spoke to UN Radio from the capital Freetown.

* * * * * MUSIC BRIDGE * * * * *

PRES: The number of people suffering from hunger has increased to over 800 million people, and has been rising every year since 1996. This fact was brought to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Jean Ziegler also called particular attention to those in Africa whose desperation and fear of starvation cause them to risk their lives to seek refuge abroad. Jean Ziegler calls them "refugees from hunger" and says their rights should be protected. Bissera Kostova has more on this.

Duration: 3'59"

NARR: Jean Ziegler, the UN's Rapporteur on the Right to Food, told the UN Human Rights Council this week that virtually no progress has been made in reducing hunger, despite the commitments made by Governments at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

ZIEGLER: Every 5 seconds last year a child below 10 died from hunger, every five minutes somebody lost [their] eyesight by the lack of Vitamin A. And this is on a planet, where 12 billion people could be nourished normally, which means 2,700 calories per adult person per day. So the Millennium Goal to halve the hungry until 2015 is a total illusion, is a complete total illusion.

NARR: Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Mr. Ziegler said that one out of six people in the world is undernourished, and the problem is particularly acute in Africa.

ZIEGLER 1: The number of the gravely, permanently undernourished people went up from 81 million people in '72 to 204 million people in 2002.

NARR: Mr. Ziegler blames the agricultural subsidies of the European Union for flooding African markets with low-priced produce, against which local farmers cannot compete.

ZIEGLER 3: You have the African peasant, who under a burning sun with all his family during 15 hours a day works and works and works and has not the least chance to get on a minimum level of existence, because the dumping policy of the European Union is destroying the African agriculture. Out of 52 countries in Africa, 37 are almost purely agricultural states.

NARR: This desperate situation is causing more and more people to flee the continent, in the most dangerous way - by being smuggled on boats that often don't make it to their destination in Europe, but capsize along the way.

ZIEGLER 2: Every week there are hundreds of people drowning. There is so much drowning that Malta today refuses to comply to the international obligation to give help to drowning people. And it was the French Navy last week who brought back the 18 bodies from the dead people who drowned before Malta.

NARR: Even those who get to Europe are not safe, because they are criminalized as illegal migrants. Mr. Ziegler says the 1951 Convention that protects refugees restricts asylum to those persecuted for political, racial or religious reasons.

ZIEGLER 4: The refugees from hunger have absolutely no rights. There is no status, there is no norm. So I ask the Council to create a new norm of provisional, temporary non-refoulment for refugees from hunger.

NARR: The Special Rapporteur says the UN Human Rights Council is the right organ to create such new international legislation. In the new norms, a distinction must be made between those who migrate for economic reasons and those who are forced to migrate by hunger.

ZIEGLER 5: The economic refugee, who may live in misery in African village … is a refugee of convenience. He can survive, it is in misery naturally, very badly, but for convenience he wants to try to come to Europe. The refugee from hunger - it's different. He is moved by the necessity … objectively defined necessity.

NARR: Mr. Ziegler says the decision to grant asylum as a hunger refugee can be based on periodic data issued by the World Food Programme, as to which countries are in a desperate situation with regard to food production. He gives the example of Niger, which in 2005 suffered a locust plague on top of a drought. Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

SOMALI REFUGEE MUSIC

PRES: Thirty-one year old Serge Maheshe, a journalist with Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,was shot dead last Wednesday in Bukavu in the eastern part of the country. Mr. Mahese had been serving as the editor and head journalist at the Radio Okapi station located in Bukavu. Radio Okapi which broadcasts in French, English, Lingala, Swahili, Chiluba and other local languages is a network of stations covering the entire country and broadcasting news and information about health, education, human rights, culture and music to some 56 million people. Michel Bonardoux told Carlos Araujo what the mission knows so far about Mr. Maheshe's murder.

MB: All we know is that around 2100 hours as he was leaving a bar with a couple of friends of his, he was apprehended by 2 gunmen in civilian clothing, and he was gunned down as he was about to step into the car. We don't know exactly what could have motivated this assassination but we don't exclude any of the possibilities.

CA: That means you don't know at this stage if his killing was related to his job as a journalist working for UN Radio?

MB: No, as a matter of fact, we don't have any information that would lead us to conclude that. An investigation is ongoing, an investigation by UN Security and by local authorities. But nothing at this point gives us any kind of clear indication.

CA: There are media reports that he received death threats prior to his assassination. Can you confirm this?

MB: We don't know that he received death threats, we do know that he did receive some threats, this does happen, unfortunately, with some frequency to our journalists. But we don't know who would have uttered those threats and under what circumstances.

CA: As far as I know, this is the first time a journalist working for Radio Okapi has been killed in the DR Congo. How difficult is the profession of journalist in the DR Congo?

MB: Indeed it's quite difficult, specifically in the area where Serge was working which is in the eastern part of the country which is quite unstable with a lot of armed groups roaming around. It's not only difficult for journalists, but it's also very difficult for human rights activists. There've been a number of activists that were also killed in that area. So journalists work under heavy restrictions over there and particularly Congolese nationals.

PRES: Serge Maheshe is the third journalist to be murdered in the DRC since November 2005. Mr. Maheshe, who had a bachelor of law degree from the Catholic University of Bukavu, was married with two children.

SIG TUNE (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)
PRES: And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Nyi Nyi Teza and our sound engineer was Zach Prewitt. And for me, Ransford Cline-Thomas - bye for now.

*** CLOSING MUSIC ***