UN Radio

UN and Africa

Programme Number: 158
Week of: Sunday, 24 June, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 28 June, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" Since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005, more than 100-thousand people have returned to south Sudan.

" The World Drug Report 2007 says that for almost every kind of illicit drug - cocaine, heroine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants - ATS - there are signs of overall stability, whether we speak of cultivation, production or use. In Africa, however, that is not the case.

" After walking for more than a week in the bush, refugees from the Central African Republic are making their way to Chad with stories of being personally assaulted and their children being kidnapped.

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

PRESENTER:

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

PRESENTER:

While drug abuse worldwide is on the decline, in Africa, it's on the rise, says Thomas Pietschmann, one of the authors of this year's World Drug Report.

Clip 1 Pietschmann

For a long time, people had no idea that you could get heroine by Africa or you could get cocaine by Africa.

PRESENTER:

Vladimir Mijovic of the UN refugee agency UNHCR says a refugee crisis is developing in Chad as people flee there from the Central African Republic.

Clip 2 Thomas

Since January, to date, we have close to 3,000 arrivals coming from the northern part of the Central African Republic.

PRESENTER:

But first, the International Organization for Migration is helping Sudan's internally displaced persons to return home. Jean-Philippe Chauzy is the IOM Spokesperson:

Clip 2 Chauzy

This year, so far, IOM and its partners for the UN have assisted about forty two thousand internally displaced people.
So stay tuned to UN and Africa.

PRESENTER:

In the last four years since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Government forces, the allied Janjaweed militias and rebel groups, some 200,000 people have been killed and at least two million others displaced from their homes. Now, in spite of less than ideal conditions, and after many years in exile, Sudanese refugees are returning to their homes. With the help of the UN refugee agency UNHCR as well as the International Organization for Migration, IOM, more than 100-thousand internally displaced Sudanese have been repatriated. John Eastwood of the International Organization for Migration, the IOM, talked to IOM Spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy, about the repatriation, an exercise which began after the 2005 peace accord between the Sudanese Government and rebel groups:

Chauzy: Well, the rainy season has started in Sudan now, which means that returns by land are going to be impossible until October this year and the International Organization for Migration for this year again is using the Nile as the way to get those displaced people who want to return to their homes in South Sudan, as making sure that these IDPs can return.

So, we started again the River Nile operation and this year, the IOM charged with barges are very large barges (they can transport five hundred people a go), left from Kosty?, which is a town south of Khartoum, the capital and is now, as we speak, sailing south. The barge will stop in various locations along the Nile river, to let some of the IDPs go back to their areas of origin and the barge will sail as far south as the town of Bour?, which is south of Juba and go back to Kosti to take another group of displaced. So, what we are looking at for the next coming weeks is about six or seven rotations from the town of Kosti? in north Sudan and Bour in south Sudan and we are looking initially at assisting a smaller group of around 2500 IDPs. Now, of course, the number of people wanting to return to south Sudan is probably smaller now that the rainy season has started, but this year, so far, IOM and its partners for the UN have assisted about forty two thousand internally displaced people, returned from the suburbs of Khartoum to various locations in south Sudan and since we started those return operations, basically since the signature of the comprehensive peace agreement in January 2005, it is more than 110,000 displaced people that have been returned to south Sudan.

Eastwood: AND WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAIN ISSUES ENCOUNTERED IN THE BUILDING PROCESS FOR SUSTAINABLE PERPETUATION IN THE SOUTH?

Chauzy: Well, that's just it. The south has been completely devastated by 20 years of war and almost everything needs to be done in terms of infrastructure. It's absolutely right that if those returned are to be sustainable, those displaced who have returned to south Sudan will need some assistance and for instance they are getting some assistance. For instance, they are getting three months of food ration from WFP, to make sure that they can sustain themselves from the land, until they restart or resume their agriculture activities. They are getting what we call non-food items: blankets, plastic sheeting, buckets, cooking utensils and the rest, from various UN agencies. But if you're looking at the basic infrastructure in south Sudan, if you are looking at how very few schools there are, how very few primary health-care centers there are, then obviously you will understand that those returns and also I haven't mentioned the fact that there are still many unexploded ordinances in various parts of south Sudan. Those who are returning now are those who are determined to return. They are probably the most courageous. Once the infrastructure will be improved in south Sudan, that will be another pull factor to encourage some of these displaced who are still lingering in and around Khartoum to make the decision to return back to their homelands in the south.

Narrator: Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration.

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PRESENTER:

According to the latest report on the global drug situation, for almost every kind of illicit drug - whether it's cocaine, heroine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants - ATS - there are signs that the situation is stabilizing. And that's whether you look at the trend in terms of cultivation, production or use. UN Radio's Gerry Adams filed this report:

Narrator: One of the authors of this year's World Drug Report, Dr. Thomas Pietschmann, says the fact that only about 200 million people use drugs each year is a good indication of that drug use is stabilizing:

Thomas 1 This is really good news because in the past, we have seen significant increases. The 200 million have remained stable. But if this means people who have used once in the past year a drug. But the severe drug addicts, the problem users, you're speaking about 25 million people - 0.6 percent of the population aged 15 to 64. Again this has remained stable but the real concern is these problem drug users.

Narrator: However, Dr. Pietschmann says that one place where drug use has not stabilized, but has increased, is Afghanistan. One particular province, the Helmand province, is becoming the world's biggest drug supplier, with illicit cultivation larger than in the rest of the country:
Thomas 2: And 92% of the world production is in Afghanistan. We have seen a dramatic increase in the year 2006 - 49 percent in production in Afghanistan, mostly in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. And there is no question that Afghanistan is the weak link at the moment.

Narrator: According to Dr. Pietschmann, Africa is also a weak link. The continent, he says, is increasingly being used as a trans-shipment location for drug traffickers from South America:

Thomas P 1: What you have seen here is a ten-fold increase in seizures of cocaine between 200 and 2005 in the countries of west and central Africa. But even far more is going through Africa and only a very small proportion is being seized in Africa. SEGUE our database says that already 9% of all cocaine seizures in Europe came to Europe by Africa in the year 2005 and this increased to 12% in the year 2006. so you see…the growing importance of Africa. If you were to include the seizures which were made off the coast of Africa just before actually landing in Africa, the proportion would be much, much higher.

Narrator: Although it may seem geographically out of the way at first glance, says Dr. Pietschmann, Africa is actually a haven for drug traffickers:

Thomas P 2: It is quite a complicated route but it's again to disguise. SEGUE You can store it very easily in Africa and unfortunately, the level of corruption is very high in Africa. And so it is very easy to use African ports or African airports for these purposes.

Narrator: South Africa, in particular has shown increases in heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine abuse:

Thomas P3: South Africa is definitely the most developed country within Africa. This means there is a lot of purchasing power in South Africa. So that means it's a very attractive place for traffickers. There's a good infrastructure which is also being used and misused by drug traffickers. And the opening of the country after the end of the apartheid regime - so that definitely made it far more vulnerable to drug abuse than it used to be in the past.

Narrator: Dr. Pietschmann says that if the drug problem is to be reduced, there must be more preventive interventions and the world must treat the problem at its source - the drug users.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Please, play briefly, dip upon wave, and hold under narr.)

PRESENTER:

UNICEF, the Central African Republic and the country's major rebel group have signed an agreement to allow some child soldiers to return to their families. At the same time, thousands of refugees from the CAR are fleeing to Chad seeking refuge from bandits in the country who are stealing their cattle and kidnapping their children. Gerry Adams speaks with Vladimir Mijovic, (MEE-yo-vich), the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in southern Chad, about these developments:

Mijovic: They are coming obviously very tired, exhausted. They walk at time it takes them a week, or two weeks of walking through the bush and living in difficult conditions. So what we do is we do border monitoring on a daily basis, and we receive them - we screen them at the border, and we go with medical teams, and if we have six wounded refugees we take care of them immediately on the spot. There is also the fact that they come exhausted, tired, and hungry so we have quite a few malnourished refugees, children who we see at the border these days.

Adams: One of the things that we're seeing is that many of the children are being kidnapped. What can you tell me about that?

Mijovic: There's this phenomenon happening in that part of [?] where the so-called "rebels" and "bandits" kidnap the children and ask ransom for which the local population are very difficult to obtain. But this is something that is happening quite regularly and unfortunately from what we hear even if the people does pay the ransom they don't see their children anymore.

Adams: At the same time we are hearing about an agreement that came into being about, I'd say about a week ago which is for child soldiers to be reintegrated into society. How is that dovetailing with the fact that children are also being kidnapped?

Mijovic: Yes, of course we are following all of these developments. Unfortunately, what I can say - I've been in [?] for a year now - and I've witnessed several agreements so far, but none of them have given any concrete results. So we remain quite cautious and fascinated for the time being, and we say there is that much hope for all these people is that we see on a daily basis many, many children with their mothers. So, it's mainly women and children crossing the border.

Adams: So, in light of what's going on, what is it that UNHCR is doing to help the people as much as it can?

Mijovic: Well, what we're doing and it think that's obviously our mandate in general is we're making sure that they receive all the necessary protection and assistance here in Chad. We have opened even a new refugee camp twenty miles from [?] which is exclusively operated by the new arrivals. We provide shelter, we provide healthcare, we provide even education so that these kids can be occupied. So for the time being this is what we can do. We're monitoring the situation on the other side of the border. For the time being there is no talk of repatriation. The population in this area is mainly people that are working on the land, and having farms, and so on. So the man remains on the other side to kind of keep an eye on their land and eventually join their wives and children if the situation really gets worse for them. So for the time being UNHCR is there to receive and assist these people and monitor the situation in the hope that sometime in the near future we could bring them back home.

Adams: Can you tell me a story about one particular person, a man or a wife or a child that has gone from the Central African Republic to Chad?

Mijovic: Recently, among the new arrivals there was this young man who was in his mid-twenties came and he was in extremely bad shape, and we were wondering, "How did he make it," but apparently he was assisted by his fellow refugees. So what happened is that his village was attacked by the rebels. He was actually alone and they asked him to join the rebels. He said that he is a simple farmer, and that he has a family, and he can't just leave.

DB: Vladimir Mijovic the head of UNHCR in Southern Chad ending today's program from UN Radio in New York.

PRESENTER

Vladimir Mijovic of UNHCR in Chad.
MUSIC: MUSIC BRDGE

PRESENTER:

And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Nyi Nyi Teza and our sound engineer was Steve Williams. I am Gerry Adams saying goodbye for now.
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