UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 167
Week of: Sunday, 26 August 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 30 August 2007
Topical Issue(s):

• • The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced his trip to Sudan, Chad and Libya as part of preparations for the deployment of a hybrid African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur.

• The people of Sierra Leone are preparing for the second round of presidential elections on 8 September. The UN envoy in the country, Victor Angelo, hopes that Sierra Leoneans will participate in the poll with the same enthusiasm they displayed during parliamentary elections on 11 August.

• Unemployment and chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe have not only led to mass migration of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries, but is being cited as the cause of an upsurge in domestic violence in the country.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Charles Appel
Studio Engineer: Zach Prewitt
Duration: 15’00”

RESENTER: 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 United Nations Secretary-General is preparing to go to Sudan as part of efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis.

CLIP 1: Ban Ki-moon
“I want to go and see for myself the very difficult conditions under which our forces will operate.”

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, the people of Sierra Leone prepare for a second round of elections.

CLIP 2: Victor Angelo
“The turnout during the elections on the 11th of August was very high. So I believe that again we will see on September 8th a very high level of participation”

And, unemployment and chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe are being cited as the reason behind the increase in domestic violence in the country.

CLIP 3: James Elder
“Given the enormous economic stresses in Zimbabwe colliding with family and other challenges, there is great stress and anxiety in families, and this often can lead to increased tensions.”

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that later in the programme.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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UN Secretary-General Goes to Africa to Help Resolve Darfur Crisis

PRESENTER:

As part of ongoing efforts to maintain the momentum for resolving the crisis in Darfur, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will travel to the region next week. Mr. Ban will visit Sudan, Chad and Libya. UN Radio’s Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
Last month the Security Council adopted a resolution authorizing the deployment of a force of 26,000 peacekeepers to protect displaced civilians in the troubled region of Darfur. The decision by the Security Council to deploy the force, to be jointly commanded by the United Nations and the African Union, came after many months of what the Secretary-General has described as “difficult diplomacy”. He says now the international community has an historic opportunity which it must seize. And that’s why he is travelling to the region.
CUT 1: Ban Ki-moon
I want to go and see for myself the very difficult conditions under which our forces will operate. I want to know, first hand, the plight of those they seek to help. But more, I want to create the foundations of a lasting peace and security. My goal is to lock in the progress we have made so far.

NARRATOR:

The Secretary-General says he has a three-point action plan for moving forward. The first action is to get peace-keepers on the ground as soon as possible. This requires a massive logistics effort, including communications, water, food supplies and infrastructure.
CUT 2: Ban Ki-moon
This is one of the largest and most complex field operations the United Nations has ever undertaken, together with the African Union, and the work is well underway. But it cannot succeed without the cooperation of the government of Sudan, and I will seek its full support when I meet with President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum.

NARRATOR:

However, as Mr. Ban Ki-moon has pointed out, peacekeeping alone is not enough. It must be accompanied by a political solution, which is the second part of his action plan.
CUT 3: Ban Ki-moon
Here, too, we are well on track. The Sudanese government is ready to come to the table. Earlier this month, opposition leaders from Darfur met in Tanzania to coordinate their negotiating positions for these talks. My aim is to keep up the momentum, to push the pace among the parties with a view toward issuing invitations to a full-fledged peace conference by the end of summer.

NARRATOR:
In pushing for this part of his action plan, the Secretary-General says he will visit Juba, the capital of South Sudan. And the reason for that, he argues, is that while the international community must help to resolve the crisis in Darfur, it should also continue to push for the implementation of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and the South. He says this will require a more equitable sharing of power and resources among the central government and the regions so that fully representative national elections can be held in 2009 as planned. Mr. Ban Ki-moon says the third element in his action plan for Darfur involves humanitarian aid and development.
CUT 4: Ban Ki-moon
Any peace in Darfur must be built on solutions that go to the root causes of the conflict. We can hope for the return of more than 2 million refugees. We can safeguard villages and help rebuild homes. Ultimately, however, any real solution to Darfur’s troubles involves something more—sustained economic development.

NARRATOR:

The Secretary-General says that precisely what shape that sustained economic development might take is still unclear. But what is clear is that there must be money for new roads and communications as well as health, education, sanitation and social reconstruction programmes. So these are some of the major issues that Mr. Ban Ki-moon will deal with during his mission to Africa next week. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.
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Sierra Leoneans Prepare for Second Round of Presidential Elections
PRESENTER:

The people of Sierra Leone are once again preparing to go to the polls in less than two weeks. This time, they will choose their president, a post being contested between Ernest Koroma of the opposition All People’s Congress and the incumbent Vice President Solomon Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party. Neither of the candidates got a clear majority in the first round of the elections on the 11th of August. But the opposition won the majority of the seats in parliament. To find out more about preparations for the forthcoming elections, I spoke on the line to the capital, Freetown with Victor Angelo the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, who says the campaigning has started, not without problems.
ANGELO: There have been a little bit of clashes between supporters but the police have managed to keep those clashes under control. Besides that, we have started the printing of the ballot papers for the second round as well as the preparations in terms of the logistics. We are right in the middle of the rainy season. So any preparation of elections is a major challenge.

MBATHA: You are saying that you are in the middle of the rainy season. What kind of challenges does this pose?

ANGELO: The problem is that the infrastructure in many parts of the country is very poor and, therefore, the roads become very difficult. Some rural areas become extremely difficult in terms of access and this creates additional challenges in terms of getting the materials to every corner of the country, that the polling agents in the remote areas are trained and prepared for the polling exercise. So it is basically a problem of infrastructure in a country with difficult roads, with difficult means of communication.

MBATHA: Are there any lessons that you learned from the parliamentary elections which you can apply in preparations for the presidential run-off elections?

ANGELO: I would say that people voted with a very high level of enthusiasm and the turnout was very high, close to 76 per cent. So in some cases there was a problem of organizing the lines of voters. So one of the things we are doing now is getting better prepared to organize the queues for the second round. The other aspect is to make sure that the voters are better informed about the polling station they are supposed to go for the vote. And thirdly we are also making sure that we change a number of secretive features in the ballot papers and also in the system for everyone to feel confident that there is no way people can play with the election material.

MBATHA: Can you give me an example of these secretive features that you are dealing with?

ANGELO: Well, for instance, the ballot papers are printed outside the country and there are printing houses that do this kind of jobs and also houses that do banknotes. So there are some of the features that you see in a banknote which make it impossible for the loca l printers in Sierra Leone to print them locally. So this is an additional security feature that makes sure that no false ballot paper is brought into the polling station and introduced into the boxes.

MBATHA: Now you said that during the parliamentary elections there was enthusiasm among the Sierra Leoneans. How is it now?

ANGELO: First there was a very high level of registration. More than 90 per cent of those who could register for the elections did registered. Secondly, the turnout during the election on the 11th of August was very high notwithstanding the weather. So I believe that again we will see on September 8 a very high level of participation because people understand that this is an opportunity for them to exercise their civic right to choose their leaders and I have to say that there is a very high level of political maturity in this country.

MBATHA: So given what you have just told me, are optimistic that Sierra Leone is on the right path to stability?

ANGELO: I think so. So far Sierra Leone is certainly sending very good news to the world in terms of peace, stability, democracy, national cohesion, and I am sure that the leaders understand that the competition ahead of them, leading to the run-off has to remain within the same parameters of democracy, of non-violence, of full respect of the opinion of each one of the citizens.

PRESENTER:

That was Victor Angelo, the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, on the line from Freetown.
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Economic Hardships Exacerbate Domestic Violence in Zimbabwe

PRESENTER:

United Nations agencies are stepping up their efforts to assist Zimbabweans who are facing severe economic hardships. Unemployment and chronic food shortages have not only led to the mass migration of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries, but is also being cited as the reason behind an upsurge in domestic violence in the country. Patrick Maigua reports from Geneva.
NARRATOR:

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, the continuing economic hardship in Zimbabwe, food shortages and unemployment have not only increased the incidence of domestic violence, but also its severity. UNICEF says at least 9 out of every victims of domestic violence in Zimbabwe are women. James Elder is the spokesperson for UNICEF in Zimbabwe.

CUT 1: James Elder
Give the enormous economic stresses in Zimbabwe, colliding with family and other challenges, there is great stress and anxiety in families, and this often can lead to increased tensions. And unfortunately in turn it seems that that leads to an increase in domestic violence.

NARRATOR:

Mr Elder says women are not only the victims of domestic violence.

CUT 2: James Elder
Domestic violence normally where women are the victims is a very very serious thing and has enormous ramifications not just for the women but for the children that might that make up that family and that are often in this very very unsettling and dangerous environment.

NARRATOR:

To help stem the rising levels of domestic violence, Zimbabwe recently enacted the Domestic Violence act, which offers protection to victims while at the same time providing for sifter penalties for perpetrators of the crime. UNICEF in conjunction with the government and the Zimbabwe women lawyers association have began training traditional leaders and chiefs on how to apply and interpret the law, stop abuse and offer support to victims in their communities.

CUT 3: James Elder
Already 300 chiefs have been trained and nationwide. Obviously it’s very early to see if it is bearing fruit but, of course, just to reach those critical players in Zimbabwe’s rural life where most people still reside is very very important and I think that UNICEF in now dealing with the chiefs will become confident that they can become a very useful frontline in our ongoing aims to prevent and reduce the amount of domestic violence.

NARRATOR:

Also receiving increased attention is the mass migration of Zimbabweans into neighbouring countries in search of better economic opportunities. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says up to three million Zimbabweans have been forced to migrate in search of better opportunities. According to UNCHR spokesperson Andre Mehecic only a small number of those fleeing the country are seeking refugee status.

CUT 4 : Andre Mehecic
Most of them say that they are leaving for work or that they are coming to purchase goods that are unavailable in Zimbabwe. They also speak about unemployment, economic hardship and the difficulties of finding, for example, a doctor or medications or a particular medical serivice. The very large majority tell us that they do not plan to ask for asylum, they prefer to keep the option of returning home from time to time.

NARRATOR :

UNHCR is pressing upon countries in southern Africa to ensure those fleeing Zimbabwe were treated fairly.

CUT 5 : 5 Andre Mehecic
Zimbabweans fleeing the country need fair treatment. They must be treated fairly when they apply for asylum. The wishes of UNHCR is that the situation in Zimbabwe can improve and that flows and displacement can be reduced. And, of course, the solution of the problem is not humanitarian. It’s a political solution.
NARRATOR :

Earlier this month The UN World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal for 118 million dollars to provide immediate assistance to 3.3 million Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages. The economic crisis facing Zimbabwe has pushed the country’s inflation to 7,600 the highest in the world. For UN Radio this is Patrick Maigua in Geneva.

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PRESENTER:
And that’s all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Charles Appel and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwitt. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

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