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UN Radio
UN and Africa
Programme Number: 175
Week of: Sunday, 21st October, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 25th October, 2007
Topical Issue(s):
• Peace talks on Darfur are set to begin
in Libya this weekend. UN Special envoy Jan
Eliasson says the negotiations are a moment
of truth and hope and stresses the need for
all the representatives of the people of Darfur
to participate.
• The latest round of fighting in the
North Kivu province of the eastern part of Democratic
Republic of the Congo has forced thousands of
people to flee into Uganda. UNHCR spokesperson
in Uganda, Roberta Russo, says the Congolese
refugees are reluctant to move from the border
area to a site inland.
• It is that time of the year again when
Africans, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia embark
on a dangerous voyage to cross the Gulf of Aden
to Yemen in search of a better life. Many of
these people die during the voyage at the hands
of ruthless and unscrupulous smugglers.
Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Charles Appel
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
Duration: 15’00”
RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New
York.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Please, play briefly, dip
upon wave, and hold under narr.)
PRESENTER:
Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I’m
Derrick Mbatha.
*** SIG TUNE ***: (Bring Sig Tune up briefly,
dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:
In today’s programme, talks to end the
crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan
start this weekend in Sirte Libya, but some
rebel movements are reluctant to attend.
CLIP 1: Zalimay Khalilizad
“The eyes of the world will be on this
meeting. Anyone who doesn’t participate
or does not observe a ceasefire will have to
answer to the international community to the
people of Darfur and to the people of Sudan.”
PRESENTER:
You will hear more on that in a moment. Also
in this edition, Congolese refugees in Uganda
don’t want to move away from the border
area.
CLIP 2: Roberta Russo
“People move into Uganda to spend the
night in a safe place, and then during the day,
especially men cross back into DRC leaving behind
women and children.”
PRESENTER:
And Africans fall prey to ruthless smugglers
as they across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.
CLIP 3: Ron Redmond
“People are dying out there that we do
not even know about. I am sure there are other
incidents where entire vessels have disappeared
and we do not know about it.”
You will hear more on that later in the programme.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and
hold under until first sentence)
Darfur Talks in Libya Set to Start as Some
Rebels Say They Won’t Attend
PRESENTER:
The much awaited talks to resolve the crisis
in Darfur are expected to begin in Libya this
weekend. Representatives of rebel movements,
internally displaced people and other sections
of the people of Darfur are expected to converge
on Sirte to negotiate with the Sudanese government
a solution to the conflict that has killed and
displaced hundreds of thousands of people. UN
Radio’s Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
The crisis in the troubled Darfur region of
Sudan continued this week with reports on Wednesday
that a rebel group attacked a major oil field
and kidnapped foreign aid workers in that region.
But efforts to resolve this crisis are supposed
to enter another phase with the meeting in Sirte,
Libya starting on Saturday. In preparation for
these talks, rebel groups have been meeting
in Juba, the capital of South Sudan to try to
agree on a common position to present to the
government. But up until now, these groups have
not been able to do so and some of them say
they need more time. The United Nations Special
envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson has been working
with the Special envoy for the African Union
Salim Ahmed Salim to facilitate these talks.
Mr. Eliasson says that the fact that the Darfur
rebel movements have not yet agreed on a common
position for negotiations with the Sudanese
government should not delay the start of the
talks in Libya. In his view these movements
can still continue their consultations in Libya.
CUT 1: Jan Eliasson
We have the opening of the meeting on Saturday
the 27th, but we will allow plenty of time for
the movements to have consultations among themselves
because the real negotiations will start only
after we have had the full preparations of the
parties.
NARRATOR:
Regarding invitations to the participants in
the Darfur talks, Jan Eliasson says they were
sent late because representatives of the rebel
movements were still working on this unified
position for the negotiations.
CUT 2: Jan Eliasson
We didn’t want to rush that issue. On
the other hand, with the Secretary-General’s
and Mr. Konare’s decision we had to remind
them that the 27th of October is the beginning
of the political process and therefore we sent
out the invitations to them around the 18th
of October.
Mr. Eliasson stresses that the date of October
27 October was set by the United Nations Secretary-General
Ban ki-moon and the Chairman of the African
Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare to remind
the government and people of Darfur that there
has to be a timeline for taking steps to end
the crisis in the region.
CUT 3: Jan Eliasson
And we hope that the meeting will also start
with a serious discussion about the cessation
of hostilities. So there is a very grave responsibility
resting upon the movements and the government
to come to the meeting and facilitate also for
civil society to come to the meeting.
According to the United Nations envoy, members
of civil society are very keen on participating
in the meeting.
CUT 4: Jan Eliasson
Civil society wants to come there and say that
they want peace for Darfur. We have tribal representatives.
We have representatives of intellectuals. We
have representatives of several women’s
groups of Darfur. So I hope that those who are
hesitating about coming will accept this responsibility
and we do expect them to accept this responsibility.
NARRATOR:
And a similar call for all the concerned parties
to participate in the Darfur talks in Libya
has come from the representative of the United
States to the United Nations Ambassador Zalimay
Khalilzad.
CUT 5: Zalimay Khalilzad
We call on all relevant elements from the rebels
to participate. The eyes of the world will be
on this meeting. Everyone must have a ceasefire
immediately when the meeting starts. Anyone
who doesn’t participate or does not observe
a ceasefire will have to answer to the international
community, to the people of Darfur and to the
people of Sudan.
NARRATOR:
In the meantime, the Security Council has welcomed
the convening of the peace talks. Ambassador
Leslie Christian of Ghana, the president of
the Council for this month, read part of a statement
adopted at the end of their consultations on
Wednesday in which the Council called on warring
parties to stop the hostilities in Darfur.
CUT 6: Leslie Christian
The Council underlines its willingness to take
action against any party that seeks to undermine
the peace process including by failing to respect
such a cessation of hostilities or by impeding
the talks, peacekeeping or humanitarian aid.
NARRATOR:
The Security Council has also stressed that
an inclusive political settlement and successful
deployment of a joint United Nations/African
Union peacekeeping force in Darfur are essential
for re-establishing peace and stability in the
region. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford
Cline-Thomas.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
PRESENTER:
Congolese refugees in Uganda Are Reluctant
to Settle Inland
PRESENTER:
The latest fighting in the North Kivu province
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has
forced another wave of people to flee to Uganda.
Last weekend eight thousand Congolese crossed
the border and gathered in the town of Bunagana.
This was the third influx of Congolese refugees
into Uganda since August as a result of the
conflict in North Kivu. The United Nations refugee
agency, UNHCR, prepared a site for the refugees
in Nyakabanda which is further inland. To find
out more about this, I spoke on the line to
the Ugandan capital of Kampala with UNHCR spokesperson
Roberta Russo who said the refugees are reluctant
to move from the border area.
RUSSO: The district authorities and UNHCR as
well are trying to encourage them to move form
the border to the site where they can receive
assistance in Nyakabanda, simply because it
is not safe to stay close to the border because
confrontation and the fighting could come into
Uganda and then they could be in danger, and
also because of health issues. Bunagana is a
very small town at the border and if it gets
too crowded and people stay for too long there
is a risk of a cholera outbreak.
MBATHA: You say that you are encouraging the
refugees to move away from the border inland
because you fear that the fighting may spill
over to Uganda.
RUSSO: Yes.
MBATHA: Have you had that kind of problem before?
RUSSO: We had this kind of problem in December
2006. The fighting didn’t really cross
into Uganda but we had a grenade that was thrown
from DRC and ended up on Bunagana on this side
of the border.
MBATHA: Now what are some of the arrangements
that you are making for these refugees once
they are in Uganda?
RUSSO: We have all the facilities and the logistics
arrangements in place to provide assistance
to up 35,000 Congolese refugees if they cross
into the country. And, of course, once the refugees
ask the government of Uganda to stay permanently
in Uganda we transport them to a refugee settlement
which is 400 kilometers from the border. And
there we are also ready with reception centres.
The government has already a plan to allocate
land to the new families of Congolese who arrive
and all kind of assistance is ready to be given
to the new comers.
MBATHA: I’ve heard before that some of
these Congolese refugees cross into Uganda and
wait there and once the fighting has subsided
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo they
then go back into the DR Congo. Is that true?
RUSSO: Yeah it is correct. What happens is
that because of the insecure situation in eastern
DRC there is a lot of cross border movements
that always takes place but when there are security
incidents in North Kivu and there is an influx
into Uganda, normally the pattern is that people
move into Uganda to spend the night in a safe
place, and then during the day, especially men
cross back into DRC leaving behind women and
children who spend also the day in Uganda. The
majority of the people, as I mentioned, are
at the border point in Bunagana and they are
receiving at the moment assistance from Congolese
relatives and friends who live on this side
of the border in Uganda and are hosting the
refugees whenever there is an influx.
MBATHA: Oh yeah because people on the Congolese
side and the Ugandan side of the border have
relatives.
RUSSO: Yes. The people who are fleeing from
the fighting prefer to receive assistance from
their relatives for few days to monitor how
the situation is in DRC closely and then whenever
they feel that it’s safe enough they go
back.
MBATHA: Given what you have just told me, how
many Congolese refugees are willing to go to
the area that you have prepared for Congolese
who want to settle as refugees in Uganda?
RUSSO: At the moment, very few people have
expressed this wish. In the last two influxes,
out of 30,000 people only 400 people asked the
government of Uganda to have asylum in this
country.
PRESENTER:
That was Roberta Russo, the spokesperson for
the United Nations refugee agency in Uganda.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
Africans Continue to Die as They Cross the Gulf
of Aden to Yemen
The Gulf of Aden located off the eastern coast
of Africa, is an essential waterway providing
passage for oil exports from the Middle East.
But the gulf is also home to smugglers who ferry
hundreds of migrants across the gulf into Yemen
to escape civil strife in the Horn of Africa.
The death toll from this deadly journey is rising
by the day. From Geneva Patrick Maigua sent
us this report.
NARRATOR:
According to the United Nations refugee agency
the number of migrants risking to make the perilous
voyage across the Gulf of Aden in boats operated
by ruthless smugglers operating from Somali
ports continues to rise. In 2006, 26,000 migrants
arrived in Yemen after crossing the Gulf of
Aden. Over the last 10 months of 2007, more
than 20,000 have crossed the gulf. Ron Redmond
is UNHCR’s spokesman.
CUT 1: Ron Redmond
We are working on both sides of the gulf to
try and convince people not to resort to smuggling,
but the situation in most of the countries most
of these people are fleeing is so bad that they
feel they have nothing to lose.
NARRATOR:
Of concern to UNHCR and other UN agencies in
the region is the rising number of fatalities
occurring among the illegal migrants. This year
alone up to 439 migrants have died with a similar
number classified as missing and presumed dead.
Last weekend 66 illegal migrants were added
to the list of the dead. Mr Redmond says those
who have survived the journey report being robbed
and thrown overboard often in deep sea waters
by the boat operators.
CUT 2: Ron Redmond
People are dying out there that we do not even
know about I am sure there are other incidents
where entire vessels have disappeared and we
do not know about it. And the smugglers every
year they seem to be getting more ruthless more
vicious in what they are doing to people.
NARRATOR:
Somalia has been without an effective central
government for over two decades now. Years of
fighting between rival warlords have made the
country one of the most dangerous places in
the world. But oblivious of insecurity, Mr Redmond,
says migrants from other east African countries
are willing to take the risk and travel though
the strife torn country in the hope of a better
life in the Middle East and beyond.
CUT 3: Ron Redmond
While most of the arrivals in Yemen are Somalis
and Ethiopians, we have recently received reports
that Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians are also
waiting in Somalia to make the voyage. Not all
of these people obviously are refugees and many
of them don’t even end up registering
with UNHCR once they get to Yemen. Many of them
want to move on in the Middle East to find jobs.
NARRATOR:
In recent months, international agencies working
in Somalia have joined forces to better address
the problem. An information campaign using radio
and leaflets aimed at warning people of the
risks they face has been launched albeit with
some success.
CUT 4: Ron Redmond
Some of the people have been convinced to go
back to their countries if they are not from
Somalia particularly those who are looking for
a better economic life, and so some have taken
up offers from UNHCR and others to go back to
their countries. In fact we’ve helped
them to get back home but many of these people
have nothing to lose and Somalis fleeing the
conflict are perhaps the most difficult to convince
because they have gone through so much and it’s
so difficult in their country.
NARRATOR:
UNHCR says the loss of innocent lives in the
hands of smugglers in the Gulf of Aden will
continue unless sustainable solution to the
problems facing the horn of Africa including,
civil strife, war, human rights violations,
persecutions, drought and poverty is found.
For UN Radio this is Patrick Maigua in Geneva.
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 Charles
Appel and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwit.
I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.
*** CLOSING MUSIC ***
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