UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 176
Week of: Sunday, 28th October, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 1st November, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" Talks to find a solution to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan continue in the City of Sirte in Libya. Not all the representatives of the factions from Darfur are participating in the talks but the UN and AU envoys say the peace process has started and will continue.

" UN agencies say that most of the over 100 children were almost flown out of Chad in a suspected trafficking operation probably came from villages along the border with Sudan. UNICEF spokesperson in Chad says investigations are going on.

" African countries got a boost in their development efforts with a commitment from a giant company to invest more than five billion to improve their information and communication technologies. These technologies are seen as an engine for economic growth on the continent.

RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

PRESENTER:

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

PRESENTER:

In today's programme, talks to end the crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan continue in the Libyan city of Sirte although some of the major Darfur movements are not participating
CLIP 1: Jan Eliasson
"I note that there is great impatience in the international community and the Security Council has made mention of the need to cooperation with the mediation."

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, the saga of over one hundred children who were almost taken out of Chad to Europe continues.
CLIP 3: Mariam Coulibaly Ndiaye
"What we know is that the normal procedures, the standards and the norms when you have to take children from one country to another have not been complied with.""

And later in this edition, we look at the promotion of information and communication technologies in Africa.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under until first sentence)

UN and AU Envoys Press Ahead with Darfur Peace Process in Sirte, Libya

PRESENTER:

Talks to resolve the conflict in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan which began in the Libyan City of Sirte over the weekend continued this week. The envoys of the United Nations and the African Union are co-chairing the talks which have been attended by representatives of the people of Darfur, the international community and countries of the region. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.

NARRATOR:
The joint United Nations and the African peacekeeping operation for Darfur, known as UNAMID, began to establish itself in El Fasher, where it will be headquartered for its operations in the troubled Darfur region. The deployment of UNAMID will provide protection for the displaced people of Darfur where a conflict has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced two and a half million people. As UNAMID was establishing itself in Darfur, talks to find a lasting solution to the conflict in that region continued in the city of Sirte in Libya. Not all the Darfur factions attended the talks. But according to the United Nations envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson it was important for the representatives of the government of Sudan and some of the movements which attended to sit across from each other and actually discuss the conflict.
CUT 1: Jan Eliasson
We have brought them to the same room but also in the presence of representatives of the people of Darfur. I think the interventions by thee representatives of civil society were moving, were a sign of the longing for peace of the people of Darfur.

NARRATOR:

The envoy for the African Union, Salim Ahmed Salim, expresses a similar view, stressing that the mere convening of the meeting and the attendance by the international community signified a total commitment to this process.
CUT 2: Salim Ahem Salim
Secondly, we had a number of movements which attended the meeting, showing also their desire to engage towards finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Then we had the component of the civil society, and this is remarkable because for the first time in these processes we have had the actual engagement and the actual involvement of civil society in attempts to forge ahead.

NARRATOR:

One of the issues that were expected to be discussed and decided on in these talks was the end of hostilities in Darfur. Salim Ahmed Salim says that so far there is a political commitment to this objective.
CUT 3: Salim Salim
When we talk about a ceasefire as such, that requires a mechanism. That requires detailed arrangement. That's why we said we were hoping that when you the parties here it would be possible to do that. Of course, you know the government of Sudan has made a declaration, unilateral declaration on cessation of hostilities which we welcome, but it is very important also to have the position of the movements.

NARRATOR:

Jan Eliasson says that the first stage of the process is over which included the ceremonial opening, the general debates and statements in plenary. Participants are now finalizing discussions on the agenda, format and structure with the movements and the government.
CUT 4: Jan Eliasson

We will remain a couple of days in Sirte to do that work, but then we will seamlessly move into the second stage which is the stage of engagement of the parties in preparations for substantive talks. Because of the absence of some key leaders, we need to most probably have missions to other parts of the region to conduct those preparations.

NARRATOR:
As for the factions which are not participating in the talks, Jan Eliasson says that during this preparation phase, there will be a better picture of the best parties to negotiate. One notable faction absent during this phase is the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdul Wahid el Nur.
CUT 5: Jan Eliasson

Abdul Wahid and his faction still have a chance to get on the train at a later stage. However, I note that there is great impatience in the international community and the Security Council has made mention of the need to cooperate with the mediation. So I hope that there are decisions taken soon on whether Abdul Wahid's faction would want to come along, be part of this process.

NARRATOR:
Jan Eliasson says that in the end, it will depend on how strong the political will is among the parties to conclude their negotiation positions in the talks. As for Abdul Wahid el-Nur, who is seemingly popular among the internally displaced people in Darfur, Mr. Eliasson expressed the hope that he would not stop the voices of these people from being heard. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
PRESENTER:

UN Agencies Identify Children Who Were Almost Flown out of Chad

Last week more than one hundred children were almost flown out of Chad by a French charity. Today the United Nations children's and refugee agencies together with the Red Cross issued a joint report saying that the children, between the ages of one and ten, probably came from Chadian villages along the border with Sudan. Nine French nationals, seven Spaniards as well as at least two Chadians were arrested in eastern Chad last week, for allegedly trying to smuggle the children to Europe. But the French charity organization involved called Zoe's Ark denies the charges and says it was trying to help orphans from Sudan's troubled Darfur region by placing them with European families. To find out more about this saga, I called the UNICEF representative in Chad, Mariam Coulibaly Ndiaye. She told me, relief workers have been talking to the children to find out where they came from and that further investigations are still going on.
NDIAYE: What we know is that the normal procedures, the standards and the norms, when children have to be taken cared of, when you have to take children from one country to another have not been complied with.

MBATHA: And what are those procedures?

NDIAYE: For example, you cannot take children when you don't have papers, when you have no documentation for them. You don't take children away when you have no information about their parents. If a close family is not there, there is also an option to look for the relatives. If you don't have solution with the relatives, you also have to see in the community and you have to keep in mind that everything should be transparent, that international and local law must be respected and complied with.

MBATHA: Yes, talking about that, do you have any idea as to where these children's relatives are?

NDIAYE: We are still working on this now because working with children, you have to be very patient, you don't have to do it too quickly. You have to listen to them. Sometimes they can talk about their parents. They can talk about where they are coming from. When you just want information you have to come back again and to cross check. And from what we have gathered, at least 85 among these children are coming from some region between Chad and the Sudan but more toward the border within Chad.

MBATHA: Now I saw a report the other day and some of these children were crying, that was a television report, how are these children. Are they traumatized by this experience?

NDIAYE: Such a thing will never leave any child without some kind of trauma. We have to be aware of that. Once the child is away from his natural and normal environment, it is a trauma. And especially for these children, since they have been taken from places to places and you have seen in the report, all of these people going around the children -- that was too much. It will have an impact on any child. But what I can tell you now, talking about health, they are in good health, I can tell you that.
MBATHA: Have you had similar incidents before, children being taken out of Chad or any other African country to Europe?

NDIAYE: At this extent, such organized thing, with so many children at the same time, taken abroad, overseas, that is really my first time to see it I must say. And I hope that it will not be replicated.

PRESENTER:

That was Mariam Coulibaly Ndiaye, the representative of UNICEF in Chad.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
Africa Promotes Growth of Information and Communication Technologies

PRESENTER:

African countries got a boost on Tuesday with commitments to invest more than fifty billion dollars in their information and communication technology industry. This came at the end of a two-day summit in Kigali, Rwanda, which brought together African political leaders, executives of information and communication technologies companies, and heads of development banks. UN Radio's Dianne Penn reports.
NARRATOR:
The African continent is known for lagging behind in development which, in turn, affects its ability to eradicate poverty on the continent. But African countries have the potential to speed up their development using information and communication technologies. So when the one thousand or so participants gathered in Kigali, they heard that companies are ready to invest in information and technologies in Africa. In fact, technology giant GSM pledged fifty billion dollars in additional investments in the information technology sector. In addition to that the World Bank doubled its commitment to two billion dollars. One of the participants in Kigali meeting, Sarbuland Khan, the Executive Coordinator of the Global Alliance for Information Communication Technology for Development says there is enough evidence that these technologies are engines of growth where they have been deployed effectively.
CUT 1: Sarbuland Khan
And it has accelerated services, education health, business, e-government, but it has also improved productivity for both labour and capital and as a result accelerated overall patterns of growth in the world. Even Africa is growing much faster. The rate of growth now has doubled in Africa than it was ten years ago.

NARRATOR:

Mr. Khan says a good example of using information and communication technologies is Rwanda, which hosted the summit on information and communication technologies in Africa. He recalls that ten years ago the country was in a crisis caused by genocide and conflict but has picked itself up using these technologies.
CUT 2: Sarbuland Khan
Today the Rwandan government is paper free. The cabinet of this country works without paper. And its health system, the entire country's health system has been corrected so that the government is functioning more efficiently. The results are visible. If you go to Kigali today, it is almost a miracle. This city is clean. This city is stable, peaceful, growing and President Kagame has the vision to do it effectively, although it is still very small the results are already visible.

NARRATOR:

It is generally accepted that investment by the private sector will help the continent transform its economies. In fact, Rwandan President Paul Kagame set the tone at the beginning of the meeting when he said the continent needs investment and trade as opposed to aid and charity. But of course, for Africa to effectively use these technologies, it needs trained people. Michael Rawding of Microsoft Corporation says his company is already training people on the continent.
CUT 3: Michael Rawding
We have trained over 20,000 teachers and those 20,000 teachers have access to over 21 million students. Basically we are helping to enable teachers to use technology to be more effective in the classroom. We have also focused on jobs and skills that will lead to economic opportunity for people.

NRRATOR:

Mr. Rawding says Microsoft Corporation has also established information academies in twenty countries in Africa in order to meet the demand for skilled people in information and communication technologies.
CUT 4: Michael Rawding
Now once you have a broad base of people that are trained in IT, what we are going to do is help them take the next level and create innovation and through this innovation create new jobs and new companies. So we have a programme called the Microsoft innovation centres where we co-locate within academic institutions or government institutions innovation centres that are very advanced, that are focused on entrepreneurs and small companies that enable them to obtain skills, both technological skills and business skills to really go into business for themselves and to accelerate the growth of their companies that are IT-related companies.

NARRATOR:
The Connect Africa Summit in Kigali pledged to ensure that the African continent is fully connected by 2012. And it hopes that villages and rural areas will also be connected by 2015. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Diane Penn.
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 Nyi Nyi Teza and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwit. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye. *** CLOSING MUSIC ***