UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 179
Week of: Sunday, 18th November, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 21st November, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" The story of the alleged attempt by a French non-governmental organization to fly 103 children out of Chad to France continues. Now a Sudanese official says some of the children were from Sudan and that the aborted operation was part of a larger scheme to take more children out of Chad and Sudan to Europe.

" The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the government of Liberia have launched a fresh nationwide campaign against crime. UNMIL spokesman Ben Malor says the campaign is aimed at encouraging people to work with the police to fight crime in the country by preventing and reporting it.

" Starting your own business can be a risky venture. But a new initiative by the World Bank aims to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to realize their dreams of running their own show. Diane Bailey met two young entrepreneurs on a recent visit to Rwanda.

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, new allegations about the abduction of children in Chad to be sent to Europe.
CLIP 1: Hassabu Abdelrahman
"And that programme is starting by registered families who are paying between 1,500 up to 8,000 euros per head in Paris"

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, the UN Mission and the government of Liberia launch a campaign against crime.
CLIP 2: Ben Malor
"Say no to crime, prevent it, report it. Everyone must come on board and report crime or suspicious events so that they can be dealt with."

And later in the programme, a new initiative by the World Bank aiming to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to start their own companies in Rwanda.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

Allegations Persist About Alleged Attempt to Abduct Chadian Children

PRESENTER:
The story of the alleged attempt by a French non-governmental organization to fly 103 children out of Chad to France continues. Now a Sudanese official says some of the children were from Sudan and that the aborted operation was part of a larger scheme to take more children out of Chad and Sudan to Europe. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
As authorities in Chad continue proceedings to try ten Europeans for allegedly trying to fly the one hundred and three children out of Chad last month, new allegations continue to surface. According to the Sudanese Commissioner for Humanitarian Assistance, Dr. Hassabu Mohammed Abdelrahman, the attempt by the aid agency called Zoe's Ark to fly the children to France was part of a plan to smuggle up to ten thousand children to be enslaved in France. Briefing reporters in Geneva recently, Dr. Abdelrahman said the programme actually started early this year.

CUT 1: Hassabu Mohammed Abdelrahman

And that programme is starting by registering families who are paying between 1,500 up to 8,000 euros per head in Paris. And also, unfortunately the authority of French, in March, April, May they know because they give an advance visa for this 103 and they give permission for plane to take these kids to France.

NARRATOR:
And according to Dr. Abdelrrahman, some of the children are in fact from Sudan and there is another group of children, he says, which has not been accounted for.
CUT 2: Hassabu Mohammed Abdelrahman

We have 103 now in Abeche. Out of this 103, you have seventeen Sudanese, and then we have seventy-four missed, we don't find them. So there is information that this seventy-four had been already taken before this operation is stopped. Out of this seventy four we have thirty-five that are Sudanese.

NARRATOR:

And that's not all.

CUT 3: Hassabu Mohammed Abdelrahman

Unfortunately this programme has been launched and had been supported by a lot of agencies which are supposed to supervise and protect the refugees, mainly UNHCR, UNICEF, and other agencies working in eastern Chad and in Darfur.

NARRATOR:

Now, when the story of the attempt to smuggle the children out of Chad broke, the French government came out against the operation. In fact, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on record as having said that Zoe's Ark was wrong in what it did and condemned the activity. The incident happened while the Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Craig Johnstone was visiting the region. He was able to visit the centre caring for the children.

CUT 4: Craig Johnstone

And it was also very useful to be there at the time of the breaking of the story on the Arche de Zoe simply to be able to look into it a little bit more myself, come to some conclusions and prepare us for whatever steps we need to take to make sure that we not have repeats of this kind of situation.

NARRATOR:

Mr. Johnstone was asked by a reporter to respond to allegations made by the Sudanese authorities that some of the United Nations agencies themselves knew or supported the operation by the French aid agency. His reaction?

CUT 5: Craig Johnstone

Well, I found nothing new in what was said in the briefing that you just heard from the Sudanese delegation. It's quite similar to what I heard from this one particular office when I was in Khartoum. I heard quite different things from other offices in Khartoum. So we do have, however, a number of totally unsubstantiated allegations being made concerning UNICEF and UNHCR, and I will leave it to your own judgment to judge exactly why these accusations are being made and what the motivation is behind them. I would not want to dignify them with a reply.

NARRATOR:

And regarding the possibility that Zoe's Ark may have conducted a similar operation before, Mr. Johnstone says that those carrying out investigations have not yet found previous cases of the group operation in this way in eastern Chad.
CUT 6: Craig Johnstone
That isn't to say that though that it hasn't happened. We don't know yet. We'll have to get to the bottom of the investigation to know if this is the first time that such things have happened or if they have happened previously. Let's wait to see what the facts are.

NARRATOR:

Of course, the United Nations agencies have been helping the children since their case became known and in fact they've established that the majority of them had families in Chad. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
UN and Liberian Government Launch Campaign against Crime
PRESENTER:
As part of efforts to promote stability in Liberia, as it continues to consolidate democracy, the United Nations Mission in the country (UNMIL) and the government on Tuesday launched, in the capital Monrovia, a fresh nationwide campaign against crime. The initiative is aimed at encouraging a partnership between ordinary Liberians and the police. To find out more about this campaign, I called UNMIL spokesman Ben Malor in Monrovia.
MALOR: Liberia's Justice Minister, Phillip Banks and the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Rule of Law, Mrs. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu jointly launched this campaign in the West Point community under the theme, "Say no to crime, prevent it, report it". The Deputy Envoy stressed the fact that the police alone could not do the work without the help and support of the community. So everyone must come on board and report crime or suspicious events so that they can be dealt with. And also the Justice Minister talked about a system being put in place to enable Liberians to report crime easily without putting their lives in danger.

MBATHA: Talking about that, sometimes crime is encouraged by the fact that people don't report and they have a negative attitude towards those who actually do report crime. So, what's the attitude of Liberians towards reporting crime?

MALOR: I am not able to generalize about the attitude of ordinary Liberians, but what I can tell you is, without sounding anxious, people are concerned about crime. When people hear about even a single armed robbery people get concerned. The most commonly committed crime in Liberia right now is rape. And that is a serious matter. In fact, the UN as a whole in Liberia is just about to partner with the government on an anti-rape campaign that would lead to events marking the celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. So yes, crime is an issue of concern and people want to deal with it. There are community-police forums. The other aspect of this I can mention is sometimes people get too anxious and too quick to mete out justice in their own views, and we have had some cases of mob violence, and we are careful not to describe this as mob justice.

MBATHA: I'm curious, do you have any idea why rape is such a common crime committed there?

MALOR: This is a big question that I am probably not qualified to answer. But in the violent crimes that are reported to the police every week, rape has been the most commonly committed crime. The question is what needs to be done. There is a rape law, how do we try rape cases. And you must also understand the challenges, if somebody comes to report rape, to go through the law courts the person must follow up. Sometimes you don't have the means as a poor woman to come up and bring these things to court. There are also issues of stigma, issues of families trying to patch up things and trying to make do with things. So, these are some of the issues we have to deal with when we are trying to tackle rape.

MBATHA: How is the Liberia National Police progressing as a viable force to maintain law and order in the country?

MALOR: There has been steady progress in rebuilding the Liberian National Police but a lot more remains to be done. They need resources. They need vehicles, they need even bicycles or motorbikes, and then they need to be very committed so that the Liberia National Police becomes such a great tool for the government and for the people who can trust them and believe in them and come to them every time there is a problem that needs to be solved.

MALOR: No matter how daunting the task look, the UN Mission in Liberia has come a long way and I am very optimistic that things are getting better.

PRESENTER:
Ben Malor, the spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Liberia speaking with me on the line from Monrovia.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
World Bank Initiative Helps Young Entrepreneurs in Rwanda
PRESENTER:
Starting your own business can be a risky venture. But a new initiative by the World Bank is aiming to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to realize their dreams of running their own show. UN Radio's Diane Bailey met two young entrepreneurs on a recent visit to Rwanda.
NARR: In the Rwandan capitol, Kigali, Jean Bosco Sorosso runs the Worldwide Translation Consultancy, and Ariane Karejire, who has a degree in law, plans weddings. Both are taking advantage of a unique initiative, the Technology and Business Incubation Facility, which provides support and practical help to young entrepreneurs.

ARIANE: They give you facility room here which is not expensive for the rent. They give you courses, like if you need courses in marketing, if you have problems in accounting, if you have problem in any other business program; you tell them for elaborating your business plan. They help you, they give you a loan when you need it so that you can make your business well done and more and more valuable.

NARR: The Technology and Business Incubation Facility at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, is being funded by InfoDev, short for Information for Development. Valerie d'Costa is in charge of the programme.

D'COSTA: And what an incubator is, Kist itself it's a hot house. It's a place to say O.K. come. Here's a table and a chair, here's electricity that won't go out. Here are computers, here's a printer, a telephone that works. Here's a shop front that we give you and here's high speed bandwidth, internet connectivity now get started.

NARR: What these entrepreneurs have in common is a business plan, and an interest in computers. Valerie d'Costa says they often see themselves as mini Bill Gates, and the focus in these start-up businesses is on information and communications technology, or ICT. InfoDev has supported business incubation activities in 10 African countries, and while the term incubate may conjure up images of coddling, Valerie d'Costa says the programme means business.

D'COSTA: We expect each and every one of the incubate companies to have a start date, a middle date and an end date and we don't envisage them being perpetual tenants. They need to spread their wings and fly at a certain point in time but when that point is really need to spread their wings and fly at a certain point in time but when that point is really varies from country to country and development level to development level.

NARR: For Ariane, the incubation has given her space to help her business grow and increased her confidence in herself.

ARIANE: It was not easy for me to pay the rent and internet at the same time because I needed a lot for my research like when I want to contact my clients via internet. And also when you are with other incubators you learn a lot, you get more experience. I won't be like I am now; more confident even if it's the start of a company.

PRES: Rwanda has a very young population, so Ariane's business can only grow. And in a country where Kinyarwanda is the dominant language with small minorities speaking either French or English, the demand for translation services, especially from the government, is high.

JEAN BOSCO: The demand so far we can see that it's progressing because we have now completed. We started in April and we consider today a progress and so far we are doing mostly was the minister for our structures and we have seen that they have trusted and have confidence in what we are doing.

PRES: What's more, since the translators are university graduates, Jean Bosco is providing employment to those who might otherwise be searching for work. Arian's goal is to make her business a one-stop shop for those about to get married: one place for all flowers, the wedding site, the dress and the suit and everything else needed for a wedding.

ARIANE: I bring everything to them like this kind of decoration this site provided, it's me who go to negotiate contracts for them. Then I bring everything like the attire.

PRES: Wedding planning and translation services are just two of the business enterprising young people are starting across Africa with the help of InfoDev. For UN and Africa, this is Diane Bailey reporting.

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 Louis Bastion. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

*** CLOSING MUSIC ***