UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 186
Week of: Sunday, 6th January, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 10th January, 2008
Topical Issue(s):

After days of turmoil sparked by the announcement of elections results in Kenya, calm began to return to the East African country this week. Marcus Prior of the World Food Programme says his agency has been able to reach over 50,000 people in need of food in the country.

A centre on Lake Muhazi in Rwanda is helping former child soldiers to return to normal life. UN Radio's Diane Bailey who recently visited the centre, reports on the experiences of two of two of the former child soldiers in the centre.

President Charles Taylor of Liberia appeared before the International Criminal Court this week to face chares of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the civil war in Sierra Leone. Elise Keppler, a legal expert with Human Rights Watch talks to UN Radio about the start of the trial.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Diane Bailey
Production Assistant: Florence Poblete-Enriquez
Studio Engineer: Zach Prewitt
Duration: 15'00"

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

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PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I am Derrick Mbatha.

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PRESENTER: In today's programme, the situation begins to calm down in Kenya, enabling relief workers to provide assistance to the people in need.

CLIP 1: Marcus Prior
"We must hope that the situation continues to calm and that in the next few days and weeks we can go about our work to make sure that those who need food get it."

PRESENTER: You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, a centre in Rwanda helps former child solders return to normal life.

CLIP 2: Ali Mugema
"When they are in the armed groups in the forest most of the time they are brutal, they are aggressive because when they are looking for food they have to use force. Now once they are back here we try to help them and prepare them to go back to the community."

And later in the programme, the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumes in The Hague.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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Relief Agencies Begin to Help Kenyans As Situation Calms Down

PRESENTER: In Kenya, the post-election tension is lessening, enabling relief agencies to now assist thousands forced to flee their homes. As many as half a million Kenyans may need assistance over the next weeks and months, according to the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes. World Food Programme Spokesman, Marcus Prior is in the town of Eldoret in the northern Rift Valley, the scene of some of the worst incidents of violence during the turmoil. He described for me the situation in the western town of Eldoret.

PRIOR: The town is pretty much back to business as usual, the only difference being that there are several thousand displaced people who are in various settlements dotted around the town. The World Food Programme is working with the Kenya Red Cross to make sure that all those that need food do get it. So far we've reached over 50,000 people but we believe they should be in the region of at least 100,000 people.

MBATHA: And where are these people right now? Where are they sheltering?

PRIOR: Well, many are in Eldoret itself, but outside Eldoret most are sheltering in church yards, in schools, and in police stations, where they feel that they are safe at least for the time being. Many people though have, having found a place of first refuge, have moved out of the region completely.

MBATHA: At the height of this turmoil, there were reports of roadblocks. Now are you able to deliver food freely now?

PRIOR: Yes. We essentially have access into all the affected areas in this part of the world. There are no more roadblocks. The roads are open. The Kenyan army has assisted with that. I came up here last Friday from Nairobi in a road convoy and the army was busy, even back then lifting the roadblocks. So there is really no real problem with access. The real challenge is finding out where everybody is, what assistance they need, and making sure they get it as soon as possible.

MBATHA: And how are you going about trying to find out where everybody else is? You say that you have only reached, did you say 50,000?

PRIOR: That's correct. We reached over 50,000 so far. The Kenya Red Cross has had assessment teams out over the last week ever since the crisis actually began. There are other assessment teams. The World Food Programme has a number of staff now heading out into the field. There are other agencies as well and organizations who are spending more time out in the field and are able to pull information so that we know exactly where we need to go over the next few days.

MBATHA: You said that some of the people have moved out completely from that region. I am curious. Do you have an idea where they moved to?

PRIOR: Many have headed south to Nakuru and there is a large a group of people gathered in the show ground now in Nakuru. Others have continued to Nairobi and into other areas south of here. People have expressed that they are still scared, that they still fear for their safety, that they do not want to go home and that they are where they are because the situation is simply too dangerous.

MBATHA: Is it still fluid? Are you afraid that it may explode again?

PRIOR: Well we hope not, because the situation has calmed down and we must hope that the situation continues to calm and that in the next few days and weeks we can go about our work to make sure that those who need food get it.

PRESENTER: That was Marcus Prior, the spokesman for the World Food Programme based in the Kenyan town of Eldoret in the Rift Valley.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

A Centre on Lake Muhazi Helps Former Rwandan Child Soldiers

PRESENTER: One of the sad consequences of conflicts in Africa is that they have not only robbed children of their childhood, but have in fact turned some of them into brutal killers. That is what has happened to some Rwandan boys who found themselves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the 1994 genocide in their country. But one centre in Rwanda is doing its best to help some of the Rwandan boys return to normal life. UN Radio's Diane Bailey recently visited Rwanda and saw first hand what is being done at the centre.

SFX - BOYS SINGING PATRIOTIC SONG - FADE AND HOLD UNDER NARRATION

NARR: These young boys are former soldiers, who've come back home to Rwanda. But before they go back to their communities, they spend some time at a center on Lake Muhazi, about an hour's drive from the Rwandan capital, Kigali. On this day in November, they greet visitors with an enthusiastic song.

SFX bring up song, segue into cut….

MUGEMA: Here we help them to change into normal children.

NARR: Ali Mugema is a social worker at the Muhazi Center for Demobilisation. He is one of a staff of 14 that includes teachers, social workers, a doctor, a nurse, cooks, security and even a logistics officer, all in the service of helping young boys recover their childhood.

MUGEMA: When they are with armed groups in the forest, most of the time they are brutal, they are aggressive, they steal using arms, 'cause when they are looking for food, they have to use force. The long period in that kind of behaviour, they tend to be conditioned in the behavior. Once they are back here, we try to help them and prepare them to go to the community.

NARR: Like most of the ex-child soldiers, fourteen year old Habimana grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the DRC. Habimana never knew his mother, and his father died a year ago when he was 13. With his father gone, and no one to look after him, he found he was being chased from village to village. Desperate to feel safe, he joined an armed group, the Mai Mai, only to end up getting shot.

HABIMANA (KR) The Mai Mai brought me to Goma, and I was being treated in Goma, That's when ICRC came and started taking care of me.

NARR: Habimana, at 14 can tell a visitor who the Mai Mai are, what they're fighting for and knows that he was shot by a Congolese tribe with no political axe to grind.

Sfx…..Karinda Kamal: My name is Karinda Kamal, I am 17 years old, I was in Arside… fade out, hold under narration…

NARR Seventeen year old Karinda Kamal was a small boy of four when his family fled the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, escaping to Congo with thousands of other refugees. But after a few years, his parents returned to Rwanda, leaving him behind in Congo. Like Habimana, he sought refuge with an armed group. He was only 9 years old when he joined one of the armed groups fighting in the DRC. Karinda faced a dilemma. The militia he was with had told him he would be killed if he went back to Rwanda.

KAMAL: I am Rwandese, I had to come to Rwanda. Finally, I decided that if they were going to kill me, let them kill me. I was fed up with the militia, with the labour, with the harsh conditions in the bush.

PRES: So Habimana hatched a plan to escape. He chose a day when he was sent to collect money that would be used to pay the soldiers.

KAMAL: I told the group I was with that I wanted to go to a nearby trading centre to buy a few things, and I fled. But they soon realized that I had escaped and so they put up roadblocks. But I had a gun. And just as I reached MONUC, I started exchanging gunfire with the people who had come to prevent me from escaping. The soldiers from MONUC came and intervened. Then we got to the MONUC positions.

PRES: MONUC, that's the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, eventually handed Karinda over to the Rwandan government. The International Committee of the Red Cross has located Karinda's family and he will soon be reunited with them.

SFX….. SOUNDS OF ALI SHOWING US AROUND

ALI: Here you are in the dormitory, this is where they sleep, every child is entitled to a blanket, a pair of bed sheets, a mattress, a bed. Besides that, they are given Colgate, they are given Vaseline, they are given toilet paper, they are given shoes, sandals, clothes and uniform. And actually they are given even a very good diet because they get meat, they get rice …. FADE UNDER FOLLOWING NARRATION

PRES: Food, clothing, a place to sleep but maybe more importantly a chance to unload the pain these young boys have experienced so early in their young lives. Meanwhile, they're happy to have escaped the fear and drudgery of a child soldier's life and are looking forward to normal lives.

SINGING, KEEP UNDER PRESENTER, KEEP AS STINGER INTO NEXT PIECE

PRESENTER: That report by UN Radio's Diane Bailey who recently visited Rwanda.

STING KEEP RWANDAN BOYS SINGING
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Trial of Former Liberian President Charles Taylor Resumes in The Hague

PRESENTER: After a six-month break, the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumed at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mr. Taylor is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone which ended in 2003. During that brutal conflict, fighters of the Revolutionary United Front committed horrific crimes, including chopping off hands of their victims and raping women. Mr. Taylor is accused of fuelling that war by allowing blood diamonds mined in Sierra Leone to be smuggled through Liberia and using the profits to arm the rebels in that country. To find out more about the start of the trial of Mr. Taylor, Julie Walker of UN Radio spoke with Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch who is following the proceedings in The Hague.

KEPPLER: The prosecution put forward its first witness. The defense was in full force. This has been following Taylor's firing his initial defense team at the opening and the judges ordering him to be allowed to obtain a new defense team and a delay of approximately four months when the new defense team got prepared. We had the new defense team in full force. We had Mr. Taylor in the court room and we had the judges obviously managing the proceedings. The prosecution put forward their first witness, an expert in the diamond industry and the role of diamonds in the conflict in Sierra Leone.

WALKER: O.K. and what was Mr. Taylor's demeanour like?

KEEPLER: Mr. Taylor was seated and following the proceedings, as was his defense. His defense counsel was actively raising objections to certain points made. It's a defense team made up of three counsels, including a Queen's Counsel, which is something Mr. Taylor had indicated a desire to have on his team as a very senior level counsel. This Queen's Counsel is being assisted by two other counsels.

WALKER: Elise, this is a man who was very powerful and he has been basically brought to his knees in a sense. So what kind of man are we seeing in court? Are we seeing the powerful leader, the take no prisoners type of leader he was, or are we seeing a different man altogether?

KEEPLER: We saw him in court with his defense team who appears interested in closely following developments and responding. We saw him at one point conversing with his lawyers. And from our perspective, particularly, given Mr. Taylor's status as a former head of state and someone implicated in human rights abuses across West Africa, this is a hugely important trial to see Mr. Taylor respond to allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him.

WALKER: O.K. When will he testify? Does it work that way?

KEEPLER: That's an excellent question. As far as I am aware, certainly he does not have to take the stand. He is also presumed innocent and whether or not he will take the stand I can't say at this point. I don't have any information to that effect. One of the key issues at stake in this trial is the linkage between the crimes that have been committed in Sierra Leone, and they were quite horrific crimes: mutilation, murders, abduction and the charges of Taylor's involvement. And the defense has already indicated that they do not anticipate contesting that the crimes were committed, but rather Mr. Taylor's role in those crimes. And, of course, if Mr. Taylor were to be found guilty, it could need to be on the basis that there was proof presented by the prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt that he bears responsibility for these crimes.

PRESENTER: That was Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch speaking on the line from The Hague with UN Radio's Julie Walker.

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PRESENTER: And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Florence Poblete-Enriquez and our sound engineer was Zach Prewitt. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

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