UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 188
Week of: Sunday, 20th January, 2008
Recording Date: Thursday, 24th January, 2008
Topical Issue(s):

• In its State of the World’s children report, UNICEF says that 26,000 children under the age of five continue to die around the world despite progress made in improving their health. The African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Bience Gawanas, says in Africa conflicts cause suffering to children.

• UN and AU envoys have completed their latest round of diplomatic efforts to get the Sudanese government and rebel groups to start negotiations to end the crisis in Darfur. Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim say there is need for a speedy resolution of the Darfur crisis.

• The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is making progress, according to the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Stephen Rapp. He told UN Radio that the proceedings may be concluded within the next 18 months.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Bissera Kostova
Production Assistant: Charles Appel
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
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 am Derrick Mbatha.

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PRESENTER:

In today’s programme, the latest report by UNICEF says despite improvement in health, thousands of children continue to die every day.
CLIP 1: Bience Gawanas
“Children do not need to die because many of these diseases the children are dying from are preventable diseases.”

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, the United Nations and African Union envoys conclude another round of diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Darfur.
CLIP 2: Jan Eliasson
“The people of Darfur cannot wait. The international community is getting impatient.”

And later in the programme, the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is making progress in The Hague.
CLIP 3: Stephen Rapp
“We have heard victims who’ve testified in regard to the amputations, expert on the diamond industry and on child soldiers and on other things that happened during the course of the Sierra Leone war.”

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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UNICEF Says Thousands of Children Die Everyday

PRESENTER:

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says that the number of children who die before their fifth birthday dropped from approximately twenty-million in 1960 to just under ten million in 2006. In its latest State of the World’s Children report launched in Geneva, UNICEF points out that simple and affordable measures such as immunization, insecticide treated-bed nets and vitamin A supplements can save children’s lives. However, the agency warns that sixty two countries are not on track to achieve the goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015. UNICEF says three quarters of these countries are in Africa. UN Radio’s Patrick Maigua in Geneva, caught up with the African Union’s Commissioner for Social Affairs, Bience Gawanas, who participated in the launch of the UNICEF report. Here is Patrick.
MAIGUA: How would you rate the performance or the status of African children from this current report?

GAWANAS: Progress yes, but as we all would say, how does one measure progress? Does one say because there has been a down in terms of children dying? So you say yes progress has been made because you have at least reduced the rate but we are also saying that children do not need to die because many of these diseases that children are dying from are preventable diseases.

MAIGUA: The report does say that 50 per cent of the children who die before the age of five are in Africa. That’s not very good indicator of the status of children in Africa?

GAWANAS: It is not but at the same time there are countries that have reduced child mortality. There are others that are still far from that. We are saying we need to promote peace on our continent because it is in peace situations that one can achieve a lot. The problem also that we have on the continent is the setbacks that are caused by the increased rates of HIV/AIDS. Polio, for example, I recall about two years ago there was a polio outbreak in West Africa. It was dealt with within days. And that was concerted efforts by African Union member states to really work together and the recognition that you have to have cross-border management approaches because some of these diseases if they are at least dealt with at source, then you can prevent outbreaks. Yes, there are concerted efforts now to deal with this kind of issues but I think Africa needs to do more.

MAIGUA: There is the feeling that perhaps there is a lack of political will on the continent to push the agenda of children forward.

GAWANAS: I would not say there is a lack of political will. I think the problem becomes one of we should manage our resources adequately. We should also make sure that we manage conflicts on our continent. We now look at the situation for example in Kenya. You can imagine what the children under those kinds of circumstances must go through. Now, irrespective of what causes conflicts, it is the children that always suffer.

MAIGUA: Would you say there is hope for the African child?

GAWANAS: Yes, there is hope for the African child. And I want to believe that if we reclaim what I always call the ‘ubuntu’ spirit that we are because of you are, then I am sure that we can take children to be the centre of African communities. A birth of a child within African communities has always been a time of celebration, isn’t it? Unfortunately, now we are coming face to face where the birth of a child can mean the death of both a mother and a child and that is unacceptable and should be unacceptable to everyone that calls him or herself an African.

PRESENTER;

That was Bience Gawanas, the African Union’s Commissioner for Social Affairs speaking with UN Radio’s Patrick Maigua in Geneva.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
PRESENTER:
UN and AU Envoys Say Darfur Crisis Needs Speedy Resolution
PRESENTER:

United Nations and African Union envoys are continuing their diplomatic efforts to get the government of Sudan and rebel movements in Darfur to sit down and negotiate an end to the crisis in that region of Sudan. Since the conflict began in 2003, more than 200,000 people have died and over two million have been displaced. The latest mission by the two envoys, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim ended on the 19th of January after they spent a week in Sudan. UN Radio’s Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte reports.
NARRATOR:
The Darfur peace process began in earnest in Sirte, Libya in October last year when the United Nations and the African Union were able to bring together representatives of practically all sectors of Darfurian society to discuss the situation there. The hope was to get all the main actors involved in the crisis to agree on a common position for negotiation with the Sudanese government with a view to finding a political settlement to the Darfur crisis. To some extent they were successful, but key rebel groups stayed away from Sirte saying they needed more time to consult. The Special Envoys of the UN and AU have continued their efforts to get these movements to the negotiating table and recently went back to Darfur to persuade them to cooperate. Salim Ahmed Salim is the Special Envoy of the African Union for the Darfur peace process.
CUT 1: Salim Salim
We spent three days in Darfur, discussing with various elements, discussing with the people of the Sudan Liberation Army-Unity. We discussed also with the United Resistance Front and discussed also with the political leadership and the commanders of Mr. Abdul Wahid. The purpose of all these consultations is to prepare the ground for the resumption of the negotiation.

NARRATOR:

Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim says there are plans to have a meeting of major Darfur movements before the start of negotiations with the government.
CUT 2: Salim Salim
Where the meeting will take place is a question to be decided later. And when also is a question to be decided later, because what we want to do this time is before we hold any meeting, we should have a critical mass in terms of representation. So whatever is decided upon subsequently is something which people in Darfur can own up to.

NARRATOR:

One of the leaders of Darfur whose participation is considered important is Mini Minawi, whose faction of the Sudan Liberation Army signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with the government in May 2006. The United Nations Envoy for the Darfur peace process, Jan Eliasson, says he and the African Union Envoy have met Mr. Minawi many times and he has expressed concern to them about his group’s role in the process.
CUT 3: Jan Eliasson
He is frustrated and feels that he is being marginalized. We hope very much that his voice will be heard. In the talks in Sirte he did not take part. He wants to have a separate representation for his own faction as a signatory to the DPA. Of course for us it would be good if he were to join a government delegation. And now with the SPLM normalizing the relations and not suspending the work of the government maybe it’s easier to find a format that satisfies his interests.

NARRATOR:

The SPLM refers to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement of South Sudan which signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 to end the war between north and south Sudan and establish a government of National Unity. Mr. Eliasson says 2008 must be a decisive year not only for the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur, but also for the peace talks.
CUT 4: Jan Eliasson
The people of Darfur cannot wait. The international community is getting impatient. But also, can you imagine? We have a humanitarian operation costing about $700 million a year. We want to use that money for irrigation projects, for water, for health clinics, for schools. Salim and I saw the misery, where children don’t have school books and where they are crying out for water and where a woman has to walk four five days to deliver a child.

NARRATOR:

The United Nations envoy has stressed that progress in the Darfur peace process will ultimately depend on the political will of all the parties to engage in negotiations leading to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte.
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Trial of Former Liberian President Charles Taylor Is On Track
PRESENTER;

The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in The Hague is making progress, according to Stephen Rapp, the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone hearing the case. Mr. Taylor is charged with eleven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, amputation, sexual violence including rape and sexual slavery, the recruitment of child soldiers and the crime of pillage. The crimes were committed during the vicious civil war in Sierra Leone which ended in 2003. When Mr. Rapp was at UN Headquarters to brief on the trial, I sat down with him to find out where things stand now.
RAPP: We now, I think, have finished seven witnesses in the first eleven days. It’s a very expeditious trial. The defense is doing a very good job of challenging the witnesses. We think, however, that the evidence is coming in as we wish. We have had victims who testified in regard to the amputations, expert on the diamond industry and on child soldiers and on other things that happened during the course of the Sierra Leone war and the related war in Liberia. And we have also had witnesses that we assert link Taylor to the crimes committed on the ground.

MBATHA: Have witnesses testifying against Charles Taylor all gone to The Hague or are you having some way of getting testimonies from them?

RAPP: Well so far, all witnesses have come to The Hague and we have a safe house, the court has a safe house for witnesses for both prosecution and defense. People are being flown there. Now as the case progresses, we have planned to put on 77 witnesses who are essentially crime victims. We think that it may be possible and the defense may even support limiting that list and putting on as few as perhaps ten of them live and 67 of them through sworn statements.

MBATHA: Sounds like a lot of witnesses.

RAPP: Well, in total in terms of live witnesses we think we will be putting on 72 live witnesses. Now, as you know, some of these cases can take a long time, but we anticipate being able to put all our prosecution evidence in about eight months.

MBATHA: Mr. Rapp, it’s one thing to prove that crimes were committed, but it’s seems to me that it’s going to be challenging to actually prove that Charles Taylor was directly involved in the commission of those crimes.

RAPP: Well, that’s why these witnesses are important. And, of course, it’s not necessary that he is physically present when people’s hands were chopped off, but we have to show that he gave the order or that he knew what these forces were doing and he nonetheless assisted them with knowledge of that. And that’s two witnesses so far have testified to his direct communication to his involvement, to the existence of a communication facility in his executive mansion that enabled him to talk to the people in the field in Sierra Leone, to the various assistance that he provided in terms of arms and materiel and training and safe havens for the RUF forces, and additionally to his exploitation of the diamond resources both to pay for those arms but also for his own purposes.

MBATHA: And we are talking about the control of the Revolutionary United Front which amputated people and raped women.

RAPP: Indeed and that’s why we allege that Taylor is responsible for those offences because his RUF subordinates were doing those kinds of things with his knowledge and indeed that was part and parcel of the kind of campaign that he believed that needed to be fought. It was a campaign against the civilians because if you can commit these sort of offences against civilians, one you can turn their children into child soldiers and the adults into slaves to dig diamonds but you can also scare people and humiliate them and make them submit, and it’s a way to succeed in war, but a way that violates totally the law of armed conflict under the Geneva Conventions and the customary law of crimes against humanity.

MBATHA: What message is this trial sending to would be perpetrators of crimes against humanity or war crimes in the future?

RAPP: It really does send the message that no one is above the law. Even chiefs of state have to answer for the crimes that are against them.

PRESENTER:

That was Stephen Rapp, the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
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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 Prewit. I am Derrick Mbatha saying, bye bye.

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