Programme Number: 036
Week of: Sunday, 20th February, 2005
Recording Date: Thursday, 24th February, 2005
Topical Issue(s):

TOGO sinks deeper into a political crisis as the military-installed Faure Gnassingbe refuses to take the advice of African leaders that he should step down.

RWANDA: GENOCIDE SUSPECTS PROTEST: More than forty former Rwandan government officials being held in Arusha for trials protest moves by the tribunal to send them to Kigali.

AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT: What would it take for Africa to catch-up with the rest of the world, as far as overall development is concerned - especially if the continent is to achieve the millennium development goals set for 2015?

NARRATOR: Hello and welcome to United Nations Radio from New York.
This is, UN and Africa. I'm Ben Dotsei Malor.

NARRATOR:
The constitutional crisis in Togo deepens with the military-installed president Faure Gnassingbe refusing the advice and demands of African leaders that he should step down. Sanctions are being prepared, but can Togo afford them?

CLIP-1: ASG KALOMOH CLIP.
"Togo does not need political isolation; [it] does not need any economic dislocation. They need political stability; they need tranquillity as they mourn their leader."

NARRATOR:
UN Assistant Secretary-General, Tuliameni Kalomoh. More from him later.
And more than forty accused former Rwandan government officials at the tribunal in Arusha protest plans that could see them handed over to the authorities in Kigali.

NARRATOR:
Plus, what exactly would it take African countries to meet the developments goals set by world leaders to be achieved by the year 2015?
CLIP2: MR AMOAKO
"More money from the developed world. I think it's estimated for Africa for example, that right now, overseas aid flow to Africa is below 20 billion dollars so to meet the MDGs we'd like to see this go up to 73 billion dollars."

We'll be hearing more from the head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, KY Amoako.
Stay tuned, and let's find out here on, UN and Africa.
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TOGO: POLITICAL CRISIS
NARRATOR:
The political crisis in Togo appears to be getting worse and there is now mounting pressure on the military-installed president, Faure Gnassingbe, to step down and allow the country's constitution to take its course.
Despite the advice and demands of the sub-regional political and economic grouping, ECOWAS, the 39-year-old Gnassingbe - who was hastily installed after his father Eyadema died suddenly of a heart attack nearly three weeks ago - has refused to step down.
ECOWAS has now imposed sanctions, including a travel ban on the leaders of Togo. This decision has been supported by the European Union and the United States. Now, the larger continental organisation, the African Union is considering wider sanctions.

There are also widespread calls for free and transparent elections to be held. But can sanctions really help resolve the crisis in Togo? What is the way forward?
To discuss the latest developments and the UN's current position on the situation in Togo, I turned to UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh.

INTERVIEW WITH TULIAMENI KALOMOH:
ASG KALOMOH: Yes, a lot of people have been following the situation with great concern about what happened in Togo and the Secretary-General has also expressed great concern and UN position is very clear. First is to make sure that the situation does not escalate into violence. The situation does not degenerate into a conflict and Secretary-General has make clear, right from the beginning, that the people of Togo should abide and uphold the provisions of their own constitution and conduct themselves, in this very sad period of mourning, conduct themselves in accordance with the Constitution in order to prevent any political instability for Togo. Togo does not need political isolation does not need any economic dislocation. They need political stability; they need tranquillity as they mourn their leader.

BEN MALOR: But the situation right now is that the young Mr. Gnassingbe who has been installed by the military has declined to step down to allow the constitution to take its course. That's proving problematic for many African leaders.

ASG KALOMOH: ECOWAS, as you know, have engaged as Mr. Faure Gnassingbe and his people right from the beginning. Subsequent to that, Mr. Gnassingbe paid one day visit to President Obasanjo, as an elder statesman and chairman of African Union, but still the stalemate that developed subsequent to the failure of those meetings to achieve the desired results, we believe there is some intense, quiet discussions going on between ECOWAS and the Togolese authorities and somehow we are guardedly optimistic that they will find a solution out of this political and constitutional quagmire.

BEN MALOR: The solutions being recommended: some say that Faure Gnassingbe should step down and not contest any elections at all. That would be the most appropriate thing to do. Some are saying he should just stay on for the 60 days and elections will be organized. What exactly does the UN expect? What would be the most acceptable thing, particularly, in the African context?

ASG KALOMOH: The UN would want the authorities in Togo to uphold their constitution…to make a transition arrangement that is consistent with their constitution…. whether it's the speaker or any member elected from Parliament among themselves…what we would want the people of Togo to do is to have a consensual arrangement that is consistent with the Constitution and that enjoys or would enjoy the broad support of the people of Togo, of the region, and the broader international community.

BEN MALOR: There are already threats from ECOWAS, the AU…how useful can this be?
ASG KALOMOH: Well, Togo is a small country. It has been isolated been isolated by the broader international community particularly, under EU sanctions I believe for slightly over 10 years and no country can afford to live in isolation. So, we believe they would do the right thing by respecting their Constitution and the wishes of broader masses of their people."

NARRATOR:
UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh.
RWANDA: PROTEST AT ARUSHA GENOCIDE TRIBUNAL

NARRATOR:
More than forty former Rwandan government officials being detained in the Tanzanian town of Arusha in connection with the 1994 Rwandan genocide have gone on a protest against plans that could see their cases transferred to Rwanda, where they claimed they faced certain death.

The government of Rwanda has offered to have some of the suspects tried in Kigali and to provide detention facilities for those who have been convicted. And already 15 case files have been handed over to the Rwandan authorities.
But, in Rwanda the suspects could face the death penalty whereas at the tribunal the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. And so the suspects in Arusha are crying foul.

Tribunal Spokesman, Roland Amoussouga has been speaking from Arusha to Derrick Mbatha, first, about a UN Security Council objective to complete the Arusha trials by the year 2008.

ROLAND AMOUSSOUGA: As part of this completion strategy, the Security Council requested that the prosecutor put in place an arrangement for transfer of cases to national competent jurisdiction, including those of Rwanda. As a result, the prosecutor has been working hard to discuss this matter with a number of countries, including Rwanda. And, as you know, we have arrested 59 people and seven of them are currently serving their sentences somewhere else and the rest are in the detention at the UN detention facility in Arusha.

DERRICK MBATHA: But some of these officials, I understand, are concerned that if they are sent to Rwanda, then they may face revenge from some of the people who lost their relatives in 1994 during the genocide.

ROLAND AMOUSSOUGA: What I can say here is that Rwanda has shown that all the people who have been in custody in the Rwandan prisons have not been killed. There was no revenge which is a generalized systematic pattern that has been observed in terms of retaliation against the people serving their sentence in Rwanda. However, one has to be clear that the government has offered all the guarantees that never will they interfere with the execution of the sentence or with the fairness of the trials that will take place in Rwanda. When it comes to the enforcement of sentence regarding the accused or the convicted people who will be transferred to Rwanda there is a regime of inspection and monitoring of the execution of these sentences that will be in place, which will give the international community the possibility of monitoring whether the Rwandan government is in compliance with the terms of the agreement they have signed and whether the lives and the safety as well as the security of those convicted people will be in jeopardy or not.

NARRATOR
We've been listening there to spokesman for the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda, Roland Amoussouga, speaking from Arusha to
UN Radio's Derrick Mbatha.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT AND THE MDGS

NARRATOR:
Now, here is a question: How is Africa doing? Compared to other regions of the world, as far as overall development is concerned?
Recently it was revealed that it could take African countries more than one hundred years to achieve the millennium development goals, such as, the eradication of extreme poverty and the provision of free universal primary education by the year 2015.
One man who should know how well Africa is performing is Mr. K, Y. Amoako, the head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, based in Addis Ababa.
He was recently in New York and I asked him how well the continent was faring?

INTERVIEW: KY AMOAKO:
MR: AMOAKO: "We're not doing well…we're not doing too well, because of the poverty eradication which is the key objective. Africa is the only region in the world where the number of people living in poverty has increased and we estimate that between 1990 and 2000 as many as 63 million people have been added to the poor in Africa. Where, by comparison, Asia and others, they have reduced sharply the number of people in poverty. Of course unemployment is a huge challenge. We don't exactly what the numbers are but you can estimate that 30% of people in Africa unemployed, and when you add that to underemployment, the situation is very high. And there is a particular dimension, which I was emphasizing, is the youth issue.

BEN MALOR: Are there more young people unemployed?

MR: AMOAKO: There are more young people in African period. And we're not creating jobs fast enough to absorb this new entrance into labor force. One area where we are doing quite well is social integration and the social inclusion aspects. The governance agenda in Africa is improving. You have more democratically elected governments, you have gender equality, something that people are taking quite seriously, and many…many areas the numbers are looking good in terms of women's representation in parliament and cabinet and decision making.

BEN MALOR: So it's not all doom and gloom?

MR: AMOAKO: No, it's not all doom and gloom. Of course, there's the conflict issue, because you cannot talk about integration, inclusion and poverty reduction without bringing the conflict dimension.

BEN MALOR: The whole issue of conflicts in Africa…issues of unemployment or youth or otherwise, and everything else regarding social development concerning Africa seems to all converge into millennium development goals and the recent stack fact, which was put across by the British finance minister, Gordon Brown, is that it's going to take Africa more than hundred years to catch up. How bad is it?
MR: AMOAKO: At the present pace, for example to achieve the universal primary education goal would take us over hundred more years, to reach the poverty eradication target we also over hundred years. So it means, if we go at a pace we're going, this is what it means for Africa. So by putting it in those terms, it, sort of, exercises our mind…it throws us challenge. It also should help us redouble our efforts, and therefore, what do we need to do.

BEN MALOR: If you had to give 3 key recommendations, what would you say?
MR: AMOAKO: Well, I think on the African governments' side, the recommendations are to focus on those goals. To ensure that in your planning, in your poverty reduction strategy…papers, you focus on the needs of MDGs and what do to achieve the MDGs. You also have to, in terms of institutional dimensions capacity, building capacity of institutions to deliver programs are going to be important.

BEN MALOR: Institutions like?
MR: AMOAKO: Ministers of finance, district assemblies, service delivery, public sector institutions in particular, but all the civil society and the private sector institutions across the border is very important. So African governments will have to play the lead, and good governance…the governance agenda is part of also to all that. And the part of our development partners, the focus on resources. To meet these targets, we need a lot more resources.

BEN MALOR: More money from the developed world?
MR: AMOAKO: More money from the developed world. I think it's estimated for Africa for example, that right now, overseas aid flow to Africa is below 20 billion dollars so to meet the MDGs we'd like to see this go up to 73 billion dollars by the year 2015."

NARRATOR:
Mr K. Y. Amoako, the Executive-Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the ECA.

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NARRATOR:
You've been listening to, UN and Africa, from United Nations Radio in New York.
I'm Ben Dotsei Malor. Thank you for listening. And thanks to the team: Derrick Mbatha, Nyi Nyi Teza and studio engineer, Carlos Marcias.

Goodbye.

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