Programme Number: 037
Week of: 27th February 2005
Recording Date: Thursday, 3 March 2005

PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to United Nations Radio from New York.

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PRESENTER:
This is, UN and Africa. I'm Ransford Cline-Thomas.

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PRESENTER:
The people of Burundi this week voted in a referendum to approve power sharing between the minority Tutsi and the majority Hutu communities. Although the vast majority of the people of Burundi participated in the referendum, some sections of their societies are not happy with the whole peace process. So is there a message to give to these people?

CLIP-1: Ibrahim Gambari.
"The train of peace is leaving the station. I think there is now no reason not to join the train because the continent of Africa is moving in the direction of peace"

PRESENTER:
Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Africa.
And Africa continues to face the problem of drugs which are consumed within the continent or smuggled to the United States and Europe.

CLIP2: Melvyn Levitsky
"Nigerian women would be recruited by the drug traffickers to swallow condoms filled with heroine into their stomachs and then carry them across the borders"

Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky, citing one example of the problem of drug trafficking from and through the African continent. Later we'll hear more from Ambassador Levitsky who is a member of the International Narcotics Control Board.

Stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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PEOPLE OF BURUNDI APPROVE POWER-SHARING

PRESENTER:
For many years, the Hutu and Tutsi communities in Burundi have been at each others throat as a result of the domination of power by the Tutsi elite. This week Burundians voted for the first time since the election of a Hutu President in 1993, who was killed shortly afterwards. This time they have decided in a referendum to approve a constitution for power-sharing between the two ethnic groups. Tutsis, who are fourteen per cent of the population of Burundi, will have forty per cent of seats and Hutus sixty per cent in the National Assembly. Parliamentary elections are expected to be held in April and members of parliament will then elect a president. Participation in this week's referendum was very high with almost ninety per cent of eligible voters casting their votes. The Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on Africa, Professor Ibrahim Gambari from Nigeria says this week's voting is very important for the future of Burundi. He recalls that only a few years ago, Burundi was struggling with the peace process which was marred by violence.

GAMBARI: Now we are having a Burundi that is moving very positively towards implementing all the peace agreements, which had the backing of South Africa, backing of the neighbouring countries, backing of the African Union and backing of the United Nations, including through the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation. So this referendum is a very important and significant step.

MBATHA Yes. Let's talk about the referendum itself, what it's going to provide for the people of Burundi to push the peace process forward.

GAMBARI: The framework agreement to power share, that the politics of exclusion has been responsible for genocide, for conflicts and for wars. Now this referendum reverses that and de-legitimizes the politics of exclusion and legitimizes the politics of inclusion. A lot of sacrifice has been made on both sides, on the part of the former Tutsi elite that dominated the government. They realize that the future lies in sharing power and on the part of the Hutu majority they also know they have to make a sacrifice in terms of proportional representation of the Tutsis in government, in the army, in the military, out of proportion to their numbers because they realize that the only way to move forward is by saying yes to power sharing. I think credit should go first and foremost to the people of Burundi, second, to the government of Burundi. And we have to also commend the African Union and above, can I say also most significantly the United Nations because they were there to support the process and to also evaluate what are the lessons learned in this whole referendum.

MBATHA: What would you say to the groups that are still not taking part in this because I understand one group is still not participating in the peace process?

GAMBARI: Well, the train of peace is leaving the station. I think there is now no reason not to join the train because the continent of Africa is moving in the direction of peace. Everywhere, the efforts of the African Union, the efforts of NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the vision of the African leaders is in the direction of peace because they realize without peace there can be no development. And so this is a foundation for Africa to move forward and I also want to join others in appealing to those who are still outside of the peace process to please come in for the sake of the people of Burundi who have suffered too long and for the future of the country.

MBATHA: I understand also that some Tutsis have not been enthusiastic about the whole exercise of conducting this referendum. What would your comment be on that?

GAMBARI: Well it is understandable, because in view of what happened in the past in Burundi but particularly what happened in Rwanda to the Tutsi minority and the so-called moderates. Nonetheless I think, this agreement, this peace agreement addresses their concerns, invites them to join the peace process as partners and to share power. So I think they have to put the politics of the past behind them and embrace this new opportunity for Burundi to work together, come together for the future of their country.

PRESENTER:
Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations Secretary-
General's Special Adviser on Africa.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

PRESENTER

Illicit drugs continue to be a major problem in Africa. This, according to the latest report of the International Narcotics Control Board, which is made up of independent experts appointed by the UN. It says many African countries don't have institutions that can deal with this problem so they need help. Diane Bailey reports.

NARRATOR:
The board provides information to the general public and experts around the world on issues related to the control of both illegal and legal drugs. One of its members, Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky of the United States, serving in his individual capacity, launched the latest report in New York early this week. He says the main drug being abused in Africa is marijuana.

CUT 1
Marijuana is readily available. It can be grown almost anywhere. In some places it
is called ditch weed. It's a kind of weed that exists. And the problem that the
African countries are seeing is one of development, that is, it's a diversion from the
ability to have both an enlightened educated and productive citizenry when
increasing numbers have turned to marijuana to alleviate whatever the problems
are, poverty or despair etc.

NARRATOR
Mr. Levitsky says drug abuse has also been a problem in areas of armed conflict where even children have been given drugs.

CUT 2:
We have seen child soldiers that have been given drugs in ethnic conflict as well,
recruited and given drugs. Some of them, by the way, for example, drugs that aren't
really controlled. There is some controversy over khat for example that is used as a
kind of stimulant in some of the northern and east African countries.

NARRATOR
But the problem of drugs in Africa is not a purely internal one. As Ambassador Levitsky explains, drugs such as heroine are being trafficked to the United States and Europe. He says that, for example, heroine has always been a major problem that Nigeria faces as smugglers use all kinds of methods to get Nigerians to smuggle it into other regions of the world.

CUT 3:
Typically we found in the United States for example, Nigerian women would be
recruited by the drug traffickers, the drug lords in Nigeria to swallow condoms
filled with heroine into their stomachs and then carry them across the borders
legally. They would have visas and carry them across the borders where a drug lord
would meet them on the other side and then, well I don't want to describe the
process of getting the condoms out.

NARRATOR:
Africa is also now being used as an alternative route to
transport illegal drugs from South America.

CUT 4:
What we have seen now is a kind of well, for example a Rio de Janeiro to South
Africa connection, Rio de Janeiro being a kind of jump off point for the cocaine that
is produced in Colombia, a place where in fact drug gangs have existed rather freely
in the hills. I know I was ambassador there. It's a real problem in Brazil, but that
kind of connection where Africa now is being used as kind of alternate mode of
transportation, particularly for cocaine.

NARRATOR:
Another type of drug reaching Europe from Africa is
marijuana, which Ambassador Levitsky says comes from
Morocco.

CUT 5:
Morocco has continued to be a very large producer of marijuana. It goes to Spain
and into Europe. Europeans have dealt with that over a number of years. There are
some programmes but there has not been a kind will on the part of the Moroccan
government until recently to really deal with it because again, as so many
governments, where you have these areas where drugs are growing. The areas
where the drugs grow are not within the sovereignty in many cases of the
government itself.

NARRATOR
That was Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky, a member of the
International Narcotics Control Board. Reporting for UN
Radio I am Diane Bailey.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

PRESENTER

The latest report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that thirty-six countries worldwide face food shortages. The agency says that twenty-three of these countries which will need external assistance to meet their nutritional needs are in Africa. According to FAO, the causes vary, but civil strife and bad weather are the main ones. UN Radio's Geraldine Adams spoke on the line to Rome with Mwita Rukandema, Senior Economist in the UN food agency's Global Information and Early Warning Service who first described the worldwide food situation this year.

GA: The worldwide food situation this year, the outlook is much better than it has been in the last two years, with the exception of a few pockets, a few areas of the world. But in general, in Sub-Saharan Africa the situation has improved generally, although we are now in mid-season for southern Africa. But it looks favourable so far.

GA: Would you say that certain areas show certain trends in their food production, for example conflict and bad weather. Do they produce certain trends in say, Africa and Asia?

MR: Well in Africa we have seen repeated poor harvests in some regions, particularly in southern Africa. In Eastern Africa, which is also a vulnerable area, especially in the Horn, we have seen a varied picture where Ethiopia for the last two years has really done fairly well. The problem is in Eritrea where successive failures of crops have really affected the country and it's the country really in the region which has serious food security problems right now apart from Sudan, of course. Sudan has a different problem because of war which is taking place in Darfur and has been going on in the south, although now we are seeing some improvements in the security situation. Now in western Africa the food security situation has been quite good with the exception of countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, which are either in civil strife or just emerging from it.

GA: When you say the food situation is good, how does that translate into more food for more people? How does that work exactly?

MR: It basically means that at the national level there is adequate supply, although in most cases inputs still have to be brought simply because aggregate production does not meet total food requirement. In some other countries you see basically self sufficiency in cereal. This is the case, for example in some parts of eastern Africa. In southern Africa, Zimbabwe, of course has its own special problem. The weather may be good, but because of the shortages of inputs and so on, production still falls far short of requirements.

GA: When you have food in excess in certain parts and lower in other parts of the world, how difficult is it to move the food that is in areas of excess to the areas where it's in deficit?

MR: The problem is not international movement of food supplies, i.e. moving grain from say Europe to Africa or from the United States to Africa. It is not a major problem. The problem is internal movement of the grain from the port to the areas which need that grain in those countries, for example, moving grain from Mombasa in Kenya and taking it to Juba or southern Sudan or Darfur through Chad. Those are difficult places because transportation infrastructure is very poor and you have difficulties really moving the grain once it has arrived at the port of entry. We are watching the situation in southern Africa. The region has been worrying because it has been nearly a decade of unstable food production. We are hoping that the way it looks now, the rainfall is good so far and hopefully that we will not have a recurrence of what we have been seeing in the past few years.

PRESENTER:

Mwita Rukandema, Senior Economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

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PRESENTER:
You've been listening to, UN and Africa, from United Nations Radio in New York.
I'm Ransford Cline-Thomas. Thank you for listening. And thanks to the team: Derrick Mbatha, Beng Poblete Enriquez and studio engineer, Carlos Marcias.

Goodbye.

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