"Progress in the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire has been thrown into serious jeopardy as thousands of young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo stage demonstrations targeting the United Nations mission in the country. The Secretary-General has launched diplomatic initiatives to try to help resolve the crisis. In Cote d’Ivoire the head of UNOCI-FM, Sputnik Kilambi says UN personnel have been confined to their residences."

"A new United Nations mission began its work in Sierra Leone to help the country consolidate peace and promote economic development. The head of the mission, Victor Angelo says Sierra Leone has the potential to develop and become a beacon of hope in West Africa."

RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

PRESENTER:
Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I'm Ransford Cline-Thomas.

PRESENTER:
This week began with disturbing developments in the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire as young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo staged a wave of protests in Abidjan against a recommendation by an international panel that the national parliament should be dissolved. Sputnik Kilambi is the head of UNOCI-FM, a United Nations radio operation in Cote d’Ivoire.
CLIP 1: SHUKI AHMED
“They think that this is the first step toward putting Cote d’Ivoire under UN supervision and therefore it’s an attack against Ivorian sovereignty.”

PRESENTER:
You’ll hear more from Ms. Kilambi in a moment.
Also in this programme, a new mission has started its work in Sierra Leone to help the country consolidate peace and rebuild its economy. The head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone, as the mission is known, is Victor Angelo.
“We really believe that if the international community remains focused on Sierra Leone this country will move forward will not relapse into conflict and will become an example and the beacon of hope in West Africa.”

PRESENTER:
You will hear more from Mr. Angelo later in the programme.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.
*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under until first sentence.)
PRESENTER:
It was only just last month when hopes were raised that the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire would make progress after the appointment of Charles Konan Banny, a banker, as the Prime Minister who would lead a power sharing government. The government, which includes members of Forces Nouvelles who control the northern part of Cote d’Ivoire, has the task of steering the country during the transitional process leading to elections. Cote d’Ivoire remains divided with forces loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo controlling the southern part of the country, since a standoff started following an armed rebellion by Forces Nouvelles in 2002. Now the hopes of resolving the stalemate and reuniting the country have been dashed by violent protests of young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo. They call themselves the Young Patriots. Diane Bailey has more on the demonstrations.
DIANE BAILEY
Since Monday, The Young Patriots have attacked United Nations vehicles and property and threatened United Nations staff who are there to help the peace process. The protests started in the country’s commercial and administrative capital of Abidjan, as well as in Daloa, San Pedro and Guiglo and other areas of Cote d’Ivoire. The crisis intensified when President Gbagbo’s ruling Ivorian Popular Party announced on Tuesday that it was pulling out of the peace process. The cause of the demonstration is a dispute over the future of the country’s national parliament. Over the weekend, the International Working Group, which is mandated by the United Nations to monitor the post-civil war transition, recommended that the mandate of the parliament which expired last month not be renewed. That effectively meant that this body should be disbanded. This has apparently infuriated the young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo.
PRESENTER:
So it was against the backdrop of the deepening and escalating crisis that the United Nations Secretary-General on Wednesday spoke several times by phone with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current chairman of the African Union and President Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire. This was all in an attempt to help diffuse the crisis. President Obasanjo went to Abidjan to meet with President Gbagbo. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
CUT 1: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
The Secretary-General is hopeful that during these discussions President Obasanjo will be able to find a way forward and diffuse the situation. It is urgent that the parties in the Cote d’Ivoire crisis stay the course in the interest of the people of Cote d’Ivoire and the region as a whole.
PRESENTER:
The UN Secretary-General says that the demonstrations in Cote d’Ivoire contravene Ivorian law and seriously endanger the peace process as set out by the African Union and the Security Council. Here again is UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric
CUT 2: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
The Secretary-General reminds all Ivorian leaders of their individual responsibility to end acts of violence carried out by their supporters and for keeping the peace process on track. He calls on all Ivorian parties to fully cooperate with the Prime Minister, the Head of the UN Mission and the international community in working to implement the road map to bring an end to the crisis.
Stephane Dujarric says the Secretary-General is very concerned about the targeting of the United Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
CUT 3: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
Particularly disturbing to the UN mission is the use of propaganda by hate media that continues to broadcast messages inciting Ivorians to arm themselves and attack the United Nations. This is unacceptable and must cease immediately.
The UN workers who have been affected by the disturbances in Cote d’Ivoire include those who are running UNOCI FM Radio in Abidjan. UN Radio’s Derrick Mbatha spoke with the head of UNOCI FM, Sputnik Kilambi who is running the radio’s operations from her residence in Abidjan. She says the youth are vehemently opposed to the decision of the International Working Group not to extend the mandate of the National Parliament.
KILAMBI: They think that this is the first step toward putting Cote d’Ivoire under UN supervision and therefore is an attack against Ivorian sovereignty. The young people who are demonstrating are all loyal to President Gbagbo and his party the SPI and they have threatened not to leave the streets and to step up their campaign until the international community goes back on its decision. Basically they say they see the hand of France behind this decision of the International Working Group to suspend the National Parliament, even though the International Working Group actually said that the Prime Minister should see if he can find ways of using the deputies, the parliamentarians whose mandate ran out on the 16th of December, if they could be used on short-term missions while they are preparing the country for elections by the end of October this year. There is no violence and no unrest reported from areas under the control of the New Forces, the Forces Nouvelles who have reacted favourably to this decision by the International Working Group to suspend parliament.

MBATHA: So you are saying that Forces Nouvelles is happy about the decision to suspend parliament.

KILAMBI: I don’t know about happy about the decision, but there have been no protests reported from there. And the spokesman of the Forces Nouvelles said that he accepted this decision and it was received, as I said, favourably.

MBATHA: And what is the Prime Minister, Konan Banny doing about this situation at this point?

KILAMBI: Well the pressure certainly is on the Prime Minister. Sunday’s meeting of the International Working Group basically re-pledged support to the Prime Minister Banny and that he would be given every support in his effort to move the country ahead in the peace process. There haven’t been any statements from the Prime Minister’s Office so far except statement from the spokesman of the government calling for calm and peace and saying that was in no way putting Ivory Coast under international supervision, it is not an attack against Ivorian sovereignty.

MBATHA: And how has the UN responded?

KILAMBI: UN personnel have been more or less confined to their residences. I mean Abidjan is impossible to circulate and certainly not in UN vehicles and given the security concerns in other parts of the country, which are not under the control of Forces Nouvelles, they have been obliged, like in Daloa to regroup UN personnel in the military camp in order to protect them.

PRESENTER:

Sputnick Kilambi, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in Cote d’Ivoire. The situation in Cote d’Ivoire remains fluid and as we prepared this broadcast demonstrations continued in some parts of the country while the situation had calmed down in others areas.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:
In Sierra Leone, a new United Nations Mission has begun. The United Nations Integrated Office for Sierra Leone, UNIOSIL took over from the UN Mission known as UNAMSIL which ended last month. The head of the Office is Victor Angelo who is the Secretary-General’s Executive Representative. On the line to Freetown I spoke to Mr. Angelo about the work of his office and what it hopes to achieve. He told me that UNIOSIL is different from the previous mission.
ANGELO: The previous mission was a peacekeeping operation. Now our new mission is to make sure that we build upon the successes of the previous mission, which was UNAMSIL, but also that we address the root causes of conflict in this country. So it’s the mission that is not about just keeping the peace, not about just the security, but is also a mission that is about, for instance, the human rights dimension. It’s about the reform and strengthening of the institutions related to the police and to the military, and is also about development and about public information for nation building.

THOMAS: So what exactly do you see, Mr. Angelo, as some of the major challenges that your office will now have to face as you try to carry out your present mandate?

ANGELO: One of the key challenges is about the mind-set. We have to change the mind-set of our citizens here in Sierra Leone to make sure that they believe that they can build a peaceful and prosperous country. This country has plenty of natural resources and this country also has a large pool of well trained human resources. But they have to believe in themselves. They have to put the conflict behind them and they have to know that they can make it. Now, our role is to accompany them to make sure that they go in the right direction, they organize proper elections and credible elections in 2007, but also to make sure that they fully respect the international norms and standards in terms of human rights and also making sure that the military institutions and the police institutions work within a democratic framework, that they understand their constitutional roles and are not ready for adventures and for coup d’etats.

THOMAS: And so do you now have a formula for changing this mindset that you are talking about?

ANGELO: We are talking about two or three things. We are talking about, you have to take the lead ladies and gentlemen in Sierra Leone. You have to be much more committed to your common good and to your country and, above all, you have to make sure that you are much more inclusive, that you bring all the Sierra Leoneans together, that you promote participation, that you promote decentralization of state authority to the provinces and to the district to bring power closer to the people and also we are telling them, let’s make sure that we feel as citizens of the country and not based on our regional or sub-regional origins.

THOMAS: And what about the challenges of economic reconstruction? Do you think Sierra Leone has the human and natural resources to rebuild its economy? You have already said that, of course, there are a number of fairly and highly trained professionals.

ANGELO: Yes. They have the natural resources. It’s actually a country is very well endowed in terms of fisheries, very good land, plenty of water, plenty of very good minerals and very expensive minerals. So this is a country that can make it. The point is to make sure that they are able to attract international investors, and that’s one of the things we will be working on, to make the country an investment destination and to make sure that the image of Sierra Leone abroad is a much more positive and a much better image for the investors to feel that it is safe and it is fruitful to come to Sierra Leone. So that’s one thing: investment, investment, investment. And the second thing we have also to diversify the economy because for the time being the economy is still very much rural-based, and not only rural based, but very traditional. So they have to have a much broader economic basis, much more emphasis on commercial agriculture, and also to put much more emphasis on things that promote employment because employment remains a major challenge. Most of the young people in this country are still unemployed and this is a major threat to stability.

THOMAS: Now you talk about investments. How exactly do you think you are going to go about convincing potential investors that their investments in the country will be secure?

ANGELO: Well this is now a safe place. This is a place that is stable and we are ensuring that it becomes stable for many years to come, forever, I would say. It is also a place with very, very low crime rate. It is also a place that has now one of the best police forces in West Africa. It is one of the best police forces in Africa. So on that side things are O.K. What needs now to be done is to fight corruption, for instance, and to make sure that whoever comes in and tries to invest does not have to go through to many steps and to pay left and right in terms and bribes. So we are making some progress in the fight against corruption. But also we have also to make sure that some other impediments, bureaucratic impediments to enterprise creation are also dealt with. So we believe if on one side the natural resources are there, the attractiveness of this country in terms of investment is there. We will be able to put rest of the issues of corruption, or of bureaucratic impediments and be able to attract a new capital into this country. And this country desperately needs that capital to be able to diversify and to be able to create jobs.

THOMAS: And of course, you will need to ensure and make absolutely sure that the country does not return to political instability.

ANGELO: Yes. That is very much at the centre of our mandate. But we are quite hopeful and we believe, and that’s the message that the Security Council is sending very loudly and very clearly. We really believe that if the international community remains focused on Sierra Leone this country will move forward will not relapse into conflict and will become an example and the beacon of hope in West Africa.

THOMAS: And how long do you expect that your office will be remaining in Sierra Leone?

ANGELO: We have a mandate for the year, for 2006 and this mandate was given to us by the Security Council in August, which is quite an interesting thing because normally the Security Council does not approve these missions too well in advance. So the Security Council means serious business as far as Sierra Leone is concerned. And then it approved immediately a one year mandate. I would say if things go well and if things keep progressing well we will certainly at the end of the year get another mandate for maybe the next year for 2007 but it is too early to say at this stage. What we have to make sure is that 2006 sees a well conducted process in terms of preparing for elections sees continuation of the reform of the police and the military and sees some progress as far as human rights and decentralization of state authority are concerned and increased control over the diamond industry. And if all these indicators are positive, I am sure that the Security Council will renew the commitment.

PRESENTER:
And I was talking there to Victor Angelo, the head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone.
SIG TUNE ((Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:
And that’s all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our producer was Derrick Mbatha, Production Assistant was Chuck Appel and our engineer was Luis Bastion.
From me Ransford Cline-Thomas, bye for now.

*** CLOSING MUSIC ***
(Bring music up and play till the end.)