VOASE0701 Print Edition[Big Bug] DownloadVOASE0702 Print Edition[Big Bug] DownloadVOASE0703 Print Edition[Big Bug] Download| Dakar 21 April 2007 |
DownloadIn Ivory Coast Saturday, rebels met with supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo to show they are united in backing a peace deal signed last month. The meeting, which took place in Abidjan, is the first of its kind since rebels and the army faced off in a conflict that has divided the nation since 2002. Kari Barber has more from VOA's West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.
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| People wave Ivorian flags reading 'Peace' 21 April 2007 at Youpougon sport complex, in Abidjan during a jonit "patriots" and rebels peace meeting |
Charles Ble Goude, leader of the Young Patriots, as the forces loyal to President Gbagbo are known, says the display of unity is important to instill confidence that the peace deal will last where other attempts have failed. "This is very, very important because a meeting between the loyalists and the rebels in the same stadium. For us, this is to show to the African world that there are no more rebels in this country, we are all brothers. In the past time we used to quarrel, but the quarrel is over," he said.
Prime Minister Soro and President Gbagbo took the first steps in the peace process, agreeing to share power and unify their military forces.
Ble Goude says what remains to be done is bridge the divide between north and south. In the civil war that began in 2002, rebels held the northern part of the country and government forces controlled the south. "The past is the past. The past is over. Now let us work for the future. No more Ivorians for the north, no more Ivorians for the south. Let us work for Africa, let us work for Cote D'Ivoire," he said.
Government spokesman Lambert Bahi says the new power-sharing government is happy to see the effects of the peace deal begin to take shape. "They want to want to work hand in hand in order to strengthen, to consolidate the peace process and I am very optimistic and everybody is," he said.
Earlier this week, authorities began dismantling the buffer zone, a U.N. and French-patrolled area that stretches across the country, dividing north from south.
The new government will also need to organize presidential elections, which have been delayed several times, and agree on a system to issue national identification papers.
| Abuja 21 April 2007 |
DownloadVoting has officially ended across Nigeria in a presidential vote dogged by violence, charges of fraud and logistical problems. Gilbert da Costa reports for VOA from Abuja that election officials say results are expected in a few hours.
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| Electoral officials count ballots at a polling station in Lagos, Nigeria |
He said the exercise had been reasonably successful. "So far, I will say, so good. We had a late start in the southeast, because their plane came in late. We anticipated such things could happen. The critical message is that our people are interested in casting their vote, the commission is determined to make sure that their votes count," he said.
But voting is continuing beyond the official closing time. The Independent National Electoral Commission, known as INEC, has authorized flexible voting hours due to delays in distributing 65 million ballots across the vast country of 150 million.
Turnout was generally satisfactory across the country, although a few voting centers were virtually empty.
At Mpape, a sprawling settlement outside Abuja, only about 60 voters, out of 500 who were registered, turned up. An electoral officer who gave his name as Kingsley explained. "Those who registered here are mostly civil servants. The reason for their registration was that, maybe, the government might require them to present it before they are paid their salary. But, they said they will not vote. We've registered about 60 people," he said.
As with state elections last weekend, a number of candidates for the federal parliament were shocked to find their names missing from the ballot.
Progressive Action Congress Chairman Agade Nwodo was upset that his party's senate candidate from Abuja did not appear on the ballot. "We discovered that on the ballot paper, the Progressive Action Congress, one of the political parties contesting elections in the FCT [Federal Capital Territory], is omitted. It is a big shock to us. He underwent all the processes for screening and documentation and was listed. He has been campaigning seriously and spending money and mobilizing people. At the end, he is frustrated on this particular day," he said.
The government says it is investigating an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters on Saturday, shortly before voting began.
Seven police officers on election duty were killed in an ambush outside Abuja late Friday night.
The opposition Action Congress says Saturday's elections were rigged. The other opposition parties have yet to comment.
The election is expected to produce the first handover from one civilian president to another since Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960.
| Geneva 21 April 2007 |
DownloadThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the security situation in Sudan's conflict-ridden province of Darfur continues to worsen and getting access to people in remote villages is getting harder. An ICRC delegate, who has just completed a one-year mission in Sudan, tells VOA the Red Cross is trying to make life in the villages sustainable so people do not feel they have to flee to the camps. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from ICRC headquarters in Geneva.
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| Darfur refugees in this derelict section of Es Sallam camp say they have been waiting nine months to be relocated to decent shelters, 25 Mar 2007 |
ICRC communications officer Jessica Barry has just completed a one-year mission in Sudan. She tells VOA that Red Cross aid workers regularly talk to all the various warring factions to try to make them understand that civilians must be protected. Unfortunately, she says, the message does not always get across.
"What is the real concern is that the more that this very difficult security situation continues and the more people are not able to return to their villages, finally, of course, they will have no choice but to migrate to the camps," she said. "Now the camps are already very full and this is a big concern."
About 2 million internally displaced people are living in UN-run camps. Barry notes the camps are well organized and peoples' basic needs for food, water, health and education are being met. But, she says camp life is a poor life compared to being able to live safely at home.
Although the Red Cross wants to focus on the rural villages exclusively, Barry says this is not always possible. She says the ICRC has been managing Gareida, one of the biggest camps in southern Sudan, since it was set up in 2004 because no other aid agencies were working there.
Over time, she says, private aid agencies arrived to provide services to the displaced people. The ICRC began to make plans to withdraw from the camp and focus more attention on the villages. But, at the end of last year, she says the camp and the aid workers came under severe attack. After that, she says, all aid agencies withdrew, leaving the ICRC as the only organization remaining.
"The ICRC immediately, when this incident happened, had contact with all the different sides and all the different parties and asked for security guarantees and ensured the security guarantees to be able to allow us to remain in the camp," she added. "And, of course, we had to assess the needs of the people against the risks to us to stay and we believed that we should stay and this was why we stayed."
But, Barry says, the Red Cross presence in the camp is not unconditional. If the security guarantees break down and something terrible was to happen, she says Red Cross workers might be forced to leave. She says she does not like to think of what would happen to the more than 100,000 displaced people in the camp if no one were there to look after them.
21 April 2007| Barbara Jordan, 1936-1996: A Powerful Voice for Justice and Social Change | |
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DownloadVOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a woman who worked to make a difference in people’s lives, Barbara Jordan.
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VOICE ONE:
Barbara Jordan was a lawyer, educator and member of Congress. She was well known
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| Barbara Jordan |
Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas. In nineteen seventy-four, she gained national recognition as a member of the congressional committee investigating President Richard Nixon.
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VOICE TWO:
Barbara Charline Jordan was born in the southern city of Houston, Texas in nineteen thirty-six. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her father was a Baptist minister. He taught her a love of family, faith, music and language. As a child, Barbara’s parents pushed her to succeed.
Barbara Jordan said her parents would criticize her for not speaking correct English. They urged her to become a music teacher, because they said that was the only good job for a black woman at that time. Her sisters did become music teachers. Barbara Jordan, however, explained later that she wanted to be something unusual. At first she thought about being a pharmacist, a scientist who is an expert in medicines. But, she noted, she never heard of an important pharmacist.
VOICE ONE:
In high school, Barbara heard a black woman lawyer speak. Miz Jordan decided to become a lawyer. She attended the all-black college, Texas Southern University in Houston. She led a championship debating team and became known for her speaking skills. She finished at the top of her class. Then she went onto Boston University law school in Boston, Massachusetts.
After she finished law school, Miz Jordan returned to Texas. She began to work as a lawyer. She also discovered she was interested in politics. Her interest began when she helped in a presidential campaign. She worked to help get Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy elected in nineteen sixty.
VOICE TWO:
Soon, Miz Jordan decided to become a politician herself. She first campaigned for public office in nineteen-sixty-two. She wanted to become a member of the Texas House of Representatives. She lost that election, and another election two years later.
In nineteen sixty-six, she decided to seek a seat in the Texas Senate. She won. Barbara Jordan became the first black person to serve in the Texas Senate since eighteen eighty-three.
During her years as a Texas lawmaker, Miz Jordan proposed and helped pass legislation dealing with social change. She helped reform public assistance programs and protect workers' wages. She also opposed legislation that would have made it harder for blacks and Latin Americans to vote.
VOICE ONE:
After eight years in the Texas Senate, Miz Jordan campaigned for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. She won easily. She was the first woman and first black to be elected to Congress to represent Texas.
In Congress, Miz Jordan spoke for the poor, for women, for African-Americans and Latin Americans. She believed strongly, however, in being loyal to her state and her political party. She considered the interests of the people of Texas before those of any other group.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen seventy-four, Congresswoman Jordan was a member of the House Judiciary committee. The committee was investigating evidence of wrongdoing by then President Richard Nixon. The Congressional hearings into the situation known as Watergate were broadcast on national television.
During the Watergate hearings, Miz Jordan declared her strong belief in the United
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| Barbara Jordan speaking at the Watergate hearings |
VOICE ONE:
Following the Watergate hearings, Barbara Jordan went on to other firsts. In nineteen seventy-six, she was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Jimmy Carter.
Miz Jordan was the first black woman to give an opening speech at the Democratic Convention. She said members of the Democratic Party believe that the people are the basis of all governmental power. Democrats believe, she continued, that the power of the people is to be extended, not restricted. In her speech, Miz Jordan also urged Americans to work for the common good:
BARBARA JORDAN
"Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders and believe that their voices are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy their private wants, to satisfy their private interests. But this is the great danger America faces -- that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups, each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?"
VOICE TWO:
The fact she was black and a woman did not seem to slow Barbara Jordan's rise. Her future seemed limitless. Then, in nineteen seventy-seven, Miz Jordan suddenly announced she was retiring from Congress and returning to Texas. She later said she felt she was not making enough difference.
BARBARA JORDAN
"If I felt that I could have been increasingly effective in that job, I suppose I would have continued to do it. But politics is (takes) a long, long time to make any significant, long-lasting difference."
VOICE ONE:
After returning to Texas, Barbara Jordan began teaching about political values at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Her two classes were so popular, students had to be chosen from a long list.
At the time that Miz Jordan left Congress, there were widespread reports that failing health was the cause for her decision. Later, it was announced that she had the disease called multiple sclerosis that affects the muscles. She had to move about in a wheelchair. But, she said, the disease did not lessen her thinking or the quality of her mind. Nor did it affect her ability to speak.
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VOICE TWO:
In the years after she retired from Congress, Miz Jordan made two more appearances at Democratic National Conventions. She announced her support for the vice-presidential nomination of Lloyd Bentsen at the nineteen eighty-eight convention in Atlanta. She spoke from a wheelchair. Her powerful voice was heard once again at the nineteen ninety-two Democratic convention, which nominated Bill Clinton for president. In her speech, she called for national unity:
BARBARA JORDAN
"We are one, we Americans, we're one, and we reject any intruder who seeks to divide us on the basis of race and color. We honor cultural identity--we always have, we always will. But, separatism is not allowed (applause)--separatism is not the American way. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us and cause us to reverse hard-won achievements in human rights and civil rights."
VOICE ONE:
Barbara Jordan considered herself a teacher first, above all else. By her example, she taught all Americans about the importance of one's beliefs and the power of truth. She developed pneumonia caused by the blood cancer, leukemia, and died January eighteenth, nineteen ninety-six. She was fifty-nine.
VOICE TWO:
Barbara Jordan was buried wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest non-military honor given to Americans. President Clinton presented it to her in nineteen ninety-four. At the funeral ceremony, former Texas Governor Ann Richards said: "There was simply something about her that made you proud to be part of the country that produced her."
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English.
