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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, HOST: This week on INSIDE AFRICA: from the field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Katherine Bond in Burundi. This week INSIDE AFRICA will be talking to Burundi's President Pierre Buyoya about the crisis in his country.
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CLANCY: Also, the anniversary of the Soweto uprisings. We'll visit the township and meet some of those who were there 25 years ago. Plus:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to our language...
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CLANCY: Preserving a language through poetry, we'll profile Eritrean poet laureate, Reesom Haile.
I'm Jim Clancy. Welcome once again to INSIDE AFRICA, our weekly look at news and life on the Continent.
First, as promised, to Burundi, a country trying to resolve a seemingly intractable conflict. For eight years, Hutu insurgents have battled the Tutsi dominated army there. With the help of international mediators, a cease-fire was brokered last year, but it was never really observed, leaving some to predict that the worse is yet to come. All the same, the current president Pierre Buyoya still optimistic, as we hear in this report from Katherine Bond from Bujumbura.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOND (voice-over): Sunday morning at the beach on Lake Tanganyika outside the Burundian capital of Bujumbura. Tutsi gendarmes from this region's ethnic minority teach volunteers, most Hutu, how to shoot.
Anyone fit, Hutu or Tutsi, can learn, but it's not as easy as it looks. This man, thinking he'd done well, until a soldier pointed out those bullet marks were old.
The training is serious, but the tone light. If you miss, a punishment that's just symbolic. Burundian rebels urge citizens to boycott this training, but in the current climate of uncertainty, there's no shortage of people who want to know how to shoot.
"The reason why I joined this training," says this young man, "is that we're aiming at ensuring security in our area."
Burundi's war began eight years ago, after elections brought a president from the region's Hutu majority to power, his rule ending when Tutsi soldiers killed him.
PIERRE BUYOYA, PRESIDENT OF BURUNDI: We entered this crisis in '93 when President Ndadaye has been killed in an attempt. I think what we are living in now is the consequences of what happened at that time.
BOND: And the consequences have been terrible. Reprisals in 1993 that left as many as 100,000 Tutsis dead, followed by a devastating war. An example visible here after the rebel National Liberation Front, the FNL, stormed this city suburb earlier this year.
In the same fighting, this Roman Catholic church was damaged when the Army shelled it to dislodge rebels. But rebels still come and go, targeting other Hutus they view as collaborators. Like Clotille's (ph) husband, Dushep Du Cartier (ph), shot outside his home the weekend before last, their purple wristbands a sign of mourning.
The rebel group in Bold (ph), as well as another group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, haven't yet been part of a peace agreement signed in Tanzania last year, thought U.N. diplomats are trying to change that.
BERHANU DINKA, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE: Well, the longer this thing goes on, the only result is a negative result. And that is felt by the population every single day.
BOND: In a city under partial siege, some Tutsis accuse some Hutus of genocidal intent, but Buyoya disagrees.
BUYOYA: No, I don't think that there is a risk of genocide as we saw in Rwanda. Maybe a high degree of violence, but not genocide.
BOND: But for Burundi's human rights minister, the possibility of a high degree of violence is almost as unsettling.
EUGENE NINDORERA, HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER: There is, unfortunately, a small group of extremists, both sides, who have strong power, and who are dominating all the other millions of people. That's the problem.
BOND: Some of the millions of Burundians who want peace are here learning the art of self-defense, a preoccupation in Bujumbura that reflects a situation that remains dangerously unresolved.
Katherine Bond, CNN, Bujumbura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: The peace deal, signed in Arusha, Tanzania, calls for an interim government with all sides represented, but the two main Hutu rebel groups oppose that plan. They insist on a return to the 1992 Constitution that brought assassinated President Melchior Ndadaye to power.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JEROME NDIHO, SPOKESMAN FOR BURUNDI FORCES FOR THE DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY: Can we come to set up a transitional government? You cannot set up a transitional government while people are now dying.
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CLANCY: The rebels are also demanding a new national army and democratic elections.
Well, the man who is trying to chart the path of peace in Burundi is former South African President Nelson Mandela; 18 months ago, he became the facilitator of the peace process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY (voice-over): From the very start, Mandela laid down the law to the two main Hutu rebel groups: Get on board the peace train or your day of reckoning will come. Long excluded from the talks, the rebels are demanding direct negotiations before a cease-fire, something both Mandela and Pierre Buyoya have rejected.
With sheer determination and personal authority, Mandela forced all sides to accept that this process alone will end the conflict. Coming from the man who's resilience during 27 years in a South African jail, led him to become the first black president of a free South Africa, no one on the continent dares defy Nelson Mandela's vision.
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CLANCY: And now to Mr. Mandela's homeland, South Africa, where this weekend people are observing a milestone on the long march to freedom. It is the anniversary of the Soweto uprisings.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault visited the township and spoke with some of those who were there a quarter century ago.
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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the picture that got the world's attention. 13-year-old Hector Petersen after being struck down by a policeman's bullet. At his side, his 17-year-old sister Antoinette.
ANTOINETTE SITHOLE: I saw that he fell down, but I thought that he was just wounded, you know, because I couldn't figure out a way...
HUNTER-GAULT: Hector Petersen was among some 30,000 students protesting a government edict that all classes be taught in Afrikaans, the language of the white minority.
PETER MAGUBANE, PHOTOGRAPHER: So those children stood up and said no.
HUNTER-GAULT: Peter Magubane was a young photographer living in Soweto.
MAGUBANE: I came to this spot, here. I saw a huge number of schoolchildren chanting, running toward me. I got out of the car and I started taking pictures, and I could see hands that said, no, no, no pictures. I went over. And I said to them: "Why do you say I can't take pictures?" They said: "Because we -- the police might be able to identify some of us." And I said to them: "A struggle without documentation is no struggle."
Soweto was on fire. The children were angry. Where there was anything burning, you would find these 10 year-olds, 9 year-olds saying, "Power, power, power." You realize that the political mood has changed.
HUNTER-GAULT: By day's end, 23 dead, officially. Locals say it was more like 200. Many hundreds were injured, but the protest spread throughout the country, eventually ending the attempt to impose Afrikaans on black school children, and opening a wider door to ending apartheid.
SITHOLE: Being shot, that made me angry, but you know, one day when I was sitting, I said: "No, you know, sometimes when you achieve some goals, some of the people die or get hurt."
HUNTER-GAULT: But they leave a legacy, not least Hector Petersen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he was a hero in a way that as young as he was, he was also in a struggle, fighting for their rights.
HUNTER-GAULT: But Hector Petersen's sisters say there are far too many of the younger generation who don't know about her brother or what he died for.
(on camera): The Hector Petersen memorial is being built to change all that, standing as it will on the site where the apartheid police attacked the students, within a stone's throw of where they shot and killed Hector Petersen. It will house a history.
(voice-over): And those who will work here, like Hector Petersen's sister, hope that people will come from all over the world to learn about what Hector Petersen and countless others sacrificed and why.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Soweto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: For more information, go to our Web site at CNN.com/INSIDEAFRICA. You can take part in our quick vote and post your thoughts on our message board. Then, why don't you join me for a live online chat session Wednesday at 15:00 Greenwich Meantime. Just go to CNN.com/chat.
We're going to take a break here, but there's much more to come on INSIDE AFRICA, including sunflower fuel as an alternative to high petrol prices. We show you how one farmer is making it a reality.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Welcome back. Now let's take a look at some of the other stories that are making news INSIDE AFRICA.
In Algeria, two people were killed in massive antigovernment protests in the capital, Algiers. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated Thursday and, at times, clashed with police. The protesters demanded greater democracy and an end to what they say is discrimination against ethnic Berbers. Dozens of people have died in protests in the Berber region of Kabyle and other areas during the last two months.
A former refugee from Somalia has received an international award for her work with women and children. Hawa Mohammed was honored by the Women's Commission for Refugees for helping to educated Somali women. She was especially recognized for leaving the safety of Toronto, Canada and returning to Somalia during the conflict. She established an education center for peace and development, which now has 450 students.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAWA MOHAMMED, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Education is, for women and girls especially, it is not a right, it is an opportunity. So we are trying to make people understand, especially women, that education, basic education, is their right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: In Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed eight members of his Cabinet, among them, the chief architect of his economic policy. The president said the ministers were relieved of their of posts because of poor performance. Reports say Nigerians are disillusioned by the slow pace of economic reform. And the dismissals are seen as a major shift in policy, midway through President Obasanjo's four-year term.
Well, those are just some of the other stories that have been making news on the continent. Also, let's check and see what's going on in the world of business.
And for that, we turn once again to Zain Verjee -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Jim.
Will at a change at the top at Nairobi's stock exchange make any difference at the bottom-line? The 20 share index at the exchange has been at its lowest point in eight years. A new chairman has been brought into to boost its performance. So far, it isn't helping. The NSC has been affected by the suspension of IMF and World Bank loans to Kenya. Foreign investors are keeping their money out as the country faces major political change. The shortfall in investors is being matched by changes in strategy for some.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON SAMBIGI, STANDARD STOCKS LIMITED: The reason is because we have concentrated a lot of our marketing to the local investors, mainly the institutional investors. And for the others have really been affected by the -- you know, absence of the foreign investors.
VERJEE: The new chairman sees another way of boosting the stock exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETHUEL KIPLAGAT, CHAIRMAN, NAIROBI STOCK EXCHANGE: We would like to see whether, in the end, we can cooperate together within the East African community. We could have floating joint shares right across the board.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Mr. Kiplagat also expressed the hope that people will begin to see the stock exchange as an alternative way of raising funds.
In Mali, much of the talk is about privatization. The government decided to lift its monopoly on telecommunications. Mali's communications minister says a second company could begin operation by October. He says the goal is meeting the huge demand for telephone services, specifically mobile phones. The government also wants to privatize the state-owned company, Sotelma.
Trying to keep a dream aloft, African leaders are looking for investors to save the troubled regional airline, Air Afrique. And they've turned to current shareholder Air France to help bail out the debt-ridden African carrier. The once prosperous Air Afrique last turned to profit in 1990. It now owes millions of dollars to its creditors, and one U.S. company is threatening to seize its last six jets.
Now let's check the markets.
I'm Zain Verjee and those are you African business headlines. Now Jim, back to you.
CLANCY: OK, thanks Zain.
Well, imagine running your car on fuel made from sunflower oil. That's exactly what one South African farmer claims to be doing.
Paul Tilsley visited the farm to check it out for himself.
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PAUL TILSLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vincent Van Gogh made sunflowers famous on canvas. Another visionary of the 19th century thought of sunflowers in a different way, as a source for fuel.
MICHAEL LYNOTT, MARLIM DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER: When Rudolph Diesel developed his diesel engine, he ran it on peanut oil. And he said one day, this is going to be a great help to farmers because they'll be able to grow their own fuel. And this was a theme we followed.
TILSLEY: Today all of us are looking for relief from high fuel prices. And the answer could once be again be on the farm.
Johann Minar (ph) runs his sophisticated family pickup truck and all his farm vehicles on biodiesel, fuel he makes out of sunflower seeds. He says this saves him half a million U.S. dollars a year.
"You can run any kind of vehicle with it," says Minar. "It has been proved over and over that what we're doing here answers every international standard. So I don't have a problem using it even in my expensive tractors."
A local engineering company, Marlim, first developed diesel from sunflowers 20 years ago. But while apartheid President P.W. Botha was happy to publicly sit astride a sunflower powered tractor, behind the scenes, white politicians killed off development plans.
This time, Johann Minar has commissioned Marlim to take over production, using methanol and caustic soda, they're refining the sunflower oil, making up to 9,000 liters of diesel a day.
(on camera): The manufacturers claim that this particular fuel is more than 10 times less carcinogenic than normal diesel. And it smells better, too. You won't be surprised to know that, because it comes from vegetable oil, this fuel smells of French fries.
(voice-over): Marlim is now working to satisfy order from those wishing to operate their own diesel plants. The cost? Just over 100,000 U.S. dollars an order.
LYNOTT: This plan is definitely an African solution for Africa. It means that we can put them anywhere in Africa, wherever sunflower grows. Sunflower tends to grow very easily, different cult of ours, different areas, but nevertheless, the sunflower grows very easily from South Pole to North Pole.
TILSLEY: Van Gogh would have been pleased. After all, what did he use to paint his sunflowers? Oil, of course.
Paul Tilsley for CNN, Wesselbron.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: I don't know; exhaust fumes that smell like French fries? I guess it works.
There's more to come on INSIDE AFRICA. Just ahead, capturing the resilience of a people in pictures, a British photographer on her journey through Angola.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: And here's something to put on your calendar, because it could be coming your way: a traveling exhibit of photographs from Angola. And indeed, they tell some amazing stories.
Our Femi Oke has the details -- Femi.
FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Jim.
In December 1998, photographer Eleanor Curtis went to visit a friend who lived in Angola. She took her camera with her. Two and a half years and thousands of photographs later, Eleanor now has a second exhibition of photographs from Angola.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OKE (voice-over): The city of Quito was once full of stunning architecture, but for more than two decades, it's been slowly destroyed by Angola's civil war. When British photojournalist Eleanor Curtis went on assignment there, amongst the rubble of war, she found a striking picture.
ELEANOR CURTIS, PHOTOJOURNALIST: And so, there are these pockmarks of bullets in this archways of architecture. And even though the city's torn down, there are three girls playing skip rope. And they're just being girls. And they're just being children. And they're just getting on with the stuff that children get on with. So I think that's probably my favorite.
OKE: These photographs are part of an exhibition called "Picture Angola 2000." Collectively, they give a view of Angola that is rarely seen.
CURTIS: With Angola, which has been a country largely forgotten where we don't have so many TV crews and not so many photographers taking images. That recording, what's going on the country, and showing images and a cross section of images of the country has actually been very, very powerful and hopefully, has challenged stereotypes that we often see of Africa.
OKE: It took Curtis almost three months to photograph 15 provinces in Angola.
CURTIS: There is Amelia, who is a -- she said she was 70. This is an old lady working the fields, displaced and laughing with me and letting me take my camera right up to her face.
I also tried to show that Angolan people are about many different things. And that is something that I've had response from -- Oh, I didn't realize Angola was about that. And I didn't realize Angola had wonderful landscapes or had deserts or -- and so, in that sense, I've -- yes, I'd like to think that I have broadened some people's minds on the country.
OKE: The tranquility of some of the images belie how difficult it was to take them. Travel outside many cities was restricted and often dangerous, but with the assistance of the United Nations World Food Program, Curtis gained extraordinary access to most of the country.
CURTIS: Angola is a difficult country. It presents us with difficult issues. And that doesn't mean that we should turn away from it, even though it is difficult and awkward.
OKE: Eleanor Curtis' photographs have already raised $100,000 in aid for Angola's children, but she says her aim is not just to raise money, but to raise awareness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: And finally, to find out more about the "Picture Angola" exhibition, take a look at the Web site. The details are at the bottom of the screen. It will next be visiting Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom from July the 6th. You might bump into Queen Elizabeth II. And also, it heads to Washington, D.C. in November for the TransAfrica Forum.
That's it for me. Here's Jim.
CLANCY: Thanks, Femi.
Well, from a photographer to another kind of artist. His name is Reesom Haile, an award winning poet from Africa's newest nation, Eritrea. And he's on a mission, teaching the world about his country's rich history and language through his poetry.
Sally Graham (ph) has this profile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. REESOM HAILE, ERITREAN POET LAUREATE: Welcome to our language. Taste the sauce with spicy melted butter.
SALLY GRAHAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Reesom Haile is Eritrea's poet laureate, but he calls himself a joiner of words and worlds. He's on a mission to celebrate and preserve Tigrinya, his native language.
HAILE: Through the language. You see, your mother tongue basically gives you all the codes to live by.
GRAHAM: Haile's early lessons in language provided him with a firm foundation, lessons he drew upon while in exile as his country struggled for independence. A cheering crowd welcomed him home for the 1998 cultural festival.
HAILE: Everybody is a poet. There are no sort of experts of poetry. And everybody tries. And it is really at the center of community, at the center of society. It's a means for social development.
GRAHAM: Dr. Haile holds a PhD in communications. Before becoming a full-time poet, he worked as a consultant for U.N. agencies and other groups. Now he feels the responsibility to...
HAILE: Somehow give hope, I think, give inspiration, give courage.
GRAHAM: To promising poets like youth radio host, Saba Kidane, known for her fiery performances.
SABA KIDANE, ERITREAN POET: You know, the doctor is my father in art. And I want to relax myself. I see his point.
GRAHAM: Haile says poetry is music first, and that's how he creates his art.
HAILE: Sometimes I'm -- you know, I wake up in the morning and this tune comes, this song comes. And basically, I really do start from the song or the percussion, what I call "zim, boom, boom." And the words start coming in.
GRAHAM: Dr. Reesom, as he's known to Eritreans around the world, is giving a contemporary voice to a traditional art and helping to secure the survival of one African language.
Sally Graham, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: The INSIDE AFRICA team would like to hear from you. If you have a comment about the program, send us an e-mail at INSIDEAFRICA@CNN.com. Please include which country you're writing from and your response may be used on a future broadcast.
That is all for this week's program. Thanks for joining us. Hope you tune in again next week.
END
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