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American Morning

Relief Missions; Conversation With Supermodel Alek Wek

Aired June 20, 2006 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts in this week for Miles O'Brien.

Some sad news to report to you this morning. CNN has learned the family of Private First Class Kristian Menchaca has been told of his death in Iraq. But the U.S. military will not confirm that the bodies found in Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, are those of Menchaca and PFC Thomas Tucker.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon from for us.

What have you got from your listening post, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, perhaps it's best to explain to our viewers again why there is no official confirmation yet. The military takes notification of families, notification of next of kin, extremely seriously. And the way the procedure works is once they make a positive identification in the field of someone who is deceased on the battlefield, they then notify the family, then there is a 24-hour waiting period, so the family has time for some privacy. It would be up to the family, of course, if they want to make any announcement before that. That's why we haven't heard any official word.

We just had a briefing from Major General William Caldwell, the spokesman in Baghdad. He, of course, walking this line very delicately, saying he is well aware of the press reports out there that two bodies have been found, but that until families are officially notified, the military simply will have nothing to say about this.

But, John, there is of course the reality of the situation. There is every reason to believe at this point that the two bodies found were these two missing American service members, and that family notification is under way at this hour. General Caldwell even indicating that the military expects to have more to say about this in the hours ahead -- John.

ROBERTS: So, Barbara, as you said, there are these rigid protocols governing notification of next of kin and notification of the media in the case of the death of serviceman or woman. What happened here? Did the Iraqis drop the ball?

STARR: Well, I don't know if you can say that the Iraqis dropped the ball, you know. It's a case where I don't think that the Iraqis necessarily adhere to the very, very strict rules that the U.S. military has about notification of its next of kin. Was it negligence on the part of Iraqis? One could only speculate. I think they had information and the Iraqis ministry of defense simply put the information out there. It was something that clearly was going to emerge throughout the day, something that was about to become very well known. The military holding very tight to its rules. But perhaps not able to hold on to them for too many more hours. There will -- there's every expectation that at this point that there will be an official announcement of some sort in the hours ahead.

Let me just interject here apparently that has come now. According to the Associated Press, U.S. military officials say the coalition forces have recovered what they believe are the remains of the two missing soldiers. That's the latest.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks very much.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Thirty-six minutes after the hour now.

Our next guest has led emergency relief operations in places like Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone and tsunami-ravaged Indonesia.

Gerald Martone is director of humanitarian affairs for the International Rescue Committee and he joins us now.

Good morning to you.

GERALD MARTONE, INTL. RESCUE CMTE.: Thanks, John.

ROBERTS: You're Working on humanitarian affairs now, but for 10 years, you were the director of emergency-response operations.

MARTONE: That's right.

ROBERTS: For 10 years, you were one into the first people into the world's hellholes. Which was the worst in your estimation?

MARTONE: I think for most of us who work in the field, we often have flashbacks of the Rwanda genocide. It pushed close to a million Rwandans into Zaire, into a terrible area, a volcanic plateau, so people were unable to dig wells, dig latrines or dig graves. An outbreak of cholera infected the population, and about 2,000 people died every day.

ROBERTS: So in addition to the tragedy of the genocide, then the secondary tragedy of the refugee crisis.

MARTONE: That's right.

ROBERTS: And it made it a double tragedy. MARTONE: Exactly. And that's the biggest killer of refugees, is really the infectious diseases. So after Rwanda, the international community, United States among them, said we learned our lesson, no more Rwandas. Have they learned their lesson.

MARTONE: No. Sadly, you hear this often refrain among relief workers saying it's not never again, it's once again. And here we find ourselves in Darfur, yet again another African tragedy in a place people know little about.

ROBERTS: Is there a double standard when it comes to Africa. Rwanda went ignored. Kosovo, on the other hand, in Eastern Europe, responded to with a war led by the United States and NATO to respond to the refugee crisis there. And here we have a halting response by governments on the subject of Darfur in Sudan. So is there a double standard?

MARTONE: It's not a double standard, but you'd be surprised at how fickle, how arbitrary the kind of discrepancy. Some crises like the tsunami get an enormous outpouring of generosity and attention. Yet places like northern Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo really languish in obscurity, even though the suffering is of a greater scale.

ROBERTS: So why is the it that the world -- government's worldwide, because I don't want to include NGOs in here, but governments worldwide seem to respond very adeptly to natural disasters, like the earthquake in Pakistan, earthquake in India, the tsunami in Indonesia, yet many times when it comes to violent conflict or a famine it has to become a crisis before anybody takes notice, whereas if you had gone in there early you could have prevented the crisis.

MARTONE: Exactly. Well, a lot of it we refer to as what's called the CNN effect. And that is not just CNN, but a global coverage, the profile of the situation is in direct proportion to the amount of donations, the amount of international diplomacy it receives. So the tsunami was a dramatic effect. Kosovo was front- page news, so was Bosnia.

ROBERTS: But these situations are being monitored by the National Security Council, the State Department, other organizations in other places around the world. Why does it take for CNN or the BBC or somebody to highlight it for people to say, oh, problem.

MARTONE: Right. Some of the places like the Democratic Republic of Congo are not easy stories to tell. It's quite confusing. Northern Uganda is another desperate tragedy. But it isn't as easy to sort of understand and digest like a natural disaster, sudden event, harming innocent people, wrong place at the wrong time.

ROBERTS: In addition to the problem created when people are displaced either within the borders or outside of the borders, Antonio Gutierrez, who is helped of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, said that part of the problem is also when refugees return home. He said, quote, "the international community owes returning refugees more than just a cooking pot and a handshake when they cross the border. We must continue to nurture their return and reintegration and to support the communities to which they are returning."

Has the world dropped the ball when it comes to welcoming people back in their countries and getting them back up on their feet again, getting them re-established?

MARTONE: The problem is the spotlight turns off of the situation. People feel that, oh, it's resolved. Refugees are returning home. There's been a peace accord of some kind. What we're learning is that the recovery period, the recuperation, the rehabilitation of these situations, is protracted, taking decades.

ROBERTS: But it's difficult to keep this fast food idea, a moment society, focused on one thing for any length of time.

MARTONE: It really is. It's hard for us to attract funding, it's hard for us to attract the kind of attention and the kind of diplomacy, the constant engagement you need, to rebuild a country that's recovering from war.

ROBERTS: Well, maybe events like World Refugee Day will help.

MARTONE: Let's hope so.

ROBERTS: Gerald Martone, thanks very much for being with us.

MARTONE: Thank you, John.

ROBERTS: Appreciate it. International Rescue Committee.

Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We're getting an update now, John, on the status of those two soldiers who are missing in Iraq, Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and also Private First Class Thomas Tucker. A confirmation now from the U.S. military, in fact, from Major General William Caldwell that the two have been killed. They -- their bodies were recovered on Monday night. Not long ago, we told you the family members of Private First Class Menchaca told Ed Lavandera that, in fact, they had been notified by the U.S. military.

Now there is confirmation and the bodies again found in the vicinity of Yusufiyah. Coalition forces, Major General William Caldwell said, found what they believe are the remains of those two soldiers. Sad news to report and finally confirm for you from the U.S. military this morning.

Also in Iraq, about a million people uprooted in the past three years, chased from their homes by war as well as sectarian violence. Many have been internally displaced. Others are fleeing the country altogether.

Arwa Damon has a look for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At 85 years old, Shia Moshin Madhlom never thought that he would leave his home in the Sunni area of Abu Ghraib. He'd lived through tough times, he says, but nothing like this.

He fled with his five children and 13 grandchildren, fearing that they would be the next victims of sectarian violence.

"We received a death threat, a letter that said we all had to leave that night," he says, "I saw all my neighbors leaving, too, in front if ny eyes." They moved in with family members living in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad, refugees in their own country after the February bombing of a Shia shrine led to a spike in sectarian violence.

According to the Iraqi government, there are more than 100,000 just like Moshin, nearly double the number of just two months ago, as much of the country splits into Sunni and Shia strongholds.

DR. SAID HAKKI, IRAQI PHYSICIAN: The numbers start becoming some form -- some way alarming sometimes at the 22nd of March, when we made our first assessment. And then we're doing it every like three or four days. We're beginning to see a serious trend.

DAMON: Some Iraqis don't even have families that can shelter them and end up in tent villages. The lucky ones manage to escape abroad. According to a recent survey, some 600,000 Iraqis are now living in Jordan and Syria, and they include many professionals.

(on camera): And that's what makes Iraq so usual among countries that have a refugee crisis. It's best and brightest, 40 percent of its middle class, according to some estimates, have left the country in the last three years, unable to stomach the violence any longer.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Also tonight, Anderson Cooper has got a preview of his exclusive interview with Angelina Jolie -- Anderson?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, tonight only on "360," only on CNN, Angelina Jolie on family, career and one of her most important roles: raising awareness about the refugee crisis around the world. It's her first interview since giving birth and it's a "360" exclusive, tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Soledad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Anderson, thanks. Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, supermodel Alek Wek leads a glamorous life now. Fifteen years ago, though, she was a refugee fleeing her native Sudan. She's going to share her story, tell us how she is giving back. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: She was a refugee. Now she's a supermodel. Alek Wek was forced to flee Sudan when she was just 14 years old. She's been working for years now to raise awareness of the desperate situation in her homeland. Alek Wek joins us.

It's so nice to see you and to meet you.

ALEK WEK, FASHION MODEL: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And you're doing such amazing work. I want to talk about all of that. First a little bit about your story. You were a displaced person with -- inside your country first before you finally left for London when you were 14 years old.

WEK: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: What was it like to be a teenager and dealing with these sorts of things?

WEK: Well, I was a very young teenager at the time and I didn't really quite understand why it was happening. But we had to definitely find a safer place, first of all. Even not just to struggle. And within that process, of course, I had my family to really be grateful for. And also having gone to England at age 14, that really helped. But it was always in the back of my mind. And finally last year, I had the courage to go back and have so much of a closure. But also it left me with -- thinking there's so much devastation that was still going on and...

O'BRIEN: It's got to be heartbreaking to return.

WEK: It is.

O'BRIEN: You went with your mom and she hadn't been back to the village...

WEK: Correct.

O'BRIEN: ... in Sudan for 20-something years.

WEK: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: What was it like to go back?

WEK: It was very emotional for me, but it was even much more to see my mother that's always been the strength and the really backbone of the family.

O'BRIEN: She was a mess? WEK: I mean, it was just -- she broke down. And I could understand why. But it also left me with, OK, now it's not just about talking about it, but actually doing something. It's a shame to see not just, you know, me being a young woman now, but what's going to happen to the young generation? I mean, there's no schools. You know, the kids, they just really begging and sharing the pens. And there's no, like, proper medication. Or even, you know, the hospital that I was born in in the small town, wow. It's -- you would probably get sick in there than even getting treated.

So it was very frustrating for me. And also I think much more for the people. And I really thought, like, it wasn't about going back and absolutely not doing anything and just talking about. I was like, now I've got to really do something. And so many people do agree, and I couldn't understand why there wasn't really much of a reform. Because it doesn't take a day to build a building, we all know that, but...

O'BRIEN: Everyone seems to agree. There's definitely a huge, A massive problem.

WEK: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: And yet we all sort of wring our hands. Let's talk about what you're doing. We should mention, because you left for London is when you were discovered and became a supermodel and have an incredibly successful career.

WEK: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: So now you're bringing a lot of your renown, frankly, to this plight of your countrymen and women. What are you doing now? What's your focus?

WEK: I mean, first of all, I've been lucky enough, you know, it's not just my work that's got me to where I am; it's a team effort. And I didn't start modeling at 16 years old. My mother wouldn't have that, obviously. And first of all I had to learn how to speak English, to write from right to left instead of from left to -- excuse from left to right, instead of from, you know, right to left.

O'BRIEN: Everything.

WEK: And also making -- you know, that feeling I was safe, too. I had to always look behind my back. Is it dark? Maybe I should go back in. And my friends were like, maybe you should chill out.

But it's really difficult. And to see after, you know, I left 10, 15 years, you know, you would think there's a progression, but it was really run down. And that's when I was like now I'm not just going to keep working with U.S. Committee for Refugees to just raise awareness or Doctors Without Borders, which I had actually come across on the ground. I was like, who are these medical teams that come in these horrible conditions, and not even having the proper tools to even...

O'BRIEN: Your focus is on the children now.

WEK: Seriously the children and the elders are really vulnerable, just the whole community. It's not just the rebels and the, you know, the government that have fought the war. I feel really just even walking all those miles, going to the village, and my father with his hip, not having it replaced at the time because there wasn't any -- no outlet for that. And him passing away. That was really a wakeup call for the whole Wek family, you know, five girls, four boys, and it was not easy, so...

O'BRIEN: Sometimes as an outsider, when we look at the situation, we just feel, what could I do? I mean, what do I do? Do I write a check? Do I go and jump on a plane to Africa and help out?

WEK: I mean, there are so many ways. There are so many ways. I mean, first of all, we understand the environment is very important for, you know, us living in it. So even as simple as having a pump, which UNICEF have been incredible. I mean, in my mother's town -- we all know Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. So you can just imagine. And the climate change made it really dry for the people to even cultivate. And then you've got people that have been displaced, because they have all run from their villages because they're afraid, because people are getting killed at the time before the peace agreement. So now there's a peace agreement.

But like you said, nothing is solved overnight. So having the pumps, clean water. There's low cholera, education. We al know education is knowledge. So working with these young people, really working together, and that's why I'm, like, working to educate kids is very important.

O'BRIEN: You're clearly very passionate about it.

WEK: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: And I hope everyone is heeding your words, and hopefully with what we're doing today.

WEK: First is the realization, and one you realize that and you are open enough to educate yourself, you'll be surprised.

O'BRIEN: Exactly right. Alek Wek, it's so nice to meet you in person. Thank you very much.

WEK: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: A short break and we're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

ROBERTS: We'll be right back on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

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