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CNN Student News

Aired April 29, 2002 - 04:30   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: A preview of Pakistan's upcoming referendum tops your Monday edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Next we focus on the problem of slavery in the nation of Sudan.

WALCOTT: Then we meet a would-be peacemaker using music to bring people together.

MCMANUS: Later, the story of Ryan Jolley, school board member.

WALCOTT: And Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.

A major court victory for Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf will give voters the opportunity to extend his term.

WALCOTT: Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled Saturday that a referendum called by President Musharraf is legal. The referendum asks voters to agree to extend his term by five years. Opposition parties and Islamic groups are challenging the referendum scheduled for Tuesday. They say it's unconstitutional because the president is normally elected by parliament. General Musharraf came to power in Pakistan in a bloodless coup in 1999 and says he will go without hesitation if that's what voters decide.

Coming up, Chris Wheelock looks at the mood in Pakistan before the vote. First though, we go to Mike Chinoy for more on Tuesday's referendum.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He seized control of Pakistan in a military coup two-and-a-half years ago. Since then, he's repeatedly promised to restore democracy. But now, President Pervez Musharraf has called a referendum aimed at keeping himself in power for five more years.

(on camera): Musharraf says the referendum is necessary to secure a popular mandate for his economic reforms and continuing crackdown on terrorism. But many Pakistani's see the move as an undemocratic ploy by an unelected military strongman determined to hold on to power.

(voice-over): With all the trappings of a conventional political campaign, the only question on the ballot is whether the voters endorse Musharraf's ambition and he's mobilized the vast resources of the state to ensure the answer is yes.

NAJAM SETHI, NEWSPAPER EDITOR : It's totally unprecedented. We've never seen anything like it.

CHINOY: Among the moves aimed at guaranteeing a big pro- Musharraf turnout, a decision to increase the number of polling stations, to reduce the voting age and to relax rules on identifying prospective voters.

SETHI: At the end of the day there's going to be a stampede of pro-Musharraf people who are going to run from one polling booth to another and vote as many times as they like, really.

CHINOY: But Pakistani journalists seeking to raise these or other critical issues in the run up to the referendum have found themselves under intense pressure from the authorities.

ROMMAN IHSAN (ph), JOURNALIST: They are saying that write according to our wishes not based on facts.

CHINOY: Ajmal (ph) Niazi is a distinguished professor at the same college in Lahore that Pervez Musharraf attended. He spoke out against the referendum. Now he's lost his job.

"The steps they are taking have only one goal," he told me, "to win the referendum. Everybody knows what they're doing to achieve that end, but does that really count as a victory?"

One way it counts for President Musharraf, observers say, is that it secures his position ahead of parliamentary elections due in October and it freezes out Pakistan's main political parties who are expected to dominate the new parliament which would normally have the job of choosing the president. Defying government pressure, the parties held a joint rally this weekend to urge voters to boycott the referendum. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) explaining that Musharraf's actions make him little different than Pakistan's previous military dictators who sidelined democracy to keep themselves in power.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Lahore, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS WHEELOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For truck driver Mohammed (ph) Lateef each day is a struggle just to feed his family. Yet despite his meager salary and a difficult life, he supports General Pervez Musharraf. "Musharraf is doing a great job. He has recovered from many people who have looted the country. This is something which no leader before him has achieved."

For millions of low wage earners in Pakistan, politics takes a backseat to poverty, even though they go hand in hand. Abdullah isn't as enthusiastic about a future with President Musharraf.

"Life is full of difficulties. It is impossible to make ends meet. How can one live on a hundred or a hundred and fifty rupees. It is difficult to make ends meet on an honest day's work."

NASIM ZEHRA, POLITICAL ANALYST: There is gross indifference in the political -- on the political scene here. So I don't expect any great enthusiasm and therefore referendum is not the best barometer for Musharraf's support or lack of support.

WHEELOCK: It has been a high profile year for President Musharraf. Tensions on the border with rival neighbor India, the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, at home a $38 billion foreign debt is only part of the country's economic mess. But President Musharraf's campaign stops are well attended and it appears Pakistanis are split on how to vote.

ZEHRA: I think that generally in Pakistan the belief is that it's a done deal, that you know he is going to win.

WHEELOCK: "Tell him to solve the problems of the laborers, that's all. If he solves the problems of the poor, only then can we say something."

Political parties have been restricted since General Musharraf's coup and banned from holding rallies.

Chris Wheelock, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: A U.S. peace initiative is making progress in Sudan. It deals with an issue until recently was very taboo and that's the issue of enslavement by Arab Sudanese farmers of women and children from nearby African tribes. The Sudanese government recently committed itself to eradicating the practice it calls abduction.

CNN's Catherine Bond explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind the walls of this compound hid 33 slaves. They're teenagers and children sharing rooms and food and they're here waiting to go home. Some like Akul are as young as seven.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Akul was abducted with his mother and four siblings, other siblings. He was the youngest. In 1999, we traced the mother. We took her (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Last year we got one of the siblings. We took him home. This year we find Akul. There is still one family member missing. He's the youngest. He was abducted while very young.

BOND: Most of the boys here were captured as children and most have grown into teenagers in forced servitude. They look strong but they say exchanging their stories make them cry.

Rehaul (ph) says by now his family must assume he's dead. It's nine years since he saw them, nine years since Arab militiamen attacked his village.

"We were sitting," he says, "looking after cattle, playing local dominos and at noon the Murhaleen Militia (ph) came beating people up. They took people, took cattle, tied me to one of their horses and left towards the north."

He and other children from the Dinka (ph) tribe weren't sold. They were handed out.

REHAUL (through translator): Each person who have abducted a person was dead at -- even dead person they abducted, the abductee (ph).

BOND: Eventually Rehaul ran away from his abductor who he says often beat him. For the time being, he's ended up here, a transit center that's also the home of James Aguer, the man who started sheltering runaway slaves 12 years ago, an activity for which the government has jailed him 33 times. Then three years ago, the same government gave Aguer a job to help bring an end to the practice of slavery under this man, a human rights lawyer who says Sudan acknowledged the problem of slavery here when the international community stopped calling it that.

AHMED (ph), HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: Because I tell you from the early '90s up to '99, the fight has been on this worse was it abduction or slavery? The government saying this is not a slavery, the international community saying it's slavery. Nine years without any solution of the problem or without any benefit for the abductee. The abductees themselves (UNINTELLIGIBLE) if we were to stop talking about the slavery.

BOND: Abductee Akul was given an Arab name Abraham (ph) by the man who adopted him as an unpaid servant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was being treated like one of the family members. He was fed well. He was clothed well. He was also taught how to look after the goods.

BOND (on camera): So when you took him away from the family, were they upset?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The family was very angry because what they wanted has not been completed what they wanted Vitan (ph) to do for them (ph).

BOND (voice-over): The official commission that Gunal (ph) works for, known as CEAWC, based itself on the work he'd started.

(on camera): The government now says it wants to end this practice of abduction and forced servitude in about a year's time, do you think that's realistic?

GUNAL (through translator): The government formed CEAWC three years back. Theoretically, the abductions should have stopped. It didn't stop. The government has stated that within this year it's going to complete it's work. It's three months now, no work has been done.

BOND (voice-over): But at some levels there is work being done. The Bush administration is doing policies (ph) engagement here. As a result, Sudan's president has given the anti-abduction commission more power and an international commission of inquiry, led by former U.S. officials, is working fast on recommendations to help end abductions.

Sudan's own commission says the total number of abductees may be around 14,000. Western aide workers here actually estimate perhaps half that. In practical terms, still a huge number of people to find and free and reunite.

Catherine Bond, CNN, Khartoum.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: The body of Lisa Lopes will be sent back to the United States this week after an autopsy. The singer, a member of the R&B trio TLC, was killed last week in a car crash in Honduras. Just a few weeks ago, CNN STUDENT NEWS reporter Kathy Nellis interviewed Lopes about an upcoming project. In one of the last interviews before her death, Lopes talked about her music and a group of young people she was mentoring.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What would a Grammy winning R&B singer and war ravaged refugees from Sudan have in common, talent and a love of music. The singer, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes who rose to stardom as one-third of the musical trio TLC. The refugees, young men who were once known as the "Lost Boys," thousands of young men who were driven from their villages and separated from their families during Sudan's long and bloody civil war.

Back then, they made a dangerous journey, walking hundreds of kilometers from Sudan across East Africa. Hundreds died on the trip, killed by soldiers, wild animals, disease or hunger. Those who survived arrived in refugee camps in Kenya. In the years since, many have been resettled in the United States, part of the largest resettlement program since the Vietnam War.

LOPES: So I met the Lost Boys and was very interested to know if any of them were musicians, musically inclined, played, sang, chanted, any of the above. And one reason is that I wanted to incorporate what they do into what I do. And what I do is, well, the foundation is hip-hop but we fuse it with various different types of music, you know, such as alternative, R&B, rock, why not I don't even know what they call their music but you know, why not their music.

NELLIS: Why not indeed? Lopes invited the young men to her recording studio, a custom-built, state-of-the-art facility in one of her homes in Atlanta. The tiny singer with a big heart was delighted by what she heard.

LOPES: They came by the studio and they played the drums and they chanted, and it was the first time I got to hear what they do and I was very, very impressed.

NELLIS: The Lost Boys sing in Dinka, a language of the cattle herding people in Central Africa. And although Lopes couldn't understand the words, the message came through.

LOPES: I could still feel what they were saying, you know. I couldn't understand the words, but I could definitely feel them.

It's a bit soothing in a sense. The rhythm definitely becomes a part of you. You know you find yourself tapping your feet without trying to.

NELLIS (on camera): Though they are thousands of miles from their homeland and years removed from their dangerous journey, these young people are still connected to their culture, their roots alive and flourishing in their music.

(voice-over): Lopes leaves a legacy of music herself. The petite singer, who sometimes stood on phone books to reach the microphone, made a big impact on the music industry and beyond. TLC became the most popular female group in the U.S. with over 20 million albums sold in this country alone. She had a number of projects underway, a new album, a protege group of young singers called Egypt, a book, TV shows in the works and a clothing line coming out and her recording session with the Lost Boys.

LOPES: Hey you know they just, you know, sung from their hearts and they looked like they had a lot of fun doing it.

NELLIS: The same could be said of Lisa Lopes.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

MCMANUS: This week in "Perspectives" we pinpoint things presidential. And to kickoff our week, some political trivia. Ich bin ein Berliner, famous words uttered by President Kennedy in Germany during a 1963 speech. Did he call himself a citizen of Berlin or jelly doughnut? Arguments can certainly be made for both. Word gaps and mispronunciations have a rich history when it comes to Washington politicians.

Bruce Morton now with the quotes and the cleanups afterward. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I appreciate lieutenant Governor Judi Kell for being here. Thank you very much Judi Rell.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president called the Lieutenant Governor Judi Kell. Her real name is Jodi Rell. He got Rell right the second time, but she was still Judi. But the official White House transcript of his remarks omits the mistakes.

BUSH: So others around the country, if they are interested in -- if you're interested...

MORTON: The official transcript omits the hecklers. So did Bill Clinton's when he was president. Does this matter? Experts argue.

My impression is, when I look back over the public papers of the president, is that most presidents and their staffs try to give a pretty honest transcript, and then clean it up in the notes at the end of the speech, or the event.

MORTON: The Bush White House did that when, in Japan, the president said "devaluation" when he meant "deflation." They put an asterisk in the transcript and explained. Some gaffes are just funny -- Bush's "terriers and bariffs" for "tariffs and barriers." Al Gore's "a leopard can't change its stripes" meant spots, of course. Is it kind, or dishonest to clean up grammar? "I'm going to veto that, " instead of "I'm gonna." Of course, when cameras are there, you know what they really said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORTON: Reagan got the man's name wrong, but won the primary and the presidency anyway. Sometimes covering up the language makes it worse. When the Nixon White House released Watergate transcripts, they left out the cuss words. "what the 'expletive deleted' was that?" the transcripts read. Maybe the president only said "hell," but a reader could imagine much worse language.

It's complicated, reminds me of something George Herbert Walker Bush said when he was losing primaries to Reagan in 1980. "Nobody said it was going to be easy," Bush opined. "Nobody was right."

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Music is a powerful art form. It can soothe our hearts, stir our minds and get our feet tapping. The healing power of music can also band people together. Our report now on one man who's hoping to promote sweet harmony between the U.S. and Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BREAM BREHEMI (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi born cellist Karim Wasfi rehearsing. He says this sonata by Paul Henderman represents what he feels.

KARIM WASFI, CELLIST: It has a lot of power and diligence and will of survival within it.

Wasfi, who's a U.S. citizen, firmly believes music has the power to bring together people's in conflict, like Iraqis and Americans.

WASFI: I'm originally from Iraq if I'm performing an American piece in Baghdad or if -- as a person who's originally from this country performing probably a Middle Eastern piece in the States that's basically one of the ways.

So when he's in the Iraqi capital he performs.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BREHEMI: The few small scale concerts he's able to give in churches here are a rare distraction for Baghdad's music lovers. And last year, Wasfi set up a peace concert with the Iraqi Symphony Orchestra. Wasfi works and studies in the United States, but he returns to Iraq often he says to share what he can from his experiences abroad.

WASFI: I feel I have an interesting role in actually linking two societies, two nations.

BREHEMI: A challenging task for someone whose country of adoption has threatened to attack his country of birth.

WASFI: Being in the middle of -- I don't feel I'm caught in the middle of this whole thing, but I feel that if we can just somehow go beyond war and aggressions and military power, I think I'm considering myself a messenger of peace.

Why is it so necessary to experience peace and to respect people's independence, because I have experienced war and I have suffered of that a great deal.

BREHEMI: During the 1991 Gulf War, Wasfi, then 19 years old, was in Iraq. Since then he says he's worked relentlessly to fulfill a dream.

WASFI: If one day we would see a music hall filled with an audience from both countries, with politicians, with merchants, with artists, with anything, I think it would be great.

Bream Brehemi, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: So have you ever won an election, you know class president, homecoming queen, captain of your sports team? Well imagine being a college freshman and getting elected to public office. That's right, public office, as in the school board.

Our CNN Student Bureau has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SPUNT (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): To some this may seem like your average college freshman, however,...

RYAN PATRICK JOLLEY, GAHANNA SCHOOL BOARD: I, Ryan Patrick Jolley,...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hereby swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States...

JOLLEY: ... hereby swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and the Constitution of the state of Ohio...

JOLLEY: ... and the Constitution of the state of Ohio.

SPUNT (on camera): His life changed, November 6, 2001, when 18- year-old Ryan Jolley by just 12 votes became the youngest elected official in Gahanna history.

(voice-over): Despite his recent election to public office, Jolley remains a full time student at the Ohio State University. Ryan received a full ride scholarship and now resides at the Evans Scholar House on campus. His experiences in leadership as well as a strong work ethic prompted him towards a career in politics.

JOLLEY: I attended Presidential Classroom in D.C., and I was just totally blown away when I was in D.C. I was just completely amazed. So when I got back to Gahanna, I decided that I wanted to get involved in government in some way and so I ended up deciding that I myself wanted to run for public office.

Longtime board member Wendy McKenna (ph) discussed Ryan's initial interest in campaigning.

WENDY MCKENNA, GAHANNA SCHOOL BOARD: I believe it was the spring when he first expressed an interest on running for the board of education. And as soon as he let that interest be known in the district, he started coming to school board meetings. It was time for him to circulate his petitions and file them with the board of elections in August, he was right there ready to go.

SPUNT: Though the public was initially concerned, Vice President Marlene Eader explains what an 18-year-old can bring to the school board. MARLENE EADER, VICE PRESIDENT, GAHANNA SCHOOL BOARD: He has a unique way of thinking about issues and I think that's what we want as a board, we don't want everyone to think the same. We want to bring in different ideas and hash them out. It's important when you're working together as a board not for -- for everyone not to think the same about issues.

SPUNT: Ohio Senator Mark Mallory (ph) of the 9th District mentored Ryan and is looking forward to seeing him perform in office.

SEN. MARK MALLORY, 9th DISTRICT, OHIO: He will be able to bring a very fresh perspective and he can bring the student's perspective right here to the board. And I think it's going to be refreshing, and I think it's -- he's going to be able to provide a lot of information that's going to be very useful to the rest of the board members.

SPUNT: Only time will tell what Ryan's contribution will be.

David Spunt, CNN Student News Bureau, Gahanna, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: We want to give you a heads up about the U.N. Special Session on Children, which begins next week.

MCMANUS: That's right, we'll be focusing on global concerns as the U.N. tackles subjects such as poverty, war and hunger.

WALCOTT: And also, take a look at UNICEF.org were you can get a primer on U.N. events and the children's forum. Even better, be a part of it. Once you're at the site, click on say yes for children to vote on the issues you are most passionate about.

MCMANUS: The votes will be tallied and read next week by none other than Nelson Mandela so check it out.

For now, I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a good one.

MCMANUS: Bye-bye.

WALCOTT: Bye-bye.

MCMANUS: Nice show, Shelley.

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