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Aid Workers Face Angry Refugees in Darfur; Ahmadinejad Writes Letter to Bush; President Bush Picks Active Military Officer to Head Spy Agency

Aired May 08, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Forced to flee. A high- profile visit leads to a confrontation in Darfur's troubled refugee camps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The accused is found not guilty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A former South African leader is cleared of rape.

CLANCY: Iran makes a surprising move ahead of a crucial U.N. Security Council Meeting.

GORANI: And the flash scene around the world. Armed with a cell phone, one woman's fight against inappropriate behavior.

CLANCY: Hello and welcome.

It's 7:00 p.m. in Darfur, Sudan, 7:30 in the evening in Tehran right now.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

Welcome to our viewers throughout the world and the United States.

This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Well, it's unrelenting chaos in Sudan as refugees attack the very people who are trying to guarantee their security and relief aid.

CLANCY: And after Washington was the first world capital to label the situation "genocide," the White House now says a peace accord is the beginning of hope.

Angry refugees in Sudan have forced U.N. humanitarian crisis chief Jan Egeland and his entourage to exit for safety reasons

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Go, go, go, go! Keep driving! Keep driving!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, you could hear there saying, "Keep driving," was with the group as they made a forced and a hasty exit from the Kalma refugee camp. The trouble erupted after an Oxfam translator was accused of being a spy for the Janjaweed, the notorious militia. Apparently, just a misunderstanding. The group was touring Darfur to assess what the U.N. has already called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Let's listen now to Nic Robertson's report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice over): Fires on the Darfur horizon, it's what we were looking out for as we flew on an aid helicopter into one of the most dangerous towns in Sudan's war-torn region.

(on camera): All those fires seem to be coming from villages. We didn't circle in and take a close look, but it appears to be more villages on fire. This has been the trademark, if you will, of the Janjaweed militia.

(voice over): Later, U.N. officials were unable to confirm the source of the blaze. But as we circled above our destination, the sprawling and every-growing Garada camp, temporary home, according to the U.N., of at least 120,000 desperate, displaced people, we could see where the new arrivals were setting up on the dangerous edge of the camp.

We were following Jan Egeland, the New York-based U.N. undersecretary general with humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, on a rare trip to the region to spotlight the suffering. He flew in by helicopter because in the last few months it's become too dangerous for even the U.N. to drive here.

He went immediately to the new arrivals.

JAN EGELAND, U.N. HUMANITARIAN CHIEF: When was this?

ROBERTSON: The women tell him they've been forced from their village, Yohana (ph), 15 miles away, 12 days before in an offensive by the Sudanese army and then by the Arab Janjaweed militia, the government's proxy force, according to U.N. officials. They told the humanitarian chief in more than a week they've received no international aid, food handouts. He told them aid would come, but couldn't say when.

EGELAND: At the moment, this is the epicenter of this earthquake of misery and brutality. Here people come in from the thousands nearly every day now. The (INAUDIBLE) are totally overwhelmed.

ROBERTSON: Away from the crowds gathering around Egeland, we spot a group of four women sitting alone, trying to find shade under a tree. They, too, are from Yohana (ph), the small town of about 13,000 people, and take turns telling me what happened.

Jada (ph) is holding her 3-year-old son Ahmed (ph). "When the attack began," she says, "we all ran." Her 5-year-old son Siliman (ph) died, she says.

On her left, cradling her 13-month-old son, Abdullah (ph), Sawokil (ph) tells me they walked for four days to get to the camp and have had no aid handouts yet.

Nora (ph), who intermittently tries to feed her 1-year-old son Nasr (ph) says they can't go home. Everything was destroyed. They have nothing left.

When asked how many died, Asha (ph) claims 400 to 500, many of the old burned in their homes, she says.

By now, we've drawn our own crowd, curious to know what we are doing. They complain about a lack of security in the camp. They say the night before, two people were shot dead nearby.

But it's not until I asked the four women where their husbands are that the scale of their tragedy sinks in.

(on camera): We chose these four women at random. All of them, their husbands are missing. And one of them, Nora (ph), people tell us her husband is dead.

(voice over): As Egeland moves through the camp, I ask him why U.N. officials are overwhelmed.

EGELAND: We asked the world for $1.5 billion to provide for 2.5 million people.

ROBERTSON: He sounds frustrated. Barely one-third of that request for money this year has been met. And the displaced people just keep on coming, outpacing the U.N.'s plans for how much they need.

(on camera): In the last six months, the U.N. says the population of this camp has more than doubled. In the last month alone they say another 10,000 or so IDPs, internally displaced people, like these children, have arrive in the camp. But the problem, the U.N. says, is much bigger. Across the whole of Darfur they say now almost four million people are affected by the war.

(voice over): But Egeland's problem isn't just a lack of money. Attacks against aid workers are up, making it much harder, sometimes impossible to get relief supplies to camps at Garada and another 400,000 displaced people elsewhere. And even inside the camps, despite African union peacekeepers, the displaced people fear attack.

EGELAND: They ran last night, just around in the area, because they thought they would be re-attacked.

ROBERTSON (on camera): So even in these camps they're not safe?

EGELAND: They're not safe here even. That's a bit of reality.

ROBERTSON: Just how unsafe is this area?

EGELAND: I think this is one of the most unsafe areas around.

ROBERTSON (voice over): He is hopeful the new peace deal signed two days ago between the rebels and the Sudanese government will change all of that, but he's not counting on it just yet.

EGELAND: These people were driven out 10 days, 15 days ago.

ROBERTSON: And for most here, even that cautious optimism seems beyond their grasp.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Garada, Sudan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, you see there Nic Robertson's report. Earlier, you saw that chaotic video when someone was suspected of being in one way or another affiliated with the Janjaweed militia. They were all forced to leave that area with Jan Egeland, the U.N. coordinator on Sudan.

After all of that, U.N. officials reported an African union peacekeeper was killed. The man was hacked to death after a civil police post was overrun. Now, the man was serving as a translator for the police -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. From Darfur all the way to the White House, we shift our focus on Washington, D.C. What does President George W. Bush have to say about the unrelenting crisis in Darfur? We saw a slice of it there in that remarkable report by Nic Robertson. He made a statement about 25 manipulates ago.

Kathleen Koch joins us now live with details.

What did he say, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, it was a relatively lengthy statement from President Bush on this subject, one of the most detailed I know that I personally have ever heard.

First of all, the president touted the signing of that peace agreement Friday to potentially end the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. The president said that with the peace agreement, Darfur "has a chance to begin anew."

The president admitted that the country is still very far away from the ultimate -- or the United States is still very far from its ultimate goal of returning millions of displaced people to their homes in Darfur. The president insisted that the United States was standing by the people of Darfur.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America will not turn away from this tragedy. We will call genocide by its rightful name. And we will stand up for the innocent until the peace of Darfur is secured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, the president said that the people of Darfur deserved more than sympathy, that they deserve the act of protection that U.N. peacekeepers can provide. So, to that end, he announced that he is sending the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to the U.N. Security Council tomorrow. He says that she will request a resolution to accelerate the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers into the region so that the peacekeeping efforts there will be robust.

The president said that he also spoke by phone to the president of Sudan, congratulating him on the signing of the peace accord and urging clear support for this U.N. force. The president also talked about the need for the African Union forces on the ground in the Darfur region to have better capabilities, and said the U.S. would help them with that and urged other countries to do the same, help them with planning, logistics, intelligence. And the president spoke about direct food aid, asking Congress, among other things, to increase by $225 million direct food aid to Sudan.

Back to you.

GORANI: All right. Kathleen Koch at the White House -- Jim.

CLANCY: We want to shift our focus to another part of Africa, a verdict in the controversial and closely-watched rape trial of the former deputy president, Jacob Zuma. The verdict announced in a packed courtroom just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my judgment, the state has not proved the accused guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused is found not guilty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, the judge in the case, known for being tough in many cases, ruled that evidence proves the sexual encounter was consensual and not rape. Zuma was accused of raping a 31-year-old AIDS activist who is also a family friend.

Now, this is the scene outside the courtroom. And certainly, Zuma's supporters there in Johannesburg had been there throughout the trial, but not in these numbers. And they erupted in cheers, as you can see. It was just a year ago that Zuma was considered to be the strong contender to succeed President Tabo Mbeki in the 2009 presidential election.

GORANI: We're going to stay in Africa, Jim, and the sexual exploitation of young girls rampant in refugee camps and communities in war-ravaged Liberia. That is according to a new report from a British children's charity.

Save the Children U.K. says that an alarming number of girls, some as young as 8 years old, are having sex with older men. Those men are said to include policemen, teachers, aid workers, and even U.N. peacekeepers, according to the report. The girls allegedly sell themselves, have to sell themselves sometimes for money, food, or even for a ride in a car. The report calls on Liberia's new government to promote a zero tolerance policy, and it suggests setting up a special government office to investigate such crimes.

CLANCY: All right. Another major crisis here, and a surprise response coming from Tehran.

After weeks of fiery anti-Western remarks, Iran's president is now reaching out to the United States. Iranian officials say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writing a letter to President Bush. We do not know everything that it says, but it comes right before, of course, that critical United Nations meeting this week on Iran's nuclear program.

Let's bring in Aneesh Raman in Tehran.

This was said to be a private letter. Aneesh, is any more coming out there about what might be contained in that message?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very little, Jim. We're basically being told we won't know the details until President Bush has the letter, a letter that in its own right was historic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN (voice over): He is a man known for his fiery rhetoric. And now, in an unusual turnaround, Iran's president is striking a conciliatory tone in a letter sent Monday to U.S. President Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In this letter, he has proposed new solutions for getting out of the international problems in the current fragile situation of the world.

RAMAN: What those solutions are is still unclear, as is how they relate specifically to the current nuclear standoff between Iran and the West. Such details, Iranian officials suggest, will not be made public until President Bush has the letter in hand.

The letter itself, though, is a historic first. Since the U.S. cut off diplomatic ties with Iran amid the hostage crisis in 1980, there's been no public acknowledgement of communication between the two country's two top leaders until now. And the timing is critical as the U.N. debates what action to take against Iran's nuclear program.

Sadegh Zibakalam is a professor of political science at Tehran University.

SADEGH ZIBAKALAM, PROFESSOR, TEHRAN UNIVERSITY: President Ahmadinejad is trying to convey this message to the international opinion that, well, look, I am trying to do my best. We Iranians, we are trying to curtail the situation, we are trying to curtail the crisis.

RAMAN: But it is hard to imagine what specific solutions Iran could now offer. Iran has maintained all along that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes only. It has said it will never cease its uranium enrichment, and has warned that if any action is taken against Iran by the U.N. Security Council, it may withdraw from the nuclear proliferation treaty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: And Jim, keep in mind, there has never been direct evidence of a weapons program here that has fueled international concern. That (INAUDIBLE) because of statements made by Iran's president about Israel, about the U.S. It could be he is now looking to tone down that rhetoric ahead of any U.N. action -- Jim.

CLANCY: Aneesh Raman reporting to us there live from Tehran.

Aneesh, thank you.

GORANI: A lot more ahead here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. A short break, then President Bush announces his pick to head the CIA.

CLANCY: But even before he spoke, cries from the opposition could be heard. When we come back, we're going to find out just what all the fuss is about.

Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: He has demonstrated an ability to adapt our intelligence services to the new challenges of the war on terror. He's the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY.

U.S. President George Bush nominates Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Hayden to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Hayden is currently the deputy director of National Intelligence. But not everyone agrees Hayden is the right man for the job.

Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel joins us now live with the reaction on Capitol Hill.

Andrea, we know why it is a controversial for some. Here's a military man to head a civilian agency. Also, he oversaw the controversial domestic wiretapping program.

Is this going to be a real uphill battle for Hayden to get confirmed in the Senate? ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be more difficult, Hala, than I think certainly the White House would like. That said, you've really had a mixed reaction here.

You've had Republicans like John McCain, who have come out strongly in support of General Hayden's nomination, but you've also had what really was a shock to the White House, even to Democrats, that you've had two of the key members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the chairman, Pat Roberts, who is basically reserving judgement, and Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, who have raised questions about, as you said, the general's military background. But, you have also some supporters out there from unlikely corners.

Democrat Dianne Feinstein, another member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will be holding hearings, who really came out in support of the nomination. She's not ready to say that she's going to cast her vote in his corner, but she said that, as far as she's concerned, General Hayden is the best man for the job right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think we need to get the CIA house in order. I think the most important thing is that the individual be a competent, qualified intelligence professional. And Mike Hayden is all of those things. I think he can put together a team who can remove what we call the Gosslings, who are the people that Mr. Goss brought over from the House of Representatives, replace them with real professionals, and begin to build the morale and the professionalism of this agency again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Now, as far as Democratic leaders are concerned, the questions that they have, and the talking points that they're going to be putting forward in coming days, is that, General Hayden, they question whether or not he really can be independent from the White House. And as you initially came to me, Hala, you mentioned that General Hayden was behind that controversial NSA surveillance program. Not only was he behind it, but he also went out publicly and defended it.

That's a question that some Democratic aides say they feel perhaps General Hayden crossed a line. Instead of maintaining independence, as the intelligence community has been known to do, he went out as an advocate on behalf of the White House -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Andrea Koppel, thank you very much -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, British Prime Minister Tony Blair resisting calls from within his own party to set a date that he would step aside. That demand comes after Labour's third place showing in last week's local elections. Mr. Blair discussed the situation at his monthly news conference

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There are those who just genuinely want me to honor the commitment to assure a stable and orderly transition. And I repeat, I will honor it, and with the time plainly needed for my successor to establish himself. There are also those whose desire is to change radically the direction of policy and not to renew Labour, but to reverse it.

That way lies not in a fourth term victory, but a defeat in a return to opposition. And I will fight that all the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Well, some of the people within Blair's own Labour party are said to be plotting a coup in the media that is even sometimes in support of Tony Blair was today on the front pages talking about his legacy. Mr. Blair's allies, though, are appealing for calm and insisting his -- the calls for his resignation are strengthening the opposition.

GORANI: Well, that brings us to our "Question of the Day" and what you think about Tony Blair's future.

CLANCY: Today's inbox question: Should British Prime Minister Tony Blair step aside?

GORANI: Send your replies to ywt@cnn.com. We'll read some of them on the air.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, a check on stories making headlines here in the U.S.

Wrenching stories of pain and loss. Relatives of those killed in a tragic nightclub fire three years ago are describing their anguish today. They're testifying in Rhode Island at the sentencing hearing for Daniel Beakly (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE FOX, MOTHER OF VICTIM: This is not about forgiveness. Make no mistake, there is not a shred of forgiveness in my heart. And I suspect there never will be. I miss my son more than I ever could have imagined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Beakly (ph) is a former band tour manager. He lit a pyrotechnics display at the start of the concert that engulfed a nightclub in 2003. Beakly (ph) pleaded guilty in February to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. Under a plea, he faces no more than 10 years in prison.

The sentencing takes place after the hearing. It's expected to end on Wednesday.

The hunt for an accused polygamist goes nationwide. Warren Jeffs is the latest fugitive on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Authorities say Jeffs is the leader of a polygamist sect, one that was once linked to the Mormon Church. He's accused of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. A $100,000 reward is being offered.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy in drug rehab today in Minnesota. But he's still getting support from back home. Rhode Island Democrats are expected to endorse his bid for re-election when they meet tonight. Kennedy checked into the Mayo Clinic after crashing his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill. He admits an addiction to prescription drugs.

That familiar pinch at the pump, it might not hurt quite as much today. The latest Lundberg Survey says the national average for regular unleaded gas is now $2.95 a gallon. That's up less than four cents in the last two weeks.

In fact, the survey shows prices actually dropped a little or a lot in 26 cities. Of stations surveyed, the highest average price was $3.41 a gallon in San Diego. Drivers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, have been paying the lowest price, only $2.61 a gallon.

In central Florida, a battle against a big wildfire. It is burning near New Smyrna Beach. So far, the flames have burned at least three homes. About a thousand people still can't go home. Parts of I-95 are shut down by smoke. The fire broke out Friday and flared over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEP. CHIEF DAVE MCALISTER, VOLUSIA COUNTY FIRE SERVICES: We don't know what to expect this afternoon. So we're approaching it very cautiously. And if the weather works with us, we should be able to maintain containment.

If we get a strong wind or we get changes that we don't anticipate in the wind and weather, it could work against us as well. So we're just being very cautious at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: So far, fire has scorched more than 8,000 acres.

Let's check in on weather. Jacqui Jeras is watching that for us.

Hi, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Daryn.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: All right, Jacqui. Thank you.

President Bush's nominee to take over the CIA is a military man. We'll explore the past connections between the intelligence agency and those in uniform. That's on "LIVE FROM" at the top of the hour.

Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.

I'm Daryn Kagan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and these are the stories that are making headlines around the world. Iranian officials say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reaching out to the United States, offering, in their words, "new ways to solve critical problems." They say he wrote a letter to President George W. Bush. They did not disclose details. The announcement comes right before a critical U.N. meeting on Iran's nuclear program. The five permanent Security Council members are due to discuss a resolution that could lead to sanctions.

GORANI: Also in the headlines and in South Africa, an acquittal. The judge in the trial of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma that a sexual encounter was consensual and that it wasn't rape. Outside the court room, there were competing rallies featuring Zuma supporters on the one hand, women's rights activists on the other. Just a year ago, Zuma was considered a strong contender to succeed President Thabo Mbeki in the 2009 presidential elections.

CLANCY: Saying he is supremely qualified for the job, U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Hayden to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Those who are opposed to the nomination say Hayden's ties to the military make him the wrong person for this post. They believe the CIA should be an agency of the Department of Defense.

GORANI: Back now to our top story. A high-profile visit to Darfur leads to a very tense confrontation, as we mentioned earlier. Angry refugees in Sudan forced U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland and his entourage to run for safety, and our Nic Robertson had a front row seat. Here's a look at how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CROWD NOISES)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go, go!

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Keep driving! Keep driving!

(CROWD NOISES)

ROBERTSON: I don't know. Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driver, quickly! Just get out of here!

ROBERTSON: Keep driving! Just drive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out, get out!

ROBERTSON: Go, go, just go! We've got to get out of the car! (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go! Quickly now! Go, go, go, go! Quickly, quickly!

That was scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They're running after us, so we do have to keep going.

ROBERTSON: We've got to keep going. Just keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driver...

ROBERTSON: Just keep driving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drive out of this town...

ROBERTSON: Really quickly. As fast as you can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drive out of the town, back to (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

ROBERTSON: Just go back to Nala (ph)!

I don't know exactly what happened back there, but suddenly the crowd got very angry with the man sitting next to me in this car now. They came after the car, they came after him with knives. They beating the car with sticks, throwing rocks in it. The only thing we were able to do was drive, and we eventually drove out through some of the people's houses there. We're trying to get back to Nala now, and we hope we can find some safety.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Very tense situation there. And we mentioned earlier that U.N. officials said an African Union peacekeeper was killed after Egeland, his entourage and the reporters. The man was hacked to death when his civil police post was overrun in the melee. Well, we've since learned that the man who was killed this day was a translator, not a peacekeeper -- Jim?

CLANCY: Well, with additional insight on the Darfur dilemma and the new White House aid proposal, I'm joined by the assistant U.S. secretary of state, Jendayi Frazer. She's with the Bureau of African Affairs.

Thank you so much for joining us once again. Now, you were there in Abuja when everybody signed up to this. And I think a lot of hopes have been raised with this deal. How do you see it, really? It is more of a challenge -- cause for a challenge than a celebration? JENDAYI FRAZER, ASST. U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: No, I think it's both a challenge and a celebration. The celebration is that, with the signing of the Darfur peace agreement last Friday, we have a real opportunity to bring in now, as President Bush announced this morning -- he's asking Secretary Rice to go to the U.N. and get U.N. forces there so that we have a bigger and more capable force that can protect the lives and help the people in Darfur to return to their homes. That's provided for in the Darfur peace agreement.

CLANCY: Have the Sudanese agreed? What's the latest on that you that have?

FRAZER: The latest is that the Sudanese government has given a bit of contradictory statements. But we fully expect the Sudanese government to agree to this. The Ministry of Information said, yes, of course, we've always said an agreement was necessary for the U.N. to deploy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that they haven't yet taken that decision. But whether Sudanese government agrees or not, the African Union has already called for the U.N., the AMIS force, the African Union force that's in Darfur, to be rehatted or to become a U.S. peacekeeping force.

And so Secretary Rice is going to the U.N. to have that discussion with the U.N. Security Council. So we fully expect, as is anticipated in this peace agreement, that we will get the forces capable to stop the type of situation that you saw today in Kalma Camp.

CLANCY: Now, the president has said it -- and he's said in the past as well -- the aid is forthcoming. The aid money from the United States will be there. But as everybody knows, as we heard earlier today in a Nic Robertson report, Jan Egeland says barely a third of the money that's really needed is there right now. We see the kinds of tensions that are being created there. How much pressure is the Bush administration -- is the State Department putting on other countries to come on in?

FRAZER: Well, we're putting pressure on them. Certainly, the United States is leading. We provide 85 percent of the food aid that the World Wood Program distributed in Darfur right now. So we're definitely leading. We provide about $1.3 billion over the last year in humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping assistance and reconstruction assistance. So we need to get other countries to join us. And again, I expect that that will be part of Secretary Rice's discussion with the U.N. Security Council tomorrow.

CLANCY: All right. Another key issue is whether or not the Europeans are willing, either with funding from the African Union peacekeepers or with peacekeepers from NATO, to move into Sudan. Everybody agrees, all the money in the world, all of the treaties in the world, nothing is going to replace security on the ground. What's a realistic outlook for that?

FRAZER: Well, that's exactly right. And again, with the signing of the Darfur peace agreement, we have the basis now for asking NATO to assist the African Union mission so that we can get in the immediate term to get the capability of the African Union, which have at least 7,200 forces on the ground now, to increase their capability as they transition to a U.N. force, which will probably be double the size of that. And so we definitely need to get a capable force.

The African Union is doing a great job, and we certainly expect for them to make the request. NATO is available. President Bush has said that the United States will be a partner with the African Union and the with the U.N. to try to get the security on the ground so that these IDPs can live in security and return to their home, as called for in a Darfur peace agreement.

CLANCY: Jendayi Frazer, the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department, the U.S. has been criticized for calling what's happened in Darfur, even though 200,000 people died, calling it a genocide, for pushing too hard on awful this. Do you think you've been vindicated by this?

FRAZER: Well, you can't push too hard when people in the type of conditions that they are in those IDP camps. I've been to Darfur many times, and the violence has to stop, and that's what President Bush has stated over and over. We see it as a genocide. Certainly, we want the world community to follow and to lead with us to end this situation. And the Deputy Secretary Zoellick and I were in Abuja, and we worked hard to get this peace agreement. It's a fair agreement, and it provides the basis for ending this crisis.

So however you call it, the point is for us all to work together with the African Union to get the people home and living in a secure environment.

CLANCY: Jendayi Frazer, assistant U.S. secretary of state, at the Bureau for African Affairs, I want to thank you very much for being with us here today and your efforts in Abuja as well.

FRAZER: Thank you very much.

GORANI: Well, we heard it from President Bush and others that chaos in Darfur intensifying. International calls for U.N. peacekeepers to deploy there soon. But it's still unclear when and if Khartoum will allow those boots on the ground and how the U.N. might react. Let's bring in senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth.

Now Condoleezza Rice is going to approach the U.N. Security Council and asking it to act on Darfur. What do we expect on that front?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN S.R. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know how quick everyone will rally to support this agreement here, or possibly faster than the bogged-down Iran talks. But the U.N. peacekeeping department has been waiting for months just to have a planning commission go into Darfur to prepare logistically. And don't expect the waves of peacekeepers to be rushing in now, even with a peace agreement or even with a resolution. It'll take months. The planning, logistics. U.N. officials are calling for governments to step up to the plate with troops and logistical support and funding for humanitarian purposes. Secretary-General Annan, it's just been announced, is going to donate $500,000 of a prize he was awarded several weeks ago to humanitarian causes in Darfur. This was a controversial $500,000 because he was awarded the prize, and then several weeks later appointed the leader of the panel that gave him the prize to a high environmental post with the U.N. Annan denies any impropriety in that. Annan originally was going to offer the $500,00 to children's education. Now it's going to Darfur efforts.

GORANI: Richard, how much support is there within the U.N. Security Council itself to send blue helmets, blue berets, to Darfur on the ground?

ROTH: There's been agreement on that. There has been. It's just a matter of now they are waiting for Sudan to give permission for people to plan the effort to go in there. That's the first indication.

GORANI: All right, Richard Roth, live at the United Nations.

CLANCY: We're going to take a short break. When we come back, trapped for two weeks now.

GORANI: Rescuers still working tirelessly to free two miners. Coming up, a progress report on where things stand.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back. We're going to take you now live to the United Nations, where U.S. ambassador John Bolton is addressing reporters on the subject of Darfur. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: Obviously Congo is also president of the Security Council this month.

The Danish minister of development, cooperation will participate,and ministers from a number of other Security Council members. We anticipate as well statements from the Arab League and the European Union. So this will be a public meeting to discuss Darfur. We have just now circulated the draft resolution that the president spoke of, and it basically is straightforward, to the point, to accelerate the planning and assistance, both for the transition to a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, as well as to strengthen the hand of the African Union force that's deployed there. Obviously, a number of other steps will be necessary to implement this.

But this is a, we think, a critical step, as the president suggested to accelerate the transition to the U.N. peacekeeping force, given the (INAUDIBLE) force has basically reached its limit.

So we expect ministers to address a variety of critical aspects of the Darfur situation tomorrow. The humanitarian issues, number, and the security issues, number two, stressing the need to support the agreement in Abjua, and to take the steps necessary to implement it and conditions of security. So why don't I stop there.

I'll take questions.

QUESTION: Ambassador, it seems like, to a certain degree, Darfur is bumping Iran off top of the sort of top of the agenda tomorrow. Is that a sort of signal that things are not going very well on Iran?

BOLTON: No, it's a signal that -- well, Iran is goes to be discussed this evening at the dinner of the perm-five foreign ministers and in Germany. And I expect -- we've already had one perm- five meeting today in Iran. I expect more tomorrow. So what it means is we're just extending the length of the day to do both at once, and that's the consequence.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Iran negotiations. Can you limit the draft resolutions applicability to one article of the -- chapter seven that doesn't necessarily bring into play the possibility of sanctions, use of law enforcement? Do you still get the mandatory requirement or the strength you want?

BOLTON: That's not been the view of the five permanent members for quite sometime. That's why the draft is written the way it is, invoking the full range of chapter seven, and that's the intention we've had. That's what we've been sticking with.

QUESTION: Can you tell us where the expected line (ph), is and what are your thoughts on the proposals of sending money directly to the Palestinians, bypassing Hamas entirely?

BOLTON: Well, I think all of that is going to be discussed at the quartet meeting tomorrow. And I'd rather really not get into foreshadowing that they're going to cover. I'd rather let that discussion take place.

There was a Darfur question down here.

QUESTION: But just two things on Darfur. Number one, by accelerating...

CLANCY: The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, lays out what's going to be a very two busy days for the Security Council. The session -- really, he's -- what he's really saying here is that Darfur is number one on the agenda right now, in terms of getting a resolution in there that gives some of the forces, the A.U. forces, more authority. And gets a transition in place to bring in more troops to address both the security situation, and then on the other front, the humanitarian situation.

He also talked about Iran. There's a meeting on that this evening. On the Middle East, that comes tomorrow.

GORANI: All right. A short break on YOUR WORLD TODAY. When we come back, fighting indecency with a cell phone. CLANCY: Still to come, it may not be a weapon of choice, but it does work for one woman. And it's spawned, well, a small movement. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Well, let's quickly update you on a story we're following from Australia and have been following for a few weeks. Rescuers in Southern Australia are getting ready to break through the last layer of rock that's been separating two miners from freedom for 13 days now. The men are crammed into a tiny space, nearly a kilometer below ground. And they're helping as well by shoring up loose rocks on their end.

Cell phones can be often annoying, especially in public places where you're trying to enjoy the peace around you.

CLANCY: Here's a new twist on it all. That is that they can be a defensive weapon against something more annoying. Deborah Feyerick explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ladies, you know this guy, the obscene gestures, rude comments. Hey, baby! Who he is and what he looks like doesn't matter. He's that guy who harasses women, thinking he'll get away with it because you don't know him. But this picture may change all that. It was taken by 22-year- old Thao Nguyen and it has sparked something of a revolution against street harassment.

(on camera): So Thao, you were sitting there and he was sitting here?

THAO NGUYEN, STREET HARASSMENT VICTIM: Yeah.

FEYERICK: OK, how did you first notice him?

NGUYEN: Well, he got on the train and he kept staring at me.

FEYERICK: So he's just looking like this, right at you?

NGUYEN: Yeah, he was like this, locked onto his target.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Nguyen showed us what happened the day she stepped onto a New York City subway last August. It was 3:00 in the afternoon when a stranger sat across from her and, ignoring others nearby, unzipped his pants.

NGUYEN: And then I looked in the glass and I could see him rubbing his crotch, and then I took out my phone to look busy.

FEYERICK: What she did next surprised even her. Using her cell phone camera, she took his picture.

NGUYEN: I snapped it really quick. It happened really quick, like one, two, and then he zipped up and left.

FEYERICK: When a policewoman wouldn't look at the photo, the young Web designer posted the image online, on a girl power site to warn others.

NGUYEN: Maybe they could go to the police and say oh, I know this man, and I was just afraid he would do something else.

FEYERICK: The picture shot from Web site to Web site, striking a very deep nerve.

EMILY MAY, FOUNDER, HOLLABACK NYC: It's incredibly scary. Women don't know who these strangers are. You don't know if some guy street harassing you is harassing you because they're going to follow you home, because they're going to kidnap you or rape you or hurt you in some way. This is one of the first posts that we got.

FEYERICK: Emily May and her friends in Brooklyn saw that picture when it was picked up printed on the front page of a New York paper. They had talked about street harassment. Now they knew it was time to act. And though they never met Nguyen, they created a Web site, Hollaback, as in holler back, with the motto "if you can't slap them, snap them."

MAY: The women have done it, just said that it's taken the power out of the street harasser's hands and put it into their hands.

FEYERICK: On its busiest day, the site got 75,000 hits. Hollaback.eu just started up also in the European Union and the group has been contacted by others who want to set up similar sites.

MAY: We're not trying to single out these men for their ignorance, but we're trying to educate men and women that street harassment is not OK.

FEYERICK: But that guy in the picture? The one who ultimately turned himself in, didn't see it that way. His lawyer, who says his client is really a good guy with some issues, says posting the picture online went too far.

MICHAEL BACHNER, DAN HOYT'S ATTORNEY: To have all of a sudden know that your picture is on an Internet site, without authorization, has got to be one of the most horrible feelings you could have, especially that's labeled as stalker, immoral, you know, harasser. It's the punishment sometimes far exceeds the bad behavior.

FEYERICK: Nguyen sees it differently.

NGUYEN: If he didn't do it, I wouldn't have posted it. I didn't even know who he was. It wasn't like I was out to get him.

FEYERICK: Thao Nguyen, the cell phone photo snapper and Emily May, the Web site founder, did finally meet. They recently faced down the Subway flasher when he showed up in court for sentencing after pleading guilty to public lewdness, a misdemeanor. The judge gave him two years probation and ordered him to see a therapist. (on camera): Do you feel empowered by what you did?

NGUYEN: Yes I do. I felt like, having the cell phone, taking the picture, after I took it, I felt so much better.

FEYERICK: How often do you ride this subway?

NGUYEN: I ride it every day.

FEYERICK: Thao Nguyen doesn't know whether she would do the same again, but she keeps her cell phone charged and ready.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: That is it for this hour, before we go, you've been sending e-mails in. We've been asking in you think Tony Blair, the U.K. prime minister, should step aside.

CLANCY: A lot of different opinions on both sides. Ernest in the Netherlands had this to say, he's in Belgium. "Maximum, two terms in office," he says, "otherwise, it does more harm than good."

GORANI: Soul (ph), in England, "Blair should be given the courtesy and time to step down on his schedule. Labor would not be in charge if not for his leadership."

I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. Thanks for being with us.

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