Names of interviewees :        Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

Dr. Veerle Huyst - Médecins Sans Frontières

03'17"

Kuito, a provincial town in the heart of Angola, 1000 kilometers from the capital, Luanda. For many years now, the rebels of the UNITA have had a stranglehold on Kuito. From a distance of barely 20 kilometers, they regularly attack the town. As a result of the rebel siege, the town can only be reached by air. All food has to be supplied by aircrafts. Kuito is starving.

03'44"

The Kuito hospital bears the marks of the war. The orthopaedics ward is crowded by its victims. The majority of these people have hit a mine or got shot. 

Every week, 8 people fall victim to landmines in Kuito. The results are horrid and almost inevitably lead to amputations.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs

Médecins Sans Frontières

04'04"

"Surely there are moments when you get

fed up with amputating women and children.

04'13"

It is an operation, but I even won't call it

an operation, because there is a horrible side to it".

04'25"

This young woman was gathering wood with her baby, when she walked into a minefield.  The three-month-old baby escaped unhurt. The mother lost one leg. Her other leg was torn. She also lost most of her fingers.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

04'48"

"There are the arms manufacturers; there are the people who lay the mines. 

04'52"

Amputating people is not a way to solve the problem. 

It is rather a plaster on a wooden (leg)...

... I was putting it clumsily.

05'06"

The fields around Kuito are strewn with landmines, turning them into killing fields, and making it almost impossible for the people to till the land. However  demining takes up a lot of time, for the soil has to be dug up inch by inch. Moreover, both the government army and the rebels keep on laying new mines, which makes demining a frustrating adventure. The total number of landmines in Angola is estimated at 15 million, equalling more than one mine per inhabitant.

05'36"

Natasha is a nurse working for Médecins sans Frontières.

She's on her way to Kunsj, a refugee camp 7 kilometers outside Kuito.

IV Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

05'45"

"The only time we leave town is

when we come to Kunsj to visit the camps. 

05'51"

Apart from that, we always stay in town.

You can never go for a walk. You are a bit locked up.

05'59"

Woops ! The road is blocked.

06'04"

We will have to go around it.

06'08"

Good day. What a large tree.

- Yes, indeed.

06'16"

A hole in the road.

06'22"

I do not really like this.

-What?

06'27"

Leaving the road.

06'29"

- Because of the mines?

Well no, I guess there is little danger on this road.

06'36"

But just the thought...".

06'40"

Angola is Natasha's third mission. She used to work in Rwanda and Guinea.

IV Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

06'47"

Good day.  Everything allright?

Yes. Everything allright.

06'52"

Inside the Kunsj refugee camp, more than 2000 families live a miserable life.  The government made them build their camp in this area, allegedly for strategic reasons.  The refugees are said to act as a buffer against the rebels.

07'06"

More than 130.000 refugees have poured into Kuito, doubling the town's population. This also means that there are 130.000 extra mouths to be fed.

IV Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

07'22"

This one has to go to the hospital, right?

07'27"

- Another one in the red?

There will be a lot more in the red.

07'32"

- Are there a lot of undernourished children?

A lot, that is why we carry out this screening.

07'39"

To single them out as quickly as possible

and put them into one of our programmes.

07'43"

We are getting more and more refugees. 

And the longer I stay here, the harder it gets. 

07'49"

Because I see no improvement. 

It makes me sometimes feel frustrated ".

07'58"

Back to the Kuito hospital. A 12-year-old girl was shot in the foot and got gangrene. The girl and her mother were on their way home, when soldiers attacked them.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

08'10"

"Even the civilians are being attacked. 

08'15"

They come back from a food distribution

and are attacked. 

08'23"

By the military, by the police,

or by bandits carrying Kalashnikovs". 

08'34"

Innocent civilians, wounded by bullets, missiles or landmines.  It is something they got used to, in the Kuito hospital.

08'45"

Kuito has been suffering from the war for many years now.  The town is heavily damaged, its population is exhausted.  Kuito makes a sorry sight. The town looks empty.  There are hardly any cars left in the streets, being short of fuel.  Just like the food, fuel has to be airlifted.

Due to the presence of rebels and landmines around the town , the land is out of crop. On the Kuito market, the food shortage is clearly visible.  There are hardly any foodstuffs offered for sale. Prices are steep.

09'19"

Kuito relies almost entirely on international aid.  But most of the humanitarian organisations, also the UN, left the town last April, when the fights flashed up.  At this moment, there are only 15 aid workers left, 9 of which work for Médecins sans Frontières.  They are faced with enormous problems, mainly caused by malnutrition.

IV Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

09'41

"There are days when you lose heart. 

09'46"

But you don't give up because

you see that there is a great deal of distress. 

09'51" 

And when I see the children

who arrive in the centres,

09'58"

in a poor state of health,

jump around again after one week.

10'02"

It encourages me to carry on".

10'07"

Feeding centres have been opened, but they are not able to cope with the growing number of refugees.

Every day, more refugees pour in, needing to be fed.  But food is short. And there is more.  As a result of a limited and vitamin-poor diet, mainly consisting of corn,  many people suffer from pellagra, a deficiency disease causing cracking skin and diarrhoea, and often ending in insanity.

10'37"

Jean got an emergency call.  An undernourished baby in the hospital is possibly suffering from meningitis. Veerle, a young doctor who arrived in Angola one week ago, is about to perform a puncture for the first time in her career.  Jean will supervise her.

10'54"

During the next months, Veerle will run the paediatric ward, not an easy task. The high mortality rate causes a great deal of emotional stress. The undernourished children have become so weak, that only few of them survive.

11'08"

"Go inside,

and you have to feel it ...

11'12"

Yes, you can check it again

but I do not think it went in deep enough.

11'15"

Yes, allright. 

It is allright.

11'25"

Sometimes we wonder :

What are we doing here ?

11'30"

The real solution is not here.

It appears to be out of our reach.

11'42"

And sometimes you are indeed

just banging your head against a brick wall ".

IV Dr. Veerle Huyst - Médecins Sans Frontières

11'46"

"But if you look at the thousands

of children in our programmes, then...

11'56"

Well yes, it seems hopeless,

but what if it is your family that ...

12'02"

But indeed, we can only soften the blow".

12'06"

Children in particular suffer from malnutrition.  Ordinary diseases often prove fatal to them, while this is a country of immense mineral wealth.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

"12'15"

This year, Angola has become

the first oil producer, before Nigeria. 

12'24"

That does mean something. 

12'27"

And it also has a lot of diamonds. 

12'30"

But still you see what is happening here. 

12'35"

And that makes this outrageous.

12'41"

After 35 years of civil war in Angola, there are still no signs suggesting that the end of this bloody conflict might be in sight.

When the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union stopped supporting the Angolese government party MPLA.  The UNITA rebels on the other hand lost the support from mainly the United States and South Africa. But the government troops as well as the UNITA still manage to obtain arms, enabling them to continue fighting one another with varying success.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

13'12

Of course there are foreign interests.

13'21"

On the one hand, there are the diamonds. 

On the other, there's the oil.

13'24"

Everybody knows that Belgium, with Antwerp,

is the world's leading diamond centre. 

13'35"

And I think that they are

indirectly involved in this war.

13'40"

Because with the money UNITA makes

on the diamonds, they buy arms in the West. 

13'47"

And the same goes for the other party,

the MPLA. 

13'52"

They also buy arms in the West, in Europe,

with the money they make on the oil.

14'06"

Jean has been in Kuito for 9 months now.  The war forced him to escape from the city twice. But it is not only the war that is bothering him.

IV Dr. Jean Rijs - Médecins Sans Frontières

14'15"

Here it is,

the poster I wanted to show you. 

14'18"

In fact there are three of them. 

But this one strikes me the most.

14'22"

There you see De Beers,

who sponsors polio vaccination campaigns.

14'29"

I think there is a grotesque side to this.

14'32"

There are kids who strike a mine.

14'34"

Wy ? Because there are men

who sell diamonds to buy mines. 

14'38"

And on the other hand, they subsidize,

they sponsor the polio vaccinations.

14'47

 It is as if De Beers bought itself

a kind of virginity. 

14'52"

And then you should read this:

‘Diamonds are forever'.

14'57"

I feel like saying to them:

15'00"

‘Well, an amputation of a child

or an adult is forever, too.'

15'04"

So can we have some decency please,

Gentlemen".

15'12"

On the 15th of October, Médecins sans Frontières won the Nobel peace Prize.  For the team in Kuito, the news came as a big surprise.  They feel encouraged. Through the Nobel Prize, they gained recognition.

IV Natasha Vos - Nurse Médecins Sans Frontières

15'27"

We were very proud and euphoric,

and celebrated it with the local staff. 

15'34"

There was a party, and we also

entered into debate with them on peace. 

15'41"

The debate was very interesting, because

they have a very special idea about peace.

15'47"

Most people of my age, they are thirty,

and they never knew peace. Never.

15'53"

So they have a very peculiar

idea about peace. 

15'56"

To them, peace means in fact

enough food, no bombings. 

16'04"

That is what peace means to them. 

Nothing more.

16'07"

Very strange.

16'09"

But then again, maybe it is not that strange,

after all.

ENDS