26 Jun 2010

TANZANIA / CHILD SOLDIER TURN PROSECUTOR

Ugandan prosecutor Alfred Orono was 12 years old when Tanzanian forces invaded his native Uganda to oust the brutal dictator Idi Amin. Amid the chaos, he joined the forces and started carrying a AK47 even before he was a teenager. Today, after years of fleeing the political turmoil in his country, Orono prosecutes the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which claimed some 800,000 lives. UNTV

Posted at: June 26, 2010 12:04 am

Duration: 04:58

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: TANZANIA / CHILD SOLDIER TURN PROSECUTOR
TRT: 4.58
SOURCE: 21ST CENTURY
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

SHOTLIST:

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

1. Med shot, Alfred Orono at the International Tribunal for Rwanda
2. Med shot, court stenographer
3. Med shot, Court
4. Med shot, Court lawyers
5. Med shot, Alfred Orono at the court
6. SOUND-UP (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"He was there.  He was moving events, and the events happened and that makes him a direct perpetrator.  He committed genocide. He committed extermination."

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, UGANDA

7. Various shots, armed conflict in Uganda
8. Various shots, Ugandan officials with Idi Amin

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

9. Tracking shot, camera goes through bushes

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, UGANDA

10. Various shots, child soldiers

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"People disappeared. A lot of children of my age who were separated from their families for so many months, even years."

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, UGANDA

12. Various shots, Ugandan school
13. Close up, photo of Obote

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, SOUTHERN SUDAN

14. Zoom out, picture
15. Various shots, child soldiers

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"Conditions: starvation; eating about 42 seeds of maize every day.  We started developing rheumatic fever, pain in the bones, in the teeth, the gums and everything.  I knew I was going to die.  I was thinking I was going to die – but then something in me said no."

GOOGLE GRAPH

17. Close up, map

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

18. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"I kept walking and walking and walking and walking until I was tired and I was bleeding because the twigs were cutting my face."

FILE / PLACE AND DATE UNKNOWN

19. Close up, UN Flag on a jeep

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"I saw a flag – a UN flag."

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, UGANDA

21. Various shots, refugee camp
22. Various shots, picture of Orono

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

23. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"This is my motivation. How can I ensure that other people don't suffer, or if they suffer the way I did how can we relieve that suffering? How do we put it to an end?"

FILE / DATE AND PLACE UNKNOW

24. Med shot, Alfred Orono keynote speech 
25. Various shots, picture

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

26. Various shots, Orono at the ICTR

FILE / ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE / UNTV / DATE UNKNOWN, UGANDA

27. Tracking shot, dead people lying on ground

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

28. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"I think the people of Rwanda – the victims felt that justice was done. The dictators in this world and in Africa know that that you cannot get away with mass murder."

FILE / PICTURE

29. Close up, family photo

MARCH 2009, ARUSHAN, TANZANIA

30. Various shots, Orono working
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"We are all capable of the most monstrous things but we are also capable of the most glorious and selfless actions.  It is because of my strong belief that deep inside every human being there is a lot of good and I always look for that good. "

STORYLINE:

The prosecutor is pressing his case against a killer – a Catholic priest who bulldozed a church, murdering the 1500 people sheltered inside.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"He was there. He was moving events, and the events happened and that makes him a direct perpetrator. He committed genocide. He committed extermination. "

The prosecutor, Alfred Orono, is outraged by the priest's original sentence of only 15 years. Orono has a passion for justice. Thirty years ago his own childhood cruelly ended.

He was 12 years old when Tanzanian forces invaded his native Uganda to oust the brutal Dictator Idi Amin. People fled in all directions.

Amid the chaos, Alfred tried to make his way back home from boarding school, 100 kilometres from home.

Along the way, he encountered Tanzanian soldiers who persuaded him to join their ranks as an interpreter. Before he was even a teenager, Alfred was carrying an AK47.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"People disappeared. A lot of children of my age who were separated from their families for so many months, even years."

A few months later, Uganda had a new government and Alfred was able to return to school. There, he became a high profile supporter of his country's president Milton Obote.

But when Alfred was 18, President Obote was overthrown and Alfred feared for his life.

Once again cut off from his family, he fled to Southern Sudan, which was itself in turmoil, but there was no safety there. A rival group of Ugandan rebels threw Alfred into prison. Conditions were horrific.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"Conditions, starvation, eating about 42 seeds of maize every day. We started developing rheumatic fever, pain in the bones, in the teeth, the gums and everything.  I knew I was going to die.  I was thinking I was going to die – but then something in me said no."

After seven years behind bars in Sudan, Orono seized a chance to escape.  Alone and starving, he walked 80 kilometres along the Great Rift Valley, hiding from rebel camps along the way.  Finally, he crossed the border into Kenya.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
 "I kept walking and walking and walking and walking until I was tired and I was bleeding because the twigs were cutting my face."

He then found a refugee camp run by the United Nations.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"I saw a flag. A UN flag."

He found shelter with 30,000 refugees in a camp much like this one. He helped run the camp clinic and harboured dreams of protecting young people caught up in war like himself.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"This is my motivation.  How can I ensure that other people don't suffer, or if they suffer the way I did how can we relieve that suffering? How do we put it to an end?"

He found a way, through the law. He won a scholarship to study law in Canada.  And then he got his dream job, a chance to work for the organization that had saved his life and a chance to fight for justice.

Alfred was recruited by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

So today, the boy who once held a Kalashnikov helps prosecute the perpetrators of horrifying crimes, the 1994 genocide of some 800,000 people in Rwanda.

In the case against the Catholic priest who murdered 1500 Rwandans, Alfred achieves a great victory.  The sentence was increased to life imprisonment.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"I think the people of Rwanda the victims felt that justice was done. The dictators in this world and in Africa know that that you cannot get away with mass murder."

Now married and with children, Alfred Orono has done more than simply survive a life of extreme danger and hardship, he has fulfilled his dream of contributing to a better and more just world.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alfred Orono, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR):
"We are all capable of the most monstrous things but we are also capable of the most glorious and selfless actions.  It is because of my strong belief that deep inside every human being there is a lot of good and I always look for that good."