YEAR IN REVIEW 1994 (UN) [Main Title]

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  • Title: YEAR IN REVIEW 1994 (UN) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: UNT 353
  • Other titles: UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: An annual review of world events and the UN's part in them from the swearing in of Nelson Mandela, as President of South Africa, to the Rwandan genocide. There is a short section on Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  • Description: Series of short shots showing violent images from 1994. The narrator says that amidst these scenes of disorder the UN has tried to bring peace. Shot of an UNPROFOR APC on the road. The narrator says that to bring stability required more than solely peacekeeping forces. Shot taken from the air of armed soldiers in a UN truck. Shot of Boutros Boutros-Ghali giving a speech. He says that the ‘objective is peace...through democracy and development’. Shot of women washing in a river. Internationally, development has been the UN greatest challenge. Shot of wooden headstones and flowers and a boy standing beside a grave. Shot showing the interior of a hospital. The narrator says that while 2 million die annually from warfare, 13 million die annually from poverty-related causes. 1994 was designated ‘the international year of the family’. Shots of families, huge numbers of cars and an aerial view of a vast industrial site. There will be more and more problems as the world’s population increases dramatically over the next fifty years. The narrator says that it is estimated that by the end of the century forty countries will be unable to feed their populations. Shots of barren land and rows of children. Footage from the UN conference on Population and Development including a speech by Boutros Boutros-Ghali who says that it is the poorest of the world’s population that would be hardest hit by exponential population increase. Shots showing people on the streets of Yemen and at UN-run health sessions for women to help them plan pregnancy. Footage of an interview with a health worker, who says that through extensive talks with religious leaders and families they have persuaded people that the use of condoms does not break any religious laws. Footage from a Vietnamese family planning programme. Interview with one of the aid workers who worked on the programme who says that income generation and family planning go hand in hand and by distributing small loans, families are able to start up successful businesses. They have found that this leads people to plan for families with greater care. Interview with a woman who took part in the programme. She runs a fruit company. She says that she has two daughters and although under familial pressure to have a son, she will make the decision when she next becomes pregnancy. Footage from the civil war in Mozambique. Thousands of children have been left as orphans in this conflict. Shots of one girl who was kidnapped by RENAMO at the age of eight, but with the help of the UN she has been returned to her family. UN peacekeeping troops ended their mission observing elections. Shots of South Africans queuing in long lines to vote in the country’s first multiracial elections. The country chose Nelson Mandela as their President. Footage from Mandela’s swearing-in ceremony. Footage of Mandela addressing the United Nations for their part in the country’s recent past. Footage from elections in El Salvador. The UN was able to give the results a careful endorsement. Footage from Haiti covering the return of the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after his three years in exile. Clip of the President’s address to the UN Assembly just before his return. Footage from Palestinian territories where Palestinian authorities are in a more stable position after ‘historic peace agreement with Israel’. Shots of people at outside stalls and working at the new radio station. Footage from Rwanda of a UN jeep driving past a body lying dead on the road. The genocide has resulted in the death of thousands. The international community responded with ‘less speed than was needed’ but set up camps for refugees and tried to arrange for their transport into neighbouring countries. Shots of injured children at a refugee camp. Interview with a UN aid worker who stresses that these children not only need to be immunised against diseases but need to be healed of the trauma of their experiences. At the year’s end, prospects still appear grim for many Rwandans despite the UN’s called for war criminals to be brought to justice. 09.38 Footage from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which has been set up in the Hague. On the ground, the year started with some measure of agreement between Muslims and Croats and many families were able to resume contact with one another. Shots of crowded buses and people walking past shelled houses. However the Bosnian Serbs forces kept some parts of Bosnia under siege and UNPROFOR remained hard pressed. Shots of UNPROFOR soldiers walking down a street and soldiers firing guns to defend a position. Footage of Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s visit to Sarajevo, where he placed pressure on all sides to come to an agreement it would be impossible for him to persuade the UN Security Council to keep UNPROFOR in place. 10.28 Footage from Iraq. UN inspectors have been overseeing the removal of nuclear rods from the country. Plans to lift international sanctions stalled as Iran stepped up their military presence on the border of Kuwait. Footage of Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s visit to North Korea and the signing of bi-lateral agreement with the United States in which North Korea agreed to stop their development of nuclear weapons. In return, an international consortium, including South Korea and Japan, agreed to help North Korea develop nuclear reactors suited solely to energy production. Footage of the UN Security Council in session. This year they have discussed increasing the number of members of the Council to reflect the changing world order at the end of the twentieth century. Footage from a Disaster Relief Training exercise in Austria and a Disaster Relief conference, set up to help the least developed countries deal with natural disasters. Footage of the cyclone that hit Madagascar this year. UN relief teams helped supply food and prevent the spread of epidemics in the wake of vast flooding. Footage of the Maldives, at risk from rising sea levels. A conference in Barbados represented the start of building a safer future for islands at risk from global warming. Agreements were reached to protect marine life and elsewhere, to prevent desertification. Footage of Secretary General talking about a new trade agreement said to favour less economically developed countries as well as the world’s largest economies. Footage from Cameron of a manioc flour production line, one of the initiatives put in place to lower unemployment in the country. Footage from Somalia, where the UN worked to stabilise the country and stop the famine that was killing so many of the most vulnerable people. UN troops remained in place and a Security Council delegation visited the country to promote the establishment of a new democratically elected government. Shot showing UN troops withdrawing. Footage from Angola, where peace talks were ongoing. Shot of UNITA rebels and the government signing a new peace treaty. The UN enters its fiftieth year recognising that, though it has improved the lives of some, its work to help everyone in need of it will continue long into the future and is probably endless.
  • Alternative Title: UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: English
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNT 353
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions:
  • Featured Period: 1990-2000
  • Production Date: 1994
  • Production Country: UN
  • Production Details:
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: English
  • Technical Details: Format: Beta-SP Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 20; Running time: 17 mins 20 secs
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNT 353

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