FEBRUARY 2004
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
MOUWAFAK AL-RUBII INTERVIEW
Mark Davis spoke to Mouwafak al-Rubii a short time ago in Baghdad.
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
IRAQ BACKGROUNDER
And finally to Iraq, where the US remains committed to transferring power to a hand-picked council on June 30. Many Iraqis, including the country’s most senior religious figure, the Grand Ayatollah Sistani, have demanded that power should only be transferred to a directly elected body. The UN was called in to help broker a solution and its report has just been released. But it seems the report may not please anyone. It says that a proper election could not be held this year but has no comment on who should rule after June 30. Ayatollah Sistani’s reaction to this news is still unclear. He won’t deal directly with the Americans but has a number of messengers to convey his views, one of them is Mouwafak al-Rubii, who we’ll be speaking with in a moment.
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
PALESTINIAN HIP HOP
To the Middle East where protest music has taken a new twist. Unlikely as it seems, young Israelis are flocking to nightclubs to hear the latest Palestinian rap groups, singing about the Intifada and life under occupation. Matthew Carney reports.
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
BEN REILLY INTERVIEW
While China is angry about being snubbed by Kiribati, it continues to steadily expand its presence in the Pacific. To assess these strategic developments, Mark Davis spoke with Dr Ben Reilly from the Australian National University, the author of a recent report on China in the Pacific, called "Dragon in Paradise."
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
PAWN OF THE PACIFIC
Over the past decade, China has been wooing small nations across the Pacific as part of it’s strategy to expand its power base in the region and win votes at the UN for its anti-Taiwan policy. It’s a game Taiwan has proved equally adept at playing. They have recently convinced the tiny nation of Kiribati to ditch its old suitor China and come into the Taiwanese camp. The Chinese, are not impressed and as Thom Cookes reports this strategic tug of war is having a major impact on Kiribati politics.
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Wednesday, 25th February,2004
KIRIBATI - PAWN OF THE PACIFIC
In recent weeks world leaders including George Bush and Jacques Chirac have supported China in its condemnation of a Taiwanese referendum. On the island republic of Kiribati however Taiwan is winning the diplomatic cold war. Screening Wednesday February 25 at 8.30pm, SBS DATELINE reports on how events there have important consequences for superpowers China and America and for the Australian government.
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Reporter Thom Cookes reports that since Kiribati became independent in 1979 the country has had good relations with China as well as a resident Chinese ambassador. During the country’s recent election campaign presidential candidate Anote Tong denied any plans to change the relationship. Despite this, once in power Tong invited Taiwan to open an embassy and send an ambassador. His predecessor as Kiribati president, Teburoro Tito, accuses Tong of accepting bribes from the Taiwanese to further their interests. Tong responds by alleging Tito’ s party took money from the Chinese. The suggestion is that both countries are directly manipulating the political process in Kiribati.
The Chinese reacted swiftly and dramatically to the invitation to Taiwan – issuing an open letter demanding the decision be reversed, closing a $7 million sports centre and withdrawing four specialist doctors from the capital.
At stake for China was the fate of its only offshore satellite tracking station. This sensitive facility, located on Kiribati, played a crucial support role when China launched its first man into space last year. It was also widely believed to have had another valuable role – that of spying on American tests of the missile defence shield which take place in the Marshall Islands, immediately neighbouring Kiribati. To China’s fury the tracking station has now been closed.
Another reason China and Taiwan bother fighting so fiercely over diplomatic recognition from tiny countries such as Kiribati is United Nations’ votes. The four island states that currently recognise Taiwan will, on a regular basis, be in a position to vote in favour of Taiwan’s membership of the UN. China is seeking to prevent this and also wishes to shore up its relationship with friendly states in the Pacific so that if it decides to increase its military presence there it will find support in the region.
While American security interests might have benefited from Kiribati’s new alliance, Australia, for its part, has criticised the realignment. President Tong comments, “I have had formal representation from the Australians saying we should reconsider the entire policy…I suspect that Australia has its own agenda with China and we have upset that.”
Taiwan has now taken over the financing of the sports facility and is discussing financial support for other projects. Discussing the new relationship with Taiwan, President Tong says, “No foreign investors have been very much attracted to our part of the world… without being able to do this, our future as a nation is totally in question.” -
Wednesday, 18th February,2004
GOLOD: THE HUNGER HOUSE
Until recently the term ’Big Brother’ conjured up the all-pervading authoritarianism of the Soviet State. Most people now think of it as a reality television franchise. The latest incarnation of the ’Big Brother’ format has taken off in the country that first inspired the term. The Russian version is set in a house in Germany, it’s created a barrage of protest in that country but has taken Russia by storm, as Kim Traill reports.
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Wednesday, 18th February,2004
MAXINE WATERS INTERVIEW
As the troubled Caribbean country of Haiti descends into civil war, the situation grows murkier by the day. The USA is publicly maintaining an arms length approach to the crisis but now a member of the US Congress is making an extraordinary claim. Democrat Maxine Waters alleges that senior members of US state department are closely linked with what she calls thugs in the opposition who are launching a coup d’etat. Having just returned from Haiti she has accused sections of the state department of secretly backing a plot to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Mark Davis spoke to her earlier today from California.
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Wednesday, 18th February,2004
SENATOR CHRIS ELLISON INTERVIEW
Earlier this week, the Australian Federal Police announced that it would station an officer in Bali to deal with sex tourism and other crimes. But is this too little too late? Joining Mark Davis from Perth is Justice Minister, Senator Chris Ellison.
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Wednesday, 18th February,2004
BALI ATROCITIES
The arrest in Bali last month of Australian William Stuart Brown for sex offences against children has again thrown the spotlight on paedophile activity by Australians in Indonesia. As David O’Shea reports, paedophilia has now become widespread in Bali, where economic hardship is fuelling the trade in sex. This investigation reveals new allegations of organised networks and a host of tragedies that have gone unnoticed and unpunished. Of course the impact on the victims is devastating and tonight’s report is not appropriate for children or others who may find parts of it disturbing.
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Wednesday, 11th February,2004
GREG RUSHFORD INTERVIEW
Australian commentators are still divided over what the real impact of our new trade deal with the US will be. For an US perspective, Mark Davis spoke with Greg Rushford publisher of the Rushford Report, one of Americas most influential
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Wednesday, 11th February,2004
AL SHARPTON - RUNNING FOR A REASON
Of the five candidates still left in the American Democratic Party primaries the most flamboyant is the Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton has no chance of getting into the White House but he still may decide who does. Olivia Rousset reports.
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Wednesday, 11th February,2004
DR SAMINA AHMED INTERVIEW
While we’ve been launching wars in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that apparently aren’t there one of America’s allies, Pakistan, has just been exposed for smuggling WMD technology to some of the worlds most unstable nations. It’s just the work of one rogue nuclear scientist according to Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf has positioned himself as a key ally in the war on terror, but according to a report, just released by the International Crisis Group, America may be making a serious mistake in placating and supporting the Pakistani leader. Mark Davis spoke to the report’s author Dr Samina Ahmed a short time ago from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
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Wednesday, 11th February,2004
BURMA - DEALING WITH THE DEVIL
To Burma, where things are looking up for the military dictators there. The two greatest thorns in their side have been democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the Karen National Liberation Army. The ethnic Karen look like they’re on the verge of striking a deal with the generals, leaving Aung San Suu Kyi still under house arrest and increasingly isolated. Ginny Stein reports from inside Burma.
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Wednesday, 11th February,2004
BURMESE GOVERNMENT ENTERS HISTORIC TALKS
DATELINE on Wednesday, February 11 at 8.30pm, reports on historic ceasefire talks between the Burmese Government and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
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The KNLA is the only armed ethnic group in Burma never to have surrendered or signed a permanent ceasefire in a 55-year conflict with the Burmese military. Now the KNLA are holding discussions with Burma’s generals about a possible ceasefire to be followed by their involvement in a national assembly, the first step in the military regime’s so called “road map” to democracy.
The presence of the KNLA at a proposed national convention, in the capital Rangoon, to write a new constitution would be a boost for Burma’s generals. The mere fact of the KNLA having entered into talks with the military could already be seen as legitimising a government which has become an international pariah.
Ginny Stein travelled from Thailand into Burma where she interviewed KNLA Colonel Nerdah Mya. When asked if the Karen were sidelining the Burmese Opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who continues under house arrest, he said:
"Even in the past she is a symbol for democracy but she is not our leader, we have our Karen leader who is trying to achieve the freedom and democracy, freedom and self-determination rights for the equality for the Karen people."
He added: "We recognise her as a symbol for democracy in Burma but she is not our leader."
The colonel also said: "She has been locked up for 10 years already, there has to be a change, she cannot do much so we have to find many ways, we have to use new tactics to achieve our goal."
Colonel Nerdah Mya is the son of General Bo Mya, the military leader of the Karen rebels. The colonel explains that the Karen’s key demands of the government are that the Karen state is recognised, that the rebels retain their arms and do not formally surrender, and that they are granted political autonomy. -
Wednesday, 4th February,2004
HANS BLIX INTERVIEW
The UN’s chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, was in the middle of the intelligence furore last year. Recently retired, what does he now make of the British, American and Australian claims that Saddam’s weapons posed a clear and immediate danger? Mark Davis spoke with him a short time ago from Stockholm.
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Wednesday, 4th February,2004
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?
Britain and the US have announced inquiries into the reliability of the intelligence surrounding Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. For its part, the Australian Government has no such plans. In a moment Dateline will be speaking to former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix about the use or misuse of intelligence. But first, Irene Ulman reports on whether it was intelligence agencies or political leaders who made errors in the lead-up to the war.
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Wednesday, 4th February,2004
IRAQ FRACTURED
It’s been a tough week for the coalition of the willing. President Bush, Tony Blair and now John Howard have acknowledged that the assertions they used to justify the invasion of Iraq may have been wrong. Later, we’ll talk with former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix for his response. But first to the current situation in Iraq. The US Administration wants to hand over power by July to a transitional government. But is the country ready? Matthew Carney reports.
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Wednesday, 4th February,2004
US FACES FAILURE OVER IRAQI CRISIS?
On Wednesday, February 4 at 8.30pm, Matthew Carney reports for DATELINE on the deepening crisis in Iraq as the battles over the country’s future government and security forces continue.
In this report Matthew Carney:- Spends a day with Muwaffick Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who plays a crucial role in keeping the peace between the Shi’ites and the Americans. He is the key contact between the most powerful Shi’ite leader in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the American administration. The Americans want the governing council and regional forums to select a transitional government but Sistani is calling for direct elections. He has brought tens of thousands of Shi’ites out onto the streets supporting his proposal. Sistani refuses to meet any American administrators but meets with Rubaie regularly.
- Is present when a man fires on Rubaie, who has already survived two assassination attempts and a suicide bombing.
- Looks at the problem of making Iraq secure. An estimated 10,000 Iraqi civilians and 500 American soldiers have died since America’s invasion. America plans to have a new Iraqi army of 20,000 soldiers by September this year. The signs are not promising however – half of the first battalion, nearly 400 men, deserted over pay and conditions and many Iraqis see them as no more than collaborators with the American occupiers. Meanwhile, the 400,000 Iraqis who were dismissed from the old Iraqi army are now without jobs or futures in a country experiencing 50 percent unemployment.
- Meets coalition officers including Australians who are running an officer training school to try to instil democratic ideals into the future leadership of the new Iraqi army.
- Reports on the continuing threat, despite the arrest of Saddam Hussein, from Sunni Muslims who were the ruling minority during his dictatorship. They have now lost that privilege and feel alienated from the American administration and the Iraqi Governing Council. Sunni Muslim groups across Iraq have now set up the State Council for Iraq which is dedicated to expelling the Americans from their country. They claim to be a political party with no links to armed resistance but the Americans do not believe this and broke up their first meeting, arresting 32 of their members. Read more...
- Spends a day with Muwaffick Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who plays a crucial role in keeping the peace between the Shi’ites and the Americans. He is the key contact between the most powerful Shi’ite leader in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the American administration. The Americans want the governing council and regional forums to select a transitional government but Sistani is calling for direct elections. He has brought tens of thousands of Shi’ites out onto the streets supporting his proposal. Sistani refuses to meet any American administrators but meets with Rubaie regularly.
