AUGUST 2004
-
Wednesday, 1st September,2004
JUSTICE AT THE CROSSROADS
Yesterday in The Hague, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic began his defence on war crimes charges, saying he intends to call 1,600 witnesses, including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Critics of the trial say it’s already taking far too long and that the tribunal is soaking up funds better spent elsewhere. Tonight Graham Blewitt, who has just resigned as deputy prosecutor, airs his concerns about the future of the tribunal and warns that war criminals may go free because of bad decisions being made at the top. Irene Ulman has more.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 1st September,2004
DR BRUNO TERTRAIS INTERVIEW
As Dateline goes to air tonight, two French journalists held hostage in Iraq may be facing execution. Their captors claim the journalists will be killed unless the French Government repeals its ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves at schools and colleges. The ban will be tested, and perhaps the journalists’ fate decided, tomorrow - the first day of the French school year. Dr Bruno Tertrais from the Foundation of Strategic Research joins us from Paris to discuss how these events have affected the mood in France.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 1st September,2004
MAHER ARAR - HIS ROAD TO DAMASCUS
As Dateline alleged last month, Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was severely tortured in Egypt, where he’d been sent by the United States as part of its policy of ’rendition’ - the outsourcing of interrogation and torture to countries known for their human rights abuses. Canada is now dealing with a case that is eerily similar to Mamdouh Habib’s. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen passing through the US, was seized by the Americans and sent to Syria, where he was allegedly tortured to extract information for the Americans. But it seems there was nothing to extract. Bronwyn Adcock reports.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 1st September,2004
MAHER ARAR - HIS ROAD TO DAMASCUS
On SBS Television’s DATELINE this Wednesday, September 1 at 8.30pm, Bronwyn Adcock reports on how the United States government sent a Canadian citizen to Syria to be tortured. This story follows Adcock’s groundbreaking report on how Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was similarly “rendered’ to another country, in his case Egypt, to be interrogated using torture.
Read more...
This report looks at how –
*Canadian citizen Maher Arar was arrested on the way home from a holiday in Tunisia, while on a stopover at JFK airport. What he thought was going to be a routine inquiry became a ten month long nightmare. Arar was suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda. During 12 days of interrogation Arar was told he would be sent to Syria, a country he left when he was aged 17.
*Despite his protests Arar, without any extradition hearing, was flown to Syria by an American “Special Removal Unit”. Once there he was locked in an underground cellar. He was beaten and psychologically tortured including being forced to listen to the cries of other torture victims. He says to try to stop the torture he finally gave a false confession that he had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
*When Maher Arar was released he called for a public inquiry into why the Canadian government did not better protect his rights as a Canadian citizen. An inquiry with wide-ranging powers is now underway. Arar’s American lawyer, who also represents Mamdouh Habib, has called for Australia to also hold an inquiry into what the government knew.
*Washington Post journalist Dana Priest has investigated the American government’s practice of rendering terror suspects to third countries. She has spoken with serving and former administration staff involved in the practice which can be summed up by the comment, “We don’t kick the shit out of them. We have someone else do that.” -
Monday, 30th August,2004
For the coming two weeks Dateline is making way for the SBS coverage of the Olympic Games.
Read more...
We are back on Wednesday 1 September, at the usual 8.30 pm, with a story by Bronwyn Adcock.
This story is a flow-on from our recent report about Mamdou Habib. In the light of that case we look at another, remarkably similar one: a Canadian citizen is abducted by the US and spends months being interrogated in a Syrian jail. His case has sparked an uproar in Canada. -
Wednesday, 11th August,2004
ALEXANDER DOWNER INTERVIEW
Two nights ago, Malcolm Turnbull - the high-profile Liberal candidate for the blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth - reopened the Iraq debate, suggesting that the invasion may have been an error. His comment came hard on the heels of a letter produced by 43 retired military and diplomatic figures who criticised the Government for its deception in leading the country to war and for its unquestioning support of the Bush Administration, undermining faith in government here, they claim, and Australia’s reputation around the world. Mark Davis discussed those issues with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer earlier this evening.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 11th August,2004
OSCAR TEMARU
The colony of French Polynesia gained notoriety in Australia as the testing ground for nuclear weapons at Mururoa Atoll. In the mid 1980s, local opposition to the tests was led by the charismatic local Oscar Temaru. He demanded an end to the tests and independence for his people. Following elections last month, Temaru became French Polynesia’s new President. Nick Lazaredes reports on whether his rise to the top job signals trouble for French control of the colony
Read more... -
Wednesday, 11th August,2004
TALIBAN COUNTRY
Earlier this year when the photographs of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib became public, they sent shockwaves around the world. The abuse of the naked men in humiliating positions seemed deliberately designed to offend the religious and cultural sensitivities of Islamic prisoners. The Americans claimed however, that this treatment was isolated and had been stopped. But tonight there are new allegations of bizarre tactics being used by US marines in Afghanistan, as recently as June, Carmela Baranowska reports.
Read more...
We put all those allegations to the US authorities and tonight they confirmed that 35 villagers were detained on June 23. They say they do not have any records of any abuse but have, in the light of our program, announced an inquiry into the matter. -
Wednesday, 4th August,2004
MR SOAPSUDS' REVENGE
The upcoming governor’s election for Bangkok has one stand-out candidate - Thailand’s biggest and most notorious massage parlour tycoon. While that would normally raise eyebrows, it’s his decision to take on corrupt Thai police and politicians that has gained him popularity, not just notoriety. And, as Ginny Stein reports, he now stands a good chance of being elected to the top job in Bangkok.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 4th August,2004
HELEN CLARK INTERVIEW
Mark Davis spoke with Prime Minister, Helen Clark from her office in Wellington.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 4th August,2004
NEW ZEALAND BACKGROUNDER
Despite the wrangling over Labor’s amendment to the Free trade Agreement, both parties now seem to agree that it’s in Australia’s interest. When the agreement was first proposed it was to include New Zealand. But in recent years, New Zealand’s increasingly independent stance seems to have caused offence in Washington and Canberra. Is New Zealand now paying the price? In a moment Mark Davis will be speaking to Prime Minister Helen Clark but first, Kate MacDonald with some background.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 4th August,2004
LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS
Yesterday, the trial began for Private Lynndie England, the woman who, more than any other, became the face of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. The US military has maintained that the abuse of prisoners in Iraq was the work of rogue soldiers like England and poor supervision. Whatever the cause, US authorities insist that those practices have now ended. Tonight, author and journalist John Martinkus reveals a rather different account.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 4th August,2004
LOOSING HEARTS AND MINDS
How America Has Alienated The People of Iraq
Read more...
On SBS Television’s DATELINE, on Wednesday, August 4 at 8.30pm, reporter John Martinkus looks at how the behaviour of the US military in Iraq has turned Iraqis who once supported the ousting of Saddam Hussein into America’s enemies.
US forces are desperate to break the networks of insurgents who daily plant bombs, fire mortars and rockets at American bases, attack patrols and assassinate those who work with the Americans. This DATELINE report claims that the methods being employed by the Americans, including torture and intimidation, are in fact only strengthening the insurgency.
John Martinkus films American forces on a raid. These have become daily occurrences in Iraq and are aimed at finding those involved in the insurgency so that they can be arrested and interrogated. But as the suspects are rounded up civilians’ houses are often destroyed and their money and valuables confiscated and never returned. Even more damaging to American/Iraqi relations is the rounding up of civilians who are then locked up on the shakiest of evidence and interrogated with no charges ever being laid.
In this DATELINE report several ex-prisoners claim that maltreatment and torture of detainees is not the exception, as was claimed in the case of Abu Ghraib, but the rule. They allege that it is an established part of military policy to fight the insurgency. They testify that this systematic abuse is guaranteed to create enemies of those who are subjected to it.
