OCTOBER 2005
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Wednesday, 26th October,2005
MODERATE MODERN MALAYSIA
Malaysia has often been called the most successful Muslim democracy in the world. It's true that this small nation and its Muslim Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi hold surprising sway over the direction of the Islamic world. Within Malaysia itself, the quiet emergence of a Muslim middle class has reshaped both the country's religious identity and its politics. 15 years ago it was rare to see a woman in the hijab on the streets but today, not just religious dress codes, but the public conduct of Malaysian Muslims generally, has both made bold headlines and divided the nation. Here's Aaron Lewis.
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This transcript has been amended with the correct translation -
Wednesday, 26th October,2005
LOUISE ARBOUR INTERVIEW
The Government's imminent plans to bolster its anti-terrorism laws - of Western governments giving themselves unprecedented powers to fight terrorism - powers many argue will erode the very democratic freedoms and rights they claim to be protecting. Louise Arbour is the head of the UN's Human Rights Commission about to be replaced by a new Human Rights Council that will have to tackle this global dilemma of winding back rights in the name of fighting terror. In New York recently George Negus scored a rare interview with Ms Arbour in her office in the UN tower.
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Wednesday, 26th October,2005
JIHAD JUNIOR HIGH?
When it was discovered back in July that three of London's four suicide bombers were of Pakistani descent and that two of them had visited Pakistan prior to the bombings, it again raised the spectre of Pakistan as a breeding ground for international terrorism. Pressure intensified on the Pakistani Government to rein in Islamic militants.
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Among the main targets of Western anger were Pakistan's religious schools or madrassas. For some time, critics in the West have claimed these places teach that fighting a jihad - a so-called holy war to protect Islam - is legitimate. This, they argue, is tantamount to teaching terrorism. But from inside Pakistan, the view is very different, as Dateline's Chris Hammer discovered when he recently gained rare access to the madrassas. -
Wednesday, 19th October,2005
HMONG - APOCALYPSE NOW
The effects of war can last for decades after the last shot's been fired. This is certainly the case in Laos, to our north, where the Hmong tribespeople, who fought on the American side during the Vietnam conflict, are still being pursued 30 years later by their old enemies, the Patet Lao communists, who now run Laos. Up to 20,000 Hmong have been hiding in remote jungle but, earlier this year, driven largely by starvation, they decided to risk a long trek out of their isolation. Here's Nick Lazaredes, aided by footage shot by the Hmong themselves.
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If you would like more information about Ed and Georgie Szendrey's work with the Hmong, please click on the following link: Factfinding -
Wednesday, 19th October,2005
STEPHEN DUPONT INTERVIEW
Startling scenes of what can be done in the name of a just war, by Dateline's John Martinkus and freelance photojournalist Stephen Dupont. And earlier this evening Stephen and George Negus looked at that Taliban burning footage and then talked about it here in the studio.
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Wednesday, 19th October,2005
PSYCH WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Since September 11, we've all become uncomfortably familiar with names like Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and maybe even Bagram in Afghanistan. They're all places we now associate with human rights violations or worse - military atrocities and possibly potential war crimes. But after our first story tonight, you can add another placename to that list - Gonbaz in southern Afghanistan, about a 100km from the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
In recent months, the former Muslim extremist Taliban and their al-Qa'ida allies have launched more attacks against US forces than at any time since the Americans first invaded in 2001. Earlier this month, Dateline's John Martinkus was in Afghanistan to cover their elections, but his story tonight actually starts with some startling footage from another Australian, photojournalist Stephen Dupont, who, while he was embedded with the Americans, managed to record some of the grotesque tactics being used by Australia's allies in that part of the world. Dateline should warn you that this report does include some pretty disturbing scenes, particularly for any Muslim viewers.
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Wednesday, 12th October,2005
INSIDE INDONESIA'S WAR ON TERROR
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Wednesday, 12th October,2005
IMRAN KHAN INTERVIEW
Finally tonight, to Pakistan where nature has proved, yet again, that it can provoke far more terror than humankind ever can. For the past 48 hours, Pakistani cricket legend, these days a politician, Imran Khan, has been travelling through those parts of his electorate that copped the full force of the weekend's earthquake. Earlier today, George Negus tracked him down by phone as he and his aid team drove into the foothills of the North-West Frontier Province, the epicentre of the disaster.
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Wednesday, 12th October,2005
INSIDE INDONESIA'S WAR ON TERROR
Today - as you would almost certainly know - is the third anniversary of the first Bali bombing and our major report tonight provides an alarming twist to the ongoing terror campaign being waged in Indonesia. David O'Shea, a long-time "Indonesia-watcher", reports that where terrorism is concerned in that country - with its culture of corruption within the military, the police, the intelligence services and politics itself - all is never quite what it seems.
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Wednesday, 5th October,2005
INSIDE THE LAO GAI
When someone gets around to writing the black chapters in the history of the 20th century, you can be pretty sure that Hitler's concentration camps and Stalin's Siberian gulags will get dishonourable mention. But what about their Chinese equivalents - the lao gai, or labour camps, still a brutal, hidden scar on the Chinese landscape?
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In June this year - on the heels of Chen Yong Lin here in Australia - another defector surfaced in Canada with insider knowledge of the system. Han Guansheng ran four labour camps and two prisons in China, making him one of the highest-ranking defectors to have emerged. In his first in-depth television interview, Han confirms what other dissidents have been saying for years that the laogai are hell on earth. A warning, Aaron Lewis's exclusive report contains graphic images that could disturb some viewers. -
Wednesday, 5th October,2005
WIMAR WITOELAR INTERVIEW
Last weekend's explosions in Bali were a shocking reminder that Indonesia continues to be used by religious fanatics for violent political ends. The question remains though, what are those ends? What exactly motivates not just Indonesian suicide bombers, but terrorists generally calling themselves Islamic Jihadists? John Howard and Alexander Downer say Bali is all about destabilising Indonesia, Kim Beazley says the terror group Jemaah Islamiah should be banned. More broadly, others ask how come the likes of the Bali bombers and al-Qa'ida can justify killing innocents - while other Muslims decry terrorism as much as the rest of us? Professor Wimar Witoelar was an adviser to Indonesian President Wahid. He is currently an academic and journalist and earlier this evening George Negus raised these issues with him from Jakarta.
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Wednesday, 5th October,2005
PAKISTAN'S DIRTY LINEN
As you would have picked up from a Dateline interview with President Pervez Musharraf a couple of months back, Pakistan is a nation with a split personality - a dictatorship with a democratic veneer, a modern state based on feudalism and tribalism. And probably no recent incident captures this dichotomy better than the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, an illiterate villager who defied centuries of tradition by standing up to her attackers. In the process, Mukhtar has become a hero of the international women's movement - as well as a political thorn in the side of the Musharraf government. Elizabeth Tadic reports.
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