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By Aaron Lewis
Delta Blues
Aaron Lewis travels to the oil-rich creeks of the Niger Delta where militants have been responsible for more than a decade of violence, sabotage, and hostage-taking.
Despite the hugely profitable oil industry nearby, 90% of the Niger Deltans are unemployed, and live on a few dollars a day. Their frustration and anger has led many young men to take up arms, reducing Nigeria’s oil production – once the 5th largest in the world - to a fraction of what it once was.
But now there are promising signs of peace. Having failed to defeat the rebels with military force, the government has changed tack and is now offering an amnesty from prosecution to any militant willing to disarm.
Aaron attends the disarmament ceremony of the first group of militants to take up the government’s offer. They are led by General Victor Ben, alias ‘Boyloaf’, who was once one of the rebels’ most respected battlefield tacticians, and a living nightmare for the oil companies.
“There is time for political struggle, there is time for armed struggle. And what we believe now, the time of armed struggle is over. I think we have to go into dialogue because we have to give peace a chance,” he says.
But for peace to last the government will have to address the massive under-development, environmental pollution and severe health problems in the Delta region.
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Interview with Pervez Hoodbhoy
By George Negus
Filed in:
War
,
Pakistan
,
Interviews
It's been declared a 'war zone'.
This month, the entire nation of Pakistan appears to be at war with itself as the country's brutal 'do-or-die' war against religious extremism hits fever pitch.
Following an ever increasing spate of violence in Islamabad and more brazen raids and attacks on the military, the country's military forces have finally struck back with the kind of offensive Washington and Europe have been pushing for years.
This week George Negus asks regarded Pakistani intellectual, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, 'will it work?'
According to the atomic physicist, who is also a prominent environmental and social activist, the army, "now with public support for the first time since the birth of the insurgency" has "finally mustered the will to fight".
Now, with that fight on - a major displacement of the population is also in process.
Officials have said this would be the final and perhaps most challenging of military assaults on the Pakistani Taliban, which has grown exponentially and now taken on Islamabad with unprecedented viciousness.
Find out more this Sunday 8:30 on SBS ONE.
25 years of Dateline
By Peter Charley
Filed in:
Australia
October 19 marked the 25th anniversary of Dateline. And what an extraordinary quarter century it’s been! From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the shock of September 11, from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the development of the internet and the slide into global warming, the world has experienced critical, sometimes wrenching change.
Dateline has been there to record it all – with its reporters roving the globe to bring Australian viewers a clear, intimate view of world affairs. It has not been an easy task; our journalists have been shot at, kidnapped, arrested, threatened, gassed, bombed and bashed. But they've delivered some of the most highly-acclaimed reports in the world, accumulating more than a dozen Walkley Awards (including the Gold Walkley), Rory Peck Awards, New York Film Festival awards, George Munster Independent Journalism awards, UN Peace Awards and more.
To get their stories, they've travelled to pretty much every country on earth - and in the process, they've pioneered Video Journalism - a form of story-telling that involves minimal gear and maximum courage. With no full camera crew to accompany them, our reporters now carry only a lightweight camera, a notebook, a list of contacts and a map. The result is a powerful, human perspective on the world - and Australia's place in it.
Congratulations to all at Dateline for a ground-breaking 25 years!
Peter Charley, Executive Producer
