| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (47 min. 9 sec.) ; 285302422 bytes |
| Summary |
Tonight's Cutting Edge comes from Channel 4's Dispatches program and reveals how key politicians at the heart of the vicious fighting in Somalia have incredibly close links to Britain. They have British or EU passports, their families live in Britain and they commute between Somalia and homes in English cities. British taxpayers are financing them in the name of democracy - yet in Somalia they are linked to allegations of mass murder, torture, extortion and corruption.Reporter Aidan Hartley sets off on the trail of four senior figures in Somalia's Western-backed government - an investigation which takes him from Leicester and Birmingham to Mogadishu.Among the British-Somali community there is anger and frustration that taxpayers are subsidising politicians who they claim are ruling by the gun and profit from conflict. In Leicester, one British-Somali tells how he was recently told to pay ransoms for the release of several relatives imprisoned by a senior official in the Somali government who has a house in the same Leicester neighbourhood.The leaders of the Somali government, installed almost two years ago, were expected to restore peace after years of civil war as well as destroy Al Qaeda and its allies. The capital, Mogadishu, is riven by extreme violence with vicious fighting between insurgents and the government forces a daily occurrence. Hartley investigates allegations that the government's National Security Agency is operating with extreme methods. He hears first-hand claims of false imprisonment, torture and extortion from prisoners who were only freed when their ransoms were paid.On the outskirts of Mogadishu, hundreds of thousands of terrified civilians have set up camp where they live in huts of plastic and sticks. They all rely on humanitarian aid but many are starving and ill. Aid workers rarely visit and medical aid is not being made available to these people.On his return to the UK, Hartley interviews Minister for Africa Lord Mark Malloch-Brown about British support for this Somali government that is presiding over the worst phase of conflict in 17 years of vicious civil war in Somalia. (From the UK, in English and Somali, English subtitles) (Documentary) M (L,V) CC WS |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-04-07 at 01:10:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: M |
| Subject |
Civil war.
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False imprisonment.
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Political atrocities.
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Political corruption.
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Somalis -- Politics and government.
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Warlordism and international relations.
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Somalia -- Mogadishu.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Foster, Jim, director
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Hartley, Aidan, reporter
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Wishart, Adam, director
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