BBC news 2009-05-23 加文本

BBC 2009-05-23


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BBC News with Nick Kelly.

The BBC has been granted access to parts of the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, where the Pakistani army is waging an offensive against Taliban militants. A BBC correspondent was taken to a mountain ridge which the military said had been an important Taliban base until its recent capture. Our correspondent said she saw long tunnels used by the militants as protection from aerial bombardment and deep underground bunkers showing how well entrenched they’d been. An army spokesman said the bases captured demonstrated the success of the offensive, but there is still more fighting to do. Twice before, the army’s failed to dislodge the Taliban, but this time it will be different, says commanding officer, Major-General Sajjid Ghani.

“Military has sufficient capacity; we have sufficient boots on ground, er, to be able to eliminate Taliban from this area. Then the entire nation is behind this operation. We have the popular support of the populace of Pakistan”.

A Canadian court has convicted a man from Rwanda on charges of genocide in the first test of a law that allows Canadian residents to be charged for crimes committed abroad. The man Desire Munyaneza was accused of setting up roadblocks during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 and orchestrating the killings of hundreds of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Lee Carter reports from Toronto.

Mr. Munyaneza was arrested in 2005 in the suburbs of Toronto where he’d been living with his family after seeking asylum in Canada, a request that was turned down. Emotional testimony was heard during the two-year trial from survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. The verdict is expected to be appealed and the case could end up in Canada’s Supreme Court.

The United Nations says there has been a breakthrough in talks to resolve the political crisis in Madagascar. The UN special envoy Tiebile Drame told the BBC he’d reached a deal for an inclusive transitional government involving all parties and fresh elections. Jonny Hogg reports.

Mr. Drame told the BBC that the various political parties had agreed to an inclusive transitional government and would set up a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission in an attempt to heal some of the wounds caused by the numerous political crises the country has suffered. Perhaps the most controversial agreement is that all former and current presidents including Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, would be eligible to stand in upcoming presidential elections, a decision which Mr. Drame described as unfortunate. The international community had rather suggested that none should stand for fear that it would destabilize the country further.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in Sri Lanka to press for unrestricted access by aid agencies to civilians caught up in the recent fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels. He is the first world leader to visit Sri Lanka since the government said earlier this week that it’d finally beaten the 30-year rebel insurgency.

World News from the BBC.

The Bolivian President Evo Morales has opened celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Latin-America’s independence struggle, saying the region is undergoing a second liberation. Candace Piette reports from Ravelo Andean, Bolivia.

In the main square of the small agricultural town of Ravelo, President Morales addressed a crowd of his supporters, many were indigenous peasants who had walked miles to greet him. President Morales said he had come to pay homage to the Indian fighters for independence born in the region. He said the colonies had been designed to extract natural resources from the continent, but also to exterminate the Indians, but said the president across the continent in countries like Bolivia, they fought back and continue to fight back to this day.

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been sworn in for a new term in office at an elaborate ceremony at the presidential palace in Delhi. He becomes the first Indian prime minister since India’s independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year-term.

A top security official in Mexico has resigned following the release of footage from a prison’s security camera, showing inmates walking out of jail in northern Mexico as guards stood by. The official, Alejandro Rojas Chalico who’s the public security minister for the state of Zacatecas where the prison is located, stepped down 6 days after 53 prisoners broke out with the help of a convoy of escape vehicles. They include members of a powerful drugs cartel. Correspondent said the video footage provides a rare insight into lax security at Mexican prisons.

And there has been a day of heavy fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu after pro-government forces confined to a tiny sector of the city tried to regain some ground against the Al-Shabaab militia. Our BBC correspondent in Mogadishu says heavy mortar and artillery fire continued for much of the day, and medical sources said more than 20 people had been killed.