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Ukraine foreign minister: Law enforcement must be decisive
By Mick Krever, CNN
Ukrainian law enforcement must be “more decisive” in fighting separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, that country’s foreign minster, Andrii Deshchytsia, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
Operations have recently been suspended, he said, but vowed they would continue, because “separatist groups did not stop.”
“They have been in the last few days taking more and more buildings, and terrorizing more civil population.”
“So I think that we, the Ukrainian government and the law enforcement forces have to be more decisive, and actually what people from the region are expecting from us.”
Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine have decided to go ahead with a Sunday referendum on greater local powers, they said Thursday, defying a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone the vote.
Putin had urged the pro-Russia sympathizers to delay the referendum to give dialogue "the conditions it needs to have a chance."
“What he should do is to ask to stop the referendum,” Deshchytsia said.
Defector: Shadowy organization, not Kim Jong Un, controls North Korea
By Mick Krever, CNN
Who controls the Hermit Kingdom?
According to a North Korean defector – a former regime insider who was one of Kim Jong Il’s favorite poet-propagandists – it is not the 31-year-old dictator Kim Jong Un.
“When Kim Jong Il died and Kim Jong Un succeeded him, people saw the transfer of power from father to son,” Jang Jin-Sung told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in London. “What they did not see also was what happened to the apparatus of the totalitarian system that supported the rule of Kim Jong Il.”
That apparatus, Jang said, is the Organization and Guidance Department, or OGD – it was Kim Jong Il’s education as he rose through the ranks, and was full of his university friends.
It is an “old-boy’s network” made into a massive surveillance organization.
“Kim Jong Il had the OGD as his old boys' network,” Jang told Amanpour. “Kim Jong-un may have friends in his Swiss school, but he has no one inside North Korea.”
Jang is the author of a new book, "Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea."
“After the execution of Jang Song Thaek [Kim Jong Un’s uncle], he has become an orphan – not just in terms of family connections, but in terms of politics.”
“He's a political orphan.”
Future of the rainbow nation
As South Africa holds elections, Christiane Amanpour speaks with Thuli Madonsela, the country's Public Protector.
Click above to watch.
Kofi Annan: I wish Nigeria action had come sooner
By Mick Krever, CNN
Action by the Nigerian government and international partners to go after the group that has held more than 200 girls captive in that country should have come sooner, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
“I think the government should do all it can to get the girls free,” he said, “and I’m very happy that the U.S., the U.K., and other governments are teaming up with Nigeria to resolve this issue.”
“I wish this had happened earlier, but it is happening, and the Nigerian people are also demanding action.”
Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls last month, and Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has come under fire after waiting three weeks to publicly acknowledge the kidnappings.
The Nigerian government also now accepted U.S. and British offers of assistance, officials with those governments said.
The kidnapping, Annan said, are “abominable.”
“It is something that should not be happening in modern-day Africa.”
Annan is uniquely placed to address the issue.
Malala Yousafzai: 'Girls in Nigeria are my sisters'
Malala Yousafzai, the world’s most famous advocate for girls’ right to education, tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that "girls in Nigeria are my sisters."
Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban in her native country in 2012. The group targeted her because of our outspoken support for girls' education.
She says that Boko Haram, which kidnapped nearly 300 girls in Nigeria, does not understand Islam.
"I think they haven’t studied Islam yet, they haven’t studied Quran yet, and they should go and they should learn Islam," she told Amanpour from Birmingham, in the UK, where she has been living and attending school. (She is now the face of The Malala Fund.)
"I think that they should think of these girls as their own sisters. How can one imprison his own sisters and treat them in such a bad way?"
You can see Amanpour's full interview with Malala below. FULL POST
Russian President Putin annexes ... words
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
So begins George's Orwell's novel, “1984,” the iconic tale of totalitarianism and government mind control.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin is now honoring journalists for their coverage of his country’s annexation of Crimea, bloggers with more than 3,000 visitors per day will now have to register with the government, and swear words will be banned in films, TV, theater and other media.
Clocks are striking 13 all over the country. Christiane Amanpour has the story; click above to watch.
Nigeria’s government acting like children, says Nobel-winning author Wole Soyinka
By Mick Krever, CNN
The search for more than 200 girls in Nigeria is now “beyond the capacity” of the government and needs international support, Nigerian author Wole Soyinka told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“This is a government which is not only in denial mentally, but in denial about certain obvious steps to take,” Soyinka, a Nobel laureate who is often referred to as the conscience of his nation, told Amanpour.
“It’s one of those rather child-like situations that if you shut your eyes, if you don’t exhibit the tactile evidence of the missing humanity here, that somehow the problem will go away.”
It is not just “a Nigerian problem,” he said.
“I’m calling for the international community, the United Nations – this is a problem. This is a global problem. And a foothold is being very deeply entrenched in West Africa.”
EXCLUSIVE: Gerry Adams tells Amanpour he is innocent
By Dominique van Heerden
“I reject absolutely any allegation made against me”, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview following four days in police custody in connection with the 1972 abduction and killing of mother of ten Jean McConville.
He was released without charge on Sunday.
“I am innocent of any involvement whatsoever in any conspiracy or of any of the events including the abduction, the killing, or the burial of Mrs Jean McConville” he told Amanpour, adding that he went to the Police Services of Northern Ireland voluntarily.
“When this became a matter of public speculation two months ago I contacted PSNI through my solicitor and said I was available to talk to them.”
Adams, 65, has long denied having any role in the death of McConville, a widow who was killed by the IRA four decades ago because the group believed she was a spy for the British army.
The Belfast Project and Adams' arrest
Following her exclusive interview with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, Christiane Amanpour spoke to Ed Moloney, a journalist who ran the so-called Belfast Project at Boston College in the United States – a collection of interviews forming an oral history of the Troubles. Adams was detained largely on the basis of the allegations made in these interviews.
Click above to watch Amanpour's interview with Ed Moloney.
‘Clearly’ Russia’s economy has suffered, IMF chief Christine Lagarde says
By Mick Krever, CNN
There have “clearly” been consequences for the Russian economy because of the crisis in Ukraine, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
The IMF said Wednesday that the Russian economy was in recession, and is expected to grow by only 0.2% in 2014.
“If you look at the monetary policy, if you look at the capital flows, if you look at their own forecast, there have been consequences on the Russian economy as a result of the geopolitical situation, the uncertainty, and the sanctions that have been decided,” Lagarde told Amanpour.
In a key sign of international support for Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund approved a $17.1 billion bailout for the country on Thursday.
The bailout, Lagarde, said, is “obviously not without risk, but it's a necessity to respond to a member's request.”
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