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The epic struggle of the human experience
A special, extended version of Christiane Amanpour's interview with leading paleaontologist Chris Stringer at London's Natural History Museum from our program earlier in the week.
Hague: We want Winter Olympic Games to be successful
CNN's Christiane Amanpour talks to UK Foreign Secretary about the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Hague: Assad "not intending to budge"
CNN's Christiane Amanpour talks to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague about the conflict in Syria and recent protests in Bosnia.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague sits down for wide-ranging interview with Christiane Amanpour
By Dominique van Heerden, CNN
As heads of state met in London for a major anti-poaching conference, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about everything from poaching, to conflict in the Central African Republic and Syria, and the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Wildlife poaching
The British government has just hosted the Illegal Wildlife Trading Conference in the hopes they, along with affected countries, can find a solution to protect the world’s most iconic species from extinction, because “we are in the eleventh hour”.
“Rhino populations have been devastated with one killed every ten or eleven hours at the moment. The illegal trade in ivory has doubled in the last six years,” Hague tells Amanpour.
Incidents of poaching are on the rise fueled by a growing demand for ivory and rhino horn in Asia.
There are also concerns that poaching is helping to fund violent groups in the region.
When asked what he expected to be different after this conference, Hague says this is a “turning point,” citing an important combination of measures that African countries are going to take, including destroying stockpiles of ivory.
And it’s not just African countries who have pledged to take action; he says the countries through whom these products are transported have committed to do more to intercept illegal ivory and “treat the trade as serious organized crime”.
“This is a moral issue that these great animals have as much right to inhabit this world as we do…”
Crisis in the Central African Republic
Another major problem stalking the African continent is the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic, where the United Nations is warning of “ethnic cleansing” as fighting between Muslims and Christians spirals out of control.
Although there are already French troops in the country, and thousands of African forces are being deployed, Hague says they need more help, and “more help is coming from Europe”.
Britain will not be sending troops to the Central African Republic though, instead they will help with humanitarian aid and logistical support, “but other European countries are going to do more,” Hague tells Amanpour, and he says it is “absolutely crucial” to have the involvement and support of other African states.
Assad “not intending to budge”
Christiane Amanpour also spoke to the UK’s Foreign Secretary about Syria, and the lack of progress in trying to find a solution to the country’s civil war. As the latest round of Geneva talks failed to bring about any notable progress, William Hague says President Bashar al-Assad is “clearly not intending to budge”.
“This has gone backwards and forwards over three years now. And so I think it would be a mistake for this regime to think it’s now so strong it doesn’t need to do anything.”
Britain is still providing help to the opposition, “practical support that isn’t lethal,” Hague says.
“We’ve never taken the position in any of these conflicts that we send lethal supplies. And it’s very hard for us to guarantee what happens to those lethal supplies. And that, of course, is a major difficulty for us.”
He adds that he is “not holding out any prospect” of changing position on lethal supplies in the near future, but says that Britain does want to be able to send “more practical support of other kinds that saves lives”.
The conflict in Syria is creeping closer to home for Britain where there are reports of British nationals traveling to Syria to fight in the war. Hague calls these reports “credible”.
“Hundreds of people from Britain and many other Western countries involved in going to fight in Syria and that is a huge concern for us,” he says.
Asked how he plans to tackle the problem, Hague tells Amanpour there are some actions they can take, like depriving people of their passports and canceling visas for those who are resident in the UK, who they “believe are a threat”.
But ultimately, he says, “the solution lies in resolving the conflict in Syria… That is the only long-term answer to this”.
A final thought on Sochi
There was a lot of uproar in the weeks leading up to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi over concerns about security and human rights in Russia.
But despite the “differences” between Britain and Russia, William Hague says he wants it all to go well.
“We want any Olympics anywhere in the world to be successful and to be safe,” he says, “and yes we have some differences with Russia over some issues such as LGBT rights, but we want them to succeed in hosting a successful Olympics”.
Click on videos above to watch Amanpour's extensive interview with William Hague.
Actor Steve Coogan on faith, film and 'Philomena'
Tanzania’s Blood Ivory: “This is madness now”
“At independence Tanzania had 350,000 elephants… in 1987 there were only 55,000 elephants left.”
That’s the dire message from the president of Tanzania, who spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about his country’s battle against wildlife poaching.
President Jakaya Kikwete joined Amanpour in London, where heads of state are meeting to find a solution to end poaching before it’s too late.
“This is madness now, it is just impossible… it’s a serious matter.”
Incidents of poaching are on the rise fueled by a growing demand for ivory and rhino horn in Asia. There are also concerns that poaching is helping to fund violent groups in the region.
When it comes to destroying ivory stockpiles, as countries like the United States and China have done in the past, President Kikwete says his country is considering doing the same thing to show it is an unacceptable trade.
“We have about 112 tonnes of ivory… we used to have the idea of asking permission to sell, but we don’t think, these are not the times”.
It’s not the right time, he says, because it was the relaxation of laws that opened the door to more poaching in the first place.
Gay rights in Tanzania
Another topic dominating headlines is that of gay rights on the African continent.
In Tanzania homosexuality is illegal, punishable with long prison sentences. When asked whether it’s time to stop criminalising people who are in consensual relationships, President Kikwete told Amanpour it will “take time for our people to accept the norms that the west is accepting”.
And when pressed on whether he wants to see that happen, he told Amanpour “I cannot say that now”.
Click above to watch the full interview with President Kikwete.
“It’s a scene of absolute brutality”
Peter Bouckaert, Emergency Director of Human Rights Watch, has just returned from the Central African Republic.
Peter, along with his HRW team, has given this program exclusive footage documenting horrific violence, destruction and the mass exodus of Muslims from the country which the United Nations says amounts to “ethnic cleansing”.
Peter Bouckaert told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour “the Muslim population of the Central African Republic is facing an unprecedented wave of violence”.
“We were in the country for just over three weeks and personally witnessed 12 lynching’s or attempted lynching’s… it’s a scene of absolute brutality in the Central African Republic at the moment,” he says.
The Central African Republic was plunged into chaos last year after a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels dubbed ‘Seleka’ ousted president Francois Bozize.
They have since been forced out of power but Christian militias known as the anti-balaka have been allowed to fill the power vacuum.
Peter Bouckaert says more peacekeeping troops are needed on the ground.
“The small presence of the African peacekeepers and the French peacekeepers is simply not enough to stop the violence. We have gone out to many of these communities and people are really desperate to stop these attacks… We need a much larger peacekeeping presence, hopefully a full UN peacekeeping mission so this violence can stop and the Muslim community can continue to live in this country where they have lived for generations and generations. It will take a much greater international effort than what is underway at the moment”.
Click above to watch Amanpour’s interview with Peter Bouckaert.
Lord Ashdown on Bosnia protests: I have to blame the EU
Could it be the Ukraine effect?
After months of protesters clashing in the streets of Kiev, Bosnia and Herzegovina is seeing some of its worst violence and unrest since the war two decades ago.
Across the country, including its capital Sarajevo, demonstrators have taken to the streets, setting fire to government buildings, trashing libraries and torching vehicles; all this in protest of high unemployment, unpaid wages and government corruption and incompetence.
Few people know Bosnia better than Lord Paddy Ashdown, who served as High Representative and Europe’s Special Envoy to the country from May 2002 until January 2006.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Lord Ashdown says the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is “highly fragile” and that the European Union needs to do more to help build Bosnians build a functional state that can serve its citizens.
Speaking of the Dayton Accord that ended the war, he says it was an ideal solution to bring about peace, but that it is the “wrong basis to build a sustainable state”.
The good news, Ashdown told Amanpour, is that the protests are “non-ethnic” and that protesters are “turning against a political clique who have governed the country”, who are “deep in corruption”.
But there is bad news too: “At the moment its citizens are complaining about poverty and lack of movement and dysfunctionality of the state and corruptions amongst politicians”, but he says it “could move to something far worse very quickly”.
“The international community has to act now. If they don’t act now, I greatly fear that a situation where secessionism will take hold could easily become unstoppable as we approach elections…”
Click above to watch Amanpour’s full interview with Lord Paddy Ashdown.
Steve McQueen: The man behind '12 Years a Slave'
For Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave” was a film that had to be made.
The Oscar-nominated film portrays the true story of a free black man from the north who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South.
“For me, being of African descent, I thought there was a hole in the canon of cinema regarding this subject,” McQueen, the director of the film, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday. “It was very natural that I wanted to put it on film.”
“My ancestors were slaves,” he said. “My parents are from the West Indies, from Grenada.”
“There are so many things which people often question, but we don’t we don’t seem to want to answer. And I wanted this film to try to answer some of those questions.”
Click above to watch their full interview.
Amanpour remembers Shirley Temple
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