HAIFA ZANGANA INTERVIEW- Wednesday 24th May, 2006
Haifa
Zangana is an Iraqi, she is also a writer and an activist for women's
rights in her savagely battered homeland. Before the 2003 invasion, or
liberation, depending on your point of view, she was an opponent of
Saddam Hussein and his regime; indeed, she was imprisoned and tortured
by the dictator. Haifa Zangana's currently in Australia for the Sydney
Writers' Festival. Her most up-to-date contribution to the global
debate on Iraq is a piece in "Not One More Death," a collection of
essays on Iraq from a string of prominent writers including the likes
of Harold Pinter and John La Carre. Earlier today, George Negus caught
up with her at her Sydney hotel.
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WINSTON PETERS INTERVIEW - Wednesday 17th May, 2006
Earlier
today George Negus recorded from Brisbane, an interview with New
Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters. The interview was recorded
before a shock, late afternoon announcement by Solomons Prime Minister,
Sogavare, that he’d postponed indefinitely appointing the two
goaled
Solomons MP’s to his ministry. Clearly the Solomon's leader
has been
under enormous pressure, both from within and outside the Pacific
Island nation over those controversial appointments. Among other
things, Dateline’s interview with the New Zealand Foreign
Minister, a
controversial politician in his own right, puts the issue in
perspective.
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JAMES NAUGHTIE INTERVIEW - Wednesday 10th May, 2006
One
of Galloway's staunchest enemies, Tony Blair, who's in big trouble. In
fact, the British New Labour Prime Minister, coalition-of-the-willing
ally of George Bush and John Howard, has been under almost constant
attack, with calls becoming more raucous by the day from the media, the
British public and from within his own party for him to fall on his
political sword. To bring us up to date on the Blair crisis, George
Negus spoke earlier this evening to British broadcaster and political
journalist James Naughtie in London.
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REVD SOFYAN YOMAN & PETER KING INTERVIEW - Wednesday 10th May, 2006
In
Australia, as we speak, is the Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, the head
of the Baptist Church in Indonesia's Papua province. The Reverend was
in the province last week and is visiting here to speak about what he
describes as the "climate of fear and intimidation in West Papua" right
now. Also in the studio is the Convenor of Sydney University's West
Papua Project, Professor Peter King.
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DR JOSE RAMOS-HORTA INTERVIEW - Wednesday 3rd May, 2006
In
recent days, the violent goings-on in Dili, our northern neighbour's
capital, have seen a serious blast from its horrible pre-independence
past - burning vehicles, vandalised buildings, street violence and
fatal shootings. On the face of it, the rioting, which led to at least
five deaths, sprang from resentment within the fledgling nation's
1,800-strong army over recruitment discrimination, including many
soldiers who fought as guerrillas in the 24-year resistance to
Indonesian rule, until Australian-aided independence finally came to
the former Portuguese colony in 1999.
But there are any number of
observers who believe there's much more to the current unrest than
meets the eye. Is it, they ask, an indication of much deeper
socio-economic problems, even the basic stability of the world's newest
nation and Asia's poorest Jose Ramos-Horta - the East Timorese Foreign
Minister and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Winner - has been here in Australia
this week and George Negus spoke with him at the East Timorese
Consulate in Sydney.
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SENATOR AMANDA VANSTONE INTERVIEW - Wednesday 3rd May, 2006
The
local Internet lobby group GetUp launched a new television ad
condemning the Federal Government's plans to alter Australia's
immigration laws so that all unauthorised boat arrivals - aka asylum
seekers - will be transferred to offshore detention centres where their
claims for refugee status will be assessed. The main spark for the
GetUp protest is that this harsh new law includes the detention of
children. The dramatic change was prompted of course by last month's
granting of temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuans - a decision
that's sent the Indonesian Government into political paroxysms.
Dateline takes a look at the GetUp ad and then an interview George
Negus recorded late this afternoon with the Minister for Immigration,
Senator Amanda Vanstone
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Please Note: More interviews will be added as time permits.