Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

the past brought to life by those who were there.

This week, a decade on, we look back at a dangerous coup in Honduras. One of the guards said to me,

sorry, Carlos, we can't let you in.

And then I realized it was a coup. Also a key moment in the history of the Hindu cast system in India.

The B.J.P. have jumped from only two seats to 80 or more.

So a party that is anti-Muslim and has played on

communal fears is center-stage and the story behind one of the world's most

successful TV series.

So much of what the characters became,

came out of those actors, the characters put them in the hearts of the audience. That's all coming up later in the podcast.

But we begin this week in West Africa during the 1990s. Conflict blighted the region with

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast sheltering various rebel groups operating in

and destabilizing their neighbours.

Liberia was in the middle and saw some of the most gruesome conflict.

As ever, civilians and the natural environment suffered.

But some brave individuals took a stand against the fighters.

Alex Laos brings us the story of the Liberians who exposed how the international timber business

fuelled the country's brutal civil war.

I grew up literally surrounded. fueled the country's brutal civil war.

I grew up literally surrounded by forests right up to the edge of the village.

It was extremely important for local life, whose People depend on the forest.

...