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From Our Own Correspondent

Jordan’s palace intrigues

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jordan is often portrayed as a stable, moderate country whose royal family have guided it wisely through turbulent times in a dangerous neighbourhood. But that royal family has rifts of its own and they burst into full view in recent weeks, as a public feud broke out between King Abdullah and his half-brother, the former Crown Prince Hamza. The BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, has his own memories of the country’s intimate power struggles – past and present.

In Rwanda, a man once seen around the world as a hero is now standing trial accused of terrorism. Paul Rusesabagina, a former hotel manager, sheltered hundreds of people from the killers during the 1994 genocide. But he became a critic in exile of the government of Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame - and apparently a target for Rwandan intelligence. Michaela Wrong has spent years investigating the complex background to the story.

As the military crackdown on strikers and demonstrators goes on in Myanmar, journalists are also being targeted as they try and cover the situation. Ben Dunant has just returned to the UK after years spent reporting in Myanmar and reflects on the prospects for the colleagues he left behind.

As you might expect, the residents of Paris have been particularly pained by the closure of their restaurants and cafes. But for those in the know, there were still some illicit ways to eat out: networks of private dining rooms and functions. Recently some of those secret arrangements were revealed to the French public – and many who hadn’t been invited were outraged. Joanna Robertson reports.

*NOTE: Podcast audio has been updated to correct reference to a rebel group

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.8

Today a trial in Rwanda which reveals how the country is being run and the part played

0:11.8

by its global intelligence network.

0:14.7

The military who staged a coup in Myanmar are determined that the press and those who

0:20.1

continue to protest should not call their coup a coup.

0:25.2

And remember when eating out was a pleasure something to talk to your friends about

0:29.8

trouble in Paris under lockdown though as there's now a scandal about clandestine dinners

0:35.6

for the elite.

0:38.0

First to Jordan, often portrayed as a stable and moderate country under the wise guidance

0:44.2

of its royal family amid turbulent times in the Middle East, the chaos in neighbouring

0:49.3

Iraq and Syria.

0:51.4

But recently there's been a family feud between King Abdullah and his half-brother Prince

0:56.9

Hamza, formerly the Crown Prince.

0:59.9

The royal rift, apparently the result of Hamza's aligning himself with critics of the palace,

1:05.6

along with visiting numerous tribal leaders, causes Jeremy Bowen to reflect on his encounters

1:11.6

with the country's power struggles.

1:14.7

Winter in the mountains of the Levant can be cruel.

1:18.2

When they buried King Hussein of Jordan, a storm lashed Amman his capital.

1:22.6

The rain ran down my back as I stood in the freezing crowd along the route taken by

1:27.2

the cortege.

1:28.9

On that day, in February 1999, the road was lined with Jordanian soldiers with their red

1:35.2

and white kefir scarves wrapped around their heads and faces.

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