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From Our Own Correspondent

The Dictator Hunter

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The man trying to bring The Gambia's former strongman leader Yahya Jammeh to justice. Kate Adie introduces stories from journalists and correspondents around the world:

His critics claim Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year rule over The Gambia was nothing more than a brutal dictatorship marred by allegations of state-sanctioned murder, torture and forced disappearances. Now the lawyer Reed Brody, known to some as ‘The Dictator Hunter’, is trying to help some of his victims seek justice.

Far to the north of Norway, Horatio Clare finds Brits, Ukrainians, Ugandans, Vietnamese, and Russians all trying to start new lives on an island that was once a bastion of Soviet idealism.

“The public are not obliged to like us, but they are obliged not to attack us” – Sophie Cousins hears how things are changing – or not – for gay people in Serbia.

In the dry, isolated heartlands of Argentina finding the right ingredients for a middle-eastern feast can be difficult, but Aude Villiers meets the Syrian refugees settling in San Luis. And Rob Crossan takes a tour of the proud but small country that claims to be the world’s oldest constitutional republic – San Marino.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the BBC.

0:04.0

Hello.

0:05.0

Today, want to start a new life.

0:07.0

We meet young Brits, Ukrainians, Ugandans, Vietnamese and Russians,

0:12.0

making a new home near the North Pole.

0:15.7

In Serbia, the country's first female and first openly gay prime minister was appointed last

0:20.9

September, so have homophobic attitudes changed since.

0:26.5

We meet the Syrian refugees, starting again half a world away in Argentina, and we visit the proud but very small country which

0:36.2

claims to be the world's oldest constitutional republic. A lot has changed in the Gambia since Adam Abaro took power in January 2017.

0:47.0

He said that the country had been polluted by more than two decades of dictatorship.

0:52.0

Today, Gambians enjoy a new-found freedom to criticize their government

0:56.7

without fear of violent suppression, while exiled journalists, amongst others, are returning

1:02.1

home.

1:03.3

The Gambia's readmission to the Commonwealth in February was part of an attempt to rebuild

1:08.1

its international standing and attract much-needed funding to tackle poverty and unemployment.

1:14.4

While President Barrow's priority is fixing the economic mess he inherited,

1:19.0

others are intent on dealing with his predecessor,

1:22.2

as Colin Freeman found.

1:24.6

Life in retirement used to be pretty cushy for African dictators and strongmen.

1:29.4

Assuming they weren't killed in one of a coup or revolution forced them from power.

1:33.8

They usually ended up in comfortable exile abroad, far from the people they once terrorized.

1:39.5

The late Idi Amin of Uganda, for example, took refuge in Saudi Arabia, living in a novo towel and playing

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