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From Our Own Correspondent

Writing on the Wall

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A week in the life of correspondents around the world. In this edition, the paint flies as the race for the presidency in Peru gets colourful; a battle for control of the Iraqi city of Falluja is about to begin - it could be a long and gruelling one, the ISIS fighters dug in there have had time to prepare for the arrival of the government forces; time is running out for the German authorities to prosecute those who committed mass murder in Hitler's time - we meet a man trying to hunt them down before it's too late; a barbed wire fence may be in place but migrants are making it through the border from Bulgaria to Serbia with help from smugglers ... and some policemen. And on a visit to Asmara, the Italianate capital city of Eritrea in north east Africa, our correspondent tries to find out the truth about allegations of repression, political prisoners and torture

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, by Kate Edy. Hello. Today, the writings on the wall in Peru, it is literally as the country prepares to vote tomorrow

0:18.6

for a new president.

0:20.6

Our correspondent's notebook goes missing in Bulgaria as he looks into claims of corruption in the police.

0:27.0

In ten years time there'll be no one left to prosecute.

0:30.0

We hear how they're making final efforts to bring Hitler's remaining henchman to trial.

0:35.4

And why does the outside world hate Eritrea?

0:39.5

It's a question we're asked in the capital Asmara as we investigate reports of political prisoners,

0:45.3

repression and torture.

0:47.4

But first, the stage is set for a major battle in Fallujah, 30 miles west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

0:55.0

Government forces backed by US Air-Par and Shia militiamen have been pouring into the outskirts of the city,

1:02.0

which is held by the extremist Sunnis of the so-called

1:04.4

Islamic State. The city gained notoriety in 2004 when it was seen as a symbol of Sunni

1:10.9

resistance to the Americans. They fought too long battles there. They're tougher since

1:15.3

the Vietnam War. The IS fighters have had more than two years to dig themselves in and prepare

1:21.6

for the assault, and Jim Muir has been to

1:24.2

Falugia to see the government forces preparing for action.

1:27.4

Falugia goes back a long way. Hands up anybody who knew that it used to be called Pumba D.

1:34.2

And from around the middle of the third century AD, it was a major center of learning for the

1:38.9

Jews of Babylonia.

1:41.0

Most of Iraq's Jews left in the 1950s, but some years ago there was still a deserted synagogue there,

1:47.0

then nobody knew where the key was.

1:49.0

I first came across Fallujah in its more recent incarnation in June 2003. Just two months earlier, the Americans

...

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