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CNN Newsroom
NEWSROOM for July 2, 2001
Aired July 02, 2001 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Seen in classrooms the world over, this is CNN NEWSROOM.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CO-HOST: It's Monday, July 2, and this is CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for starting out your week with us.
From Europe to the Middle East, from Asia to right here in the U.S., we've got it all for you today.
Here's a sneak peak.
In our "Top Story," former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic is finally brought before the war crimes tribunal. Next, if you like the taste of crabs, "Environment Desk" is going to make your mouth water. Then, from China to Stone Mountain, we'll connect the dots in "Worldview." And finally, coming of age Apache style.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic prepares to go before the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, this week. Milosevic was extradited to The Hague last Thursday. He faces trial for his alleged role in Kosovo atrocities -- charges stemming from ethnic conflict in the Balkans. Defense lawyers say Milosevic does not recognize the tribunal's jurisdiction and is nothing more than a victim of NATO revenge.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour gives us some background on Milosevic and the charges he faces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last time Slobodan Milosevic visited The Hague was for a peace conference 10 years ago. He was president of Serbia. The Yugoslav wars were just starting and there was no war crimes tribunal. It would take the next 10 years to stop Milosevic's rampage, to indict, arrest and extradite him.
This is a triumph for the international war crimes tribunal, which was established in 1993, insisting, despite deep skepticism, that it would go after and get the chief architects of the Yugoslav wars. In May 1999, chief prosecutor Louise Arbour started trying to establish Milosevic's criminal responsibility.
LOUISE ARBOUR, WAR CRIMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR: I presented an indictment for confirmation against Slobodan Milosevic and four others, charging them with crimes against humanity, specifically murder, deportation, and persecution, and the violations of the laws and customs of war.
AMANPOUR: Milosevic made history that day, becoming the first ever sitting head of state to be so indicted. But that was just for his role in Kosovo. The current chief prosecutor plans to expand the charges.
CARLA DEL PONTE, WAR CRIMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR: I have two indicted: one about Croatia, one about Bosnia -- crimes committed, crimes responsibility for Milosevic.
AMANPOUR: Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo: Throughout the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic's policies, his paramilitaries and his armed forces incited violence and ethnic hatred that would destroy Yugoslavia. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, millions forced to leave their homes and wander the world as refugees. Civilians were the primary target in this bid to redesign Yugoslavia along purely ethnic lines.
The term "ethnic cleansing" became synonymous with Bosnia, as Serb forces there, loyal to and paid for by Milosevic, tried to carve out a separate state by forcibly moving the non-Serb civilian population.
They did it by bombarding towns and cities like Sarajevo with heavy artillery, besieging villages and massacring civilians. Snipers targeted men, women and children. Markets full of people shopping were shelled. And in scenes unknown in Europe since World War II, there were concentration camps, mass rape and the forced prostitution of women and very young girls.
This orgy of violence peaked with the Bosnian Serb assault on the tiny Muslim village of Srebrenica. To this day, the International Red Cross says that about 7,000 Muslim men and boys remain unaccounted for.
The top Bosnian Serb leaders controlled by Milosevic were Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, Ratko Mladic. They were twice indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity for the horror they brought to Bosnia. And to this day, they remain at large.
In 1995 after NATO conducted bombing raids to stop the Bosnian Serbs, Slobodan Milosevic became the West's partner in the peace that was forged at Dayton that year. But he was as poor a peace partner as he was a war maker. Having lost both Croatia and Bosnia, in 1998 Milosevic launched one more military campaign, this time in the tiny Serbian province of Kosovo. It would prove his undoing.
NATO again went to war to stop him. After 78 days of bombing, Milosevic finally capitulated.
Now NATO forces and the U.N. administration took over Kosovo, hundreds of thousands of deported Albanian residents came home and survivors started looking for their dead. Now the war crimes tribunal was able to start on-site investigations.
But ever the master of miscalculation, barely a year after losing Kosovo, Milosevic called new elections. After supporting him for 10 bloodied years, the Yugoslav people had now had enough. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to celebrate his downfall and the end of what many called their nightmare years.
Next came Milosevic's arrest. And by April 2001 only a few hundred die-hards mustered the will to protest.
With Milosevic in Belgrade's central prison, Yugoslavia's new government accused him of everything from corruption, political killings and election fraud, to money laundering, and recently, even war crimes.
The new interior minister says that mass graves newly revealed in Serbia contain bodies of tortured and murdered Kosovo civilians. They say Milosevic ordered them removed from Kosovo to avoid a war crimes investigation.
All this evidence has shifted public opinion in Yugoslavia. Now at least half the people want to see their former president in the dock at the war crimes tribunal, where the chief prosecutor says her case is ready to go to trial.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: United States Vice President Dick Cheney plans to get back to business as usual today after surgery this weekend. Mr. Cheney returned home from the hospital Saturday just hours after being fitted with a defibrillator. It's a device meant to correct any irregular heart rhythm he might experience. Now, the vice president has a history of heart trouble but says he's in good shape and feeling fine.
Rea Blakey reports on a man with the same type of device who now has considerable peace of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paul Lebowitz has had eight heart attacks, and in 1994, got his first implantable defibrillator. In April of this year, he got a new device implanted. It's a type of defibrillator that works two ways: to shock an irregular beating heart back to normal rhythm or as a pacemaker to sped up a slowly beating heart.
Lebowitz says this so-called pacemaker plus lets him live on borrowed time.
PAUL LEBOWITZ, IMPLANTABLE DEFIBRILLATOR PATIENT: I can do the stairs with no fear of collapsing. I don't run up them or down them, but I can do them.
BLAKEY: It's the same type of device Vice President Cheney had implanted on Saturday. DR. JONATHAN REINER, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: In day-to-day life, patients with this device really face essentially no restrictions and really essentially no environmental hazards. Patients with these devices can use cell phones. That's not really an issue. They can go through airport security.
BLAKEY: It's important to note the implanted defibrillator doesn't necessarily prevent future heart attacks. Cheney has had four already. Lebowitz had several after his first defibrillator.
LEBOWITZ: That it would not cure anything but it would increase the quality of my life.
BLAKEY: And it has changed his lifestyle just a little.
LEBOWITZ: Whereas my wife says I'm not dancing anymore, of course I never did, but it's fine.
BLAKEY (on camera): As for the vice president, he's been advised to take it easy for the next few days. His doctors don't expect it will slow him down as he heads back to work Monday morning.
Rea Blakey, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: Now, you've heard the slogan "save the whales" but how about "save the blue crabs?" Now, you might not see it in bumper stickers, but the plea is gaining ground in the U.S. state of Maryland. The blue crab is one of the most important species harvested in Chesapeake Bay. It has the highest value of any commercial fishery. It's also a top catch for recreational fishers and a delicacy for seafood lovers. But a move by the state's government to protect the species has made some people, shall we say, a little crabby.
Kathleen Koch has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a frustrating reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not very good today.
KOCH: Chesapeake Bay watermen have seen their catch fall to less than half of what it was seven years ago. The blue crab population in the bay is the lowest it's been in decades. So to preserve the crab and the $150 million a year industry, Maryland will restrict crabbers to fishing only eight hours a day, between 5:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
BRIAN GROSS, MARYLAND CRABBER: Regardless of weather conditions, regardless of fog, high winds, gale force -- it could be a hurricane that comes up in here. And we have to work. If we don't work we lose out on our week's pay. KOCH: Crabbers and many scientists say the problem isn't over fishing but thinning bay grasses that leave baby crabs easy prey to veracious Rock Fish. Watermen insist crab populations run in cycles and will rebound on their own.
MIKE SPIEGEL, MARYLAND CRABBER: Right now at this point there's no scientific evidence that the watermen are destroying the crabs stocks. Right now as a individual I feel like no regulations are necessary.
KOCH: Maryland's governor isn't moved.
GOV. PARRIS GLENDENING, MARYLAND: We take that approach -- a few years there will be no crabbing and that will be wrong. It would be wrong for them, it would be wrong for Marylanders, it would be wrong environmentally.
KOCH: Crabber Kenny Keen supports the new restrictions, even if they force watermen to fish in dangerous weather. He points out that they're being paid record amounts per bushel, and Keen says they have no alternative.
KEENY KEEN, MARYLAND CRABBER: If they were to impose a moratorium that would put us all out of business -- not only me but the truck drivers, the crab houses, the bay people, the boat builders, the -- right on down the line.
KOCH (on camera): Some Maryland crabbers wish their state would follow Virginia's strategy. Rather than restricting hours, Virginia is eliminating commercial crabbing on Wednesdays this summer and limiting how much recreational crabbers can catch.
(voice-over): None of the cuts easy for those who want to preserve both the blue crab and their way of life.
Kathleen Koch for CNN, Deale, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: Coming up in "Worldview," culture and conflict. We'll focus on the Middle East where even daily life is dangerous. A 16- year-old Palestinian girl is going to take you on a weapons tour. But first, we journey to the United States for a taste of the Old South and a look at a mammoth monument.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: We begin in the Untied States in the southern state of Georgia. Georgia was the fourth of the 13 original states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Atlanta is the capital and largest city. It was home to the 1996 Olympic games and is an international hub as well as being the major financial and commercial center of the south.
But today, we head to a park east of Atlanta to look at the largest stone mountain in North America. The huge smooth sided rock dome is made of granite and it's over 700 feet, 210 meters, tall. It also features giant carvings, a project begun back in 1923 by Gutzon Borglum, a sculpture who also worked on Mt. Rushmore. We'll have more on Mt. Rushmore later this week, but now we head to Stone Mountain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YANG YULING, WORLD REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, every visitor from abroad to the city of Atlanta, Georgia, it's always exciting to have a real taste of the spirits of the American South. Atlanta's Stone Mountain Park is such a place that brings you a colorful coverage of the southern heritage and the memories.
Traveling back to the Civil War days in America, Stone Mountain Park highlights three Southern heroes of the Civil War and quite (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that is the Confederate Memorial carving.
ROBERT WINEBARGER, HISTORICAL COLLECTION SUPERVISOR, STONE MOUNTAIN PARK: The sculpture here commemorates three of the southern leaders in the Civil War. They're Jefferson Davis who is the president of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee who is the commander of the Army and then General Stonewall Jackson.
YANG YULING: Measured at 19 by 190 feet, the figures are surrounded by a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) surface that is larger than a football field thus making these images impressive to your eye and the history carved in your mind. Down at the foot of the Stone Mountain, there locates the memorial home which hosts the "Gone With the Wind" collection exhibit this year.
JAMES L. TUMBLIN, OWNER, SHAW-TUMBLIN "GONE WITH THE WIND" COLLECTION: Everyone equates Atlanta, Georgia, with Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With the Wind" because much of the novel takes place here in the city of Atlanta, so as a result, that's why we brought our exhibit here to Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.
YANG YULING: Featuring original costumes, drawings, props, production at work and even Vivian Leigh's Oscar for best actress, this exhibit gives you a few, but vivid scenes of the past back to the 1860s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you shoot the guns and you wave the swords around. It's all this running and jumping around.
YANG YULING: When you step out to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) plantations, the authentic storyteller enhances your Southern experience with the legends and lore of the Old South. Furthermore, history leaps to life as you see military droves, marching demonstrations, musket firing and the soldiers camp here. All of these performances bring to life the area's past and its people.
SANDRA DAULER, VISITOR: It's great for history and it needs to be done every year. And the school children that come through on Thursday and Friday are amazed and so interested and they ask so many questions. And it's really good for them to teach them about the Civil War and that era.
KARAL DAILEY, ACTRESS, MEMBER OF GEORGIA ACTOR ASSOCIATION: We like to have people come and enjoy our classic feel the way they felt back in the 1860s. And it's truly an experience. It's a good hobby and it's a good family hobby.
YANG YULING: It's the social grace of the South which are the culture and the strength of the people who fought here that fascinates people around the world to come and share the living history here.
(on camera): Every year, over four million people come here to Stone Mountain Park to look back into the history and enjoy the peaceful summer life.
This is Yang Yuling from Shanghai Television China, the Atlanta, for CNN WORLD REPORT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: You heard a bit about Margaret Mitchell as we visited Stone Mountain. We'll have more on the famous artist later this summer when we visit her home and talk about her internationally acclaimed novel "Gone With the Wind."
TOM HAYNES, CO-HOST: The Middle East remains a dangerous place to live. Violence between Palestinians and Jews in Israel over the last eight months or so has claimed about 600 lives. And while typically the violence is between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian extremists, often it is innocent civilians from both sides who are caught in the crossfire. For many residents, life has become a lesson in duck and cover.
One family living in Palestinian controlled Gaza is in a particularly precarious position and Ben Wedeman has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Palestinians take pride in their hospitality, but for the Bashir family, hospitality has its limits.
Their house, next to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, is now regularly occupied by Israeli soldiers who have commandeered positions on the top two floors.
Beyond that, it is off limits. From here there's a bird's-eye view of the settlement, but don't look too closely. When we did, Israeli soldiers quickly moved in and warned the Bashirs and us. They said Palestinian gunmen have used the house to shoot at the settlement and the settlement has come under fire, including mortars this weekend.
Has Bashir allowed anyone to shoot at the settlement?
KHALIL BASHIR, PALESTINIAN SCHOOL HEADMASTER: Never.
WEDEMAN: Nevertheless, when soldiers are not upstairs, the house is a shooting gallery, virtually every room hit by the Israelis.
BASHIR: This missile, they shoot the house, it penetrated the wall and entered the kitchen. WEDEMAN: Many possessions have been destroyed. 16-year-old Amira (ph) is now versed in a variety of weaponry.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: This is M-16. And this is Ergas (ph). And this another piece missile. And this one is another, and this one is something new, which I really don't know.
WEDEMAN: Despite it all, Bashir, a school headmaster, has nurtured a spirit of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in his children and students.
BASHIR: I always try to convince them that we are leading a new page of history. I try to insert peaceful values with them.
WEDEMAN: An hour before sunset, the entire family retires to this room on the ground floor.
BASHIR: Because we believe this room is the safest room, as six walls separate us from the Israelis.
WEDEMAN (on camera): Shortly after our first visit to the Bashir family, the house came under fire once again.
(voice-over): The bedroom was sprayed with bullets from the Israeli positions.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I think they aimed to kill somebody.
WEDEMAN: Her father, hit by shrapnel, was hospitalized. Yet his convictions are unshaken.
BASHIR: What happened yesterday encouraged me more and more to believe in peace.
WEDEMAN: But with each new attack, those convictions are put to the test.
Ben, CNN, Deir el Balah, Gaza.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: We continue down the road with CNN NEWSROOM's Jason Bellini in our "Border to Border" special. Stop number two is Fort Apache, Arizona. Here, Jason takes a look at a young group of girls taking part in a Sunrise Dance. It's not just any dance, it's a ritual with both culture and religious meanings.
Jason explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's just past 5:30 in the morning when the sunrise hits J.T.'s face. She's the 14- year-old girl on the left. She's doing her long anticipated Sunrise Dance, a coming of age ceremony for Apache girls when, according to tradition, she holds the power to bless and the power to heal. She'll be dancing like this for another six hours today, and as the sun continues to rise, more friends, relatives, people who know her family show up and join in.
REV. ED FRONSKE, CATHOLIC PRIEST: Apaches are deeply spiritual people -- very spiritual, very prayerful.
BELLINI: Father Ed Fronske is the priest at the local Catholic church. He never misses a Sunrise Dance, knows the rituals inside and out and is welcome to offer church blessings, which fuse Jenny's Catholicism with the ancient Apache traditions.
FRONSKE: This is the puberty rite for the young girl who's come of age. And to pray that she comes into womanhood with a lot of prayers, a lot of strength, a lot of support and a lot of love.
BELLINI: At a time when Apache youth live modern lives, the Sunrise Dance is a tradition that's thriving. This is not something that's put on for tourists or done on a rare occasion.
(on camera): During the summer months, Sunrise Dances are held nearly every weekend on the Apache Indian reservation. The four-day long ceremonies bring young Apaches together with their family and their community. And even those who aren't into the religious aspect of it all, they still come for the party.
(LAUGHTER)
(voice-over): Charlene Lupe has been coming to Sunrise Dance weekends for a good many years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Charlene, are you a TV woman?
BELLINI: She takes my camera for a few minutes to show me around the camp.
How many of these have you been to?
CHARLENE LUPE: All my life. This is the barbecue pit where they're going to put meat in it.
BELLINI: The barbecue, huge cans of beef buried overnight with hot coals, gets opened up for the party after the seven-hour Sunrise Dance.
The weekend is filled with food and relaxation. Interrupted by solemn rituals with strict rules.
LUPE: We turn around. Be sure that we turn around and we leave the area. We're not supposed to be allowed after we bring the food.
BELLINI: After you bring the food, you have to leave?
LUPE: That's our way, you know.
BELLINI: Why would they do all this for you?
J.T. NASHIO, APACHE TRIBE: I don't know.
BELLINI: You don't know why they do all this for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because she's special. Because she's very special to us and her womanhood -- it's helping her to be on the right side - the right side of the road.
BELLINI: Many in the tribe say the tradition is making a bit of a comeback. Several new medicine men are in training, memorizing the arcane chants required to make the magic happen. And more and more young Apache women want to have the ceremony. The older generation of Apaches is thrilled to see the younger ones, even when they come dressed in T-shirts and jeans, involved in the tribe's heritage and enjoying it.
The sunrise, the perfect symbol for a ceremony that celebrates the Apache tribe's future.
Jason Bellini, CNN NEWSROOM, Fort Apache, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: Ever heard of Brazilian jazz? Well, more than 40 years ago, American jazz crossed borders and headed for Brazil. There it had an affair with the Brazilian samba, creating a hybrid style of music called Brazilian jazz.
Now this particular type of jazz has long been attracting old and young people alike.
Cleonisse Figuion (ph) from CNN's Student Bureau has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLEONISSE FIGUION, CNN'S STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Brazilians come as influenced of American jazz. Figure it out? It's Brazilian jazz, a musical style at the jazzed up musical offerings of America for over 40 years.
JIM EDWARDS, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, WCLK RADIO: Brazilian jazz basically in its purest sense I think is a merger of Brazilian bossanova and samba with American jazz.
FIGUION: The mixture of rhythm, chords and tempos is what makes Brazilian jazz a unique music style. Roberto Goncalves a Brazilian musician who now plays in the United States.
ROBERTO GONCALVES, BRAZILIAN MUSICIAN: We have the same chords that in a jazz piece we cannot listen in a jazz piece but we play on over a Brazilian rhythm. That's what makes the Brazilian jazz.
FIGUION: Edwards says Brazilian jazz rhythms are curious and open to all the cultures.
EDWARDS: People who are a little bit more international in their attitudes, people who are looking for something really different. FIGUION: The director for the 24th Atlanta Jazz Festival says young people are getting more involved with this jazz.
CAMILLE RUSSELL LOVE, ATLANTA CULTURAL AFFAIRS BUREAU: This year we're showing some emerging artists, you know some new talents on the jazz scene. We hear a lot of young people who have now gotten into jazz.
FIGUION: When people jazz, it's so contagious, some people of all ages cannot help but to (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GONCALVES: They dance because it's amazing rhythm to dance. Everybody kind of feel the rhythm and can shake along with the rhythm. We play over like a summer place and Latin rhythms are like over like salsa rhythms. So it's very different.
FIGUION: Cleonisse Figuion, CNN Student Bureau, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAKHTIAR: Well that's a wrap for us here on CNN NEWSROOM. Join us tomorrow for more news. We'll see you then.
Bye.
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