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CNN Live At Daybreak

Look at What's Going on Around the World

Aired August 09, 2002 - 05:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is that time. We like to check in with our hard working international desk to see what's happening around the globe. So we've dragged our senior international editor from his desk to help out.
Eli Flournoy joins us now. You have a hard last name to say.

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN INTERNATIONAL DESK: I know. I know.

COSTELLO: Especially with a cold.

FLOURNOY: That's right.

COSTELLO: It's finally going away, though.

FLOURNOY: That's right.

COSTELLO: But anyway, we're going to start off with Afghanistan.

FLOURNOY: Yes, Carol, we've sent Matthew Chance, a reporter who's in Kabul, on to southeast Afghanistan to where there is a problem brewing. It's been going on for a while with a regional warlord there who was the governor of the Khowst region. I think we've got a map that shows the area there. And he has been, had his governor title taken away from him but is refusing to leave the governor's mansion and creating a lot of problems for the central government.

And it's a real test of the control that the central government, the government of Hamid Karzai, might have.

COSTELLO: So how involved are American troops in getting this guy out of there?

FLOURNOY: Well, right now they're not directly involved. In fact, there is not a direct operation right now to remove him. They're trying to work with him and trying to keep him from causing problems for the local administration there. But it's a very tense relationship. There's been a lot of fighting actually in that region. So it's a very difficult situation there.

COSTELLO: It's funny how we don't talk so much about Afghanistan anymore.

FLOURNOY: Yes, that's, there are a lot of ongoing stories, a lot of ongoing issues internally that are going on right now. There hasn't been a whole lot of news about Osama bin Laden or updated about his whereabouts or his status, or Mullah Omar. But it's definitely, people should really be, continue to pay attention to what's going on out there because it's a real serious issue.

COSTELLO: Yes. And, of course, we're keeping it well covered, too.

What else do you have on tap?

FLOURNOY: Well, in Zimbabwe today, a deadline has passed. The Zimbabwean government has ordered that thousands of white farmers must leave their farms, their lands that they've had, and many of them, more than 1,000 are refusing to leave. So we're anxiously watching to see what's going to happen there, whether the government is going to take action to forcibly evict them. So far that hasn't happened, but there's been a lot of tension over this land reform issue. And Zimbabwe is in the midst of a terrible economic crisis right now.

COSTELLO: Yes, so fill us in a little bit on why the white farmers have to leave.

FLOURNOY: Well, this is part of a land reform situation where the government of Robert Mugabe has decided that in order to make amends for the past in which, and after colonial times white farmers carried about 70 percent of the, held about 70 percent of the best farmland. And so there is a feeling in Zimbabwe that the government and many people there, that it should be equitably distributed.

And their solution for that is to completely get, make them leave with no compensation, these white farmers, off their lands. And this is really the bread basket of Southern Africa and, in fact, now they're not able to make their own, you know, have their own food and grain. They're having to have massive amounts of food aid come into Zimbabwe and there's been a tremendous amount of international criticism of this policy of the government of Mugabe.

COSTELLO: Well, we can imagine why it would be a difficult thing to accomplish.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: And you had some terrible pictures of a hippo.

FLOURNOY: Oh, boy, this is the hippo who done it. This is a tragic story in Thailand. They're trying to figure out what happened. A baby hippo had just been born in the Bangkok Zoo and someone let adult male hippos into the pen and they killed the baby hippo. The adult males are very aggressive and territorial and the baby was there with its mother and they killed it.

So they're, the police have launched an investigation. There's, you know, the Thailand public is outraged and it's been all over the media. So they're trying to figure out who would have done this, who would do such a thing so.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding. So someone actually might have done this on purpose? FLOURNOY: The police believe that it was done on purpose, that people know that that's what would happen if they allowed the males into the pen. So it's really hard to understand.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's a terrible story. And a terrible picture to look at, too.

FLOURNOY: I know. I know. It's terrible.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Eli. We appreciate it.

FLOURNOY: All right, any time.

COSTELLO: All right.

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