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President Plans to Answer Questions at White House News Conference Tomorrow Night

Aired April 12, 2004 - 14:30   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM... I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new half hour.

Civilians from several countries have been kidnapped in Iraq. Who else besides the military will respond? We'll have a closer look.

O'BRIEN: And the Easter egg hunt with surprises as kids turn up loaded guns along with the jelly beans.

PHILLIPS: In the fight for Iraq, we give you the latest developments now. The nation will hear from President Bush about the situation in Iraq. The president plans to answer questions at a White House news conference tomorrow night.

And police back on patrol in Najaf where Shi'ite militants are reportedly holed up. Iraqi police are returning to their post after reaching a deal with the militants, a radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces are surrounding Najaf but prefer not to enter that holy city.

There's still no word on the fate of Thomas Hamill, the Mississippi truck driver who was taken captive by Iraqi militants. Insurgents had promised to kill Hamill unless U.S. troops pulled out of Fallujah by Saturday night.

And just in to the U.S., according to Chinese television reports, seven Chinese hostages held in Iraq have been released. Meanwhile, a deadline has passed for these three Japanese hostages. Insurgents had promised to burn them alive if the coalition did Japan did not pull its forces out of Iraq by Sunday.

Vice President Dick Cheney is supporting Japan's handling of the hostage situation and is pledging America's help. Cheney met with Japan's prime minister today in Tokyo. Japan has 550 peacekeepers in Iraq.

O'BRIEN: American Thomas Hamill was in Iraq working as a civilian contractor when he was kidnapped. We take a look at the protocol used by companies when dealing with employees taken hostage and some other issues as well.

To do that, we turn to CNN's Mike Brooks who has a background in law enforcement, security and just about anything else you can relate to this in subject matter. Mike, good to have you with us.

First of all, if you're a company involved in a situation like this, there might be a lot of temptation in the board room there to pay a ransom if there is one or do what you can to get a person out. Is that the correct strategy in this case?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: This is a very unique case. I don't think this is a strategy you want to use here. Now Central and South America, that's totally different. But we are talking about a war zone, Miles. And this time, I think if you even -- you can look at paying a ransom, but that's not what they're asking for. They're asking for American troops to pull out of Fallujah.

Now if there was -- some people will ask me why don't they just pay the money and then they'll give them back? Well if you are were paying money to them, you could be seen as supporting terrorism which is against the PATRIOT Act. But in this, it's is a whole different ball of wax than you would have in a normally in a traditional kidnapping or hostage taking, if you will.

O'BRIEN: So when you say it's a different ball of wax, this is not the kind of thing with where the FBI might field agents into a war zone to try to do a sort of criminal investigation. Doesn't make sense.

BROOKS: Well the FBI already has about 50 agents in Iraq right now. They're at the highest levels of government. They're looking to see whether or not there can be any contribution by the FBI. But right now it is being handled by the military and the coalition.

And what they need to do is recognize moderates, which looks like they already have within the clerics groups and the governing council to try to negotiate there. We just heard that some of the hostages had been released.

And we talk about the difference between hostages and kidnaps. You know, were these people kidnapped or were they taken hostage? Well in this, the objective looks to be either political or social. Now you look at the true definition of terrorism, the unlawful use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population or any segment thereof in the furtherance of political or associate objectives.

So that looks like what we have here.

O'BRIEN: And what we're hearing is that religious is edict, a fatwah it is called by middle-of-the-road Muslim clerics, saying this is not what God wants us to do.

What does that tell you? Does that tell you that the tactic and the message has gotten through that hostage taking does not lead to any sort of end?

BROOKS: I think that's what we're hearing. But there are so many small groups of insurgents. We saw the groups that killed the four contractors from Blackwater the week before last. I think these are the kind you're dealing with.

But if these moderate clerics can get through and say, this is not what we're about, this is not what we want. I think you're going to see an end to this. And hopefully this will not happen again.

But a number of these companies, Miles, they had been looking to the United States for other companies that provide training, that provide protection and risk assessment early on before this happened. They were looking to them. What can you do for us if some of our people are taken hostage or if they're kidnapped?

Now, this truck driver, what kind of training did he have when he got in country? I know that CEOs of certain countries that provide services in Central and South America, they are given all kinds of training on what to do if you're taken hostage.

If companies are not giving this to people who are going into this war zone, then they're being remiss to their employees and should get some kind of training to them.

O'BRIEN: Shame on them. And I guess perhaps it is no coincidence having said that that many of the hostages that have been taken are not U.S. Perhaps we can presume that U.S. companies are more -- are better securing their employees?

BROOKS: I would say so. I know some of my sources who are former FBI Are now working for some of these threat assessment companies. And they've been approached on providing training and also possibly going to Iraq should something like this happen.

Again, there are a number of good companies out there that provide this kind of services. But right now again this is a whole different ball of wax than it would be for Central or South America.

O'BRIEN: Mike Brooks, thanks very much.

BROOKS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: American troops are now in control in Kut. This after a small group of insurgents loyal to a radical Shi'ite cleric waged violence there. CNN's Jane Arraf traveled to the south central city and brings us this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Remnants of a rebellion, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and images of the Shi'a leader whose small militia has put thousands of U.S. troops back into combat. The U.S. Army says it has essentially defeated Muqtada al-Sadr's militia here and is methodically moving through Kut to make sure.

The Army calls this the Iranian Cafe. They say it may have been one place where militia members met to plot seizing a city where there had been no U.S. troops since the Marines left after the war.

(on camera): This was known as a calm town, pro-coalition even. But now three months before the U.S. is due to hand back power to the Iraqis, American tanks have moved in again.

(voice-over): And they'll likely stay for some time. A mire 500 militia members were able to seize the city of 300,000 people. Ukrainian troops, restricted to peacekeeping by their Defense Ministry, retreated to their barracks. The new Iraqi police and civil defense forces melted away.

More than 1,000 troops from the 1st Armored Division, due to go home, and tons of equipment were rushed from Baghdad and other places instead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the first opportunity, we will -- we will obviously transition and work closely with the local security forces, as we can locate them, and get them back to work.

ARRAF: But first they have to gain trust. These Iraqi police will only meet U.S. officers on a dark street corner. In daylight, the streets are almost empty with schools and shops shut. The Army has warned people to stay indoors for now. Some said townspeople feared al-Sadr's Mehdi Army more than they supported it.

But this man said they should leave Muqtada al-Sadr alone. He is a civilian, like us, give him his freedom he says. This isn't democracy. Sadr draws his support from the poor and disaffected. His militia's first target was the coalition civilian headquarters, attacked, burned and looted.

As it did in Baghdad, the Army is starting from scratch again, rebuilding a government, rebuilding an infrastructure and trying to get people off the streets, back at work.

GEN. MIKE SCAPPAROTTI, U.S. ARMY: And in some places, I think the people feel as though what they expected didn't move as quickly as it should. But we're here to see what their needs are and we'll start working those issues with them.

ARRAF: More reasons that the U.S. will be keeping some troops in Iraq longer than they bargained for in a part of the country they thought had been stable.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Kut in south central Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: If you're a parent, this story will make you nervous. A playground Easter egg hunt turns up some dangerous loot.

PHILLIPS: Things went, shall we say, swimmingly at this Easter hunt. Those stories straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Rainy skies didn't damp the spirits of kids at this year's Easter egg roll at the White House. Why would rain bother them? They got slickers. And there's plenty of sugar to keep them going.

About 7,200 eggs dyed for the roll on the South Lawn this morning. The annual event dates back to the 1800s when the president, who you know, of course, Kyra, was Rutherford B. Hayes...

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Mr. Historian.

O'BRIEN: ... first invited the little nippers on there to go after the eggs.

PHILLIPS: Do you want to tell everyone that you went to Georgetown, too?

Now to an underwater Easter egg hunt. A Florida dive operator was the Easter bunny. He put on a rabbit costume under his breathing apparatus and hid eggs in sand bowls and under ledges. Sixteen fellow divers then searched the ocean bottom off of Key Largo.

O'BRIEN: Looks like a dumb bunny to me.

On a more serious note, some children hunting Easter eggs in Flint, Michigan found two loaded handguns not chocolate outside an elementary school. One of the guns went off when it was dropped. No one hurt, we're glad to tell you. Police are on the case.

PHILLIPS: Now for a special report. When apartheid ended in South Africa it was the end of the road for segregation in that country -- except for one tiny all-white village. CNN's Charlene Hunter-Gault decided to pay a visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN JOHANNESBURG BUREAU CHIEF (voice- over): Young South Africans in the country's so-year-old democracy still saluting an old flag recognized by almost no one else, trying to hold on to tradition they and their elders believe are under assault in the new South Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: English as she is pronounced.

HUNTER-GAULT: This school in Oranje, a town created to realize the dream of a separate Afrikaner homeland where the tiny minority could preserve their belief that each ethnic nation has a God-given right to its own identity.

But separate states were abolished along with apartheid. So this community has been battling to stay alive, but putting the best face on it. Carel Boshoff, a founder of Oranje and son-in-law of the late Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the key architects of apartheid.

CAREL BOSHOFF, FOUNDER OF ORANJE: One cannot be satisfied if one is much more driven to do more and to do it faster. HUNTER-GAULT: The tiny community has grown from a handful in 1991, but the population has remained constant at around 600 for years.

There's little revenue here. Most coming from small scale farming and a few cottage industries, and the sale of educational software. But money's so tight that the school can barely afford teachers. Computers doing the job most of the time.

Reenus Steyn is a general contractor who gets some income from his bed and breakfast hotel. He, too, says the project hasn't been easy, especially since the community insists on hiring and using only white labor.

REENUS STEYN, GENERAL CONTRACTOR: We are sorting out different problems because we are like settlers, like pioneers.

HUNTER-GAULT: But Pieter Grobbelaar, a retired farmer and member of parliament and his wife Eleanor are building here because of an even greater fear: being absorbed in South Africa's 10-year-old multiracial society.

PIETER GROBBELAAR, RETIRED FARMER, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: I want to be part of the fruit cellar. But if I'm a pineapple, I want to stay a pineapple.

HUNTER-GAULT: (on camera): The government and the people of Oranje seem to have a tacit agreement that boils down to this -- you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. And that for the time being seems to be working.

(voice-over): But most of the country's 2.5 million Afrikaners want nothing to do with Oranje.

SAMPIE TERREBLANCHE, PROFESSOR: There is only one word for Oranje, and that's madness.

HUNTER-GAULT: University of Stellenboch Professor Sampie Terreblanche says the end of apartheid that liberated blacks liberated Afrikaners too.

TERREBLACHE: All our feeling free, no longer the polecats of the world.

HUNTER-GAULT: A small bronze statue of Hendrick Verwoerd looks over the town that represents what's left of his separatist vision. A vision standing in stark contrast to the ideal of a rainbow nation being celebrated ten years after apartheid.

Charlene Hunter-Gault, CNN, Oranje, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Too hot for TV? Not in Miles' book. Victoria's Secret's out. It is pulling the plug on its fashion show. What will you do? O'BRIEN: I don't know. I'll are to watch it here on the internal feed. I'll send it out to all of you who want it. Don't worry.

Also ahead, Aspen? Look at these ritzy houses -- well, they're not so ritzy, are they? All in the location. Right?

PHILLIPS: Speaking of ritzy houses, how much would you pay for this beauty, Miles?

O'BRIEN: How about nine figures?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: Check out this house, or shall we say mansion. How much would you pay for it. It's an astounding figure. We'll tell you what it is.

O'BRIEN: Speaking of high-priced real estate, this is a side of Aspen you don't usually see. Creative housing for the less than rich and famous in the land of them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's not the Taj Mahal but the price tag sounds like it. This London mansion set a record for the world's most expensive home. Ready, Miles? One hundred twenty-eight million bucks to a steel tycoon in India.

"Forbes" magazine says that Lakshmi Mittal is one of the richest men in the world. Well, he better be because this new home has a 20- car garage a Turkish bath, actually Turkish baths, plural. And a ballroom. He can throw some serious parties.

O'BRIEN: Wow, wow, wow. All right, I assume he paid cash. Right? Do we know that?

PHILLIPS: Of course.

O'BRIEN: What kind of a mortgage deal do you get? The interest rates are low.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: There's plenty of expensive real estate on this side of the pond as well. Properties such a premium in Aspen, Colorado. Residents there are, well, they're finding necessity is the mother of invention. Our J.J. Ramberg looks at some of their more inventive solutions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While it may not look like it, this house sits in one of the country's ritziest cities, Aspen, Colorado. In a town where housing prices have risen so steeply that last year the average home cost $2.7 million, real estate has moved beyond the means of the legions of ski instructors and waiters and other locals who moved here for the mountain lifestyle. So they've begun to get creative.

ISADORE HOUSER, SNOW GROOMER: Instead of putting everything into the dump, I just put it together and made a cabin out of it.

RAMBERG: Isadore Houser, who works as a ski run snow groomer, lives up a mountain far from the nearest road in a house he built out of scrap wood.

And just down the hill, local artist Judy Haas lives on and off in this one-room mining hut.

JUDY HAAS, ARTIST: There isn't any running water or electricity with this cabin.

RAMBERG (on camera): The city and the variety of companies around here do provide housing for people who can't afford the area's steep prices. But there are a limited number of units. And in some cases you need to enter a lottery to get one.

(voice-over): Ned Ryerson gave up on trying to buy a house in town. Instead, a few years ago, he paid $8,000 for this Mongolian (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he keeps on a friend's property.

NED RYERSON, TELEMARK SKI INSTRUCTOR: My land lady is a friendly land lady. I caretake her property and look after things for her.

RAMBERG: Residents like Ryerson live only a stone's throw away from the mansions of aspen's rich and famous. But for many, a more modest lifestyle is just fine.

RYERSON: I don't really envy the people that have the big houses because they got a lot more upkeep than I do.

RAMBERG: And who wants to deal with upkeep when there are so many other things to do?

J.J. Ramberg, CNN Financial News, Aspen, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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Aired April 12, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM... I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new half hour.

Civilians from several countries have been kidnapped in Iraq. Who else besides the military will respond? We'll have a closer look.

O'BRIEN: And the Easter egg hunt with surprises as kids turn up loaded guns along with the jelly beans.

PHILLIPS: In the fight for Iraq, we give you the latest developments now. The nation will hear from President Bush about the situation in Iraq. The president plans to answer questions at a White House news conference tomorrow night.

And police back on patrol in Najaf where Shi'ite militants are reportedly holed up. Iraqi police are returning to their post after reaching a deal with the militants, a radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces are surrounding Najaf but prefer not to enter that holy city.

There's still no word on the fate of Thomas Hamill, the Mississippi truck driver who was taken captive by Iraqi militants. Insurgents had promised to kill Hamill unless U.S. troops pulled out of Fallujah by Saturday night.

And just in to the U.S., according to Chinese television reports, seven Chinese hostages held in Iraq have been released. Meanwhile, a deadline has passed for these three Japanese hostages. Insurgents had promised to burn them alive if the coalition did Japan did not pull its forces out of Iraq by Sunday.

Vice President Dick Cheney is supporting Japan's handling of the hostage situation and is pledging America's help. Cheney met with Japan's prime minister today in Tokyo. Japan has 550 peacekeepers in Iraq.

O'BRIEN: American Thomas Hamill was in Iraq working as a civilian contractor when he was kidnapped. We take a look at the protocol used by companies when dealing with employees taken hostage and some other issues as well.

To do that, we turn to CNN's Mike Brooks who has a background in law enforcement, security and just about anything else you can relate to this in subject matter. Mike, good to have you with us.

First of all, if you're a company involved in a situation like this, there might be a lot of temptation in the board room there to pay a ransom if there is one or do what you can to get a person out. Is that the correct strategy in this case?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: This is a very unique case. I don't think this is a strategy you want to use here. Now Central and South America, that's totally different. But we are talking about a war zone, Miles. And this time, I think if you even -- you can look at paying a ransom, but that's not what they're asking for. They're asking for American troops to pull out of Fallujah.

Now if there was -- some people will ask me why don't they just pay the money and then they'll give them back? Well if you are were paying money to them, you could be seen as supporting terrorism which is against the PATRIOT Act. But in this, it's is a whole different ball of wax than you would have in a normally in a traditional kidnapping or hostage taking, if you will.

O'BRIEN: So when you say it's a different ball of wax, this is not the kind of thing with where the FBI might field agents into a war zone to try to do a sort of criminal investigation. Doesn't make sense.

BROOKS: Well the FBI already has about 50 agents in Iraq right now. They're at the highest levels of government. They're looking to see whether or not there can be any contribution by the FBI. But right now it is being handled by the military and the coalition.

And what they need to do is recognize moderates, which looks like they already have within the clerics groups and the governing council to try to negotiate there. We just heard that some of the hostages had been released.

And we talk about the difference between hostages and kidnaps. You know, were these people kidnapped or were they taken hostage? Well in this, the objective looks to be either political or social. Now you look at the true definition of terrorism, the unlawful use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population or any segment thereof in the furtherance of political or associate objectives.

So that looks like what we have here.

O'BRIEN: And what we're hearing is that religious is edict, a fatwah it is called by middle-of-the-road Muslim clerics, saying this is not what God wants us to do.

What does that tell you? Does that tell you that the tactic and the message has gotten through that hostage taking does not lead to any sort of end?

BROOKS: I think that's what we're hearing. But there are so many small groups of insurgents. We saw the groups that killed the four contractors from Blackwater the week before last. I think these are the kind you're dealing with.

But if these moderate clerics can get through and say, this is not what we're about, this is not what we want. I think you're going to see an end to this. And hopefully this will not happen again.

But a number of these companies, Miles, they had been looking to the United States for other companies that provide training, that provide protection and risk assessment early on before this happened. They were looking to them. What can you do for us if some of our people are taken hostage or if they're kidnapped?

Now, this truck driver, what kind of training did he have when he got in country? I know that CEOs of certain countries that provide services in Central and South America, they are given all kinds of training on what to do if you're taken hostage.

If companies are not giving this to people who are going into this war zone, then they're being remiss to their employees and should get some kind of training to them.

O'BRIEN: Shame on them. And I guess perhaps it is no coincidence having said that that many of the hostages that have been taken are not U.S. Perhaps we can presume that U.S. companies are more -- are better securing their employees?

BROOKS: I would say so. I know some of my sources who are former FBI Are now working for some of these threat assessment companies. And they've been approached on providing training and also possibly going to Iraq should something like this happen.

Again, there are a number of good companies out there that provide this kind of services. But right now again this is a whole different ball of wax than it would be for Central or South America.

O'BRIEN: Mike Brooks, thanks very much.

BROOKS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: American troops are now in control in Kut. This after a small group of insurgents loyal to a radical Shi'ite cleric waged violence there. CNN's Jane Arraf traveled to the south central city and brings us this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Remnants of a rebellion, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and images of the Shi'a leader whose small militia has put thousands of U.S. troops back into combat. The U.S. Army says it has essentially defeated Muqtada al-Sadr's militia here and is methodically moving through Kut to make sure.

The Army calls this the Iranian Cafe. They say it may have been one place where militia members met to plot seizing a city where there had been no U.S. troops since the Marines left after the war.

(on camera): This was known as a calm town, pro-coalition even. But now three months before the U.S. is due to hand back power to the Iraqis, American tanks have moved in again.

(voice-over): And they'll likely stay for some time. A mire 500 militia members were able to seize the city of 300,000 people. Ukrainian troops, restricted to peacekeeping by their Defense Ministry, retreated to their barracks. The new Iraqi police and civil defense forces melted away.

More than 1,000 troops from the 1st Armored Division, due to go home, and tons of equipment were rushed from Baghdad and other places instead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the first opportunity, we will -- we will obviously transition and work closely with the local security forces, as we can locate them, and get them back to work.

ARRAF: But first they have to gain trust. These Iraqi police will only meet U.S. officers on a dark street corner. In daylight, the streets are almost empty with schools and shops shut. The Army has warned people to stay indoors for now. Some said townspeople feared al-Sadr's Mehdi Army more than they supported it.

But this man said they should leave Muqtada al-Sadr alone. He is a civilian, like us, give him his freedom he says. This isn't democracy. Sadr draws his support from the poor and disaffected. His militia's first target was the coalition civilian headquarters, attacked, burned and looted.

As it did in Baghdad, the Army is starting from scratch again, rebuilding a government, rebuilding an infrastructure and trying to get people off the streets, back at work.

GEN. MIKE SCAPPAROTTI, U.S. ARMY: And in some places, I think the people feel as though what they expected didn't move as quickly as it should. But we're here to see what their needs are and we'll start working those issues with them.

ARRAF: More reasons that the U.S. will be keeping some troops in Iraq longer than they bargained for in a part of the country they thought had been stable.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Kut in south central Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: If you're a parent, this story will make you nervous. A playground Easter egg hunt turns up some dangerous loot.

PHILLIPS: Things went, shall we say, swimmingly at this Easter hunt. Those stories straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Rainy skies didn't damp the spirits of kids at this year's Easter egg roll at the White House. Why would rain bother them? They got slickers. And there's plenty of sugar to keep them going.

About 7,200 eggs dyed for the roll on the South Lawn this morning. The annual event dates back to the 1800s when the president, who you know, of course, Kyra, was Rutherford B. Hayes...

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Mr. Historian.

O'BRIEN: ... first invited the little nippers on there to go after the eggs.

PHILLIPS: Do you want to tell everyone that you went to Georgetown, too?

Now to an underwater Easter egg hunt. A Florida dive operator was the Easter bunny. He put on a rabbit costume under his breathing apparatus and hid eggs in sand bowls and under ledges. Sixteen fellow divers then searched the ocean bottom off of Key Largo.

O'BRIEN: Looks like a dumb bunny to me.

On a more serious note, some children hunting Easter eggs in Flint, Michigan found two loaded handguns not chocolate outside an elementary school. One of the guns went off when it was dropped. No one hurt, we're glad to tell you. Police are on the case.

PHILLIPS: Now for a special report. When apartheid ended in South Africa it was the end of the road for segregation in that country -- except for one tiny all-white village. CNN's Charlene Hunter-Gault decided to pay a visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN JOHANNESBURG BUREAU CHIEF (voice- over): Young South Africans in the country's so-year-old democracy still saluting an old flag recognized by almost no one else, trying to hold on to tradition they and their elders believe are under assault in the new South Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: English as she is pronounced.

HUNTER-GAULT: This school in Oranje, a town created to realize the dream of a separate Afrikaner homeland where the tiny minority could preserve their belief that each ethnic nation has a God-given right to its own identity.

But separate states were abolished along with apartheid. So this community has been battling to stay alive, but putting the best face on it. Carel Boshoff, a founder of Oranje and son-in-law of the late Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the key architects of apartheid.

CAREL BOSHOFF, FOUNDER OF ORANJE: One cannot be satisfied if one is much more driven to do more and to do it faster. HUNTER-GAULT: The tiny community has grown from a handful in 1991, but the population has remained constant at around 600 for years.

There's little revenue here. Most coming from small scale farming and a few cottage industries, and the sale of educational software. But money's so tight that the school can barely afford teachers. Computers doing the job most of the time.

Reenus Steyn is a general contractor who gets some income from his bed and breakfast hotel. He, too, says the project hasn't been easy, especially since the community insists on hiring and using only white labor.

REENUS STEYN, GENERAL CONTRACTOR: We are sorting out different problems because we are like settlers, like pioneers.

HUNTER-GAULT: But Pieter Grobbelaar, a retired farmer and member of parliament and his wife Eleanor are building here because of an even greater fear: being absorbed in South Africa's 10-year-old multiracial society.

PIETER GROBBELAAR, RETIRED FARMER, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: I want to be part of the fruit cellar. But if I'm a pineapple, I want to stay a pineapple.

HUNTER-GAULT: (on camera): The government and the people of Oranje seem to have a tacit agreement that boils down to this -- you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. And that for the time being seems to be working.

(voice-over): But most of the country's 2.5 million Afrikaners want nothing to do with Oranje.

SAMPIE TERREBLANCHE, PROFESSOR: There is only one word for Oranje, and that's madness.

HUNTER-GAULT: University of Stellenboch Professor Sampie Terreblanche says the end of apartheid that liberated blacks liberated Afrikaners too.

TERREBLACHE: All our feeling free, no longer the polecats of the world.

HUNTER-GAULT: A small bronze statue of Hendrick Verwoerd looks over the town that represents what's left of his separatist vision. A vision standing in stark contrast to the ideal of a rainbow nation being celebrated ten years after apartheid.

Charlene Hunter-Gault, CNN, Oranje, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Too hot for TV? Not in Miles' book. Victoria's Secret's out. It is pulling the plug on its fashion show. What will you do? O'BRIEN: I don't know. I'll are to watch it here on the internal feed. I'll send it out to all of you who want it. Don't worry.

Also ahead, Aspen? Look at these ritzy houses -- well, they're not so ritzy, are they? All in the location. Right?

PHILLIPS: Speaking of ritzy houses, how much would you pay for this beauty, Miles?

O'BRIEN: How about nine figures?

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(MARKET UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: Check out this house, or shall we say mansion. How much would you pay for it. It's an astounding figure. We'll tell you what it is.

O'BRIEN: Speaking of high-priced real estate, this is a side of Aspen you don't usually see. Creative housing for the less than rich and famous in the land of them.

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PHILLIPS: Well, it's not the Taj Mahal but the price tag sounds like it. This London mansion set a record for the world's most expensive home. Ready, Miles? One hundred twenty-eight million bucks to a steel tycoon in India.

"Forbes" magazine says that Lakshmi Mittal is one of the richest men in the world. Well, he better be because this new home has a 20- car garage a Turkish bath, actually Turkish baths, plural. And a ballroom. He can throw some serious parties.

O'BRIEN: Wow, wow, wow. All right, I assume he paid cash. Right? Do we know that?

PHILLIPS: Of course.

O'BRIEN: What kind of a mortgage deal do you get? The interest rates are low.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: There's plenty of expensive real estate on this side of the pond as well. Properties such a premium in Aspen, Colorado. Residents there are, well, they're finding necessity is the mother of invention. Our J.J. Ramberg looks at some of their more inventive solutions.

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J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While it may not look like it, this house sits in one of the country's ritziest cities, Aspen, Colorado. In a town where housing prices have risen so steeply that last year the average home cost $2.7 million, real estate has moved beyond the means of the legions of ski instructors and waiters and other locals who moved here for the mountain lifestyle. So they've begun to get creative.

ISADORE HOUSER, SNOW GROOMER: Instead of putting everything into the dump, I just put it together and made a cabin out of it.

RAMBERG: Isadore Houser, who works as a ski run snow groomer, lives up a mountain far from the nearest road in a house he built out of scrap wood.

And just down the hill, local artist Judy Haas lives on and off in this one-room mining hut.

JUDY HAAS, ARTIST: There isn't any running water or electricity with this cabin.

RAMBERG (on camera): The city and the variety of companies around here do provide housing for people who can't afford the area's steep prices. But there are a limited number of units. And in some cases you need to enter a lottery to get one.

(voice-over): Ned Ryerson gave up on trying to buy a house in town. Instead, a few years ago, he paid $8,000 for this Mongolian (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he keeps on a friend's property.

NED RYERSON, TELEMARK SKI INSTRUCTOR: My land lady is a friendly land lady. I caretake her property and look after things for her.

RAMBERG: Residents like Ryerson live only a stone's throw away from the mansions of aspen's rich and famous. But for many, a more modest lifestyle is just fine.

RYERSON: I don't really envy the people that have the big houses because they got a lot more upkeep than I do.

RAMBERG: And who wants to deal with upkeep when there are so many other things to do?

J.J. Ramberg, CNN Financial News, Aspen, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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