06/10/2010

Available for over a year

BRIDE KIDNAPPING IN KYRGYZSTAN In a shocking report Abdujalil Abdurasulov finds out why Kyrgyzstan's failing economy is fuelling the often violent practice of bride kidnapping. We meet a victim who has been traumatised by the physical and mental abuse she experienced after being forced into a marriage against her will and we hear from women who are perpetuating this brutal tradition. PETER GODWIN Journalist Peter Godwin tells Matthew Bannister about the torture victims he met in his homeland, Zimbabwe, in the aftermath of the country's last elections. He describes how the battered bodies of opposition activists were used as human billboards to warn of what happens to those who stand against President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party. In an interesting twist, Peter explains how he managed to take President Mugabe's spiritual advisor to meet some of these people as they lay broken in their hospital beds, so he could see the results of the President's violent repression first hand. 'The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe', by Peter Godwin is published by Picador. THE GARBAGE KING - FROM THE STREET TO THE STAGE Former Ethiopian street gang member Belete comes into the Outlook studio with the woman who turned his story of loss, abuse and despair first into a book and now into a play, which is being performed at a London theatre. Writer Elizabeth Laird describes how moved she was when she first met Belete on the streets of Addis Ababa and he told her the story of his life.