Video Journalist David Brill travels Darfur, where a massive humanitarian crisis is now five years running with no signs of ease. Despite the constant presence of a government minder, and being stopped regularly to have his credentials checked, Brill visits several camps, each home to tens of thousands of internally displaced people.
Brill records the uneasy relationship between the government and the NGOs helping the two million displaced people. He films a meeting between the two sides – and the aid workers’ frustration at the endless bureaucracy is obvious, not to mention their growing unease at the security situation.
He also films senior Sudanese government bureaucrats in charge of the relief effort in South Darfur, the first time a camera has been allowed into their meetings.
Alhadi Ahmed Ali, the head of the Humanitarian Affairs Commission in South Darfur tells Brill that 20,000 refugees have returned to their homes – and he takes him to a village that’s been successfully re-settled.
Ali denies the government is backing the dreaded Janjaweed militia, and he accuses the rebel forces and international media of a conspiracy to thwart his government. He says the oft-quoted numbers of 200,000 dead and two million displaced people are “unreliable”.
Also in this episode, interviews with the Dalai Lama, David Kilgour and Lousie Arbor.
Watch these segments online at SBS:
Dalai Lama Interview and Update
About International Dateline
SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.
