Unreported World

15 November 2011

Hydrocephalus - or ‘water on the brain' - occurs when fluid builds up inside the skull, putting huge pressure on tissues inside, causing brain damage and death. Hydrocephalus has many causes, but in Uganda most cases develop when babies contract infections after being born in unsterile conditions. It is more common than deafness or Down's syndrome worldwide, and easily treated in the developed world. But in Africa, few hydrocephalus babies get medical attention. Without treatment, 90% will die before their second birthday.

The team begins their journey at the CURE hospital in Mbale, eastern Uganda, where mothers are praying for their babies' lives while they wait for brain surgery. The hospital treats 4000 children a year, with 20 new hydrocephalus cases arriving every day.

Kleeman meets Dr Nekaka, who is examining Sarah, a two-month-old who needs urgent surgery. A scan shows that hydrocephalus has already left her brain damaged, but with early treatment, Sarah's brain might grow back and recover. On the packed ward, Kleeman meets Loy, and her nine-month-old son Kazimiri, who is in the advanced stages of hydrocephalus. It took Loy six months to borrow and save the money to pay for their transport here, and she had to watch Kazimiri deteriorate while she tried to scrape together their fare.

Kleeman and Oram are invited into the theatre as the surgeon, John Mugamba, operates on Sarah and then Kazimiri. Dr Mugamba is one of only five neurosurgeons in Uganda. He tells Kleeman that most cases are entirely preventable, but poor neonatal care, poverty and a lack of surgeons mean many die needlessly. Sarah's surgery is straightforward: her parents brought her in early so her treatment was simple. But Kazimiri's condition is so poor that the surgery has to be abandoned. Dr Mugamba tells Loy he will wait a week before trying again.

Hydrocephalus is particularly common in the least developed parts of the country. In Gulu, the team meet Winnifred, whose daughter shows advanced symptoms. Like Kazimiri and Sarah, Oroma was born a normal baby, but her head began to swell after an infection. Winnifred tells Kleeman her husband left her after Oroma started changing. She says that local people insult her and say that she's bought a curse on the village.

The team returns to the hospital just as Kazimiri comes out of his second surgery. Dr Mugamba has managed to save his life, but only by inserting a drainage tube into his head. Loy won't know the extent of any permanent brain damage until Kazimiri is older. The tube will need to be replaced with further surgery as he grows. Getting him to hospital once has already bankrupted her family, but Loy had decided to fight for his life, whatever the cost.

While Kazimiri is still in hospital, the team hears that Sarah is recovering well from her surgery. They travel to see her at home in her village and find that her condition has already improved only five days after treatment. She's lucky to have had the operation early. Sarah's father, Oluport, tells Kleeman: ‘She will be somebody who can go to school, maybe work, by herself. Even when she woke up today, I saw that she was a bit better, and I felt very good.'

Reporter: Jenny Kleeman

Prod: Suemay Oram

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

4/10: Nigeria's Millionaire Preachers, Fri 28th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers. By promoting the dream of escaping poverty, they have turned their churches into corporations, which are changing the face of Christianity.

 

Every Sunday millions of Nigerians crowd into thousands of competing churches. The Unreported World team visits one church in Lagos run by Dr Sign Fireman, an up-and-coming preacher who is attempting to break into the big time. They find 2000 people at an event billed as the Burial of Satan. After a rock star entrance, Dr Fireman begins his service by exorcising the demons in his congregation. Many Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe that demons are the root cause of their problems in life and come to people like Dr Fireman to get rid of them. Over 20 men and women, including some who worked for Dr Fireman, have the evil spirits inside them expelled.

They witness sick members of the congregation coming forward for miracle healing. Dr Fireman claims to have God-given powers that can change people's lives, from raising people from the dead to curing earache. One man comes on stage and tells the crowd he is crippled and blind. Dr Fireman then channels his powers to help the man walk and see again. Yet, earlier the team has seen the man walking unaided.

At the close of the event the crowd swarms forward and throws money at Dr Fireman's feet. There is so much cash it has to be collected in dustbins. Rhodes talks to one worshipper who says that those who give money are repaid by God with good fortune. Some Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe giving 10 per cent of their income will bring God's blessing into their lives, their families and their businesses. With the service over, Dr Fireman leaves in his yellow Hummer 4x4.

Through the marketing of his talents, Dr Fireman has expanded his Perfect Christianity Ministry to 40 branches. Key to this growth is the emphasis on prosperity preaching: teaching that prosperity is a sign of spiritual blessing. The idea is that to become rich, you should give money to the church. Pentecostal and independent churches in Nigeria tap into the Nigerian dream: the aspiration of having and being seen to have cars, houses, money and power. To get more people to join his church, Dr Fireman believes portraying the right image is essential and shows the trappings of wealth his church has brought him. He travels everywhere with his bodyguards in one of his three yellow luxury cars with a combined worth of more than £150,000.

Dr Fireman's business model is not a new one. Most of the richest pastors in Nigeria use similar methods of expansion. The team meets Pastor Chris Okotie, the fifth richest pastor in the country, who had hits in the 80s with records such as Secret Love and Show Me Your Backside. His church, House of God, attracts Nigerian film stars, celebrities and musicians. Pastor Okotie has used his power base to run for the last three presidential elections, believing the principles of prosperity preaching will provide a better future for Nigeria.

Local journalist Simon Ateba has spent five years covering the rise of the new churches. He says it's almost impossible to establish their true wealth. Simon takes the team to the headquarters of Christ Embassy. He claims that two years ago when he tried to take photographs of the building, security guards dragged him inside and beat him until he fainted. Soon after he tells this story, security guards come over to the Unreported World team and drag Rhodes into the building by his belt. He escapes unscathed.

Before leaving Nigeria, the team visits Dr Fireman. He's busy in a music studio recording a new song as he expands his business into the music industry. Rhodes asks him how he can square his wealth and celebrity status with the teachings and life of Jesus. Dr Fireman says that God wants him to be rich and denies that Jesus had a humble life. ‘Jesus was rich and had an accountant who followed him around,' he tells Rhodes.

Reporter: Seyi Rhodes

Prod: Matt Haan

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

5/10: Russia: Vlad's Army, Friday 4th November, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Reporter Peter Oborne and director James Jones reveal the huge personality cult around Vladimir Putin as they follow the extraordinary actions of the mass youth movement dedicated to protecting the interests of the Prime Minister and Russia. As Putin announces his intention to return as President next year, Unreported World meets some of the young people who are utterly devoted to him, have seemingly limitless resources, and appear to be above the law.

 

 

Outside the American Embassy in Moscow the team films members of Nashi, or ‘Our People', as the movement is called, spray-painting ‘Russia Forward' in six-foot letters, following criticism of Russia by the American Defence Secretary. The police step in, but it soon becomes clear who is in charge as Nashi members bully, shove and chase away the officers in an extraordinary display of strength.

Nashi's headquarters are in a £20 million house in central Moscow, decorated with murals of Putin and quotes from his speeches. Oborne joins Nashi's weekly political meeting, which reveals a sinister side to its patriotism as anti-western and racist views come to the fore amongst some members. 

Masha Kislitsnya, Nashi's Commissar, describes how her experience growing up as the daughter of a single mother in the 1990s formed the basis for her admiration for Putin. With the government in collapse following the fall of communism she recalls that her family lived in dire poverty, with the shops often empty of goods. Everything changed for the better, she says, when Putin took over.

Oborne also meets 21-year-old Nashi members Victoria and Oksana. They believe Putin has restored pride and prosperity to Russia and say joining Nashi was a way to express their adoration. They show and describe their favourite pictures of their leader, declaring that they are fanatics and that they worship him.

Critics say Nashi's true function is to build a personality cult for Vladmir Putin, while bullying, intimidating and harassing his opponents. The team speak to journalist Oleg Kashin, who, a year ago was brutally beaten up after writing an article criticising a business project of one of Putin's closest allies. His attackers have never been caught but Kashin tells Oborne he believes Nashi were most likely behind the attack, as one of his articles featured a project which they supported. Nashi denies all involvement, with Masha dismissing the suggestion as ‘just accusations'.

While Putin's Russia may look like a liberal democracy - with elections, law courts and parliament - Unreported World shows how in reality there is a parallel state. Putin is a former Director of Russia's security service, the FSB: the successor to the notorious KGB. Critics say that, just like Nashi, the FSB is used to silence opposition and further the business interests of Putin's allies.

The team meets Olga Romanova, a financial journalist whose husband Alexei ran a profitable construction business until she ran an article exposing the business practices of a close Putin ally. Olga claims Alexei was given the choice between divorcing his wife or losing his business. Soon afterwards the FSB started an investigation. Alexei was arrested, charged and sent to jail for eight years for the theft of shares: a crime she says he had not committed.

Olga reveals the charges against her husband had been brought by the notorious K department inside the FSB, which pursues economic crimes against the state. A Russian business watchdog estimates the FSB has charged one in six Russian businessmen with fraud and other economic crimes. Many of these charges are believed to baseless. 

As the Unreported World team leaves Russia, it seems as though Nashi's worship may be turning Putin into one of the archetypal figures who occur throughout Russian history; a strongman with mystical powers, attracting uncritical devotion from his followers. What also seems clear is that the future of democracy and the rule of law in Vladimir Putin's Russia is under threat.

Reporter: Peter Oborne

Director: James Jones

Series Editor: George Waldrum

A Quicksilver Media production

 

1/10: South Africa: Trouble in the Townships, Fri 7th October, 7.30pm, Channel 4

Channel 4's award-winning foreign current affairs series returns with a new reporter, Channel 4 News's Krishnan Guru-Murthy. He introduces each programme and reports for this first edition from South Africa. Seventeen years after it was freed from apartheid, he finds a country in which violent protests against corruption and the lack of basic services mean its ambition to lead the continent as a prosperous democracy hangs in the balance. Simmering with anger, its people tell him they feel a sense of betrayal they will tolerate no longer.

 

Guru-Murthy and producer Alex Nott travel to Johannesburg. It's the centre of Africa's biggest economy; modern, growing and an inspiration for the continent. Yet it's also the heart of a country where the poorest people are often robbed by corrupt officials, while the most powerful stand accused of creaming off astonishing wealth.

There are 182 squatter camps in Johannesburg alone. The team visits one of the biggest and most dangerous: Diepsloot, which is home to 200,000 people. Journalist Golden shows them shocking reports of the mob justice that rules here. He says that the residents of Diepsloot fear for their lives every night they go to sleep, as the police seem powerless, or unwilling, to address the horrendous levels of crime.

Guru-Murthy talks to Philippine, who lives in a shack but says she should by now be living in a state-subsidised house. She says she has the papers and the keys but when she went to move in five years ago, she found another family there. She suspects that a local official has corruptly sold the home that had already been assigned to her, but she has got nowhere with the authorities since then.

The team hears about one local official helping people jump the housing queue for bribes. Posing as a desperate father looking for help getting his family out of a squatter camp, Golden rings Albert Setwyewye, a former ANC councillor now working for local government. He is told to meet Albert at a nearby shopping mall, and bring some money. Unreported World sends an undercover reporter to meet Albert, who tells him that for 5,000 rand he can get him a state-subsidised house in a development called Cosmo City even though he doesn't qualify for it and the waiting list closed in 2004.

But corruption doesn't just infect low level officials in the country. Allegations surround some of the most powerful people in South Africa, including the chief of police, President Zuma's family and the man many tip as a future president: Julius Malema, the president of the ANC's Youth League. Malema's lifestyle is at odds with his modest ANC salary, and the team visits a house he is building in one of Johannesburg's most exclusive suburbs, Sandton, at a rumoured cost of 16 million rand (around 1.5 million pounds). The builders aren't happy about media attention and threaten the team that if they continue to film, they will break their equipment. 

Guru-Murthy attempts to confront Malema about the allegations of corruption and how he can afford his new home at a press conference at the ANC headquarters. Malema's response: ‘It's none of your business. Mind your business.'

As the number of prominent politicians and civil servants involved in corruption scandals grows, the government has been trying to introduce new secrecy laws that many believe are part of a clampdown on journalists trying to uncover fraud. The team meets reporters Mzilikazi Wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstater. They tell Guru-Murthy that there is evidence of state resources being abused to put journalists under surveillance, and monitor their movements and phone calls with sources.

The team receives a call from Albert, saying he has the paperwork that will allow them to jump the housing queue and secure a house in Cosmo City. Guru-Murthy and Nott reveal their identities and confront him about his corrupt behaviour. At first he denies being involved, but later changes his story saying that he's just bending the rules and doing the same as other officials, and offers to refund any money he may have taken.

Trevor Manuel, the senior government minister in charge of the national planning commission, tells Guru-Murthy that there is too much corruption, investigations are poor and conviction rates are too low. While he says that every instance of corruption is one too many, it's clear to the team that a lack of concerted action is affecting national security. Since January last year there have been over 130 violent protests and the people's patience is running out.

 

Reporter: Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Prod: Alex Nott

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

2/10: Undercover Syria, Fri 14th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Unreported World reporter Ramita Navai and producer Wael Dabbous spend two weeks living undercover in some of the most dangerous parts of Syria with members of the opposition movement determined to overthrow President Assad's brutal dictatorship. One of the few teams to avoid the ban on foreign media operating without official permission, they meet the protestors and the victims of the bloody crackdown, and visit the clandestine hospitals set up in private homes by doctors who risk torture or death for treating the injured.

 

Syria is one of the most secretive and repressive countries in the Arab world. The Assad family has been in power for 40 years and the opposition say they are campaigning against endemic corruption, nepotism and brutal suppression. 

Navai and Dabbous experience first-hand life as fugitives in Syria as they are trapped in a safe house with three of the country's most wanted men. As the town of Madaya is besieged by the army, the security forces and the militia spend three days raiding houses in search of activists and people who have been seen at protests. The three men - one who says he has already been tortured for peacefully protesting - fear they will be killed if they are caught. They tell Navai that many of their friends have already been murdered by Assad's men.

With security officers right outside the safe house, the men cannot escape from the windows, and are forced to hide in a small cupboard as the raids get nearer, with dozens of houses being smashed and ransacked and men being arrested and beaten.

But nothing will stop the people of Madaya having their voices heard; less than 12 hours after the military withdraws from the town, they are fearlessly back on the streets protesting, and chanting for freedom, despite this being the very thing that can get them killed.

The team meets four soldiers who say that they defected to the opposition after being ordered to shoot at protesters, raid houses and trample on people accused of protesting - including women and children. They claim to have witnessed other soldiers who refused these orders being shot dead. Shortly after this meeting, shooting begins in the mountains behind Madaya as the army scours the countryside in search of dissidents. The team decides to move on.

Using a network of underground opposition activists to guide them through secret routes to evade military check points, the team enters the town of Duma, north of Damascus. Over the next few hours, the team witnesses protests, wakes and funerals - one of which has attracted thousands of people who are protesting against the torture of Ayman Zaghloul. He had recently been arrested by the security forces after he was shot in the leg during a protest. After being imprisoned, his body was returned to his family with horrific signs of torture - he had been electrocuted, one of his eyes had been gouged out and his head had been crushed with a clamp.

Navai and Dabbous are introduced to a doctor who tells them that hospitals are being raided by the security forces and militia, who are then killing injured protesters. He says that doctors are also being targeted for helping the injured, and many have been imprisoned. The doctor tells Navai that he has smuggled patients out of hospitals and is now treating them in ‘secret hospitals' - which are simply ill-equipped private houses in secret locations. The fear of being discovered by informers and raided is so great that patients are moved from safe house to safe house, despite so many of them being in critical condition.

The team visits four protesters with gunshot wounds. One is a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is half paralyzed. Another man has been left brain damaged because he could not get the urgent medical attention needed in time, as the doctors in the hospital were too scared to treat him. All the while, the activists are receiving phone calls about more injured and more killed.

With hundreds of people missing, either in prisons across the country or dead, and hundreds not been reported killed for fear of recrimination, most of the activists believe the death toll is closer to 10,000 than the estimated 2000 to 3000 being reported in the press. The violence is relentless but the activists of the democracy movement remain uncowed.

 

Reporter: Ramita Navai

Prod: Wael Dabbous

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

TX: Fridays from 7th October 2011, 7:30pm, Channel 4

This autumn, Unreported World's intrepid reporters welcome a formidable new colleague, Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, as they investigate stories from some of the most difficult and hidden parts of the world. Guru-Murthy will also introduce each programme.

This latest run of Unreported World will continue to give a voice to people the world routinely ignores; documenting remarkable characters living extreme lives

 

Hydrocephalus - or ‘water on the brain' - occurs when fluid builds up inside the skull, putting huge pressure on tissues inside, causing brain damage and death. Hydrocephalus has many causes, but in Uganda most cases develop when babies contract infections after being born in unsterile conditions. It is more common than deafness or Down's syndrome worldwide, and easily treated in the developed world. But in Africa, few hydrocephalus babies get medical attention. Without treatment, 90% will die before their second birthday.

The team begins their journey at the CURE hospital in Mbale, eastern Uganda, where mothers are praying for their babies' lives while they wait for brain surgery. The hospital treats 4000 children a year, with 20 new hydrocephalus cases arriving every day.

Kleeman meets Dr Nekaka, who is examining Sarah, a two-month-old who needs urgent surgery. A scan shows that hydrocephalus has already left her brain damaged, but with early treatment, Sarah's brain might grow back and recover. On the packed ward, Kleeman meets Loy, and her nine-month-old son Kazimiri, who is in the advanced stages of hydrocephalus. It took Loy six months to borrow and save the money to pay for their transport here, and she had to watch Kazimiri deteriorate while she tried to scrape together their fare.

Kleeman and Oram are invited into the theatre as the surgeon, John Mugamba, operates on Sarah and then Kazimiri. Dr Mugamba is one of only five neurosurgeons in Uganda. He tells Kleeman that most cases are entirely preventable, but poor neonatal care, poverty and a lack of surgeons mean many die needlessly. Sarah's surgery is straightforward: her parents brought her in early so her treatment was simple. But Kazimiri's condition is so poor that the surgery has to be abandoned. Dr Mugamba tells Loy he will wait a week before trying again.

Hydrocephalus is particularly common in the least developed parts of the country. In Gulu, the team meet Winnifred, whose daughter shows advanced symptoms. Like Kazimiri and Sarah, Oroma was born a normal baby, but her head began to swell after an infection. Winnifred tells Kleeman her husband left her after Oroma started changing. She says that local people insult her and say that she's bought a curse on the village.

The team returns to the hospital just as Kazimiri comes out of his second surgery. Dr Mugamba has managed to save his life, but only by inserting a drainage tube into his head. Loy won't know the extent of any permanent brain damage until Kazimiri is older. The tube will need to be replaced with further surgery as he grows. Getting him to hospital once has already bankrupted her family, but Loy had decided to fight for his life, whatever the cost.

While Kazimiri is still in hospital, the team hears that Sarah is recovering well from her surgery. They travel to see her at home in her village and find that her condition has already improved only five days after treatment. She's lucky to have had the operation early. Sarah's father, Oluport, tells Kleeman: ‘She will be somebody who can go to school, maybe work, by herself. Even when she woke up today, I saw that she was a bit better, and I felt very good.'

Reporter: Jenny Kleeman

Prod: Suemay Oram

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

4/10: Nigeria's Millionaire Preachers, Fri 28th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers. By promoting the dream of escaping poverty, they have turned their churches into corporations, which are changing the face of Christianity.

 

Every Sunday millions of Nigerians crowd into thousands of competing churches. The Unreported World team visits one church in Lagos run by Dr Sign Fireman, an up-and-coming preacher who is attempting to break into the big time. They find 2000 people at an event billed as the Burial of Satan. After a rock star entrance, Dr Fireman begins his service by exorcising the demons in his congregation. Many Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe that demons are the root cause of their problems in life and come to people like Dr Fireman to get rid of them. Over 20 men and women, including some who worked for Dr Fireman, have the evil spirits inside them expelled.

They witness sick members of the congregation coming forward for miracle healing. Dr Fireman claims to have God-given powers that can change people's lives, from raising people from the dead to curing earache. One man comes on stage and tells the crowd he is crippled and blind. Dr Fireman then channels his powers to help the man walk and see again. Yet, earlier the team has seen the man walking unaided.

At the close of the event the crowd swarms forward and throws money at Dr Fireman's feet. There is so much cash it has to be collected in dustbins. Rhodes talks to one worshipper who says that those who give money are repaid by God with good fortune. Some Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe giving 10 per cent of their income will bring God's blessing into their lives, their families and their businesses. With the service over, Dr Fireman leaves in his yellow Hummer 4x4.

Through the marketing of his talents, Dr Fireman has expanded his Perfect Christianity Ministry to 40 branches. Key to this growth is the emphasis on prosperity preaching: teaching that prosperity is a sign of spiritual blessing. The idea is that to become rich, you should give money to the church. Pentecostal and independent churches in Nigeria tap into the Nigerian dream: the aspiration of having and being seen to have cars, houses, money and power. To get more people to join his church, Dr Fireman believes portraying the right image is essential and shows the trappings of wealth his church has brought him. He travels everywhere with his bodyguards in one of his three yellow luxury cars with a combined worth of more than £150,000.

Dr Fireman's business model is not a new one. Most of the richest pastors in Nigeria use similar methods of expansion. The team meets Pastor Chris Okotie, the fifth richest pastor in the country, who had hits in the 80s with records such as Secret Love and Show Me Your Backside. His church, House of God, attracts Nigerian film stars, celebrities and musicians. Pastor Okotie has used his power base to run for the last three presidential elections, believing the principles of prosperity preaching will provide a better future for Nigeria.

Local journalist Simon Ateba has spent five years covering the rise of the new churches. He says it's almost impossible to establish their true wealth. Simon takes the team to the headquarters of Christ Embassy. He claims that two years ago when he tried to take photographs of the building, security guards dragged him inside and beat him until he fainted. Soon after he tells this story, security guards come over to the Unreported World team and drag Rhodes into the building by his belt. He escapes unscathed.

Before leaving Nigeria, the team visits Dr Fireman. He's busy in a music studio recording a new song as he expands his business into the music industry. Rhodes asks him how he can square his wealth and celebrity status with the teachings and life of Jesus. Dr Fireman says that God wants him to be rich and denies that Jesus had a humble life. ‘Jesus was rich and had an accountant who followed him around,' he tells Rhodes.

Reporter: Seyi Rhodes

Prod: Matt Haan

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

5/10: Russia: Vlad's Army, Friday 4th November, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Reporter Peter Oborne and director James Jones reveal the huge personality cult around Vladimir Putin as they follow the extraordinary actions of the mass youth movement dedicated to protecting the interests of the Prime Minister and Russia. As Putin announces his intention to return as President next year, Unreported World meets some of the young people who are utterly devoted to him, have seemingly limitless resources, and appear to be above the law.

 

 

Outside the American Embassy in Moscow the team films members of Nashi, or ‘Our People', as the movement is called, spray-painting ‘Russia Forward' in six-foot letters, following criticism of Russia by the American Defence Secretary. The police step in, but it soon becomes clear who is in charge as Nashi members bully, shove and chase away the officers in an extraordinary display of strength.

Nashi's headquarters are in a £20 million house in central Moscow, decorated with murals of Putin and quotes from his speeches. Oborne joins Nashi's weekly political meeting, which reveals a sinister side to its patriotism as anti-western and racist views come to the fore amongst some members. 

Masha Kislitsnya, Nashi's Commissar, describes how her experience growing up as the daughter of a single mother in the 1990s formed the basis for her admiration for Putin. With the government in collapse following the fall of communism she recalls that her family lived in dire poverty, with the shops often empty of goods. Everything changed for the better, she says, when Putin took over.

Oborne also meets 21-year-old Nashi members Victoria and Oksana. They believe Putin has restored pride and prosperity to Russia and say joining Nashi was a way to express their adoration. They show and describe their favourite pictures of their leader, declaring that they are fanatics and that they worship him.

Critics say Nashi's true function is to build a personality cult for Vladmir Putin, while bullying, intimidating and harassing his opponents. The team speak to journalist Oleg Kashin, who, a year ago was brutally beaten up after writing an article criticising a business project of one of Putin's closest allies. His attackers have never been caught but Kashin tells Oborne he believes Nashi were most likely behind the attack, as one of his articles featured a project which they supported. Nashi denies all involvement, with Masha dismissing the suggestion as ‘just accusations'.

While Putin's Russia may look like a liberal democracy - with elections, law courts and parliament - Unreported World shows how in reality there is a parallel state. Putin is a former Director of Russia's security service, the FSB: the successor to the notorious KGB. Critics say that, just like Nashi, the FSB is used to silence opposition and further the business interests of Putin's allies.

The team meets Olga Romanova, a financial journalist whose husband Alexei ran a profitable construction business until she ran an article exposing the business practices of a close Putin ally. Olga claims Alexei was given the choice between divorcing his wife or losing his business. Soon afterwards the FSB started an investigation. Alexei was arrested, charged and sent to jail for eight years for the theft of shares: a crime she says he had not committed.

Olga reveals the charges against her husband had been brought by the notorious K department inside the FSB, which pursues economic crimes against the state. A Russian business watchdog estimates the FSB has charged one in six Russian businessmen with fraud and other economic crimes. Many of these charges are believed to baseless. 

As the Unreported World team leaves Russia, it seems as though Nashi's worship may be turning Putin into one of the archetypal figures who occur throughout Russian history; a strongman with mystical powers, attracting uncritical devotion from his followers. What also seems clear is that the future of democracy and the rule of law in Vladimir Putin's Russia is under threat.

Reporter: Peter Oborne

Director: James Jones

Series Editor: George Waldrum

A Quicksilver Media production

 

1/10: South Africa: Trouble in the Townships, Fri 7th October, 7.30pm, Channel 4

Channel 4's award-winning foreign current affairs series returns with a new reporter, Channel 4 News's Krishnan Guru-Murthy. He introduces each programme and reports for this first edition from South Africa. Seventeen years after it was freed from apartheid, he finds a country in which violent protests against corruption and the lack of basic services mean its ambition to lead the continent as a prosperous democracy hangs in the balance. Simmering with anger, its people tell him they feel a sense of betrayal they will tolerate no longer.

 

Guru-Murthy and producer Alex Nott travel to Johannesburg. It's the centre of Africa's biggest economy; modern, growing and an inspiration for the continent. Yet it's also the heart of a country where the poorest people are often robbed by corrupt officials, while the most powerful stand accused of creaming off astonishing wealth.

There are 182 squatter camps in Johannesburg alone. The team visits one of the biggest and most dangerous: Diepsloot, which is home to 200,000 people. Journalist Golden shows them shocking reports of the mob justice that rules here. He says that the residents of Diepsloot fear for their lives every night they go to sleep, as the police seem powerless, or unwilling, to address the horrendous levels of crime.

Guru-Murthy talks to Philippine, who lives in a shack but says she should by now be living in a state-subsidised house. She says she has the papers and the keys but when she went to move in five years ago, she found another family there. She suspects that a local official has corruptly sold the home that had already been assigned to her, but she has got nowhere with the authorities since then.

The team hears about one local official helping people jump the housing queue for bribes. Posing as a desperate father looking for help getting his family out of a squatter camp, Golden rings Albert Setwyewye, a former ANC councillor now working for local government. He is told to meet Albert at a nearby shopping mall, and bring some money. Unreported World sends an undercover reporter to meet Albert, who tells him that for 5,000 rand he can get him a state-subsidised house in a development called Cosmo City even though he doesn't qualify for it and the waiting list closed in 2004.

But corruption doesn't just infect low level officials in the country. Allegations surround some of the most powerful people in South Africa, including the chief of police, President Zuma's family and the man many tip as a future president: Julius Malema, the president of the ANC's Youth League. Malema's lifestyle is at odds with his modest ANC salary, and the team visits a house he is building in one of Johannesburg's most exclusive suburbs, Sandton, at a rumoured cost of 16 million rand (around 1.5 million pounds). The builders aren't happy about media attention and threaten the team that if they continue to film, they will break their equipment. 

Guru-Murthy attempts to confront Malema about the allegations of corruption and how he can afford his new home at a press conference at the ANC headquarters. Malema's response: ‘It's none of your business. Mind your business.'

As the number of prominent politicians and civil servants involved in corruption scandals grows, the government has been trying to introduce new secrecy laws that many believe are part of a clampdown on journalists trying to uncover fraud. The team meets reporters Mzilikazi Wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstater. They tell Guru-Murthy that there is evidence of state resources being abused to put journalists under surveillance, and monitor their movements and phone calls with sources.

The team receives a call from Albert, saying he has the paperwork that will allow them to jump the housing queue and secure a house in Cosmo City. Guru-Murthy and Nott reveal their identities and confront him about his corrupt behaviour. At first he denies being involved, but later changes his story saying that he's just bending the rules and doing the same as other officials, and offers to refund any money he may have taken.

Trevor Manuel, the senior government minister in charge of the national planning commission, tells Guru-Murthy that there is too much corruption, investigations are poor and conviction rates are too low. While he says that every instance of corruption is one too many, it's clear to the team that a lack of concerted action is affecting national security. Since January last year there have been over 130 violent protests and the people's patience is running out.

 

Reporter: Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Prod: Alex Nott

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

2/10: Undercover Syria, Fri 14th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Unreported World reporter Ramita Navai and producer Wael Dabbous spend two weeks living undercover in some of the most dangerous parts of Syria with members of the opposition movement determined to overthrow President Assad's brutal dictatorship. One of the few teams to avoid the ban on foreign media operating without official permission, they meet the protestors and the victims of the bloody crackdown, and visit the clandestine hospitals set up in private homes by doctors who risk torture or death for treating the injured.

 

Syria is one of the most secretive and repressive countries in the Arab world. The Assad family has been in power for 40 years and the opposition say they are campaigning against endemic corruption, nepotism and brutal suppression. 

Navai and Dabbous experience first-hand life as fugitives in Syria as they are trapped in a safe house with three of the country's most wanted men. As the town of Madaya is besieged by the army, the security forces and the militia spend three days raiding houses in search of activists and people who have been seen at protests. The three men - one who says he has already been tortured for peacefully protesting - fear they will be killed if they are caught. They tell Navai that many of their friends have already been murdered by Assad's men.

With security officers right outside the safe house, the men cannot escape from the windows, and are forced to hide in a small cupboard as the raids get nearer, with dozens of houses being smashed and ransacked and men being arrested and beaten.

But nothing will stop the people of Madaya having their voices heard; less than 12 hours after the military withdraws from the town, they are fearlessly back on the streets protesting, and chanting for freedom, despite this being the very thing that can get them killed.

The team meets four soldiers who say that they defected to the opposition after being ordered to shoot at protesters, raid houses and trample on people accused of protesting - including women and children. They claim to have witnessed other soldiers who refused these orders being shot dead. Shortly after this meeting, shooting begins in the mountains behind Madaya as the army scours the countryside in search of dissidents. The team decides to move on.

Using a network of underground opposition activists to guide them through secret routes to evade military check points, the team enters the town of Duma, north of Damascus. Over the next few hours, the team witnesses protests, wakes and funerals - one of which has attracted thousands of people who are protesting against the torture of Ayman Zaghloul. He had recently been arrested by the security forces after he was shot in the leg during a protest. After being imprisoned, his body was returned to his family with horrific signs of torture - he had been electrocuted, one of his eyes had been gouged out and his head had been crushed with a clamp.

Navai and Dabbous are introduced to a doctor who tells them that hospitals are being raided by the security forces and militia, who are then killing injured protesters. He says that doctors are also being targeted for helping the injured, and many have been imprisoned. The doctor tells Navai that he has smuggled patients out of hospitals and is now treating them in ‘secret hospitals' - which are simply ill-equipped private houses in secret locations. The fear of being discovered by informers and raided is so great that patients are moved from safe house to safe house, despite so many of them being in critical condition.

The team visits four protesters with gunshot wounds. One is a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is half paralyzed. Another man has been left brain damaged because he could not get the urgent medical attention needed in time, as the doctors in the hospital were too scared to treat him. All the while, the activists are receiving phone calls about more injured and more killed.

With hundreds of people missing, either in prisons across the country or dead, and hundreds not been reported killed for fear of recrimination, most of the activists believe the death toll is closer to 10,000 than the estimated 2000 to 3000 being reported in the press. The violence is relentless but the activists of the democracy movement remain uncowed.

 

Reporter: Ramita Navai

Prod: Wael Dabbous

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

TX: Fridays from 7th October 2011, 7:30pm, Channel 4

This autumn, Unreported World's intrepid reporters welcome a formidable new colleague, Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, as they investigate stories from some of the most difficult and hidden parts of the world. Guru-Murthy will also introduce each programme.

This latest run of Unreported World will continue to give a voice to people the world routinely ignores; documenting remarkable characters living extreme lives

 

Hydrocephalus - or ‘water on the brain' - occurs when fluid builds up inside the skull, putting huge pressure on tissues inside, causing brain damage and death. Hydrocephalus has many causes, but in Uganda most cases develop when babies contract infections after being born in unsterile conditions. It is more common than deafness or Down's syndrome worldwide, and easily treated in the developed world. But in Africa, few hydrocephalus babies get medical attention. Without treatment, 90% will die before their second birthday.

The team begins their journey at the CURE hospital in Mbale, eastern Uganda, where mothers are praying for their babies' lives while they wait for brain surgery. The hospital treats 4000 children a year, with 20 new hydrocephalus cases arriving every day.

Kleeman meets Dr Nekaka, who is examining Sarah, a two-month-old who needs urgent surgery. A scan shows that hydrocephalus has already left her brain damaged, but with early treatment, Sarah's brain might grow back and recover. On the packed ward, Kleeman meets Loy, and her nine-month-old son Kazimiri, who is in the advanced stages of hydrocephalus. It took Loy six months to borrow and save the money to pay for their transport here, and she had to watch Kazimiri deteriorate while she tried to scrape together their fare.

Kleeman and Oram are invited into the theatre as the surgeon, John Mugamba, operates on Sarah and then Kazimiri. Dr Mugamba is one of only five neurosurgeons in Uganda. He tells Kleeman that most cases are entirely preventable, but poor neonatal care, poverty and a lack of surgeons mean many die needlessly. Sarah's surgery is straightforward: her parents brought her in early so her treatment was simple. But Kazimiri's condition is so poor that the surgery has to be abandoned. Dr Mugamba tells Loy he will wait a week before trying again.

Hydrocephalus is particularly common in the least developed parts of the country. In Gulu, the team meet Winnifred, whose daughter shows advanced symptoms. Like Kazimiri and Sarah, Oroma was born a normal baby, but her head began to swell after an infection. Winnifred tells Kleeman her husband left her after Oroma started changing. She says that local people insult her and say that she's bought a curse on the village.

The team returns to the hospital just as Kazimiri comes out of his second surgery. Dr Mugamba has managed to save his life, but only by inserting a drainage tube into his head. Loy won't know the extent of any permanent brain damage until Kazimiri is older. The tube will need to be replaced with further surgery as he grows. Getting him to hospital once has already bankrupted her family, but Loy had decided to fight for his life, whatever the cost.

While Kazimiri is still in hospital, the team hears that Sarah is recovering well from her surgery. They travel to see her at home in her village and find that her condition has already improved only five days after treatment. She's lucky to have had the operation early. Sarah's father, Oluport, tells Kleeman: ‘She will be somebody who can go to school, maybe work, by herself. Even when she woke up today, I saw that she was a bit better, and I felt very good.'

Reporter: Jenny Kleeman

Prod: Suemay Oram

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

4/10: Nigeria's Millionaire Preachers, Fri 28th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers. By promoting the dream of escaping poverty, they have turned their churches into corporations, which are changing the face of Christianity.

 

Every Sunday millions of Nigerians crowd into thousands of competing churches. The Unreported World team visits one church in Lagos run by Dr Sign Fireman, an up-and-coming preacher who is attempting to break into the big time. They find 2000 people at an event billed as the Burial of Satan. After a rock star entrance, Dr Fireman begins his service by exorcising the demons in his congregation. Many Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe that demons are the root cause of their problems in life and come to people like Dr Fireman to get rid of them. Over 20 men and women, including some who worked for Dr Fireman, have the evil spirits inside them expelled.

They witness sick members of the congregation coming forward for miracle healing. Dr Fireman claims to have God-given powers that can change people's lives, from raising people from the dead to curing earache. One man comes on stage and tells the crowd he is crippled and blind. Dr Fireman then channels his powers to help the man walk and see again. Yet, earlier the team has seen the man walking unaided.

At the close of the event the crowd swarms forward and throws money at Dr Fireman's feet. There is so much cash it has to be collected in dustbins. Rhodes talks to one worshipper who says that those who give money are repaid by God with good fortune. Some Nigerian Pentecostal Christians believe giving 10 per cent of their income will bring God's blessing into their lives, their families and their businesses. With the service over, Dr Fireman leaves in his yellow Hummer 4x4.

Through the marketing of his talents, Dr Fireman has expanded his Perfect Christianity Ministry to 40 branches. Key to this growth is the emphasis on prosperity preaching: teaching that prosperity is a sign of spiritual blessing. The idea is that to become rich, you should give money to the church. Pentecostal and independent churches in Nigeria tap into the Nigerian dream: the aspiration of having and being seen to have cars, houses, money and power. To get more people to join his church, Dr Fireman believes portraying the right image is essential and shows the trappings of wealth his church has brought him. He travels everywhere with his bodyguards in one of his three yellow luxury cars with a combined worth of more than £150,000.

Dr Fireman's business model is not a new one. Most of the richest pastors in Nigeria use similar methods of expansion. The team meets Pastor Chris Okotie, the fifth richest pastor in the country, who had hits in the 80s with records such as Secret Love and Show Me Your Backside. His church, House of God, attracts Nigerian film stars, celebrities and musicians. Pastor Okotie has used his power base to run for the last three presidential elections, believing the principles of prosperity preaching will provide a better future for Nigeria.

Local journalist Simon Ateba has spent five years covering the rise of the new churches. He says it's almost impossible to establish their true wealth. Simon takes the team to the headquarters of Christ Embassy. He claims that two years ago when he tried to take photographs of the building, security guards dragged him inside and beat him until he fainted. Soon after he tells this story, security guards come over to the Unreported World team and drag Rhodes into the building by his belt. He escapes unscathed.

Before leaving Nigeria, the team visits Dr Fireman. He's busy in a music studio recording a new song as he expands his business into the music industry. Rhodes asks him how he can square his wealth and celebrity status with the teachings and life of Jesus. Dr Fireman says that God wants him to be rich and denies that Jesus had a humble life. ‘Jesus was rich and had an accountant who followed him around,' he tells Rhodes.

Reporter: Seyi Rhodes

Prod: Matt Haan

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

5/10: Russia: Vlad's Army, Friday 4th November, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Reporter Peter Oborne and director James Jones reveal the huge personality cult around Vladimir Putin as they follow the extraordinary actions of the mass youth movement dedicated to protecting the interests of the Prime Minister and Russia. As Putin announces his intention to return as President next year, Unreported World meets some of the young people who are utterly devoted to him, have seemingly limitless resources, and appear to be above the law.

 

 

Outside the American Embassy in Moscow the team films members of Nashi, or ‘Our People', as the movement is called, spray-painting ‘Russia Forward' in six-foot letters, following criticism of Russia by the American Defence Secretary. The police step in, but it soon becomes clear who is in charge as Nashi members bully, shove and chase away the officers in an extraordinary display of strength.

Nashi's headquarters are in a £20 million house in central Moscow, decorated with murals of Putin and quotes from his speeches. Oborne joins Nashi's weekly political meeting, which reveals a sinister side to its patriotism as anti-western and racist views come to the fore amongst some members. 

Masha Kislitsnya, Nashi's Commissar, describes how her experience growing up as the daughter of a single mother in the 1990s formed the basis for her admiration for Putin. With the government in collapse following the fall of communism she recalls that her family lived in dire poverty, with the shops often empty of goods. Everything changed for the better, she says, when Putin took over.

Oborne also meets 21-year-old Nashi members Victoria and Oksana. They believe Putin has restored pride and prosperity to Russia and say joining Nashi was a way to express their adoration. They show and describe their favourite pictures of their leader, declaring that they are fanatics and that they worship him.

Critics say Nashi's true function is to build a personality cult for Vladmir Putin, while bullying, intimidating and harassing his opponents. The team speak to journalist Oleg Kashin, who, a year ago was brutally beaten up after writing an article criticising a business project of one of Putin's closest allies. His attackers have never been caught but Kashin tells Oborne he believes Nashi were most likely behind the attack, as one of his articles featured a project which they supported. Nashi denies all involvement, with Masha dismissing the suggestion as ‘just accusations'.

While Putin's Russia may look like a liberal democracy - with elections, law courts and parliament - Unreported World shows how in reality there is a parallel state. Putin is a former Director of Russia's security service, the FSB: the successor to the notorious KGB. Critics say that, just like Nashi, the FSB is used to silence opposition and further the business interests of Putin's allies.

The team meets Olga Romanova, a financial journalist whose husband Alexei ran a profitable construction business until she ran an article exposing the business practices of a close Putin ally. Olga claims Alexei was given the choice between divorcing his wife or losing his business. Soon afterwards the FSB started an investigation. Alexei was arrested, charged and sent to jail for eight years for the theft of shares: a crime she says he had not committed.

Olga reveals the charges against her husband had been brought by the notorious K department inside the FSB, which pursues economic crimes against the state. A Russian business watchdog estimates the FSB has charged one in six Russian businessmen with fraud and other economic crimes. Many of these charges are believed to baseless. 

As the Unreported World team leaves Russia, it seems as though Nashi's worship may be turning Putin into one of the archetypal figures who occur throughout Russian history; a strongman with mystical powers, attracting uncritical devotion from his followers. What also seems clear is that the future of democracy and the rule of law in Vladimir Putin's Russia is under threat.

Reporter: Peter Oborne

Director: James Jones

Series Editor: George Waldrum

A Quicksilver Media production

 

1/10: South Africa: Trouble in the Townships, Fri 7th October, 7.30pm, Channel 4

Channel 4's award-winning foreign current affairs series returns with a new reporter, Channel 4 News's Krishnan Guru-Murthy. He introduces each programme and reports for this first edition from South Africa. Seventeen years after it was freed from apartheid, he finds a country in which violent protests against corruption and the lack of basic services mean its ambition to lead the continent as a prosperous democracy hangs in the balance. Simmering with anger, its people tell him they feel a sense of betrayal they will tolerate no longer.

 

Guru-Murthy and producer Alex Nott travel to Johannesburg. It's the centre of Africa's biggest economy; modern, growing and an inspiration for the continent. Yet it's also the heart of a country where the poorest people are often robbed by corrupt officials, while the most powerful stand accused of creaming off astonishing wealth.

There are 182 squatter camps in Johannesburg alone. The team visits one of the biggest and most dangerous: Diepsloot, which is home to 200,000 people. Journalist Golden shows them shocking reports of the mob justice that rules here. He says that the residents of Diepsloot fear for their lives every night they go to sleep, as the police seem powerless, or unwilling, to address the horrendous levels of crime.

Guru-Murthy talks to Philippine, who lives in a shack but says she should by now be living in a state-subsidised house. She says she has the papers and the keys but when she went to move in five years ago, she found another family there. She suspects that a local official has corruptly sold the home that had already been assigned to her, but she has got nowhere with the authorities since then.

The team hears about one local official helping people jump the housing queue for bribes. Posing as a desperate father looking for help getting his family out of a squatter camp, Golden rings Albert Setwyewye, a former ANC councillor now working for local government. He is told to meet Albert at a nearby shopping mall, and bring some money. Unreported World sends an undercover reporter to meet Albert, who tells him that for 5,000 rand he can get him a state-subsidised house in a development called Cosmo City even though he doesn't qualify for it and the waiting list closed in 2004.

But corruption doesn't just infect low level officials in the country. Allegations surround some of the most powerful people in South Africa, including the chief of police, President Zuma's family and the man many tip as a future president: Julius Malema, the president of the ANC's Youth League. Malema's lifestyle is at odds with his modest ANC salary, and the team visits a house he is building in one of Johannesburg's most exclusive suburbs, Sandton, at a rumoured cost of 16 million rand (around 1.5 million pounds). The builders aren't happy about media attention and threaten the team that if they continue to film, they will break their equipment. 

Guru-Murthy attempts to confront Malema about the allegations of corruption and how he can afford his new home at a press conference at the ANC headquarters. Malema's response: ‘It's none of your business. Mind your business.'

As the number of prominent politicians and civil servants involved in corruption scandals grows, the government has been trying to introduce new secrecy laws that many believe are part of a clampdown on journalists trying to uncover fraud. The team meets reporters Mzilikazi Wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstater. They tell Guru-Murthy that there is evidence of state resources being abused to put journalists under surveillance, and monitor their movements and phone calls with sources.

The team receives a call from Albert, saying he has the paperwork that will allow them to jump the housing queue and secure a house in Cosmo City. Guru-Murthy and Nott reveal their identities and confront him about his corrupt behaviour. At first he denies being involved, but later changes his story saying that he's just bending the rules and doing the same as other officials, and offers to refund any money he may have taken.

Trevor Manuel, the senior government minister in charge of the national planning commission, tells Guru-Murthy that there is too much corruption, investigations are poor and conviction rates are too low. While he says that every instance of corruption is one too many, it's clear to the team that a lack of concerted action is affecting national security. Since January last year there have been over 130 violent protests and the people's patience is running out.

 

Reporter: Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Prod: Alex Nott

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

2/10: Undercover Syria, Fri 14th October, 7:30pm, Channel 4

Unreported World reporter Ramita Navai and producer Wael Dabbous spend two weeks living undercover in some of the most dangerous parts of Syria with members of the opposition movement determined to overthrow President Assad's brutal dictatorship. One of the few teams to avoid the ban on foreign media operating without official permission, they meet the protestors and the victims of the bloody crackdown, and visit the clandestine hospitals set up in private homes by doctors who risk torture or death for treating the injured.

 

Syria is one of the most secretive and repressive countries in the Arab world. The Assad family has been in power for 40 years and the opposition say they are campaigning against endemic corruption, nepotism and brutal suppression. 

Navai and Dabbous experience first-hand life as fugitives in Syria as they are trapped in a safe house with three of the country's most wanted men. As the town of Madaya is besieged by the army, the security forces and the militia spend three days raiding houses in search of activists and people who have been seen at protests. The three men - one who says he has already been tortured for peacefully protesting - fear they will be killed if they are caught. They tell Navai that many of their friends have already been murdered by Assad's men.

With security officers right outside the safe house, the men cannot escape from the windows, and are forced to hide in a small cupboard as the raids get nearer, with dozens of houses being smashed and ransacked and men being arrested and beaten.

But nothing will stop the people of Madaya having their voices heard; less than 12 hours after the military withdraws from the town, they are fearlessly back on the streets protesting, and chanting for freedom, despite this being the very thing that can get them killed.

The team meets four soldiers who say that they defected to the opposition after being ordered to shoot at protesters, raid houses and trample on people accused of protesting - including women and children. They claim to have witnessed other soldiers who refused these orders being shot dead. Shortly after this meeting, shooting begins in the mountains behind Madaya as the army scours the countryside in search of dissidents. The team decides to move on.

Using a network of underground opposition activists to guide them through secret routes to evade military check points, the team enters the town of Duma, north of Damascus. Over the next few hours, the team witnesses protests, wakes and funerals - one of which has attracted thousands of people who are protesting against the torture of Ayman Zaghloul. He had recently been arrested by the security forces after he was shot in the leg during a protest. After being imprisoned, his body was returned to his family with horrific signs of torture - he had been electrocuted, one of his eyes had been gouged out and his head had been crushed with a clamp.

Navai and Dabbous are introduced to a doctor who tells them that hospitals are being raided by the security forces and militia, who are then killing injured protesters. He says that doctors are also being targeted for helping the injured, and many have been imprisoned. The doctor tells Navai that he has smuggled patients out of hospitals and is now treating them in ‘secret hospitals' - which are simply ill-equipped private houses in secret locations. The fear of being discovered by informers and raided is so great that patients are moved from safe house to safe house, despite so many of them being in critical condition.

The team visits four protesters with gunshot wounds. One is a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is half paralyzed. Another man has been left brain damaged because he could not get the urgent medical attention needed in time, as the doctors in the hospital were too scared to treat him. All the while, the activists are receiving phone calls about more injured and more killed.

With hundreds of people missing, either in prisons across the country or dead, and hundreds not been reported killed for fear of recrimination, most of the activists believe the death toll is closer to 10,000 than the estimated 2000 to 3000 being reported in the press. The violence is relentless but the activists of the democracy movement remain uncowed.

 

Reporter: Ramita Navai

Prod: Wael Dabbous

Series Editor: George Waldrum

Prod Co: Quicksilver Media

 

TX: Fridays from 7th October 2011, 7:30pm, Channel 4

This autumn, Unreported World's intrepid reporters welcome a formidable new colleague, Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, as they investigate stories from some of the most difficult and hidden parts of the world. Guru-Murthy will also introduce each programme.

This latest run of Unreported World will continue to give a voice to people the world routinely ignores; documenting remarkable characters living extreme lives