International Affairs

William Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College. He was recently in Moscow as one of the scholars invited to help open up the archives of the government under Communism. He was able to get a sense of the day to day workings of the Soviet empire.

British elections are coming up this week: We'll look at the elections, and how the British media is covering them, with New York Times London correspondent William Schmidt.

Stan Sesser, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, just wrote a lengthy article called "Report From Cambodia." A country that's been dirt poor for several decades is experiencing a new prosperity since the United Nations peace agreement was signed last October. Oddly, the agreement calls for a sharing of power with the Khmer Rouge, an action Sesser equates with allowing the Nazis back into power in post war Germany. (The article is in the May 18, 1992 issue of The New Yorker.)

Southeast Asia Correspondent for The New York Times, Philip Shenon (SHE-none). He's been following the protests between Thai troups and pro-democracy protestors in Bangkok, Thialand. The protestors: students, professionals, and workers have been demanding that the Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon step down. Suchinda, a former military leader, led a coup last year against the democratic Government and took power in April as an unelected Prime Minister. Many people have died in the protests. SHENON will update us on the situation. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Terry talks about the fighting in Sarajevo between the Serbs, the Muslims, and the Croats with Yale University Professor Ivo Banac (BAH-nitz.) He is a native of Croatia, although he's lived in the United States for a long time.

Executive Director of the human rights group Asia Watch, Sidney Jones. In light of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Thailand, Terry talks with Jones about the state of democracy and human rights in Asia.

Journalist Lawrence Weschler. He's a staff writer for the New Yorker and has been covering Eastern Europe for the past decade. Terry talks with Weschler about leadership in Czechoslovakia, where parliamentary elections were just held.

One of Canada's best-known writers Mordecai Richler. He's a novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His novels include, "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," and "Solomon Gursky Was Here." His new book about Quebec's language-obsessed separatist movement is "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country," (by Alfred A. Knopf). In October a referendum will be voted on in Quebec which could create a separate, French-speaking nation.

Publisher and Editor of "Le Devoir," Lise Bissonnette. The paper is the province's most influential French-language newspaper. (Richler says in his book that the paper has told readers to avoid Jewish shopkeepers who have "cheating and corruption in their bloodstream.")

Drakulic's recent book is called "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed." Now we'll talk to her about living in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. Refugees from nearby Sarajevo are flowing into the city from their civil war-torn country.

Journalist Frederick Kempe is a foreign correspondent and Berlin Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal. He spent five weeks traveling thru Sibera and has written an account of it in, "Siberian Odyssey." In many areas, Kempe was the first American there. He visited a nomadic tribe of reindeer herders, a former Gulag site, and the site of a Stalinist mass grave, talking to survivors of the former, and children of victims from the later. Kempe made the trip shortly before the August 1991 coup that ushered out the Communist Party.

When he was 3 years old, Roach was taken from his Aboriginal family and placed with a white family, as part of an Australian assimilation program intended to dilute the aboriginal population. The policy, common practice until 1964, was neither publicized nor explained. At 14, he ran away to find his natural family, and spent ten years on the streets, mostly in Melbourne. He sang first for friends, and then was invited to sing in clubs and on radio. "Charcoal Lane," his acclaimed debut album, has just been released.

Journalist Andres Oppenheimer is the senior foreign correspondent for The Miami Herald. He spent more than five months in Cuba researching his new book, "Castro's Final Hour," which looks into how the country has been affected by the collapse of Soviet Union, which had provided ample material support to Castro's government.

Commentator David Gurevitz shares his thoughts about the different perspectives athletes must cultivate while traveling the world to compete in the Olympics.

Executive Director for the human rights group Asia Watch, Rakiya Omaar, will talk to Terry about the situation in Somalia where war and famine are killing thousands of people. Omaar has just returned from visits at refugee camps in Somalia and Ethiopia, where resources and services are scarce.

Jose is one of the most celebrated writers in the Philippines. His new book is a novella, "Three Filipino Women." Since 1965, Jose has presided over a bookstore in Manila, a gathering place for intellectuals. He publishes "Solidarity," a forum for authors worldwide. He's also founder and secretary-general for the Philippines PEN Center. He talks about the need for a stronger national identity in Filipino writing.

Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of Wisconsin Toma Longinovic. He is Serbian, but has been in the U.S. for about ten years. He still has family in Sarajevo. He'll talk with guest host Marty Moss-Coane about the history of Muslims in the region, and about his concerns for his family.

James Adams is the Washington bureau chief for the Sunday Times of London, and former Defense Correspondent. He's written several books, including, "Engines of War: Merchants of Death and the New Arms Race." He'll talk with guest host Marty Moss-Coane about the military options in Bosnia.

Riklis's new film, "Cup Final," takes place in 1982: the Israelis have just invaded Lebanon and the World Cup soccer games are taking place in Barcelona. Riklis makes a point of humanizing Palestinians and painting a complex picture of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Simic won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990. He edited a new anthology of Serbian poetry called "The Horse Has Six Legs." He came to the U.S. when he was 15. He'll talk to guest host Marty Moss-Coane about poetry, growing up in Yugoslavia, andt what it's like to witness the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.