International affairs

Disaster relief expert Fred Cuny discusses efforts to rebuild gas and water lines in the battle zone of Sarajevo.

Slovak novelist Martin Simecka discusses life after the split of Czechoslovakia. His latest novel to be published in the U. S. is "Year of the Frog." Prior to the fall of Communism, Simecka and his father were dissidents.

One of Bosnia's leading film makers, and professor of film at the Academy of Film and Theatre in Sarajevo Ademir Kenovic. His newest film "SA-Life" (SA stands for Sarajevo) is compiled of scenes shot by himself, other film makers, and film students in and around Sarajevo that capture the horror of the war. Each day, Kenovic and his fellow film makers would meet in his basement studio to plan the day's shoot, going out with hand-held cameras. Kenovic has made three other films.

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. He was the first African to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature (in 1986), and he's been called Africa's "finest writers." He is a dramatist, poet, novelist, critic, and political writer. Some of his works have been banned by Nigerian regimes. He's gone into exile several times and has been imprisoned for political protests. He's written 21 books, including "Myth, Literature, and the African World," and his autobiography, "Ake': The Years of Childhood." (Ventura books).

In Bosnia, Cambodia, Somalia, and other countries, the role of U.N. peacekeeping forces is being redefined. Brian Urquhart, former U.N. Under-Secretary General, talks about what these forces are up against and what they can reasonably achieve.

An expert on Central Asia and Afghanistan, Barnett Rubin, Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, and a former Peace Fellow with the United States Institute of Peace He's just returned from three former Soviet republics which have large Muslim populations, which he says are now run by ex-communists. Rubin will also discuss the aftermath of the Afghan War, and how many of the radical Arabs who went to Afghan to help the rebels are now taking their "holy war" elsewhere.

Journalist David Remnick talks with Terry about the impact of history on today's Russia. Remnick was in Moscow recently and wrote a book called "Lenin's Tomb," which documents his research into the often violent legacy of the Soviet Union.

Journalist Stan Sesser is a reporter covering Southeast Asia for the New Yorker. He has collected some of those pieces in a new book "The Lands of Charm and Cruelty: Travels in Southeast Asia." He discusses the recent elections in Cambodia which featured violence, twenty political parties and massive voter turnout

One of Israel's leading journalists, Tom Segev has a new book,"The Seventh Million: The Israelis and The Holocaust," in which he argues that some Israelis use the Holocaust to encourage Israeli chauvinism and aggression. Segev writes a weekly column on politics and human rights for the daily newspaper "Haaretz."

Two winners of the P.E.N./Freedom to Write Awards: Serbian dissident writer Svetlana Slapsak and Bosnian writer Zoran Mutic. Both fled Sarajevo and Belgrade respectively to avoid repercussions because of their outspokenness and are living in exile in Slovenia. Mutic is of Serb/Muslim background and is a translator who translated Rushdie's "Midnight Children," into Serbian. Slapsak wrote the widely acclaimed essay, "When Words Kill." She is president of the Committee for the Liberty of Expression.