Witness History

In April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed. More than 1,000 people died and many others were injured. The building contained five garment factories which manufactured clothes for well-known international brands. It was the worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh's history. Parul Akhter, a sewing machinist who survived the collapse, talks to Dan Hardoon. (Photo: An injured victim of the Rana Plaza disaster at the site. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1992, the first peace walk was held in Cambodia aimed at uniting a country torn apart by years of conflict. Buddhist monks, Cambodian refugees and aid workers set out on the 415 km journey which became known as the Dhammayietra – or the pilgrimage of truth.The hope was to reunite Cambodian refugees who had fled into Thailand during Pol Pot’s brutal Marxist rule, with those people still living within Cambodia.Distrust and fear had built up on both sides but that began to melt away during the 30-day trek, as organiser Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan tells Jane Wilkinson.(Photo: Dhammayietra, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Credit: Romeo Gacad/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2013, India's Supreme Court made a landmark ruling aimed at transforming the lives of acid attack survivors.It followed a campaign led by Laxmi Agarwal, who at the age of 15 was burned by acid thrown over her body. The attack changed Laxmi’s life and scarred her face. In 2006, she took legal action demanding a ban on the sale of acid and more help for survivors. But it took seven years of campaigning before the court made a ruling, as Laxmi tells Jane Wilkinson.(Photo: Laxmi Agarwal. Credit: Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

In February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana.While he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a coup. Ghanaian film maker Chris Hesse worked closely with Nkrumah and was with him at the time. In 2021, Chris spoke to Alex Last about his memories of the coup and his friendship with the man who led Ghana to independence.(Photo: Kwame Nkrumah after Ghana's independence from Britain. Credit: Bettman, Getty Images)

In March 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence and a new flag was unveiled marking a fresh start for the former British colony known as the Gold Coast. The woman behind the design was Theodosia Okoh, an artist and former teacher who won a government competition for a new emblem which would signify the end of British rule.Her flag had red, gold and green horizontal stripes with a black star in the centre and it replaced the symbol of an elephant encircled in front of a palm tree below the Union Jack.Theodosia’s son Kwasi Okoh was a young boy at the time of independence, he speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about the inspiration behind his mother's creation.(Photo: Ghanaian football fans with the flag at the 2006 World Cup. Credit Joerg Koch/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2004, Kimani Maruge became the oldest man to start primary school when he enrolled at the Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Kenya. The 84-year-old student was a former soldier who had fought against colonial rule in the Mau Mau independence movement. He missed out on school as a child so when the Kenyan government scrapped all fees for state primary education, he saw his chance to finally learn to read and write. Kimani's former teacher Jane Obinchu tells Vicky Farncombe how his story inspired people all over the world.(Photo: Kimani Maruge attends class at Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Kenya. Credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya)

On 24 May 2010, artist Yinka Shonibare unveiled Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.The piece was the world’s largest ship in a bottle, but it wasn’t just any vessel.It was a replica of HMS Victory, commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, except Yinka had made an eye-catching change. The ship’s plain sails had been replaced with colourful Dutch wax sails. Dutch wax is a fabric typically sold in West Africa.Yinka’s work captivated crowds and left people wondering what it meant.“Some people were like ‘oh great we are celebrating Britishness. Fantastic’, and then some other groups said ‘Oh this is a critique of Britain. Fantastic’. I love it when the work does that!”, says Yinka. He tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty how his artwork was created and what it means to him.

In 2003, an oil company entered the indigenous Sarayaku community’s territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of oil. Neither the government nor the firm had consulted the community beforehand.The locals responded by filing a lawsuit against the company. The ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights would go onto become an important case for indigenous communities all over the world. Former Sarayaku president Jose Gualing and community leader Ena Santi recall the landmark case.A Munck Studios production for BBC World Service presented by Isak Rautio.(Photo: Ecuadorian rainforest. Credit: Fabio Cuttica/Reuters)

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France.The supertanker split, releasing more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. It was the largest oil spill caused by a tanker at the time. Marguerite Lamour is the former secretary to Alphonse Arzel, the mayor of Ploudalmézeau in Brittany. He played a crucial role in the region's campaign for compensation. Marguerite shares her experiences in this programme presented by Esther Egbeyemi. (Photo: The Amoco Cadiz shipwreck. Credit: Pierre Vauthey/Getty Images)

In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Nigerian village Oloibiri.It marked the start of a huge oil industry for Nigeria but came at a cost for villages in the Niger Delta.Chief Sunday Inengite was 19-years-old when prospectors first came to his village in search of crude oil.In 2018 he spoke to Alex Last about the impact of the discovery.(Photo: An oil worker at an oil well in Nigeria. Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

In the wake of the USSR breaking up, Kazakhstan was wrestling with the challenges of independence; hyperinflation, the economy collapsing and food shortages.But three-and-a-half kilometres underground on the north-east shore of the Caspian Sea, a giant financial opportunity was lying dormant – The Tengiz Oil Field. Less than two years after gaining sovereignty, the government signed the “deal of the century”. The state partnered with American company Chevron and started drilling to access the estimated 25 billion barrels of oil in the ground.Tengiz is the sixth largest oilfield in the world, and its resources would change Kazakhstan from a fledgling state, to one of the largest oil producers in the world.Johnny I’Anson speaks to Bruce Pannier, a news correspondent in Central Asia for over 30 years, who saw first-hand the chaos of independence and the growth of wealth in the country.(Picture: Tengiz Oil Field. Credit: Getty Images)

In October 1973, Arab nations protested the American support of Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria by slashing oil production, causing prices to sky rocket.Dr Fadhil Chalabi was deputy secretary general of Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). In 2014 he spoke to Alex Last about the embargo. (Picture: Empty gas pump in 1973. Credit:Getty Images)

The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. It started with just five street cats.For the first few months they hardly had any visitors. Then a film crew made a TV programme about the cafe, and it eventually became a global tourist destination. Cat cafes have become a worldwide phenomenon.Tracy Chang, founder and owner, tells her story to Gill Kearsley.(Photo: Inside the first cat cafe. Credit: Tracy Chang)

On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.It was one of the worst migrant shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea. As it happened so close to the shore, hundreds of dead bodies were recovered and their coffins were put on show for the world to see.The tragedy led to a joint European effort to tackle the migrant crisis, but the numbers embarking on the journey, and dying, continued to rise.One of the survivors, Ambesager Araya, and the man who rescued him, Vito Fiorino, speak with George Crafer.(Photo: Vito Fiorino and Ambesager Araya. Credit: Vito Fiorino)

In the early 1990s, the soap opera or telenovela craze was sweeping the world. One of the most popular was Kassandra made in Venezuela, about a girl switched at birth and raised in a travelling circus. The show was broadcast all over the world, including Bosnia. In 1997, ravaged by war, people found escape in the make-believe world of Kassandra. When supporters of Washington-backed president Billiana Plavšić took over a local TV station and turned the show off, there was outrage. The United States State Department was so worried that the loss of Kassandra could hurt Plavšić's popularity and even undermine her government, they hatched a plan to get it back on the air. Johnny I’Anson speaks to the star of Kassandra, Coraima Torres, along with Tony Paez who distributed the show across the world.(Photo: Coraima Torres and Osvaldo Ríos. Credit: Circulo Rojo)

On 26 September 1973, Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The droopy-nosed plane took to the skies for the first time four years earlier. Some campaigners believed that the speed of the aircraft might damage buildings.In 2012 André Turcat, the French pilot of Concorde's first flight, spoke to Mike Lanchin.(Photo: Concorde. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the United States government.Not only was it technology the North's Russian allies did not yet have, it was also a source of weapons-grade nuclear fuel.As a last resort, the US discussed bombing the facility, risking nuclear fallout, rather than risk the technology falling into Soviet hands.To avoid humanitarian and environmental disaster, a physicist from Idaho in the US, called Wally Hendrickson, volunteered to be dropped into the front line to remove the fuel rods from the reactor.He speaks to Ramita Navai. A Two Degrees West production for BBC World Service.(Photo: Dalat nuclear institute. Credit: Diane Selwyn)

The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup.It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying instrument'. Freddie 'Saddam' Maake claims to have invented the horn.He became known as 'Mr Vuvuzela'. He tells Gill Kearsley his story.(Photo: Football fans play vuvuzelas during a World Cup match in 2010. Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. They took hundreds of people hostage during the siege which lasted four days. More than 60 people were killed, with many more injured. In 2021, Rebecca Kesby spoke to Daniel Ouma who was a paramedic on duty at the time.(Photo: A Kenyan police officer deployed near the Westgate mall. Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert.He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater.The crater is a burning natural gas field that has been on fire for at least 50 years and has become known as the 'Gates of Hell.'On 6 November, George put on a giant silver aluminium suit and began his descent into the crater.He says he felt like a giant baked potato!George shares memories of the adventure with Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty.(Photo: George Kourounis in the Darvaza Crater. Credit: George Kourounis)

In 1978, campaigners won their long fight to legalise abortion in Italy. Emma Bonino and other members of the Radical Party went on hunger strike and were even jailed, after helping women access illegal abortions across the country. But they faced fierce opposition in the Catholic country, as the church was heavily integrated into Italian politics.Emma Bonino was so passionate about the cause that it led her to become a politician. She speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about her role in the campaign. (Photo: Emma Bonino in 1976. Credit: Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

In July 1933, the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed 'The Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases'.It required the sterilisation of Germans with physical and mental disabilities. Helga Gross was one of those sterilised.Ben Henderson uncovers archive interviews from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, recorded in 2003.(Photo: Helga Gross as a child. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

In August 2005, an unusual orchestra performed an extraordinary concert in the city of Ramallah.The West-Eastern Divan orchestra was founded in 1999 by Israeli conductor, Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian literary critic and philosopher, Edward Said.Their belief was that music has the power to bring people together.Violinists, Tyme Khelefi and Daniel Cohen tell their stories to Gill Kearsley.(Photo: The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit: Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is on the site believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.But in 2002, it was at the centre of one of the most dramatic sieges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.For almost six weeks, Palestinian gunmen and civilians were holed up in the church.In 2015 Louise Hidalgo spoke to Father Amjad Sabbara, a Franciscan friar who lived in the compound, and to Carolyn Cole, an American photojournalist who managed to get inside the church in the last days of the siege.(Photo: Journalists stand behind barricades guarded by Israeli soldiers metres away from where Palestinians are holed up in the Church of the Nativity. Credit: Gali Tibbon/ AFP via Getty Images)

Rioting broke out in 2000 after the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a controversial visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city.In 2012, Mike Lanchin spoke to an Israeli and a Palestinian who were there that day.(Photo: Ariel Sharon is flanked by security guards as he leaves the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Credit: AWAD AWAD/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2000, President Bill Clinton led a major effort to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The two sides were brought together at the leafy presidential retreat in Maryland. The Israeli leader, Ehud Barak and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, failed to reach any agreement and the summit ended in failure. In 2017, Farhana Haider spoke to senior American diplomatic interpreter and policy adviser, Gamal Helal, who attended the Camp David summit.(Photo: US President Bill Clinton with Israeli leader, Ehud Barak and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, at Camp David. Credit: Getty Images)

In September 1993, a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinians after months of secret negotiations.The historic handshake between Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin took place on the lawn of the White House.Mona Juul and her husband were part of the team that planned and orchestrated top-secret meetings that culminated in the signing of the Oslo Accords.She spoke to Louise Hidalgo in 2010.(Photo: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signs the historic Oslo Accords looked on by (from left) Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, unidentified aide, US President Bill Clinton and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Credit: J David Ake/AFP via Getty Images)

On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's President Salvador Allende in a military coup.Thousands of people were tortured and killed in the months after the coup, including the folk singer Victor Jara. His widow, Joan Jara, spoke to Gideon Long in 2013.(Photo: Victor Jara. Credit: Gems/Redferns via Getty Images)

On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, in a violent military coup.Hermógenes Pérez de Arce was a politician and helped organise the coup. He speaks to Jane Chambers.(Photo: Hermógenes Pérez de Arce. Credit: sourced)

In 2003, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in a department store in the middle of Stockholm. The 46-year-old member of the ruling Social Democratic party, was tipped as successor to Swedish Prime Minister Göran Person, and an important international career was likely around the corner. Her murder caused national trauma in Sweden. Her press secretary and best friend, Eva Franchell, witnessed the murder. She speaks to Marie Fjellborg.An SMT production for BBC World Service, produced by Anna Iverson.(Photo: Anna Lindh in 2001. Credit: Getty Images)

In the 1980s, Bi Kidude burst onto the international music scene, when she was in her 70s. She was one of the first women from Zanzibar to sing in public without wearing the veil, in the traditional Muslim country. She was born Fatuma binti Baraka, known as Bi Kidude or "little madame" in Swahili, and fondly referred to as the "golden grandmother of music". Maryam Hamdani was one of her oldest friends and helped launch Bi Kidude's career globally. Maryam spoke to Reena Stanton-Sharma about the charismatic musician who died in 2013.(Photo: Bi Kidude at the Sauti za Busara Music Festival. Credit: Mwanzo Millinga/AFP via Getty Images)

On 14 September 2013, the Arctic Sunrise - a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace - embarked on an Arctic expedition.Its aim was to disrupt the first day of drilling on a newly built oil rig. This would be the first to drill for Arctic oil - something that had only been made possible in recent years by melting ice in the region.Frank Hewetson, a Greenpeace campaigner, was on board. He tells the story of the protest and arrest of 30 people by the Russian authorities.A Falling Tree production for BBC World Service.(Photo: Sign asking for Frank Hewetson's release. Credit: In Pictures Ltd/Corbis via Getty Images)

Launched in 1966 by Communist leader Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution plunged China into a decade of chaos. The education of millions of young people was disrupted and China was cut off from the rest of the world. When students first started venturing out, it was still a country feeling the after effects of the Cultural Revolution. Farhana Haider spoke to writer Zha Jianying in 2021. She was one of the first batch of Chinese students to arrive in the USA in the early 1980s.(Photo: Zha Jianying. Credit: Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

In 2000, an expedition to the Mexican island of Guadalupe launched a fight to save its ecosystem from being eaten by goats.Russian whalers had introduced the goats to the island in the 19th Century and the population exploded as they ate their way through Guadalupe’s plants, shrubs and trees.Several species of birds were already extinct when a group of scientists, from the San Diego Natural History Museum, visited to inspect the damage.Their expedition would begin the campaign to save the island’s wildlife from extinction, as Professor Exequiel Ezcurra tells Jane Wilkinson.(Photo: Goats on Guadalupe Island. Credit: Northern Light Productions)

On 14 August 2013, Egypt's army killed hundreds of protestors in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. They were protesting against a military coup that had taken place a month earlier, in which the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted.Sameh Elbarky was in the square that day. He speaks to Ben Henderson.(Photo: A poster of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, among debris in Rabaa Square. Credit: NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images)

In June 2000, a historic meeting took place between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il.This was the first inter-Korean summit since the Korean War, almost 50 years earlier.Professor Chung-in Moon from South Korea was a special delegate at the summit. He told Gill Kearsley about his experience in North Korea.(Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Credit: Newsmakers)

Sixty years ago, there was a boycott of local bus services in the English city of Bristol. The bus company had specified that it did not want to employ black bus drivers. The boycott ended on 28 August 1963 and the campaign helped to bring about Britain's first laws against racial discrimination.In 2013, Louise Hidalgo heard from Paul Stephenson and Roy Hackett, who died in 2022.This programme contains some racist language, used at the time.(Photo: Bus on Park Street in Bristol in the early 1960s. Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The Forty Foot is a famous sea swimming spot in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin. For hundreds of years, only men had the privilege of bathing in its deep, icy waters – naked if they chose.That was until one day in the summer of 1974, when a group of women decided to plot an invasion.At a time when Irish women couldn’t even access contraception, why did this group of hardy feminists decide to fight this particular battle for equality?Rosie Blunt speaks to poet, writer, women’s rights activist, and swimmer Mary Dorcey.(Photo: Woman diving at the Forty Foot in 2019. Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

In 2006, Michele Burke and her fiancé William were looking forward to moving into their dream home in the picturesque town of Killaloe, in Ireland. But when Ireland's economic boom - known as the Celtic Tiger - ended and the global financial crisis of 2008 hit, construction on Michele and William's new house abruptly stopped. The couple were stuck paying a mortgage on a home they couldn't move into. They were not the only ones struggling. During the recession, there were more than 1,000 abandoned 'ghost estates' in Ireland. Michele tells Vicky Farncombe about her eight-year fight to move into her house.(Photo: Michele Burke outside her abandoned home in Killaloe in 2013. Credit: BBC)

In 1959, Tralee, in Ireland, hosted a festival to promote the town and build Irish connections around the world. It became known as the Rose of Tralee and is now one of Ireland’s oldest and largest festivals, as well as one of the most watched TV programmes. Last year, more than 30 international ‘roses’ or contestants took part, including representatives from Toronto, Sydney and Dubai. Rachel Naylor speaks to the first woman to be crowned the Rose of Tralee, an unofficial ambassador of Ireland, Alice O’Sullivan, from Dublin.(Photo: Alice O'Sullivan at the Rose of Tralee in 1959. Credit: George Doyle, Paudi Cronin (Neustock Media). From Kerry County Museum’s photo library, created with support from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht through their 2020 Audience Engagement Fund)

In May 1948, Canon John Hayes flicked a switch and brought electricity to the parish of Bansha, in Ireland. The village was the first in County Tipperary to be connected to the grid, under the Rural Electrification Scheme. The ambitious programme ran from 1946 to 1964 and saw 300,000 homes powered up. Vicky Farncombe produced this episode of Witness History using archives from Irish electricity board, the ESB.(Photo: Erecting electricity poles in rural Ireland. Credit: ESB Archives)

At Easter 1916, a small army of Irish rebels attempted to start a revolution against British rule.They held out for more than a week against a massive British military response.Simon Watts brings together eye-witness accounts of the Easter Rising.(Photo: Irish rebels lying in wait on a roof getting ready to fire during the Easter Rising. Credit: Mondadori via Getty Images)

The ruby slippers from the 1939 movie 'The Wizard of Oz' are some of the most treasured film memorabilia of all time. There are thought to be four pairs from the film that have survived. This is the story of the slippers that were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota, USA in 2005. John Kelsch is one of the people who started the museum. He tells Gill Kearsley the story of the stolen slippers.(Photo: Publicity still from 'The Wizard of Oz', Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

Judy Garland ended her long and glitzy stage and screen career at a London theatre club in January 1969. She was booked for five weeks of nightly shows at the 'Talk of the Town', but by that time, the former child star of the 'Wizard of Oz' was struggling with a drug and drink addiction. In 2019, Mike Lanchin heard the memories of Rosalyn Wilder, then a young production assistant, whose job was to try to get Judy Garland on stage each night.(Photo: Judy Garland performing in one of her final shows. Credit: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

In 2004, a chance encounter in Nigeria led to the return of two of the country’s ancient artworks, the looted Benin Bronzes.The treasures were among thousands stolen from Benin City by the British Army in 1897, and acquired by museums around the world.More than a century later, Tim Awoyemi and Steve Dunstone were on a charity trip when they were approached by campaigners demanding the bronzes return. The two men vowed to help, but it took them 10 years before they were able to fulfil that promise, as Tim Awoyemi tells Jane Wilkinson.(Photo: Benin Bronzes, Nigeria, 2014. Credit: Kelvin Ikpea/AFP via Getty Images)

The coup of 1953 changed the course of Iranian history. The USA - with British help - overthrew a nationalist prime minister and installed the Shah in power. In 2010, Alan Johnston heard archive recordings of the CIA officer who played a part and spoke to Hedayat Matine-Daftary, the grandson of Mohammed Mossadeq, the deposed prime minister.(Photo: crowds of people protest against the Iran coup in 1953. Credit: Getty Images)

On 15 August 2008, nine-year-old Matt Berger tripped over a fossil that would lead to one of the most important discoveries in the history of human evolution.The young adventurer had been exploring the Cradle of Humankind, in South Africa, with his father Lee, a paleoanthropologist."I didn't really know what was happening. I was just there for fun. But my dad was so excited. So obviously that made me excited too," said Matt.The fossil turned out to be from a new species of hominid called Australopithecus sediba.Matt speaks to Vicky Farncombe about his memories of the day.(Photo: Matt Berger, son of Prof Lee Berger, found the fossil of a new hominid species that lived 1.95 million years ago. Credit: Foto24/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

In the early 1980s, the young black graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York art world by storm. Soon, his paintings were selling for huge sums of money, but he would die before the decade was out on the 12th August 1988.Tom Esslemont hears from Patti Astor who knew him in his heyday. This programme was first broadcast in 2014.(Photo: Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1985 Credit: Getty Images)

In 1979, French journalist Claude Angeli and his colleagues discovered Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French President, received gifts of diamonds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the grisly and deposed former Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic. The scandal damaged Giscard d’Estaing’s reputation and contributed to him losing the French Presidential election in 1981. Ben Henderson speaks to Claude Angeli.(Photo: Giscard d'Estaing and Bokassa in 1975. Credit: William Karel/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

After the collapse of former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1992. More than a quarter of a million people lived under almost constant bombardment and sniper fire for more than four years. Over 10,000 were killed. Hunger and destitution took hold quickly. So, a small Jewish charity stepped in to provide essential food and medicine and evacuate elderly people and children from all sides of the conflict. In peace time, Sarajevo’s Jewish community had maintained good relations with Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. This enabled them to provide a haven of peace for everyone. In this episode, Jacky Rowland hears from Jakob Finci, who was the vice president of the Jewish community at the time. Part of their motivation, he says, was that many Jews in Sarajevo had been sheltered by Bosnian Muslims during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s. This is a CTVC production for the BBC World Service.(Photo: members of the Jewish community being evacuated by bus to Croatia in 1993. Credit: Getty Images)