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The Death of Gadhafi; Interview with Rupert Colville; President Obama Says Most US Troops Out of Iraq by 2012; Syrians Hope Assad Next Dictator to Fall; State of the Middle East; Documentary Tells Tales of Modern-Day Slavery; Australia Wins Bronze Final in Rugby World Cup; Disappointment for Wales; Rugby World Cup Final Sunday; Fans' Predictions; Parting Shots: The Haka
Aired October 21, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Found here alive one minute, dead the next. Tonight, the U.N. tell me why it's calling for an investigation into the death of Colonel Gadhafi. live from London, I'm Monita Rajpal.
Also tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: how can we go to bed at night knowing that that night, a million acts of sexual violence are being committed against 10- year-olds?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: If you take the slave trade is long gone, think again. We hear from a director who's traveled the globe to highlight the modern-day misery.
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the most exciting thing. It's going to be hard to sleep, you know, leading up to that. But I'm just so excited, so pumped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: (INAUDIBLE) are ready as the All Blacks brace for a World Cup battle against France.
Jubilation in Libya over the death of Moammar Gadhafi has now given way to reflection, confusion and conflicting accounts of how he died. A day after rebel forces dragged the former leader from a storm drain at Misrata, human rights organizations are calling for an investigation into the last moments of his life. His body is now being kept in cold storage.
We do warn you, you may find the next video disturbing.
Despite initially vowing to bury him within 24 hours, the National Transitional Council now says it won't be for a few days. And his body is being refrigerated in Misrata.
Fighters are still hunting for one of Gadhafi's sons, Saif al-Islam. Officials say they know where he is and they are going to capture him very soon.
But with his father gone, the NTC is preparing for a day many thought they would never see. This Sunday, the country will celebrate Liberation Day, as it revels in freedom from Gadhafi for the first time in more than 40 years.
We want to get to CNN's Ivan Watson now.
He's in the capital, Tripoli, for us tonight -- Ivan, the celebrations continue now, 24 hours after it was -- it was revealed that Gadhafi was killed.
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A second night of celebrations here in Tripoli. We have people racing up and down the road here, the coastal road, honking their horns, some of them firing fireworks. And fireworks, shooting guns up into the air, as well.
Meanwhile, the Tran -- the National Transitional Council, which has become the de facto government here, is preparing to basically declare victory this weekend in the eastern city of Benghazi, where this entire uprising first began last February. They're calling it Liberation Day. And the UN's special envoy to Libya, he says that this is not just a celebration, it sets into motion an entire process for building a new post- Gadhafi state.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IAN MARTIN, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE: What is important is the celebration, but it's also the moment at which the clock starts ticking on commitments the National Transitional Council have made to the unfolding of a democratic process. In the constitution declaration they adopted, they said that then 90 days, they would adopt electoral legislation and establish an -- an electoral commission. And then 240 days from the declaration, there would be the election of a 200-member National Council. And that then becomes the -- the democratic basis for constitution making and for a new government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And that's certainly an ambitious road map, to try to hold elections, national elections in Libya barley eight months after the civil war would be declared over -- Monita.
RAJPAL: Yes, and ambitious, I think, is the word there.
All right, Ivan Watson there in Tripoli, thank you so much for that.
Well, CNN's international correspondent, Dan Rivers, has been covering the story pretty much non-stop for the past 36 hours. Today, he made his way to the place where Gadhafi was killed.
And again, we do warn you, his report contains some graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is all that remains of Colonel Gadhafi's convoy as he tried to escape from Sirte. We're told that NATO jets were involved, as well as a U.S. Predator drone using Hellfire missiles. And you get a graphic illustration of what that means on the ground here. These cars have been completely melted in some places and incinerated with -- you can see the remains of bodies inside. In fact, there are bodies scattered all around here.
Somehow, though, Colonel Gadhafi himself escaped from all this and managed to run over in that direction. And it was here that Colonel Gadhafi was found hiding in this now famous drain way under the highway by NTC troops. All of the people that have come to visit here since have daubed their name and lots of people are having their photo taken.
He was led up this embankment onto the highway and it's what happened to him when he got up here that is now a bit of a mystery.
The video clearly shows him bloodied and being beaten as he was led away from here. He was, at one point, on the bonnet of a car.
But Human Rights Watch is concerned that the car that took him from here did not get involved in any firefight, as far as they've established, which begs the question, how did he end up getting shot in the head?
The NTC is claiming that he was hit in the crossfire as they went down this highway. But Human Rights Watch says that they don't think there was any crossfire after he left this point and are suggesting, perhaps, that he may have been executed.
And you can see there are plenty of evidence around here of other bodies here, some of which Human Rights Watch claims were also executed. They say there are 95 bodies in this area and at least 10 of them have been shot at point-blank range.
Dan Rivers, CNN, Sirte.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RAJPAL: Well, as Dan mentioned, questions are still swirling about exactly how Gadhafi died. And we do warn you, the video you are about to watch is graphic and it is disturbing. It shows the chaotic moments surrounding Moammar Gadhafi's capture by revolutionary fighters.
Again, this video may not be appropriate for some viewers.
Tim Lister reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last chaotic minutes of Moammar Gadhafi's life after he's discovered cowering in a drain in Sirte. Newly obtained cell phone video captures the sudden euphoria of anti-Gadhafi fighters as they realized who've they've caught.
"Film him, film him," exclaims one fighter.
There were shouts of "God is great" and celebratory gunfire.
With a head wound streaming blood, Gadhafi seems dazed and frightened, but is clearly conscious. In another video of the scene obtained by CNN, a gun is pointed at Gadhafi's head.
"Shame on you. You're sinning. You're sinning," Gadhafi says, as he moves his right hand.
A fighter retorts, "You don't know about sin."
A crowd gathers. Gadhafi is pushed, shoved and shaken and is slapped at least once. The audio on one video suggests a debate among the fighters about what to do with him.
Several times, a fighter is saying, "We want him alive." Then someone tells Gadhafi, "These are Misrata people, you dog."
Fighters from Misrata, which was brutally shelled by the regime, have played a big part in the assault on Sirte.
After his capture, some of the fighters explain how they found Gadhafi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Then we went to the other side and four or five ran out from under the road and surrendered. One of them told us that Gadhafi was inside and wounded. When we entered the home, I saw his bushy head and I jumped on him immediately.
Then all the fighters came and surrounded him. When we captured him, we found this handgun with him and the golden gun in a bag.
LISTER: It's still far from clear what happened to Gadhafi once he was taken from the scene. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch tells CNN's Dan Rivers, it's very unlikely that he died in crossfire, as the Transitional National Council first claimed.
PETER BOUCKAERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: It's very clear that when -- when Moammar Gadhafi was removed from the area here, where he was captured, he did not have a gunshot wound to the head. If he died from a gunshot wound to the head, it happened after he was captured.
LISTER: Later video shows Gadhafi's body in a cold storage unit in Misrata. There appears to be a gunshot wound to his left temple. The commander in charge of guarding his body promises he will be washed, respected and buried in a Muslim cemetery. But as yet, there seems no agreement on where and when.
Tim Lister, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RAJPAL: Well, the conflict versions of just how Gadhafi died has prompted calls for an investigation into exactly what happened on Thursday.
A short time ago, a spokesman for the the United Nations high commissioner for human rights explained why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUPERT COLVILLE, U.N. OFFICE, HIGH COMMISSIONER ON HUMAN RIGHTS: There's a big answer, indeed. There were two videos, as we know, one of Gadhafi alive after he had been captured, and then one later of him dead and at least four or five different versions of what happened in between.
So we believe there needs to be much more clarity about how he died, exactly.
Was it -- was it in combat?
Was it in a combat situation in -- in the middle of fighting?
Or was it, at the other extreme, an execution?
RAJPAL: Even if, indeed, we find out that Gadhafi was summary -- summarily executed, what can you do then, at this point?
COLVILLE: Well, I think it's important that rule of law is established again in Libya. So -- and I -- and maybe we shouldn't focus so much on -- on Gadhafi himself. I mean there are thousands of other Libyans who have suffered appalling human rights abuses at the hands of the Gadhafi regime. They need to have justice. They need to have a judicial system that's up and running. They need to have clarity, as well, about who ordered what, who did what, how -- how did their abuses take place?
RAJPAL: If we focus on the situation at hand, right, and we are looking at Gadhafi's death and the circumstances surrounding his death, are you looking to the fact that, potentially, NATO, the allied countries that are working within NATO, as well, the NTSC could also become -- could come under questioning?
COLVILLE: No, I mean we're -- you know, we -- at this point, all we're saying is there needs to be much more clarity. There is already a commission of inquiry...
RAJPAL: But is that too -- I mean is that too soon...
COLVILLE: -- that's been set up (INAUDIBLE)...
RAJPAL: -- to be asking for this, because it is such a confusing situation right now in Libya?
We really don't know exactly what's going on, who has control right now. We understand that the NTC is the established group that has been recognized by the -- much of the international community. But this is such a confusing situation.
Isn't it too soon to be asking for that right now?
COLVILLE: It could be. But I mean the death happened yesterday. It's been a very disturbing element to it, in particular these two videos of -- of -- of Gadhafi alive and then Gadhafi dead. And -- and it's a fundamental principle, you know. It's a fundamental principle of international law that -- that there shouldn't be summary executions. We're not saying there definitely was a summary execution. But because of all the different variants of how he was killed, it needs to be established. It can't just be brushed under the table.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RAJPAL: Rupert Colville there.
And we'll have much more on Libya for you in just a moment, including a look at NATO's role in helping to secure a country and bring down a dictator.
Not everyone is happy to see him go -- reaction from some world leaders who considered Gadhafi a friend.
Plus...
(VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: -- energized and determined, protesters in Syria send a warning to the president, as Gadhafi's death fuels their call for change.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJPAL: After seven months and nearly 10,000 strike missions, NATO has been deciding the future of its operations in Libya. Its air campaign helped pave the way for the National Transitional Council to seize control of parts of the country. But it was NATO's last strike on a heavily armed convoy near Sirte that may have led to a turning point for Libya -- the capture and death of Moammar Gadhafi.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD.
Hello.
CNN's Phil Black is with us now from NATO headquarters in Brussels, where the governing body has been meeting about Operation Unified Protector -- and we understand, Phil, that the secretary-general has just spoken.
What did he say about this operation?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Monita.
They've been talking for the last five hours or so, NATO officials, representatives from the various allied partners in this mission. And they have decided on something of a cautious reaction to the news of Gadhafi's death.
They have decided, they say, they have taken a preliminary decision to end their mission enforcing the no fly zone, protecting civilians within Libya on the 31st of October, at the end of this month.
They say they will take a formal decision next week. And in the meantime, they will continue to consult with the National Transitional Council, the United Nations, while also monitoring, observing events on the ground, the security, the stability of Libya itself.
And they say they will begin to gradually wind down their operations, their capabilities, down toward that final day of the 31st of October, although it can be reviewed. But up until that date, they say they will maintain the ability to respond to any threat to civilians in that time.
Now they have been talking about this for some hours through the night, as I say, late into Friday. They deny that this points to any division of a opinion within the alliance about just what was the right thing to do. They say the decision has been made by consensus, as with all NATO decisions. And in the word of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, he said that we have did what we said we would do and it is now the turn -- the time for the Libyans to build their own democratic country that respects the rule of law -- Monita.
RAJPAL: OK. Phil Black there in Brussels.
Thank you.
The NATO mission in Libya hasn't been easy and it hasn't been cheap. A Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. price tag, as of September 30th, had reached $1.1 billion. And the U.S. is just one of a number of NATO allies, including France and the U.K., which pledged resources for the operation.
Well, for more on this part of the story, Dan Plesch is with me now.
Here's the director of the Center for International Studies in Diplomacy at the University of London.
Thank -- Dan, thank you very much for being with us.
DAN PLESCH, SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: My pleasure.
RAJPAL: Mr. Rasmussen says they did what they had to do.
Was it a success, do you think?
PLESCH: Well, if you are called to a fire and put it out, of course it's a success for a fire brigade.
But, actually, the question is, why was there a fire in the first place?
Why didn't we do something all the years when Tony Blair, Sarkozy, President Bush's people were telling us that Gadhafi was this wonderful, friendly fellow that we could sell nuclear reactors to?
Why weren't we working for political change?
After all, Libya's population, it's a tiny country on the Mediterranean, about six million people.
What were we doing then to prevent things getting like this?
And the answer is, we were perfectly happy, in NATO, to support Colonel Gadhafi. We were quite happy to have him with thousands, tens of thousands of Africans in interment camps without any Red Cross or European supervision, many because they were trying to be economic migrants.
So there is a -- a huge story and a great -- I have to say, I think there will be sighs of relief in Paris, in Washington and in London that Colonel Gadhafi is not going to be on trial, talking about his connections with Western leaders.
RAJPAL: But when we talk about NATO's rule here -- role here, it's an interesting thing, because going into it, it wasn't a clear-cut mission. Now, there was this really confusing situation in terms of why they were going there in the first place.
They kept saying it wasn't about regime change, it was about providing air support, aerial support, for the National Transitional Council to bring about change by the Libyan people.
So what do they do now?
If they do leave now, then it means, well, I guess it was about regime change?
PLESCH: Well, I think people were drawn into this. I don't think there was any great conspiracy. But I think one of the factors is that there was a fear that there would be hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Italy and France if the Gadhafi got into...
RAJPAL: Which we did see happened.
PLESCH: Yes. This is -- one saw that begin to happen. And I think that was one of the decisive factors in European capitals as to why they thought they needed to intervene. And you may remember, the French started bombing...
RAJPAL: Yes.
PLESCH: -- to stop Gadhafi getting right in. And one can understand the logic of that.
But as I say, the question is in, if you look around the region, with the West's relationship with other countries, what is being done now to stop this coming to this pass and what is being done now to stop people having to wait, let us say, in some of the Gulf countries, for another 30 years for their freedom?
RAJPAL: So what do you think is being discussed within NATO headquarters right now in terms of what -- whether they stay, whether they go, whether the operation is mission accomplished?
PLESCH: Shall we stay or shall we go?
RAJPAL: Yes.
PLESCH: I think there are some countries, in Germ -- Germany, for example, that privately regards the whole operation as a violation of the U.N. resolution. And many countries do. And they've had to swallow that, I think. But rather -- partly because of the -- the success of the operation.
But right now, I think the priority has to be to get the guns off the streets, restore the rule of...
RAJPAL: And there's a lot of that.
PLESCH: -- restore the rule of law and, frankly, if the whole of the new government starts with a cover -- a cover-up of the murder of Gadhafi, because it would appear that this was not a hot-blooded moment, that the soldiers, that -- that the insurgents had the opportunity to kill him in that culvert and didn't do so. And that it was then, later on, in a car, well, perhaps by crossfire. We don't know what happened.
But if it turns out that he was killed there, that has to be a judicial process, because otherwise, the new regime begins where the old one left off -- let off. And presumably, the Libyan people will understand that.
Whether or not their NATO advisers will be telling them that, I don't know.
And one critical question is, frankly, where was the closest NATO ground soldier to these events?
That is the question that I think people in NATO should answer.
RAJPAL: OK. Dan, stick around.
We've got many more questions to ask you.
PLESCH: Thank you.
RAJPAL: So Dan Plesch, we'll be back with you in just a moment.
But after the break, we take a look at the some of the defining moments as captured by our own teams on the ground across Libya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And you can see now some of the press coming out. So, clearly, they had it. Clearly, they have taken this over. And, clearly, there is extreme excitement here in Tripoli.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: From the fall of Gadhafi's compound to the end of his 42-year rule, we'll show you how it all unfolded in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA GILLARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is an historic day for the Libyan nation. It's a day of triumph of the human spirit. And I want to pay tribute to the thousands of Libyans who, with courage, have fought for freedom in their nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: The Australian prime minister there, reacting to the Libyan's successful revolution against Moammar Gadhafi. She was one of many world leaders to voice support for the fighters and the future of Libya over the past two days.
But some have taken the opposite view.
Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, labeled his death an assassination and proclaimed that Gadhafi was a martyr.
From Russia's foreign minister, disapproval that Gadhafi was killed rather than taken prisoner and brought to trial.
Well, leaders in Africa who were friendly with Gadhafi have stayed mostly silent. It's not surprising when you consider the Libyan leader spent billions of dollars constructing hotels, roads and mosques across the continent and by friendships in at least 20 countries.
But today, one of his African supporters spoke out.
CNN's Nkepile Mabuse reports from South Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They were slow in recognizing the National Transitional Council and for a while, African leaders seemed like the only last few remaining friends of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi.
But they finally nailed their colors to the mat, saying the chapter is closed on Moammar Gadhafi's rule in Libya.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa saying in the capital of Pretoria that what happened to Gadhafi in Sirte was no big surprise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. JACOB ZUMA, SOUTH AFRICA: The anger of those who were fighting and looking for him, I think, their cry has been, "Kill Gadhafi!" I think so. That is -- that was a well known fact that they were seeing. So I think that's what has happened.
He, himself, I think, had made statements that he would die in his country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MABUSE: President Zuma, who twice went to Tripoli to try and negotiate a peaceful settlement to the crisis in Libya, says that he would have preferred for Moammar Gadhafi to be captured and taken to the International Criminal Court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZUMA: If those who are fighting for democracy in Libya made such allegations, then I'm sure they would have been happier that this man goes to answer in the International Court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MABUSE: Moammar Gadhafi leaves a checkered legacy here on the continent. On the one hand, he used his country's oil wealth to invest in countries in Africa that would ordinarily not attract enough investment.
On the other, he financed and supported warlords that are responsible for the deaths of thousands.
At the end of the day, it seems while some African leaders may miss his millions, the overall feeling is that Africa is better off without him.
Nkepile Mabuse, CNN, Pretoria, South Africa.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RAJPAL: Global reaction there to a story we've been following since the beginning and dedicated to telling right through to the end. And as you've seen with so many remarkable moments comes some incredible coverage from our correspondents.
Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(ON SCREEN)
Zawiya, August 20 SIDNER: We are now about 30 miles outside of Tripoli. So we are very, very, very close. Last night, the rebels were telling us that they got help from NATO. And that is one of the ways that they were able to secure this refinery.
(ON SCREEN)
Al-Nayah, August 21
SIDNER: There are rebels inside the city of Tripoli. They are beginning the uprising there. Now, these are rebels that were already placed inside the city, just waiting and watching for their time to begin.
But we are now just a few kilometers away from the capital.
(ON SCREEN)
Rixos Hotel, Tripoli, August 21
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's difficult to give an exact, you know, kind of a scale of how much territory is still in the hands of Colonel Gadhafi. But here, clearly, his forces are on the back -- are on the back foot at the moment.
And it all seems to be crumbling rather quickly.
(ON SCREEN)
Green Square, August 21
SIDNER: What we're seeing is rebels all over this square. There are really no civilians and mostly men with guns in the square. But we're also seeing people running. There's a lot of gunfire. They say there are snipers. We all had to pull back. The situation very tense here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gadhafi is finished. Now Libya is free.
(ON SCREEN)
Bab al-Aziziya, Tripoli, August 23
SIDNER: This is a historic day. Psychologically speaking, this is an important day, especially for the rebels who Gadhafi said would never be able to break his spirit, would never be able to take the city that they have taken, Bab al-Aziziya.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people may die.
SIDNER: Gadhafi's compound.
(ON SCREEN)
Sabha, September 20
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In most of these towns, it's a case of (INAUDIBLE) liberation. The fighters come in in their convoy of (INAUDIBLE). They're greeted by cheering residents and then they drive right out of town.
(VIDEO CLIP)
(ON SCREEN)
Sirte, October 12
RIVERS: We're told that there's about a kilometer that's left for them to take. And the sea, where the Gadhafi forces are basically cornered, with their back to the sea. And this is really their last stand as far as we're aware.
(ON SCREEN)
Tripoli, October 20
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Gadhafi (INAUDIBLE). Bye-bye.
RIVERS: Many of the people here have known nothing other than Colonel Gadhafi's 42-year rule. They cannot believe now that finally, he is dead, that Sirte has fallen and the war is over.
Just look at the sea of flags out here in celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a great moment. We are so happy. We are so, so happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: Well, Gadhafi's death is energizing anti-government protests in Syria. Demonstrators perhaps realizing what seemed impossible can become a reality. But that belief comes at a high price. We'll update you on the situation there in just over four minutes.
Also, a sneak preview of one of the most harrowing films you will ever see. In 15 minutes, our exclusive interview with the director.
And heartache from Wales, as they fail to win the battle for bronze at the Rugby World Cup. We'll bring you all those details in just 25 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MONITA RAJPAL, HOST: This is CONNECT THE WORLD on CNN, the world's news leader. Let's get a check of the headlines this hour.
A day after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed, several human rights organizations have called for an official investigation into how he died. The UN High Commission for Human Rights said it wants more details about whether he died in the fighting or after he was captured.
US president Barack Obama says nearly all American troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year. He said he's making good on his 2008 campaign pledge to end a war that has divided a nation and claimed more than 4,000 American lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over. Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home.
The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq will their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: The two-year-old girl whose story appalled China has died. Yue Yue died in hospital where she was receiving care. She was twice run over on a busy street. More than a dozen people passed her by as she lay on the pavement.
The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution on Yemen demanding the government allow peaceful demonstrations and bring an end to a crackdown on civilians there.
A Syrian opposition group says at least 24 people have been killed during anti-government protests. The demonstrations, which began after Friday prayers, were said to be fueled in part by the death of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
Well, with Gadhafi gone, could President Bashar al-Assad be next? CNN isn't currently allowed to report from inside Syria, so our Arwa Damon is monitoring reaction from Beirut in neighboring Lebanon.
Arwa, give us an idea of what is actually -- from what you can garner on the kind of reaction that is within Syria right now as a lot of eyes are on Syria, especially after the death, now, of Moammar Gadhafi.
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They most certainly are, Monita, and Syrian activists do hope that it is going to be their own president who will be the next to go.
Now, there has always been a sense of solidarity amongst the people that have been involved in the various uprisings throughout the region, but one that especially exists between the Syrians and the Libyans. So it did not take long for the Syrian opposition to celebrate Gadhafi's death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
DAMON (voice-over): "Don't you worry, Assad is coming after Gadhafi," the demonstrators chant in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.
In the capital Damascus, calls of congratulations to the Libyans.
And in the restive province of Homs, the scene of much violence in recent weeks, activists clutch the Libyan flag alongside Syria's old flag that was in place before the Baath Party came to power in 1963, crying out for the Assad regime to fall.
Across the country, defiant demonstrators warn their government that it, too, is not immune to the will of the people.
And of course, activist social media sites were not about to refrain from mocking those deposed and those whose turn is yet to come.
DAMON (on camera): This is one of the cartoons that's posted on they Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, and it questions, "Why don't these tyrants learn from one another?"
And here we have another posting to that same page, and it's showing Bashar al-Assad as a mini-me version of Moammar Gadhafi. And it says that the Libyans chased their colonel out like a rat into a sewage drain and warned that it's Assad's turn to be chased down by the people that he refers to as "germs."
And it also asks in the text below if Assad will run away like Tunisia's Ben Ali, or if he will end up behind bars like Egypt's Mubarak, or be hunted down and killed, like Libya's Gadhafi.
DAMON (voice-over): But Syria is not Libya. For now, the pillars holding up the Assad regime are still intact. The critical merchant middle class and business community either supporting the government or staying silent.
Defecting numbers from the Syrian army too small to pose a real threat, and with the backing of a regional powerhouse like Iran, and international players, like China and Russia, the Syrian regime seems confident it will ride this out.
Some analysts would agree, but others say that Gadhafi's death sends a powerful message to Bashar al-Assad and could alter the country's deadly dynamics.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: And at the same time, Monita, we're increasingly hearing the Syrian opposition, especially those that are based inside Syrian, talking perhaps about the need to take up arms. They are saying that they have been trying to peacefully bring down this regime for months and have failed. And now, they fear that perhaps violence, military intervention, might be the only way.
RAJPAL: And are they calling for international help in that intervention in terms of some help, perhaps, by NATO?
DAMON: Well, they don't exactly want a NATO-style campaign similar to what we saw taking place in Libya, at least that is not what they wanted at the onset, but we are increasingly hearing calls for a no-fly zone to be put into place.
Of course, that would naturally involve a bombing campaign to try to take out Syria's surface-to -air defense systems.
They are also calling for a chunk of land to be carved out inside Syria, one that would allow the defectors to go to so that they could then stage operations against the Syrian security forces.
But while all of this is being talked about, there is also the realization that, should this in fact take place, most activists will tell you that it most certainly would lead the country towards a civil war, so there is an incredible amount of reluctance to have to take that step, to even begin discussing about taking that step.
RAJPAL: OK, Arwa Damon, there, in Beirut, thank you so much.
Well, Dan Plesch from London School of Oriental and African Studies joins us again here in the studio, an expert on international studies. Dan, thank you again for being with us.
DAN PLESCH, SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Thank you.
RAJPAL: So, we see here the United Nations just recently saying -- passing a resolution on Yemen demanding the government allow peaceful demonstrations. We know that Tunisia is holding its first full election on Sunday. Moammar Gadhafi is dead in Libya, and all eyes are on Syria, now. Could that very well be the next domino to fall?
PLESCH: Well, I don't think all eyes are on Syria. A great many eyes are on Israel and Palestine and what's going on in the West Bank and Gaza, still. So, I think we need to be careful not to just follow our own instincts, show perhaps where some of the major Western powers want us to look.
After all, are the Palestinians going to be assisted by NATO air power to implement UN resolutions calling upon Israel to leave the occupied territories?
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL: But what we are seeing, though, in Syria, though.
PLESCH: I don't think so.
RAJPAL What we are seeing, though, there is a continuous uprising against the Syrian regime. They're -- the calls are coming loud, whether it is from the diplomatic circles outside of Syria or within the opposition within Syria --
PLESCH: Certainly.
RAJPAL: There is a momentum that seems to be growing.
PLESCH: There is a momentum, and in rather more than in Libya, there is a, first of all, a much stronger state. Gadhafi and everybody never built up any -- a strong military apparatus.
There isn't the relationship of war with a neighboring country, with Israel, which exists. And there weren't the very large minorities with friends across the border. For example, the Kurds who now have relations with the semi-independent Kurds of northern Iraq.
It's a much more complex situation. And frankly, there are a lot more weapons and a lot more powerful countries involved.
So, while personally I think that the people of Syria should be helped in every way, we need to be a little careful before starting to talk about more war being the solution, particularly when it is something that the western powers aren't about to do when it comes to their own friends in the Gulf or in -- when it comes to Israel, of course.
RAJPAL: But from within Syria -- Syria's perspective, can they even afford to continue going about their way as they have done for so many years when they actually are seeing what is happening within their own region?
PLESCH: Well, tragically, decades ago, the Syrians slaughtered -- the Assad regime, Assad, Sr., slaughtered many more.
RAJPAL: But we're not talking about decades ago.
PLESCH: No.
RAJPAL: Things are different, now. There seems -- there is people power, now. There is --
PLESCH: Well, that --
RAJPAL: -- a wave of democracy, people demanding their rights, now.
PLESCH: And as in Czechoslovakia in 68, the tanks rolled in and crushed it for a generation or two, and we have yet to see the military apparatus dislodged in Egypt.
The regimes across the region, in Algeria, are very nervous, so, yes, there is democracy flourishing. But there are still many enemies of democracy and not all of the West are friends of the sort of democracy that you and I are discussing.
So, I'm just sounding a little note of caution, here. But it isn't to say that one doesn't have one's head and heart with people looking to enjoy the sort of freedoms that we enjoy.
RAJPAL: And I guess just quickly, Dan, do you believe that what Syria has -- I guess on its side is the fact that its military is still very much aligned with the regime?
PLESCH: Well, and of course, there are weapons of mass destruction, and this is an issue that we will, for any London viewers, we'll be discussing in public on Monday at our university, that you can come along and hear experts and officials debate this.
But this is -- weapons of mass destruction and the Middle East is an explosive combination, and one has to be very careful before thinking about where we're going to end up.
Where, after all, would those in Libya end up with the collapse of the regime? And what would've happened had we managed to build the nuclear reactors that Colonel Gadhafi wanted in, say, Misrata?
RAJPAL: All right, Dan, thank you so much.
PLESCH: Thank you.
RAJPAL: You are watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up next, the filmmaker who has turned his lens on a shameful global scourge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT BILHEIMER, DIRECTOR, "NOT MY LIFE": I had never, ever seen the kind of cruelty, the disregard for whatever it might possibly mean to be human, that we've seen in these practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: It is harrowing, but not to be missed. A sneak preview of the documentary intended to change the world. That coming up in just two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJPAL: The premier of a documentary made to change the world. Human trafficking experts gathered in London on Thursday to see the long-awaited yet harrowing film, "Not My Life."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This kind of evil must be stopped. It should never continue, because it's worse than evil that grown-ups are actually using children in armed conflict. Grown-ups are raping children, and grown-ups are destroying the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: Children forced to fight wars, forced to work without pay, forced into the sex trade, the claims director Robert Bilheimer spent four years traveling the globe to uncover and bring to us just some of the countless stories of modern-day slavery. He tells Becky Anderson what he discovered and why this scourge can no longer be ignored.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILHEIMER: I had never, ever seen the kind of cruelty, the -- wanton cruelty. The disregard for whatever it might possibly mean to be human, that we've seen in these practices.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Practices that documentary maker Robert Bilheimer investigates in "Not My Life," so the rest of the world can also see the reality of human trafficking.
GLEN CLOSE, NARRATOR, "NOT MY LIFE": To the homes of these poor families come sex traffickers looking for young girls to bring into the city, where travelers from abroad await them.
BILHEIMER: What's most -- been most disturbing to me is that -- the victims are almost all children. This is something we found, inescapably, as we moved from continent to continent and from country to country. We kept saying, "How old?" Nine. Ten. Twelve. Four.
DON BREWSTER, AGAPE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS: We have girls at our aftercare center, who guys would come in once a quarter and have -- pick up that same girl and have him with him for a month at a time. And I mean just brutalize them for that month.
Westerners come into Svay Pak every day. I mean, there's not a single day Westerners don't come here, and there's no reason to come here except for that.
ANDERSON: While some of the biggest horror stories come out of Asia and Africa, the film makes it clear that atrocities are also happening in America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're walking around, there's lots of semis, and there's also a lot of girls out there. And a lot of them are just -- they look half our age. They look like they could be eight or nine years old.
BILHEIMER: There've been no studies about this, but they're sort of conservatively estimating that there are maybe 150,000 young girls under 16 being trafficked in the United States today for sexual purposes.
These girls at a minimum commit -- or are forced to perform ten sexual acts a day. So, 100,000 times ten is a million. A day. They work seven days a week. There are 365 days in the year.
That means that in the United States alone, 365 million, probably close to half a billion acts of sexual violence, rape, are committed against girls from the ages of 8 to 14, 15, 16. Half a billion that are unprosecuted, unreported, unknown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we get in the first truck, and the guy decides he wants me. So, I go back there and I just have to pray to God, just please help me. Just please let me get through it.
(crying) Melissa went through the wallet, and he had grandkids as old us. And all I could think of that whole time was how my grandpa could be this guy right now, and how that would feel. And I just wanted to die.
BILHEIMER: How can we go to bed at night knowing that that night, a million acts of sexual violence are being committed against ten-year-olds, not only by truckers, but by lawyers, but by people who go to the Super Bowl, by doctors. At conventions.
ANDERSON: It's been almost 150 years since the American president Abraham Lincoln penned the words, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." A phrase that Bilheimer hopes is illustrated in every frame of his film.
BILHEIMER: I'm sure that now what he was driving at is that if we reach a point where we no longer regard ourselves as fellow human beings, and particularly if we reach the point where we are, in fact, cannibalizing our own children, then I think it is very difficult to think of ourselves either as human or as civilized.
ANDERSON: Now that "Not My Life" has premiered, Bilheimer is hoping for an unprecedented distribution deal that will ensure that as many people as possible are aware that human trafficking is a burgeoning business worldwide.
BILHEIMER: If the organizations rise to the challenge that we're going to present and say, you get hundreds of these films and you use your budgets to buy these things at cost for a buck a piece and we'll license it to you, if they do that, I think we can wipe this off the face of the earth and be smiling in five years that this will no longer exist.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJPAL: "Not My Life" director Robert Bilheimer, there. And you can catch this unforgettable documentary this weekend on CNN as part of our Freedom Project. We are bringing you a two-night special presentation of the film shown without commercial interruption.
See part one Saturday night and part two Sunday night at 8:00 here in London, 9:00 PM in Berlin, and 11:00 in Abu Dhabi, only here on CNN.
You are watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Up next, all the latest from the rugby World Cup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIQUE AUDOIN, FRENCH RUGBY FAN: It's just amazing that going to final, and that's where -- we're playing the final against the All Blacks in New Zealand, so I just believe that we're going to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: Yes, one France fan, there, confident his side can beat New Zealand in Sunday's final, but who are the favorites to lift the trophy? Find out after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJPAL: Yes, heartache for Wales as they lose out for the bronze medal at the rugby World Cup. Well, some consolation for Australia for failing to reach the rugby World Cup final, their 21-18 victory over Wales ensures the Wallabies go home with their pride intact. CNN's Alex Thomas was in Auckland for the match.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: More than 50,000 at Eden Park Stadium, and around 7,000 here watched the bronze final this rugby World Cup.
This is one of the fan zones in central Auckland, and there were more Welsh supporters here, but it was the fans of the green and gold that will go away happier after victory for the Wallabies, somewhat making up for the disappointment of their semifinal defeat to the host, New Zealand, last week.
And it's the All Blacks that now steal the focus of this rugby World Cup as they aim to take on France in the final on Sunday.
And it'll be the icing on the cake if the host country lifts the Webb Ellis Trophy after some good news for the organizers in recent days. They've hit their ticket sales target. They've also announced visitor numbers reached 80,000 up until the end of September, which means they're on course to maybe exceed their expectations once the October figures are taken into account.
Heineken has signed up to sponsor the next rugby World Cup in 2015, and Master Card say the New Zealand economy will be boosted by around $62 million US over this finals weekend.
Alex Thomas, CNN, Auckland, New Zealand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJPAL: Let's go to "World Sport's" Patrick Snell. And Patrick, a disappointing end to the World Cup for Wales.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really was, Monita. They had a fabulous campaign, though, overall, particularly when you bear in mind that they had something like six players 23 or under.
But to have got this far, to have got to the last four of the tournament, to have reached the semifinal is a magnificent achievement in itself. It's just the manner or the circumstances of how it all played out, I think, that's disappointing, the way they loss so close to the French.
They lost their captain, their influential skipper, Warburton. They played virtually an hour of that game with 14 men, and things could have been so, so different had he stayed on the field of play, if important penalties had gone over instead of falling short.
And the performance, I think, Monita, against the Australian Wallabies highly impressive. They pushed the Wallabies ever so close. And once again, it was vital penalties at important moments that saw them fall short.
But overall Monita, a magnificent campaign by the ever-so-youthful Welsh squad.
RAJPAL: OK, so that was then, let's talk about now. Or, I should say, Sunday, the big final. Is there an outright favorite?
SNELL: There has to be. It has to be the host nation, it has to be the All Blacks. Those fans, Monita, inside of Eden Park are not going to allow a New Zealand defeat. It's just simply not going to happen. I think to a man and woman and child inside Eden Park, they're going to physically ensure that their team does not lose this one.
The French, keep an eye on the French. I'm not ruling them out totally, but I am predicting a comfortable victory for the All Blacks. They haven't won this tournament, of course, since 1987. They are virtually, I believe, unbeatable in that arena. And it's a brave person that would back against them in Eden Park -- at Eden Park Sunday, and that brave person is certainly not me, Monita.
Anyway --
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL: Well, Pat, that's your --
SNELL: Yes, but look. There's so much more to talk about. That's my opinion. Counts for relatively little. What do the fans think? We've asked those on both sides for their predictions. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRIS MIKKELSON, NEW ZEALAND RUGBY FAN: Well, this Sunday, I'm going to be supporting the mighty All Blacks, and it's a huge day in -- in history. It's been 24 years since we have won this thing, and I think the whole nation is on the edge of their seat.
The French are a crazy team to play. They come out, and you just never know what they're going to do. On paper, we should win, but who really knows? It's just the most exciting thing. It's going to be hard to sleep leading up to that.
DOMINIQUE AUDOIN, FRENCH RUGBY FAN: I think to France, it's going to be just like -- it's going to be amazing, it's going to be crazy. There's going to be parties all over the place for a couple of days. And everybody's becoming a rugby fan at the moment.
And if we win that, we'll definitely crazy for rugby for a while, at least, and the sport will become much bigger in France.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNELL: Oh, how the excitement builds up. Join me for "World Sport," live from the CNN Center here in Atlanta. We'll continue our look ahead to that big game in Auckland.
Plus, how about this meter? Who does this psychic sheep believe will taste glory this weekend? You can find out the answer if you join me for "World Sport" around 32 and a half minutes from right now. Monita, back to you.
RAJPAL: Yes, you always have to have an animal or something, whether it's an octopus for the football, and now, a sheep.
SNELL: Yes.
RAJPAL: You've got to love that, Patrick. Thank you so much.
Well, for our Parting Shots, we're going to stick with rugby and something synonymous with the All Blacks. The Haka. It is the trademark of the world's most famous rugby team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALL BLACKS (chanting): Taringa whakarongo! Kia rite! Kia ite! Kia mau! Hi!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: A war dance from the islands of the Pacific, it can be intimidating for opposing teams. It looks pretty much so. And has been performed by New Zealand's All Blacks before every game for over 100 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(KIDS PERFORMING HAKA)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: That's so cute. It's so much part of their country's culture that kids learn it from a young age, and here you can see as they perform at a youth tournament. Young players displaying all the intensity of their adult counterparts, there.
And the Haka is so popular in New Zealand that we've seen scenes like this, flash mobs in Auckland performing the Haka in the streets. On Sunday, the All Blacks will be hoping their Haka against France will mark the start of a great match and victory for New Zealand in the World Cup final.
I'm Monita Rajpal in for Becky Anderson. Thanks for watching. The world headlines and "BackStory" follow this short break.
END
