23/10/2011 Reporters

a referendum. Did Bahrain's rulers commit human

rights abuses as they suppressed Arab Spring protests? We report on

an inquiry to find the truth. 50,000 people dead. We report on

the real cost of Mexico's war on drugs. A crackdown has only stirred

more violence. As children receive radiation

checks following the Fukushima meltdown, we report on the growing

unease in Japan over nuclear power. Welcome to Reporters. An

independent report into allegations Bahrain will be released later this

month. It was commissioned by the king of Bahrain, following

international condemnation about how the country dealt with the Arab

Spring. Our correspondent has returned to the country to assess

the human rights situation. Mourning a boy they call a martyr,

people protest at the killing of a teenager in a recent clash - part

of a widespread protest to get the rulers to share more power. There

is so much tension in these villages that when processions like

this meet the security forces, it often ends in more animosity. To

see the other side, I joined a patrol with the special security

forces, the people hated and feared by the protesters. This is what

they do every night. They go into the villages and check out the

demonstrations and protests. The police told me they have a system

of escalating response, according to the situation they face. We give

them a warning and tell them to move it. If they do not move, we

are going to push them. They are confronting sporadic civil

disobedience. Roadblocks and rock throwing by youths that government

supporters call traitors. Most of Bahrain's Sunnis and expatriates

have no sympathy for the protests. At the height of the uprising, the

security force's heavy-handed tactics caused an international

outrage. One of those attacked was this doctor. He gave us a bedside

interview at the time. They started to beat me with sticks. I told them,

"I am a doctor, I am a doctor," but they did not listen. They started

beating me. They told me, get up, we will not lift you. The king has

responded to allegations of human rights abuses by commissioning an

international enquiry. Others have pushed for harsh penalties for

protesters, seeing the uprising as a failed coup. With a commission

about to publish its findings, the government is on something of a

charm offensive. There were abuses of human rights. Those were

mistakes and we addressed them. They were not just done by the

Government. They were also done by the demonstrators. Those issues

have been faced. But the demonstrators are not in charge.

Abuses happened from everyone. Were they systematic? Were they gross?

No, they were not. That will be up to the commission to decide. Headed

by a seasoned UN human rights investigator, it insists it is

impartial. It is modelled on the UN example. Although it is the first

time that a king has called for it, it is an independent commission

that has access to all government entities. But at the opposition

newspaper, there are fears the commission will let the government

off lightly, or else fail to tackle It has largely improved in that we

do not have people dying in custody any more. The beatings have not

stopped, though. Not the abuses of people in detention or at the time

of protest. I have seen one person, a few days ago, being beaten up by

four security officers. This is continuing. People are being

intimidated and abused. authorities agreed to let me see

inside a police detention centre. This is not the main prison, nor is

it when most of the interrogations have taken place. They told us it

was the first time that the international media had been

allowed inside. Mostly criminals here, they said they had been well

treated. But one whispered to me he had been beaten. I asked why they

were being held incommunicado. This was one of the big complaints

earlier this year, that they were not able to contact their families.

I do not think this is right. certainly not the right thing to do.

They do call. I can bring you the print-out of the telephone, I can

show you that they called. This traditional, prosperous country has

a history of human rights issues. The finding from the commission is

vital if the country is to move on from one of the darkest periods in

its history. 45,000 people are estimated to have

been killed since Mexico's president launched his war on drugs

five years ago. The violence is now spreading. It is moving from the

border areas, deeper into the country to previously safer cities.

Our correspondent has more. The war in Mexico is becoming increasingly

dangerous and bloody. With the government and its forces on one

side and the notorious drug cartels on the other, the people of Mexico

are caught in the middle of a conflict no one seems able to stop.

One that is no longer confined to the darklands of the border. More

than 40,000 people have been killed since Mexico's president picked a

fight with the drug cartels. Criminals have been arrested, drugs

have been seized and the military has been deployed. The violence has

only gotten worse and the deaths are more gruesome. This city used

to boast that it was Mexico's safest. The almost empty beaches

tell a different story. In the last month, more than 100 people have

been killed here. 35 bodies were left on a main street in broad

daylight. They had been bound, tortured and killed. Empty homes

have been boarded up after they were used to hide corpses. This is

one of three locations in the city where more than 30 bodies were

hidden. It is part of an increasingly vicious battle that is

taking place in Mexico. As you can see, soldiers have been deployed

onto the streets of a city that, up until recently, was perfectly safe.

Many of those killed are victims of a a t battle between drug

tricks and political cowardice mean some innocent men are wrongly

accused. Speaking out is a rare and dangerous thing to do in Mexico,

but we met this woman, who is prepared to take the risk just to

clear her father's name. He was a mechanic killed in the crossfire of

a gun battle. She says the state fabricated evidence that he was a

criminal. TRANSLATION: This used to be a really safe city. I never

imagined something like this could happen to me. I'm scared the

revenge because they do not want to

talk about it. We have even received threats. I have to speak

out to prove their statistics are not real. Civilians are being

killed in this drug war. In the grandeur of the state capital, the

blame falls squarely on the drug cartels. This woman speaks for the

Governor. She does note does not people had been killed, but she

insists that the strategy is not to blame. The war on drugs has left a

deep scar across the region. Every time the cartels have real pressure,

the problem starts to move. The one constant in all of this is the

demand for drugs in the rest of the world. Unless that changes, the

deaths will almost certainly continue.

More than 300,000 children from around the Fukushima nuclear power

plant in Japan are having health check-ups because of fears about

possible thyroid disorders from radiation. The meltdown of the

plant has adant has adlic unease about nuclear energy. Some experts

sa sarnings about the risks were ignored. Our correspondent has

been reporting on the nuclear question and has been given a rare

This is the friendly face of Japanese nuclear power, bright and

reliable, an exhibition to persuade the public that getting electricity

this way is safe. People have also seen a much darker image. Men

struggling inside the Fukushima power station for the past six

months. Opinion is shifting even inside the plant itself. None of

the staff can speak to the media openly but this engineer from

Fukushima agkushima aget us. We have altered the video to hide his

identity. He said this. If people think nuclear-power is safe, I

would like them to work for me for a day in the rubble. If, after that,

they still say it is safe, they are ignorant. Most of Japan's nuclear-

power stations like this one are now shut down. Here, the 2000

workers are just keeping things ticking over and none of the plants

will reopen until they are better defended, especially from the sea.

The big shock for the Japanese nuclear industry was that the

earthquake was stronger and the tsunami bigger than anybody

expected. They're having to take emergency measures. They can no

longer rely on this huge embankment for protection against the sea.

They are going to build an 18-metre wall on the other side of it. A

company video explains how this massive new defence will work. On a

rare visit inside, we were shown how the power station is already

as flooding that caused the

catastrophe at Fukushima, so here the back-up systems are now

installed on the roofs. Officials hope that the public will be

reassured. TRANSLATION: We confirm that tsunamis will not come over

the embankment. We think the nuclear power plant is safe enough.

But at the government's earthquake Research Centre, they are worried.

They have simulated in graphic detail a really huge tsunami that

struck Japan more than 1,000 years ago. They say nobody listened.

According to the director, he warned that a tsunami could

overwhelm Fukushima, but they put off doing anything about it. In the

past, Japan widely relied on nuclear power. The question now is

whether the next generation will still want it. In China's rush to

develop its economy, farmers have been moved off the land every year

to make way for new roads and reservoirs. One village has chosen

to make a stand against the authorities. That is a decision

that has come at a cost. You cannot find this place on any map. As far

as the authorities are concerned, it does not exist. But the men of

Blue Dragon Village are taking in their autumn harvest. They were

forced off their land to make way for a reservoir. More than 200

homes lie submerged beneath the stretch of water. The people here

say they received little or no compensation from the authorities

and have been left to fend for themselves. It is a story that you

hear time and again over China, farmers swept off their land in the

rush to develop. But instead of simply leaving, this farmer and his

neighbours chose to build a new village. But they were punished for

this act of defiance. Like everybody else here, he has no

official papers, needed for social services. TRANSLATION: We are very

anxious. Without proper ID to do anything would be very difficult.

There is no running water in the village. The reservoir provides

fresh drinking water to the nearby city of Harbin. Millions of people

are flooding into China's cities. They are in search of jobs and

better lives. But development is struggling to keep pace. The cost

of urbanisation is being felt in the countryside. This is the

village's latest arrival but she has no birth certificate. Like her

brothers she officially does not exist. Without papers her mother

worries that the baby has a bleak future. TRANSLATION: It is

difficult for my kids to go to school and later find a job. There

is nothing we can do. We hope it can be resolved some time in the

future. At night, the villagers use solar power after their electricity

was cut by the authorities. This man says that as a farmer, he

cannot survive in the city. Instead, his family must rely upon

themselves, spending another night as strangers in their own land.

Nigeria's oil sector is booming but there is concern among

conservationists that the multi- billion dollar industry is not only

causing pollution, it is also indirectly destroying the coastline

as well. The ships that transport oil and service offshore rigs are

often bought cheaply and many are barely seaworthy. So when things go

wrong, they can end up wrecked and abandoned along the coast. One year

ago a tanker was washed up ground on this beach just outside Lagos.

It is one of the more recent of perhaps 100 wrecks that litter the

coast. Cheap, rusty and barely seaworthy, most were brought here

to make a quick buck in the oil industry. Local campaigners say the

shipwrecks are not just eyesores, but destroying the coast. Because

the ship is such a solid object, being where it should not be, it

causes a direct impediment to the natural flow of the current. It

stops sedimentation. But worse than that it causes another current that

immediately chews up the shoreline. The arrival of this wrecked barge

is being directly linked to drastic changes one kilometre down current.

In some parts of Lagos the coastline is being eroded at a

terrifying rate. Over 100 metres of beach here has been lost in the

last year. Have a look at this building. Three months ago that

there was a fully functioning seaside bar. For the people who

live and worship at the beach, life has changed quickly. Until April of

this year this was the wall of your mosque. Yes. This is a wall of the

mosque. The water comes and destroys the mosque. Within three

hours. Within three hours. Those with homes now just metres from the

sea are starting to panic. It is terrifying and we do not sleep at

night. We're thinking it could come at any moment. The problem has been

there for a while. It is caused by the wrecked ship. With anger

growing, Lagos' state government has called in wreckers to cut the

ships up and take the pieces away but red tape makes this a painfully

slow process. The issue is that when it comes in, it takes a while

for the government to get involved because of avoidance of litigation.

They want to appeal to the owners of the vessel to remove them. By

the time the government has called them the ship has already sunk into

the beach. This wreck will take another five months to fully

dismantle. But the work keeps piling up. One kilometre down the

coast another ship has just been washed ashore. Cuba has finally

relaxed its ban on private car sales between individuals. Ordinary

Cubans would still be prevented from buying new cars but those who

bought Soviet-made vehicles before 1990 will be able to sell them

legally. Soviet Ladas still dominate the streets. During the

time of the Soviet Union owning a Lada car was a symbol of power. The

Communist island imported them and they soon became the most popular

car on Cuban roads. This is Cuba's favourite postcard, old American

cars in excellent condition. But they are outnumbered by the

hundreds of thousands of Russian cars, which are a reminder of

Soviet times. According to official figures, there are 250,000 Lada

cars on these roads. Its simple engineering and durability make

them popular not only for personal use but also as taxis, ambulances

and police cars. TRANSLATION: It has been able to adapt to this city.

But the Automobile boom ended with the collapse of the former Soviet

Union in 1991 and the import of spare parts and new cars stopped.

During those years, Cuban ingenuity was the key to keeping these cars

running. TRANSLATION: For example, the bathers. We could not get new

ones. That is how we solved the problem. We had no other means. Now,

the Lada has returned to do business in Cuba but the Russian

company has lost its dominance. TRANSLATION: Other cars are more

comfortable and better value for money. There are plenty of spare

parts. 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the company no

longer represents modernity and innovation but they are still a