20/01/2013 Reporters

shops were given notice of closure last week.

On BBC News it is time for Reporters.

Welcome to Reporters. This is part -- the heart of the BBC's

international news operations. We sent some of the best

correspondents are into the field. This week, Syrian refugees suffer

in the bitter winter weather. We meet people struggling to survive

in Lebanon. In northern Kenya, we find the trade in ivory has led to

the worst slaughter of elephants in decades. We also go inside the

Kremlin. We are given rare access to the historical palace.

We start this week with the conflict in Syria and some

disturbing new evidence, a US-based aid agency, the International

Rescue Committee, said they cases of kidnappings, torture and rape

against Syrian civilians has reached a horrific level. It is

warning of a staggering humanitarian disaster because of a

nude -- as a result of the conflict. 600,000 Syrians have crossed the

border into neighbouring countries. 3,000 leave every day. 2 million

are displaced internally. We have been with refugees in the Bekaa

Valley in Lebanon. It has been the worst of winters

for people who fled the worst of the wars. Across a blanket of snow,

you can see Syrian families in the distance. They have taken refuge by

a mosque. All the roads in are blocked by snow. We can only reach

them on foot. Two rows of concrete blocks. A home for 38 families. It

does not keep the winter snow out. They do not keep any 11. -- anyone

warm. The children were everywhere. Their hands are freezing. Their

teeth are chattering. They are so cold. This is what it is like day-

in and day-out. There is no medicine for the children who get

sick. In the night, there are no windows. She has eight children,

including an eight-month-old. Her husband was killed by government

shelling. Her eldest son fights with the rebels. She tells me that

they have no money to take the children to hospitals, no fuel for

the heaters, nothing. Would anyone except this kind of life? It is a

life that race even the toughest. - - that breaks. Some eight is

reaching Syrians in Lebanon. 300 families came to the centre of the

day we visited. Here, they get vouchers for food and fuel from the

when. But the numbers kid growing. -- from the UN. There is not nearly

enough aid to support the tide of people. The Refugees really need an

end to the wall. Everyone fears that will not happen any time soon.

From the very life conflict in Syria to the consequences of the

civil war in the former Yugoslavia. It is two decades since the vicious

conflict. The fighting has long since ended but the battle for

justice goes on. Two of the highest-profile Bosnian Serb

leaders, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, I currently on trial for

war crimes in the Hague. -- are currently. We are the first news

organisation to be given exclusive access to the court building, even

down to the cells. Justice is about judging people. In

a few moments, Christoph ute, the German judge, would deliver the

court's verdict on a Bosnian Serb accused of genocide. -- Christopher

Fluegge. He has donned these roads and water is Crowder countless

times. -- walked these corridors. His entrance remains a special. The

judges decide guilt or innocence of everyone. You are hereby sentenced

to life imprisonment. No sense from him that he is now a convicted war

criminal and no sense of the gravity of the crime. I asked apish

judge how or where he is of the importance of the cases that he is

deciding. -- a British judge. the end of the died -- the day, the

judges have to call it as they see it. This is where the Q star held.

The tribunal's detention unit. -- the accused. One-time bitter

enemies are housed, spending most of their days outside these cells.

Filming restrictions mean that we cannot show the detainees, the

guards or even the common areas. The menu are held here have

typically never been in prison here. -- the men who are held. This is a

shock to them. Also that the hand of international justice have

reached their countries. In these archives, never previously seen,

painstaking details of horrific crimes. Little comprehension of why

they happened. I cannot understand how you are living next door to

somebody, you are married to somebody, and then all of a sudden

they are going to commit genocide upon you. This is the former

Yugoslavia in the 1990s, places guard the consciousness of a

generation. For some survivors, caught repeatedly to give evidence,

the past is also the present. Just like they are stuck in the past.

They know t They know txpected to testify. They expect to be called

in the loca in the loca the witnesses said, I feel that once a

witness, you are always a witness. Everybody reacts differently to

giving evidence. For this woman, the court has been cathartic. I was

telling the truth, she says, so it was not difficult. Even though I

was asked some uncomfortable questions, I was here to tell the

truth. The biggest ongoing trial is it a trial of Brandt Kay it --

Ratko Mladic. He is accused of genocide, extermination, murder,

and much more. He has decided to represent himself. He does have a

legal advisor. He describes a man far removed from common perceptions.

He is very funny, personable, grateful for the work that people

do for him. He is a very nice person to work with. It is unlikely

that Radovan Karadzic is going to be found anything other than guilty.

He may know that in his heart but he is a real optimist so he is

fighting every day to tell his side of the story and he has some hope.

Do you think that he will ever be freed? If he is ever freed it will

be a political decision. Guilty or innocent, it usually creates huge

controversy. All sides say that the court is simply unfair. It is also

criticised for the length of time it takes to reach a verdict. Trials

last many years and cost many millions of pounds. But the people

who work in here are adamant that the processes are effective,

efficient, and equitable, and that international justice would benefit

hugely from the work they had done. It would be easy to rush preceding

cent cut corners. -- to rush proceedings or cut. I say that we

can go faster, provided we do not cut corners. Our credibility rests

on fairness. Why do you think the tribunal has such a questionable

reputation? As long as we are criticised by everybody, we must be

doing something right. If people did not regard this institution as

buyers free, I would not start it - - stay in this one day. -- free of

bias. There is another four years for the court to run. Then the

first war crimes tribunal since the Second World War will be over. In

many ways, the court is about the past. Prosecuting people who are

responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. They want their

legacy that be that people of whatever rank, from whatever

country, cannot engage in similar crimes in the future, and possibly

hope to get away with it. In another exclusive for the BBC,

conservationists have revealed their new investigation exclusively

to the BBC, which indicates that elephants across Africa are being

slaughtered in their thousands. The ivory trade is being fuelled from

demand from Asia. -- fuelled by demand. This report contains

distressing pictures from the very The elephants for' final moments

are traced in blood. They are blackened under the scorching

Kenyan sun. By the time we came across the rotting carcasses, the

animals had been dead for several days. The poachers had gunned them

down with rifles. The Rangers say they have not seen this level of

mass slaughter since the 1980s. Nine elephants are killed in one

day. Indeed, or across Africa, the number of elements -- elephant

being paged is the highest in 20 years. This mass killing is the

direct result of a huge increase in price and the demand for ivory. The

illegal ivory trade is localised business. It is being fuelled by

rising prosperity in East Asia, especially China, where ivory is

highly priced. In Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa or, business

and investment opportunities have invested -- invited Chinese people.

That factor has helped turn the city of Lagos into the largest

retail centre for illegal ivory on the continent. There is I've

removing all the way from East Africa from Kenya into Nigeria.

Nigerians are exporting tusks to China. Ivory tusk he's going in and

out. Ivory is being made. At one of the main markets in Lagos, we went

to see for ourselves. Wearing a hidden camera, a colleague from the

BBC's Chinese service is approached by a number of ivory traders.

kilos. One man offers to supply him with tusks and carved ivory in bulk

to be smuggled back to China. In Kenya, they take their anti-

poaching efforts seriously. Wildlife Rangers are armed. It is a

dangerous job. Nervous elephants can charge the protectors. If their

income to poachers, it is a question of should all be shot.

When we meet a person, they just kill. Despite such drastic measures,

elephants are being killed in record numbers. In Kenya,

conservationists warned that at the present rate, these animals can

disappear from the wild altogether within 15 years. In a country,

continent, where gun is spent four and poverty is widespread, the

rewards of poaching outweigh the Have you heard of the profane? It

is the Venus substance created. It is being hailed as the new wonder

product in manufacturing and industry. Two scientists in

managers -- Manchester University won the Nobel Prize for Physics for

the work in isolating it. The material has not been developed in

the UK. Other countries like China are stealing a march on the Brits.

Our correspondent has more. The glittering prospect of a

strange new substance that could lead to a new industrial revolution.

The tiny black specks on this tape are the extraordinary materials.

Manchester University in Britain has pioneered the material. It has

earned two scientists nibble prizes. It is still early days of discovery

like that of atoms. -- Nobel prizes. We have this new world of materials.

We were not aware of this before. To understand immaterial, you need

to understand the world through new eyes. Not the normal three

dimensions we are used to, height wits and Lancs. Imagine one layer

of atoms with only two dimensions. That is immaterial. It is so minute.

You need a microscope like this one. It is very powerful. Here it is.

One single layer of atoms. The thinnest material ever created.

Sofian, it only has two dimensions. We use that will reality to get a

closer look at this stuff. It has extraordinary properties. If you

stretch it, it is stronger than steel or diamond at the same scale.

It is useful to make all kinds of things more robust. It conducts

electricity more effectively than copper. It is vital for future

electronics. It is flexible. You can bend It Anyway you want. You

can have a computer screen that can for up a paper. No wonder people

are talking about it as a material that can revolution lies the way we

make it. This video shows one view of the kind of gadgets that could

emerge with his material. Paper- thin, flexible, three-dimensional.

It can be used for new batteries or medical devices. That is why there

is a global race to exploit the material. Singapore, with this huge

laboratory, is part of a surge of interest. A scale of worldwide

investment is massive. It is extremely competitive. Asia,

especially Singapore, started early. Many things are going on. It will

take time to find out who will win the race. A key measure of who is

winning the race is revealed by the patterns filed for different

aspects of the material. China has more than 2000. Samsung has more

than 400. Britain, which led he killed nearly ten years ago, has 42.

There is interest from around the world. There is a massive spike in

patterned findings. -- filings. Particularly in the USA, Asia and

Europe. They are almost too small to see. These tiny fragments of the

material at the heart of one of the biggest scientific contest of

recent times with a great deal at The word Kremlin in Russian means

fortress. The large palace complex at the heart of Moscow is one of

the most secretive locations in the world. It is the seat of Russian

power one. It started as a small fort about 1,000 years ago. It

could be got over the centuries. For most of the past 500 years,

Russia's walls have lived there, including Vladimir Putin. -- will

Vladimir Putin, Russia's most powerful man, striding into the

Kremlin's Grand Palace last year, to be sworn in once more as

President of the world's largest country. The Kremlin's history is

the official residence of Russia's leaders, the symbol of the

authorities, as old as the country itself. We have been given every

chance to go behind the scenes into the hidden, ancient parts of a

palace that exuded power for over 500 years.

This, for example, is the Faceted Chamber, a golden reception room

built but Ivan the third in 1490. It was here that his grandson, Ivan

the Terrible entertained foreign ambassadors from abroad, including

England. In the 19th century, it was being used by the Empress full

grand dinners like the Coronation of Alexander II. He biscuit windows

through which the Emperor's wife could watch their festivities.

Today, Vladimir Putin still uses the rims for small designers. He

gold-leaf Channel 4 downstairs for Rims built by the Emperor Michael I,

the founder of the Romanov dynasty. It is a much more intimate place. A

palace within the palace. The ceramic stoves are a state of the

hard central heating system for surviving the brutal winters. Five

storeys high, the 400-year-old palace once told over Moscow.

those people, this building was a skyscraper. The roof was killed for

some period. It was a shining soap, It is a marvellous, splendid palace.

When Boris Yeltsin wanted to impress the Queen on her only visit

to Russia, this was where he brought her. For 200 years, when

the capital was in St Petersburg, the room was practically abandoned.

In the 20th century, the Kremlin became the centre of power in

Russia. Just here, this is where Stalin was. It is a living palace.

There are some parts we cannot show you. At the end of the corridor,