28/09/2014 Reporters

ceremony in the Italian city of Venice. That's it for me. Now on BBC

News, Reporters. Welcome to Reporters. I'm Philippa

Thomas. From here in the world's newsroom we send out correspondents

to bring you the best stories from around the globe. And Iraq's

forgotten people. We meet the children who have suffered

first`hand the brutality of the Islamic State. Everyday or two men

would come in and make us take off our headscarf, so they could take

whoever they wanted. Many were raped. They were dragged out of the

house by their hair. This rebel camp is in one of the most remote parts

of the country. You have to walk the final part. The rebel armies of

Myanmar. Jonah Fisher meets one group reluctant to sign a peace

deal. Will America's gun laws ever hit their targets? We visit

Colorado, the scene of one of the worst mass shootings in the US, to

find little has changed. How London's buses went to war. We

retraced the roots of these buses in Belgium. In the battlefields of

Kabul to the playing fields of reason as the Lions of Afghanistan

face the Lions of England. Then Walker joins the Afghan football

team on tour. It is a big dream, a big achievement for us. They fled

their homes from the butchery of Islamic State in their thousands.

But Iraq's minority Yazidi community are still facing the horrors of the

group's network of terror. As the West wages it airstrikes against the

group, there is evidence it is now using rape as a weapon of war. The

BBC has been told that Islamic State has captured more than 3000 Yazidi

children and is trafficking them for sex. We meet some of the women who

escaped. Suffering and alone, tens of thousands from Iraq's Yazidi

minority are homeless. They know the full horrors of Islamic State, after

fighters forced them off their land last month. But the worst fate was

for those who fell into IS hands. This man and his sons tried to

defend their village against the heavily armed militants. They bought

valuable time for others to escape. But they couldn't help his married

daughter. She was held captive with other women and girls, and she is

haunted by what she went through. TRANSLATION: Every day or two men

would come in and make us take off our headscarves so they could choose

which one of us they wanted. Many were raped. They were dragged out of

the house by their hair. We don't know what became of them. She is one

of the very few who managed to escape. When Yazidi people fled in

early August, they were stranded on the barren slopes of Mount Sinjar.

When help finally arrived, they were desperate. And now the Yazidi are

asking for support to bring back their missing loved ones. Families

have drawn up lists of those they're searching for. Human rights

activists know of over 5,000 men, women and children who were taken.

This young woman was tortured and starved. She got away during

airstrikes targeting IS, and walked for three days to find safety.

TRANSLATION: They sell girls as young as nine. Some men bought many

at once. Two of my friends hanged themselves from the ceiling fans,

and one slit her wrists rather than be sold for sex. And that is too

much for her aunt to bear. Her other two daughters are still missing.

TRANSLATION: They took all our girls. It's all we care about. The

world must help us. Islamic State fighters are trading in people.

Young girls are treated as spoils of war, and scattered across the

region. Families here worry that if they're not found soon, they may

never see them again. Yolande Knell, BBC News, Northern Iraq. From the

horrors of Iraq's civil war to hopes of peace in Myanmar. After 65 years

of civil war and ethnic conflict, a nationwide ceasefire agreement is

closer than it has ever been. The result of three years of

negotiations between the government and 16 different armed groups. But

not everyone is keen to sign up. Jonah Fisher has been to the

mountains of northern Myanmar to meet one of the groups most

reluctant to accept that peace deal. To avoid the Burmese army, this

rebel camp is in one of the most remote parts of the jungle here, in

the northern part of Shan state. In order to get there, you have to

travel on the back of motorbikes along awful dirt tracks like this

one, and then walk the final part into the camp. This is entrance to

the training camp of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, or the

TNLA. Like all of Myanmar's minority ethnic groups, the Ta'angs have long

wanted control of their own affairs. Under a military dictatorship, that

is a nonstarter. So for as long as anyone can remember, there have been

Burmese rebel uprisings. Many of the fighters, like Miy Naw Tamai,

decided to join up after tasting army brutality first`hand.

TRANSLATION: The TNLA came to our village to carry out drug

eradication. And then the Bouwmeester army arrived and they

fought. `` Burmese army. The villagers ran away, and the Burmese

soldiers broke into our houses and took everything they could ` even

small amounts of money. The rebels are no Saints themselves. They admit

forcibly recruiting local villagers, and we see new fighters being

trained who are clearly children, not men. Over time, most of

Myanmar's ethnic conflicts have ground to a halt. But there are

still regular clashes with the army near here. I am told that in July,

four Ta'angs were killed, and 28 soldiers. TRANSLATION: When the old

Ta'ang rebel group made a ceasefire agreement in 1991, nothing was

formalised about what would happen next. So things dragged on until the

Burmese army disbanded them in 2005. We formed the TNLA because we'd

learnt that each ethnic group needed its own army. Ten, 11, 12. So this

is 13 bags of opium. This table is covered with drugs the rebels have

confiscated in the last few months. The region is awash with opium and

methamphetamine. And the Ta'angs blame both the Burmese army and the

militia. The Burmese government says the signing of a national ceasefire

will lead on to talks heard it all before. They, and

Myanmar's other ethnic armed groups, still have to be convinced that the

times really are a`changin'. Malta's Prime Minister has called it

an act of mass murder. Hundreds of asylum seekers were killed last week

after the vote sank off the Maltese coast. Now two Palestinian survivors

have told the BBC that they saw people smugglers deliberately rammed

the boats then attack those who clung to the sides of the vessels.

Peter Hunt has been to see some of the survivors and heard their

stories. This is detention centre, not a dream destination. It is where

those rescued off the sea of Malta can end up. And despite the trauma

of an uncertain future they are fortunate. Thousands have died in

unset and overcrowded vessels. The BBC it was allowed to meet three

survivors of what has been called mass murder. A crime the UN says

cannot go unpunished. Earlier this month, these men paid smugglers,

left Gaza, boarded a boat in Egypt and in the Mediterranean were

ordered to switch into a smaller boat. When the captain refused to

stop, the smugglers rammed their boat. Around 150 people below deck

drowned straightaway. TRANSLATION: When someone tried to cling to the

boat, they hacked at his hands with a knife. They also, these men say,

laughed as the boat went down. This grim account of lives lost at sea

has been backed up of a handful of other survivors in Greece and Italy.

What they say happened has been judged to be credible by the UN and

by the Maltese government. Day in, day out, the end, you out, the

Maltese military is having to rescue migrants from the inhospitable sea.

The government and Malta want a Europewide response to people

smuggling following this tragedy. That is something you

wouldn't even imagine, let alone in real life. It is happening. It is

happening each and every week. This is murder at sea. It is. Definitely.

Of the worst kind. Those fleeing unrest and seeking a different life

in Europe come from North Africa and the Middle East. Their numbers are

rising and experts in the field say it is a toxic issue for politicians

to resolve. Ultimately asylum seekers and other force migrants

aren't citizens. They don't get a vote. So there is a lot of

resistance within EU states to address this horror. Back at the

detention centre where their freedom is on hold, those who cheated death

at the hands of smugglers live with the horror of what they witnessed

while hoping for something better. I want to live. I want to live my

life. I want to go to Sweden. I have some of my family there. I want to

go and study, work, help my family, in Gaza. We have no home their. ``

there. Just, I want to live. Idyllic for holidaymakers, the Mediterranean

Sea is proving treacherous for those seeking century. There are more

migrants, more deaths, and no easy solutions on the horizon.

A study by the FBI released this week confirmed that the number of

people killed in mass shootings in the US has risen dramatically in

recent years. The study came in the wake of the sandy hooks shooting in

Connecticut. This prompted President Obama to call for tougher gun

controls. `` Sandy Hook. There has now been a ban on some weapons in

Colorado but the law isn't being enforced by police and most voters

don't care about the issue. This would be my GOTO gun if things

got really bad. If we think that reducing the number of rounds in a

magazine will change anything, we are fooling ourselves. He was

watching the movie one second, the next second he was dead. It was all

over in 72 seconds. It makes a difference.

People corrupted them, `` grew up with them, those are good stories. I

don't have a good story. My son didn't come out of the movie theatre

because of the availability of the weapons out there. The changes came

last year. Colorado politicians passed a law banning the future sale

of ammunition magazines of more than 15 rounds. I just grew up this way.

I can have horses, I can shoot, I can let the dogs run out in the

backyard. It gives me the freedom I like. As a law`abiding citizen, I

should have as many rounds as it takes. This is what sits next to my

bed at night for self`defence. It does not seem like anyone is going

to come over these hills for you to have to use this gun. Probably not.

But if somebody did come out here to do me harm, I'm 30 minutes away from

police response. Criminals end up with weapons and so I think a member

of the public should at least have the same ability to protect

themselves. The county sheriff of Colorado tried and failed to

overturn the law in court. They argue that the law is impossible to

enforce because so many magazines are already in circulation. Worse,

they can also be purchased legally in neighbouring states. My deputies

can pull over an individual in a car with a box of 100 of those magazines

in the back seat but there's no way to prove that they had them before

the 1st of July 2013 or if they bought them afterwards. The reality

is that we have other things that we have to do rather than chasing after

law`abiding gun owners. In the aftermath of Aurora, gun control

campaigners hoped Colorado would lead the way. It is now clear that

the state's enduring love affair with guns is set to go on.

Many people would recognise the Web double`decker bus as a symbol of

London. `` red. What's less well`known is were used as carriers

in the First World War. Only a handful survived but one of them is

back on the road in Belgium. Robert Holt jumped onboard the bus

to retrace its journey. `` Hall. Under the arch of Ypres' Menin Gate,

the evening remembrance ceremony draws to a close. On the pavements,

heads turn to watch a visitor from the wartime years. Rumbling over the

cobbles for the first time in a century. The B`type bus was a

regular sight on London streets. In 1914, it was recruited for the war

effort. More than 1,000 were sent to France. This is one of only four

which survived. About 1,000 buses and each bus could carry about 25

soldiers, compared to 34 London passengers. So, 25 soldiers in each

bus being ferried in, to and from locations, day in, day out.

Obviously quite a sizeable number of troops. This bus, like those before

it, has been transformed. Windows boarded up, gloss paint and brass,

smothered in regulation khaki. Going to war was a hazardous business for

the buses, which struggled on narrow, muddy lanes, and for

volunteer drivers, who found themselves under fire. This is the

voice of the late George Gwynn. We'd like, through that personal

story of London busmen volunteering, bringing their buses to the front,

to open up a fresh insight into the nature of the First World War.

Eventually, this war veteran will regain its civilian splendour. But,

for now, its sight and its sound provide a new way for locals and

visitors to reconnect with the past. It's a sign of Afghanistan's return

to normality after decades of war but football fever has gripped the

nation. The country now has its own Premier League, which kicked off

this year. And the Lions of Afghanistan got a chance to meet

with the English national side last week.

The Afghans and military guys are enthusiastic and they love the game

as much as we do. We thought we can make it and be

built to our best for Afghanistan. `` we will do our best. Now, 4500

miles west, the English and Afghan FAs are reunited at St George is

part. It's great to keep the promises and invite the Afghan FA.

They look a little bit starstruck, in such a great venue, so it's great

to welcome them into our own backyard. It's lovely to see. It

seems such a long time ago we met in Afghanistan. How have things

changed? Now, in every corner of Afghanistan, even in places where

the security is very bad, kids are playing football. I know you are a

big Manchester fan. I imagine Rooney is one of your favourites? It's a

dream come true, for such a small country. It is a big dream and a big

achievement for us. Especially Rooney.

It's not easy to form an essay and former real structure in football

and certainly even harder in a place like Afghanistan. `` form a FA. All

of what we have seen so far, we learnt a lot and we can take a lot

of ideas, which encourages us to do more for the development of football

in Afghanistan. It's a long road that they are `` that they will be

on but they have the appetite and enthusiasm. What is the one thing

you will remember and tell your friends and family about when you go

back to Afghanistan? Everything is a dream come true. We will never

forget the first day we met the Prime Minister, we went to Wembley

and today we are here. Everything is unbelievable. Dan walker with the

Lions of Afghanistan. That's all for this week. Goodbye for now.

Temperatures reached 22 degrees on Saturday afternoon. It will be

warmer than that for Sunday. We could see highs of 24. Before we get

there, through the night, a few mist and fog that is developing across