SHANE SMITH: This week on "Vice"...
[Explosion]
We meet Al Qaeda's new enemy in Northern Syria.
_
[Gunfire]
SMITH: Then, Asia's devastating demand for rhino horn.
We're sitting on a powder keg here.
_
Move that camera, eh?
[Yells command in native language]
[Crowd cheering]
[Chanting in foreign language]
[Man speaking native language]
So that was where the... Al Qaeda?
His brain? That's his brain?
[Gunfire]
We brought these hidden camera glasses.
We're about to go try to buy some rhino horn.
The story of the ongoing war in Syria
has been dominating the global news media
for the past few years.
[Gunfire]
As has been widely reported,
the Assad regime has been attempting
to put down not only the Western-backed Free Syrian Army,
but also, increasingly, militias of hardcore Islamic jihadists
that have been trying to gain control of the region.
What hasn't been so widely reported
in the midst of all this chaos, though,
is that the Kurds, an ethnic group
that dominates the northeastern part of Syria,
have recently declared complete autonomy
and have started to defend their newly proclaimed territory
from both the Assad regime and the Islamic militants.
So, we sent Thomas Morton to meet with the Kurdish militia,
known as the People's Protection Units, or the YPG,
to see what's happening on the front lines
of the other civil war that is raging in northern Syria.
Hi. It's Thomas. I'm in
the Kurdish part of Syria
with the fighters of the YPG,
who are doing their best
to make this Kurdish land
a Kurdish country.
♪
_
MORTON: The Kurds are an ethnic group from the Middle East
who set themselves apart from the Arab majority
by being into progressive politics, women's rights,
and trying to turn their own country, Kurdistan,
into a secular, pro-Western democracy.
Unfortunately, the Kurds don't have their own country...
at least not yet, because if they did,
it would be right here.
The Western part of the Kurdish homeland is in Syria...
where 3 years of civil war left over 100,000 dead
and 7 million displaced from their homes.
[Chanting in native language]
MORTON: What started as a populist uprising
by the Free Syrian Army against the oppressive Assad regime
has devolved into an increasingly messy
and complex fight,
drawing in new factions from across Syria
and the entire Middle East.
While the rest of the country falls apart,
Syria's Kurds have taken control of their part
and made it into an island of
relative stability and independence.
Now all that stands in the way of achieving
their dream of a Kurdish homeland...
[Gunfire]
is the remnants of the Assad regime...
[Shouting in native language]
MORTON: and a whole new wave of militant jihadi fighters
pressing down on their borders.
There are 30 million Kurds alive today,
making them the biggest stateless group in the world.
David Phillips is director of Columbia's
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
and an expert on the Kurdish people.
The Kurds' national aspirations have been denied.
There is no state called Kurdistan.
MORTON: During the First Gulf War in the nineties,
the Kurds were able to carve out
a space for themselves from Saddam's Iraq,
which they turned into a self-governing,
functionally independent Kurdish mini-state.
PHILLIPS: The Kurds of Iraq aspire to having
a democratic federal republic of Iraq
with autonomy in the Kurdish areas
and they've pretty much been able to achieve that goal.
Iraqi Kurdistan is a world unto itself.
MORTON: Now with similar conditions in the rest of Syria,
Syria's Kurds are again making use of the tumult
to shore up control of their part of the country
and maybe make it its own country in the process.
PHILLIPS: As Syria becomes unmanageable,
we're gonna see statelets emerging
that are run by local militias,
and one of those will be in the Kurdish regions of Syria.
The Kurds of Syria want to have the same kind of self-rule
as the Iraqi Kurds have in Iraq.
We're just waiting on some soldiers to, uh,
usher us across this mighty river
and then we will be in war-torn Syria.
♪
Here we are. So, our welcoming party,
which appears to be 3 guys, a boy, and a tractor,
um, also includes a YPG van.
These guys are the guys fighting, um,
all the crazy jihadists and extremists who've come
in in the vacuum created by the fight between, uh,
the regime and its opposition.
♪
So, this is the front.
You can barely see it but there's another village
right on the horizon and that's controlled by Al-Nusra.
It's an Islamist faction similar to Al Qaeda.
♪
MORTON: Come quickly?
Ah, snipers.
Pretty open area.
That's where they are? OK.
OK.
MORTON: This village is not in good shape.
_
MORTON: How can you tell? Oh, because of that.
So, the Al-Nusra fighters who come over
all wear black, as opposed to, like, military fatigues.
- These are, like, street clothes. - _
With creepy burglar masks over them.
- _ - Mm-hmm. Yeah.
_
MORTON: What's your goal with this little operation?
Are you guys just here to kind of hold this hill
and hold this town or do you plan to
try to take more and more space away from them?
_
MORTON: Do you think you'll ever have a Kurdish state?
_
So while these guys are doing, you know,
kind of the, the glory work
in building Kurdistan, there's a lot more than
killing Arabs that goes into making a country.
You need an economy, you need government,
you need infrastructure, you need schools
and post offices, and stuff like that.
We're going to go back into town
and see what, uh, the, uh,
political organization that supports the YPG
is doing to meet those needs.
MORTON: Turns out a lot!
Since the fighting drew the Assad regime's attention
away from subjugating the Kurds,
they've established their own DMV for Kurdish licenses,
taken over Assad-era prisons
and filled them with regular, non-political prisoners,
are pumping and refining their own fuel...
all the fixings of a full-blown modern country.
They've also set up their own internal police force,
including armed female officers.
That's right... female.
♪
The Kurds' stance on women goes way past, like,
letting them drive and letting them vote.
They're, you know, very big on gender equality
to the point that they have females
fighting alongside men in their army and, um, this is, you know,
a very far cry from the rest of the region.
We're at a YPJ base right now,
which is the women's auxiliary of the YPG,
who are the guys we've been seeing out fighting.
- _ - _
_
[Gunfire]
How different was life like as a woman,
back during the regime
than it is now that the YPG controls everything?
_
What did it feel like the first time you held a gun?
_
Kurds are actually known throughout the region
for, um, their female fighters.
Uh, one question I've always had, though,
is how many of these women actually go to the front lines
and see active combat.
We're going to head to the battlefield...
a place called Ras al-Ayn...
where the Kurds are fighting off with Al Qaeda.
I guess we'll look for some women there.
[Voice speaking native language on radio]
MORTON: We just clear the last checkpoint.
We're now with soldiers going back to the front line.
This is the last stop before Arab-controlled Syria.
♪
[Rooster crowing]
MORTON: Girls. So, they do actually fight.
This is amazing. These are actual fighters.
_
How long have you been fighting here?
_
MORTON: This is the hardest fighting you've done?
_
MORTON: I think the common expectation is that
any girl igoing to be a soldier,
she's going to try to, like, butch up
and make herself as masculine as possible,
but these girls are very, you know, feminine.
They are women who are soldiers, too.
They don't give that up.
And maybe I'm a sexist asshole
for not thinking about that in the first place.
- [Explosion] - Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,
fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
MORTON: That scared the shit out of me.
The Kurds' gusto for women's rights
doesn't just put them at odds with the rest of the Arab world.
Giving women an equal role in their society
put them on Al Qaeda's radar,
and is one of the major reasons jihadists have begun
focusing their attacks on the Kurds.
PHILLIPS: What's happened recently is that
jihadi groups including the Al-Nusra front
have emerged in the battlefield.
Increasingly, the Kurds of Syria have been targeted.
[Man speaking native language]
PHILLIPS: Al-Nusra issued a fatwa saying that
it was permissible to kill Kurdish women and children.
The fatwa was issued in large part
because of the pro-Western orientation
of the Kurds of Syria.
We saw overnight 20,000 Syrian Kurds
crossing the river into Iraqi Kurdistan
because they know that this is a real menace.
_
MORTON: Now I think we are being taken to see
the body of an Al Qaeda fighter.
And the smell, even from here, is intense.
Oh, it's buried?
MAN: They killed him over there?
Against the wall?
I see. Right here?
Oh, yeah.
Oh. Oh, wow.
That smells really bad. Um...
So, that was where the... Al Qaeda?
His brain? That's his brain? OK.
_
Figure out what they're saying because I think
something might be, uh, might be an issue.
MAN: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
MORTON: Whoa, what? What?
_
- Really? What? - MAN: OK, let's go.
Are you serious? Fuck.
Dude. That's exactly what that sound was, wasn't it?
Somehow a bullet makes it all the way
through the village from the other side
and whizzes past our heads.
I'm about ready to get out of here now.
MORTON: Despite the horrors of war,
and having to hold their border
against constant attack by Al Qaeda,
the Kurds of Syria are actually doing
pretty all right for themselves.
PHILLIPS: If Syria falls apart, then there's the chance
that you're going to see Iraqi Kurdistan
and the Kurds of Syria
joining in some kind of confederation,
maybe even a territorial unit.
MORTON: While the rest of Syria becomes
less and less of a real country every day,
they've turned their non-country
into the realest country in the area:
their own private Kurdistan.
♪
The world is dealing with an unprecedented spike
in illegal wildlife trade,
which is estimated to be worth as much as $10 billion globally.
Organized crime syndicates control the trade
and use networks originally developed for drug smuggling
to transport animal parts around the globe.
Some of the most popular illegal items
are tiger and leopard pelts,
sea turtle shells, and, of course, elephant ivory.
But those are nothing compared to the most desired
black market product of all, which is rhino horn.
Because of rising demand from Asia,
it has become one of the most valuable
illegal commodities on Earth.
Pound for pound, it's now worth more than
such black market staples as gold and cocaine.
As a result, since 2007,
there's been an over 7,000% increase in rhino killings
in South Africa alone.
Simply put, the rhino is disappearing.
So, we sent Vikram Gandhi to Africa
to investigate the perilous state
of rhinos in our modern age.
♪
GANDHI: Zimbabwe is the front line of the conflict
raging over Africa's rhino.
The wildlife here is under constant threat from poachers.
On our second day here, we were woken up at 5:30 in the morning
by the sound of a gunshot.
MANDER: So, the guys have just heard a second gunshot.
We're on our way over to the other camp.
GANDHI: Do you think there are poachers over there?
Mate, I can't be sure. One thing we do know
is it's a heavy caliber rifle.
We got rhino and elephant in the area
and we need to get over there, mate,
and check out what's going on.
MANDER: Charlie one, Charlie one, this is Delta Mike.
Confirmed we have two sets of tracks
moving north along the southern perimeter.
♪
I want to know what that fuckin' cartridge was used for, OK?
If there's any blood, if there's a dead animal.
We've just located a 30-06 Winchester cartridge. It's been spent.
GANDHI: What can that shoot down?
That can take down an elephant if it's put in the right place.
A rhino, buffalo, lion, whatever they want.
♪
MANDER: Sweep the whole area.
We couldn't find any poachers, so,
I'm pretty sure they fired the shots, didn't succeed.
If they had succeeded, we would have seen
vultures in the air by now circling a carcass.
♪
It's really frustrating. You know,
this sort of stuff demonstrates that
conservation isn't a scientific experiment, it's a war.
[Rhino growling]
GANDHI: Damien Mander is an Iraq War vet
who's come to Africa to fight poaching.
MAN: Back.
GANDHI: What kind of rhinos are these?
These are black rhino and they're listed as critically endangered.
We're down to 4,800 black rhino
and there's about 20,000 white rhinoceros, uh, left.
And how many are... in this part of Zimbabwe are left?
We've got 7 black rhino left on this reserve.
The nearest reserve to us just down the road,
their black rhino population has gone from
76 down to 6 in a short space of time.
Uh, so we're sitting on a powder keg here.
GANDHI: The threat to the rhino has increased
as the price of horn has gone up.
MANDER: The street value of rhino horn has been quoted as
up to $75,000 U.S. a kilogram.
Now, it's not uncommon to be able to take up to
10 kilos from one animal.
Poachers who are actually going out there
and killing the rhino
are being paid up to $5,000 a kilogram.
Cash, straight in their hand
for getting the job done.
GANDHI: We spoke to Crawford Allan, director of Traffic,
the wildlife trade monitoring network,
about the recent escalation.
ALLAN: There's poachers coming and using veterinary guns,
which are silent dart guns, to tranquilize the rhinos,
hack off the horn from their face,
and fly out again under cover of darkness and not be detected.
GANDHI: The rhino are often left mutilated but alive,
although they rarely survive long.
When you see that in 2007,
there were 13 rhinos poached in that year in southern Africa
and this year alone, there's over 800 rhinos poached,
it's a very sad trajectory that just shows
this incremental surge of poaching going on.
GANDHI: The reason why there's been more killings
is because the price is rising sharply.
Why is it rising?
Because of the massive increase in demand from Asia.
We followed the trail of rhino horn here, to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Apparently, this is where the most buyers and users
of rhino horn are.
What they're using it for, exactly, is unclear.
So, we're here to find out.
♪
I'm about to go meet a local journalist named Hoang,
who is kind of the expert in this town
on the rhino horn trade.
He writes articles almost every week
and he's gonna give us the scoop on what's going on in Hanoi.
Tell me about the stories you've covered
when it comes to rhino horn.
_
Can you tell me about what you've seen
as a phenomenon of rhino horn use here?
_
Thank you for meeting with me.
GANDHI: Even though rhino horn is indeed just made of keratin,
the same substance as fingernails,
many people like Nguyen Van Nhuong
are looking to the horn to cure their ailments.
What kind of cancer do you have?
_
Do you believe that rhino horn
can actually cure cancer?
_
GANDHI: We're around the corner from traditional medicine street.
We're about to go try to buy some rhino horn.
We know they sell it here
but we also know they're not going to talk to us on camera
because it's illegal.
So, we brought these hidden camera glasses
and we're going to see if we can buy some.
GANDHI: You have medicine here?
Yeah.
Do you sell rhino horn?
_
No?
_
GANDHI: No?
_
GANDHI: Do you sell this?
They have a sign. You don't sell?
No, you don't. Oh, no. OK.
GANDHI: I only had to ask a few people before I got a lead.
GANDHI: Rhino horn.
- _ - Sen te za, yeah.
GANDHI: Even as a foreigner, it didn't take long
for someone to point us in the direction
of black market rhino horn.
We've rigged the hotel room up
so that there are cameras in different corners.
And we've invited a rhino horn dealer
who's going to come meet us here and sell us some rhino.
[Doorbell rings]
The dealer who arrived is part of a major
Vietnamese crime syndicate,
so, we blurred his face for the safety
of our local production team.
Thank you for coming.
_
- What's happening? - GANDHI: It becomes clear
the dealer doesn't have the horn with him.
But once he confirms we're not the police,
he calls his man to bring the rhino horn.
GANDHI: This is a picture of it? How much is that?
_
[Doorbell rings]
GANDHI: Hello.
GANDHI: The dealer pulls two rhino horns from his bag.
GANDHI: And so, how much is this?
- _ - $11,500. OK.
Which one do you think is better?
_
GANDHI: This is real rhino, not fake rhino, right?
_
All right, good. Thank you.
GANDHI: I told the dealer I'd call him
once I got the $11,500 in cash together.
But how is it that this horn can command this kind of money?
_
GANDHI: Hoang introduced us to his friend Nguyen Haoi,
who's an entrepreneur with a cable TV business.
He agreed to talk to us about
his reasons for using rhino horn.
_
Do you remember when you saw him first using it?
_
When did you get your piece of rhino horn?
_
Can I see the piece?
How much do you think this costs now?
_
You can afford it because you're well-off
but many people can't afford it, right?
_
GANDHI: The consumption of rhino horn goes hand-in-hand
with the economic miracle in Vietnam.
ALLAN: It's become a situation now where it isn't
just about it being a health tonic or a cancer cure.
This has become a status symbol
and it's become something that people aspire to,
like maybe people would aspire to buying
a particular brand of really expensive watch
or a particular brand of champagne.
GANDHI: The more prosperity there is here in Asia,
the higher the price of rhino horn
and the greater the threat of the extinction
of the rhino in Africa.
But there is a man in South Africa
that claims to have the solution.
John Hume is the largest private owner of rhino in the world.
There is nothing wrong with cutting off a rhino's horn.
They have very little discomfort.
GANDHI: If rhino horn is removed correctly,
it doesn't harm the animal and will grow back in two years.
Hume would like to be able to sell the horn legally.
If we were allowed to sell the rhino horn
that we take off a live rhino
and leave it alive,
you'll never have another
dead rhino in Africa.
GANDHI: They put the antidote in
to wake him up out of his sleep.
GANDHI: Is your opinion that by
keeping the rhino horn illegal,
the chances of the rhino going extinct is heightened?
It's not heightened.
I think it's guaranteed that it'll go extinct.
GANDHI: What John Hume is suggesting is that
the rhino's only way to survive in our modern world
is to become a commodified farm animal.
But not everyone agrees.
ALLAN: The risk is that if you build a legal market,
those consumers who normally wouldn't want to break the law
will now go for it and it will bubble and the risks for rhinos
are probably too great a risk to take.
If we do get it really wrong,
the consequences are unthinkable.
I mean, you're talking about extinction
of an incredible species.
[Rhinos breathing heavily]
♪
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