U.S. Captures Suspect In 2012 Benghazi Attacks; Ousted Catalan President Could Seek Asylum In Belgium
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. you're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from L.A. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour:</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, U.S. forces in Libya have captured the suspect in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans. Mustafa al-Imam will be transferred to the U.S. to face charges. He's now the second Benghazi suspect in U.S. custody. The suspected mastermind is currently on trial on Washington.</s>VAUSE: Well, the man who sparked Spain's biggest political crisis in decades could be seeking political asylum in Belgium. Spanish authorities planned to prosecute the ousted Catalan President on charges of rebellion and sedition. But Carles Puigdemont has reportedly traveled to Belgium where he has a lawyer and could start a separatist government in exile.</s>SESAY: Well, if convicted, Puigdemont and 19 other Catalan politicians could face up to 30 years in prison over their declaration of Catalan independence from Spain. Meanwhile, the pseudo government is now directly ruling Catalonia and has called for regional elections in December.</s>VAUSE: European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas joins us now. He's chair of the department of French and Francophone studies at The University of California here in Los Angeles. Dominic, good to see you.</s>DOMINIC THOMAS, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH & FRANCOPHONE STUDIES, UCLA, CALIFORNIA: Nice being here.</s>VAUSE: OK. So, there is no mass civil unrest. The police chief went quietly into the night, replaced by one handpicked by the -- by the government in Madrid. For most Catalans, it seems it's business as usual. And the leader of the independence movement, well, he's on the run, it seems, in Brussels quite possibly, maybe seeking asylum. Could this process of imposing direct rule gone any smoother for Madrid?</s>THOMAS: Well, it went smooth, I would say, so far --</s>THOMAS: -- if I still believe that some unrest could be coming, I very much hope that it does not. I think people were exhausted and relieved in a way that some kind of break had happened in this, even though, of course, for the separatists, it was not what they had expected. So, the transition thus far has been relatively peaceful. Of course, the great development is the fact that it seems that their leader has left the country and gone to Belgium. This is what the news anyway is telling us thus far. And that is an indication as how to serious the separatists see the Spanish government's commitment to ending this process, forcing these elections and taking over the region, including imposing these very serious criminal charges on the -- on the leaders.</s>VAUSE: How did they get this so wrong, the Catalan leaders?</s>THOMAS: I'm not sure it's just the Catalan leaders that got it so wrong. And I think the Spanish government also got it wrong by letting it escalate to this particular level and not getting into talks. One could argue that Carles Puigdemont is still playing chess because what he's done now by going to Belgium, of all places, which is a country where the coalition government has the NVA, the Flanders separatists group, essentially, as part of that government, that has been really his only outspoken friend thus far in Europe, has the potential to continue the narrative and to broaden it to something larger than just Catalan by enlisting other separatist leaders.</s>VAUSE: Meanwhile, back in, you know, Catalonia, the politicians there, as you say, they all seem to be on board with Madrid's demand for snap elections in December. And that does bring some uncertainty to the equation.</s>THOMAS: Right.</s>VAUSE: And essentially when Catalan -- Catalonians go to vote, the underlying reasons that sparked the crisis in the first place, well, they still will not be resolved.</s>THOMAS: They won't be, no. But I think many people then on both sides have learned a lot through this particular process. Many people in Catalon that, of course, did not vote on the referendum, because they saw no reason to, it wasn't a legal -- a constitutional referendum -- have learned that exiting means exiting the European Union, and they've seen the consequences on local businesses and the potential risks to the area, economically, and so will be eager to go the polls but I think that the separatists will be concerned as to the extent to which what they believe were previously democratic elections held back in '14 and '15, that this particular process will not be as transparent or that there's a possibility that some of these separatists will not even be able to participate in these elections if they continue to be pursued for legal matters by Madrid.</s>VAUSE: Very quickly, there's an opinion out there, the only way to resolve this is with a legal referendum backed by Madrid. Is that true and is that ever going to happen?</s>THOMAS: Well, it might be one step better than having regional elections to the extent that they would feel the regional elections were sort of rigged. But that would be so incredibly hypocritical because this crisis escalated precisely because Madrid dug its heels in and said, under no circumstances -- and the king backed them up, and the European Union, that's not the way Rajoy wants to go.</s>VAUSE: OK, Dominic, always good to have you. Thank you.</s>SESAY: A quick break here and then, more than half a million Rohingya refugees escaping violence in Myanmar, only to face more horror across the border. How aid workers are trying to help and one victim's heartbreaking story.