democracynow.org
Stories:
Democracy Now! reports from the streets of Baltimore, where an overnight curfew has taken effect following Monday’s riots sparked by the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American man who died of neck injuries suffered in police custody. Tuesday night, police in riot gear fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who defied the curfew when it began at 10 p.m. At least 10 people were arrested. But overall, the Baltimore Police Department declared "the city is stable." Thousands of forces, including National Guard troops, have deployed throughout the city streets. Monday’s unrest led to more than 200 arrests, dozens of cars set on fire, and many buildings badly damaged. Democracy Now!'s Aaron Maté and videographer Hany Massoud speak with locals as they take part in both the clean-up effort and the continued protests over Freddie Gray's death.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As we broadcast from the World Forum in The Hague, we begin, though, today’s show in Baltimore, where an overnight curfew has taken effect following Monday’s riots sparked by the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American man who died of neck injuries suffered in police custody. Last night, Maryland police in riot gear fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who defied the curfew when it began at 10:00 p.m. At least 10 people were arrested. But overall, the Baltimore Police Department declared, quote, "the city is stable."
On Tuesday, thousands of forces, including National Guard troops, were deployed throughout Baltimore streets as residents took stock of the damage from Monday’s unrest, which led to more than 200 arrests, dozens of cars set on fire, and many buildings badly damaged. Democracy Now!'s Aaron Maté was in Baltimore to speak with locals as they took part in both the clean-up effort and the continued protests over Freddie Gray's death.
AARON MATÉ: We’re at the corner of Penn and North, just a few blocks from where Freddie Gray was [arrested]. It’s one day after the uprisings left a trail of damage and a few dozen arrests. We’re here on the front line of the protest zone. There’s a large police contingent here. Behind them, some armored trucks and other vehicles. In front of the police, though, there’s another line of residents who are standing guard, and we’re going to talk to some of the people who are here.
Hi, there.
KEVIN: Hey.
AARON MATÉ: Can you tell us your name and what’s going on here?
KEVIN: My name’s Kevin, and we’re just standing here to make sure that we maintain peace.
AARON MATÉ: And how did this get organized?
KEVIN: Just volunteers from the neighborhood just stepped up to the line. I mean, this is our city. I’m not going to sit back and watch my city burn down and not do nothing, even if I just have to stand here and just make sure that, you know, we maintain peace, and no one on this side gets hurt and no one on that side gets hurt, the police and ourself.
AARON MATÉ: What is the mood like here today?
KEVIN: So far, so good. I mean, tensions is rising. It’s been peaceful for the most part of the day, but I don’t know, you know? So we’re going to just try to maintain it ’til the curfew. The curfew starts at 10:00. Hopefully things remain peaceful until then.
KANE MAYFIELD: My name’s Kane Mayfield. The only people who have been getting this story right so far have been the Baltimore City Paper. It’s been mischaracterized pretty much by mainstream sensationalists who come down here to soak up the angel dust of civil unrest and sell it to white America. It’s fun. I get it. You know? Look at them. Black rage. It’s nice. But it’s not, because when all y’all leave and all these cameras turn off and, you know, the stories about garbage bags from people ain’t fun no more, we’re still going to be here with the same problems. The only difference between Freddie and—what was it? Tyrone?
UNIDENTIFIED: Tyrone West.
KANE MAYFIELD: Tyrone West. The only difference is camera footage. They’re like, "Well, why are y’all so mad?" Well, the only time y’all care is when someone get it on camera. That’s why people are mad. These situations happen over and over and over again. And if we don’t have the kind of proof that the mainstream media wants, we’re told to shut up and shut our mouths and go about our business, stop complaining. You know? And then people are tired of that. And if you can’t understand why people are tired of that, it’s un-American. Then you don’t understand why George Washington was tired of that. You don’t understand why no taxation without representation, they were tired of that. People are tired. You get enough people together who are tired, something’s going to happen. You may not like what happens, but something’s going to happen. And I’m not going to apologize to anybody for it. But I will help to make sure my city doesn’t burn down.
UNIDENTIFIED: That’s the part that nobody’s talking. They’re not talking about the rec centers that have been closed down. They’re not talking about the youth programs that are struggling for funding. But you build a couple-million-dollar casino downtown. You build million-dollar hotels downtown. But you shut down the rec centers. You shut down the schools. You shut down summer programs. You know what I’m saying? And then you go, "Oh, look at these animals running wild." Well, they’re angry. What do you expect them to do? We’ve been out here trying to calm them down as much as we can, as mentors and hip-hop artists in the community that have a message. But it’s only so much you can do before the levee breaks.
AARON MATÉ: And now the community has gathered for a spontaneous rally here. It’s a festive scene. There’s a band playing over here. People are milling about in conversation and also, with cleaning supplies, trying to clean up some of the mess that was left after yesterday’s protests.
So right here is the CVS pharmacy at the intersection of Penn and North that was looted yesterday. And it’s still accessible, and people are still actually coming in and out, as we see here. There’s a very strong smell of ash and soot. And you can see here some heavy damage that was sustained. People are now cleaning up.
Hey, could you tell us what’s going on?
VOLUNTEER 1: Right now, we’re try to clean out all this chaos right here and make sure we can at least help our community out by doing something to help, by cleaning this stuff out of here. So...
AARON MATÉ: How did this get organized?
VOLUNTEER 1: I don’t know. I just came out. I saw some things on Facebook. I just wanted to come help the community. So, it was about word of mouth for me. That’s how I came out here.
AARON MATÉ: And so, what have you guys been doing?
VOLUNTEER 1: Just pushing this stuff, cleaning out the shelves, pushing it forward, so maybe we can get a dumpster and maybe a bulk trash to come, and we can get all this stuff out of here later. Like shovel and manpower. We need some more manpower, if you’re watching, to help out, to come down here.
AARON MATÉ: This store was torched on Monday, and now we’re here looking at the aftermath. There’s debris and soot and sludge all over the floor, a very strong, overpowering smell of ash and smoke, remnants from the fire. And local residents are here now trying to clean up the mess. And we’re going to talk to them and hear why they’ve come down.
When you did you get down here?
VOLUNTEER 2: I’ve been down here since 1:00. One, yeah.
AARON MATÉ: And what have you been doing?
VOLUNTEER 2: Just helping cleaning, organizing, putting trash bags where they need to be at. And it’s just a sad day right now. It’s unbelievable.
AARON MATÉ: How do you feel about what happened yesterday?
VOLUNTEER 2: There’s no words for that. There’s no words for that. It was sad. You’re destroying our community.You know, people don’t have a pharmacy now. They probably got to go somewhere else to get, you know, their prescription. Who knows how far that might be, far away that might be? But, well, what can you do?
AARON MATÉ: Are you encouraged to see people coming out to help clean up?
VOLUNTEER 2: Yes, I am. Please do.
VOLUNTEER 3: And we just want to help clean up, get our community back in order. And basically, hopefully, everything will work out for us.
AARON MATÉ: So tell us about your day and how things are organized here. Is there someone leading this effort?
VOLUNTEER 3: I just walked in. I was like, "Hey, do you guys have any extra gloves?" They’re like, "Yeah, grab a pair." And honestly, people are just coming in and out, helping out. There’s really no organization. It’s just really just a bunch of people that care.
AARON MATÉ: What do you want to see happen in the coming days?
VOLUNTEER 3: Well, I do want to see a conviction, and I do want to see, well, obviously, less violence, because I don’t want to see Baltimore go up in flames. Like, that’s one think I don’t like. I’ve been—I lived in Maryland like all my life. I’m 21 years. I love this city. I love this whole state. And it’s just a—it’s just a shame seeing a place that you knew so much as a kid on national TV, and you’re explaining to your friends who live like out of state, "Yeah, I’m sorry, guys, like that’s just how it is now. Like, times are tough. People are getting killed." It’s just really hard out here, man. And, like, people don’t really understand it. But it’s just—it’s just tough.
MIRIAM: Hello.
AARON MATÉ: Hi.
MIRIAM: My name’s Miriam.
AARON MATÉ: Hi, Miriam. So talk to us about what you’re doing here.
MIRIAM: Well, we just came down here to clean up the CVS, to just clean up the area, after what has happened, just to help with the efforts of everything. If we’re going to take back our community, the first thing that we have to do, I feel, is clean the community. And we just want peace in our community. I mean, we need some civil unrest to get it. Sometimes that happens. But in the end, after all that, the hope is that we just have some justice.
I think the anger is very much justified. I mean, people are going to be angry. Like I’ve heard many times before and I’ve read, a riot is just the voice of the unheard. So you can’t tell people how to feel. They’re going to feel angry. And as a result of being unheard and being frustrated, things happen. And this is the result of one thing happening. Yes, property is damaged, but that’s—I feel like you can replace property. You can’t replace a life.
AARON MATÉ: Here with a volunteer who doesn’t want to be on camera, doesn’t want to give her name, but does want to share her thoughts on what’s happening.
VOLUNTEER 4: I do. I’m here with my friends. I’m not cleaning. I don’t want to help to clean up, because I’m the mother of a 12-year-old young black male, and that could have easily been my son that was murdered by the police. So I’m not cleaning up. You got the media’s attention by burning things down in the city, and, unfortunately, for every action, there’s a reaction. And here’s the reaction, and this is what you have to deal with. So, if and when it happens again, then this may happen again. And that’s what it is.
AARON MATÉ: So when you say you don’t want to clean up, this is a—
VOLUNTEER 4: I’m not cleaning.
AARON MATÉ: When you say you’re not cleaning, is that a way of saying that this kind of had to happen for anything to change?
VOLUNTEER 4: Unfortunately, yes, because if we protest peacefully—you know, how many black males were hurt after we protested peacefully for Trayvon Martin? You know, it still happened. This is not the first murder. This is not going to be the last murder. It’s going to happen again. But now we have their attention. Now there’s a state of emergency. So, you know, if this has to happen for them to get a clue, then it has to happen.
PROTESTERS: We want peace! We want peace!
AARON MATÉ: The crowd is now breaking out into a march, starting to walk away, chanting "We want peace."
PROTESTERS: We want peace! We want peace! We want peace! We want peace!
AARON MATÉ: Can you talk about what’s happening right now?
PROTESTER 1: Pretty much, the community is just angry and upset about what’s been going on. And we’d also like to shed light on the peaceful protesters and let everybody know that Baltimore stands for something more than violence, that we’re bigger than that, and we’d like to bring people together. And as you can see, we want peace in our communities and in our streets. That’s pretty much it. I’m sorry. We want peace!
RESIDENT: Now, this, this is it. This is how you do that. But all the looting and all of that, I don’t think that had anything to do with that man. He was a peaceful man. He would never go around busting windows and looting out of stores. So, yes, as long as they have someone that’s leading these people in a positive way, it’s going to work.
AARON MATÉ: The marchers have arrived at a park just a few blocks away from the North and Penn intersection where it began.
RALLY SPEAKER: Regardless of the outcome, we’re going to get justice eventually. We’ve got to be patient with the process. But we can’t turn on each other. We can’t tear our community down, because at the end of the day, we need those facilities. We need those restaurants and those barbershops and those outlets. So, if we believe in each other and we believe in the chant that we love Baltimore, we’ve got to show that every single day—not just last night, not tonight, every single day. Because, believe me, change is going to come. We’re tired. We’re frustrated. But we can’t do what we did last night. They took the attention off where we really need it, and we gave them what they really wanted. Let’s put it back on our real issues. We’re going to get some answers. We’re going to get our answers.
TANAY THROWER: I’m Tanay Thrower [phon.]. Through the frustration of what happened and not being able to get an answer, I guess, so get the response that the community wanted, that that just allowed—made everyone explode. And not everybody in our community knows how to deal with frustration and know how to explode. And part of that reason that no one knows is because of the lack of resources. The lack of health resources, the lack of mental health resources, the lack of a education system, the lack of being able to have support and the right resources in the schools to help the teachers be able to give their students, or support their families or support the nonprofits or support the different people in the community. So, this is just the screen of it all.
AARON MATÉ: So we’re here with?
QUEEN: Queen.
AARON MATÉ: Hi, Queen. And your daughter?
QUEEN: Charisma.
AARON MATÉ: And your thoughts today, one day after the uprisings, people coming together today in West Baltimore?
QUEEN: Baltimore loves Baltimore. Get that straight. You know, Baltimore is pulling together. I think this—you know, again, I say this event has transpired a new unity in the city. And we’ll—you know, we’ll go from there, try to, piece by piece, put the city back together, and it’s going to be even stronger. No more Freddie Grays. And, you know, let that be a symbol to us, that he came for a purpose, and his purpose was to wake us up and bring us together. You know, no more fighting each other. No more anything, just coming—you know, coming against each other. Just come together. Some things had to fall apart to fall together.
AARON MATÉ: The sun has set on West Baltimore, and we’re now approaching the 10:00 p.m. curfew that was imposed after Monday’s unrest. As we saw today, it was a very different scene from the cleanup crews inside the CVS pharmacy to the spontaneous march, people chanting, "I love Baltimore," a sense here of people trying to reclaim the spirit that we saw in the first few weeks after Freddie Gray’s death—peaceful protests, marches, organizing, trying to seek justice in the case of Freddie Gray and address the structural issues around police brutality that it’s raised.
PROTESTER 2: This young youth don’t know how to express their self through education, because they’ve not been educated. They express their self through violence.
PROTESTER 3: Y’all take away our schools, our rec systems, our public systems, everything that you’ll take away. Y’all shut the—y’all shut the—
AARON MATÉ: Wait. Talk about that.
PROTESTER 3: Y’all shut the bus system down the hour before [bleep] even [bleep] happened. Excuse my language, but y’all shut the system down before, an hour, it happened. How these kids supposed to go home? How y’all going to get these kids home? They had nothing but to be out here and a nuisance—
PROTESTER 4: They’re stuck here.
PROTESTER 3: —because we don’t have—they don’t have no way to get home. They see this as a riot.
PROTESTER 2: Exactly. They don’t know. They don’t know. They don’t know.
PROTESTER 3: You know what I’m saying? They see this, they don’t know what’s happening. All they know is what they’re used to seeing on TV: getting shot by police, getting gunned down by police. Who wants to go home and get gunned down by police when you’re just trying to get home?
PROTESTER 2: Exactly.
PROTESTER 3: And we can’t stand up. We can’t stand up for our lives.
PROTESTER 2: Tell them again.
PROTESTER 3: We can’t stand up for our lives. Our lives don’t mean nothing. We can’t stand up for it, because it doesn’t mean nothing to them. You get what I’m saying? And they’re out here not even doing nothing, not even putting a school in our district. You get what I’m saying?
PROTESTER 2: They’re putting a police station in our district.
PROTESTER 3: Lock more people up, but won’t even put a school for our kids to learn.
PROTESTER 2: So we can calm all this down.
PROTESTER 3: And this could have been any one of us.
PROTESTER 5: And the bad always overpowers the good. You see what I’m saying? Like the riot was right here, but people was down there marching peacefully. You see what I’m saying? And this is what I want to make a statement on, you see what I’m saying? You see how police standing over there, they’re doing their job, right? You see what I’m saying? Now, when the bad police do what they do, I feel like good cops should speak up. You see what I’m saying? Say something. You see what I’m saying? Because it makes you look bad, too.
PROTESTER 4: The police move like a gang. They kill one of us, but the next one who’s seen it—
PROTESTER 3: They don’t say nothing. They’re not going to say anything.
PROTESTER 4: —he’s not going to speak up, because why? He works with the next man.
PROTESTER 3: We don’t feel safe walking around our neighborhood if we see a police officer, because we feel like we’re going to get shot. We’re going to get questioned. We can’t walk down the street, because we’re going to get questioned. We’re going to get shot. We’re going to get task-forced. Look at this. This is crazy. All we want is answers, and we can’t get nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Democracy Now!’s Aaron Maté reporting from the streets of Baltimore, Maryland. Special thanks to our videographer, Hany Massoud, who leaps tall buildings in a single bound.
When we come back, we’re here in The Hague in The Netherlands talking about peace. Stay with us.
We are broadcasting from the World Forum in The Hague where 100 years ago this week over 1,000 female peace activists gathered from around the world to call for an end to war. The extraordinary meeting, known as the International Congress of Women, took place as World War I raged across the globe, and marked the formation of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. It was organized by Dutch suffragist Dr. Aletta Jacobs. The event took place in The Netherlands because of its neutral position during World War I. Two future Nobel Peace Prize winners took part in the U.S. delegation: Jane Addams, the co-founder of Hull House, and the sociologist Emily Greene Balch. "They saw, quite rightly, that the absence of women in making decisions in government meant there was greater likelihood of war. And they were right," says our guest, Madeleine Rees, WILPF’s secretary general. She has joined thousands of women from around the world who have gathered again in The Hague to call for peace and to mark the group’s 100th anniversary as wars rage on in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and other countries.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We are live at the World Forum in The Hague in The Netherlands. One hundred years ago this week, over a thousand women peace activists gathered from around the world to meet here in The Hague to call for an end to war. The extraordinary meeting, known as the International Congress of Women, took place as World War I raged across the globe. The gathering was organized by a Dutch suffragist named Dr. Aletta Jacobs. The event took place in The Netherlands because of its neutral position during World War I. Dr. Jacobs said the congress was assembled to, quote, "protest against war and to suggest steps which may lead to warfare becoming an impossibility." Two future Nobel Peace Prize winners took part in the U.S. delegation: Jane Addams, the co-founder of Hull House in Chicago, and the sociologist Emily Greene Balch. The event marked the formation of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, known as WILPF.
Well, today, as wars rage in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and other countries, women from around the world have gathered again here in The Hague, close to a thousand of them, to call for peace and to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Today we’re joined by three guests: WILPF’s secretary general, Madeleine Rees; newly elected WILPF president, Kozue Akibayashi, and she is from Japan; and Hakima Abbas, director of programs for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development in Africa. She prefers not to say exactly where, for security reasons.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now!
MADELEINE REES: Thank you very much.
AMY GOODMAN: Madeleine, let’s start with you. You’ve been with this organization for some time. A hundred years ago, 1,200 women, tell us the story of how they got here, in The Hague.
MADELEINE REES: It’s quite incredible, when you think that in those days there was no possibility of just SMSing each other or sending an email. It wouldn’t have happened, but for the suffrage movement, because you don’t just start a mass movement. You actually have to have an organizational structure to make that happen. That had started with the suffragette movement. Every single one of those women who went to The Hague was suffragettes.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m talking, I mean, everywhere from Britain to the United States?
MADELEINE REES: From Britain to the United States, every single one of them were demanding the right to vote, because they saw, quite rightly, that the absence of women in making decisions in government meant that there was more—greater likelihood of war. And they were right. So they organized. They were in touch with each other. As you said, it was Aletta Jacobs who was the one who was the main organizer here in The Hague. She had a thousand women helping her to try to bring women from all over the world to protest war. And the Americans came by boat. Again, that was Jane Addams, who was the organizer, organizer of that. They got as far as Dover and had to stop, because—
AMY GOODMAN: In England.
MADELEINE REES: In England. They go as far as Dover, had to stop. Because of the militarization of the channel, there were activities going on, they couldn’t not cross. They had to wait four days there. A hundred and eighty women wanted to come from the United Kingdom to protest. They were stopped by the United Kingdom authorities, who prevented them traveling, because, goodness knows, it’s not good to have women protesting war when you have got a propaganda machine rolling out the glories of the conflict. Eventually, several of them were able to make it to The Hague. And—
AMY GOODMAN: But basically 120 British women were stopped.
MADELEINE REES: Were stopped, yes, and prevented from attending. So, eventually, people made it to The Hague, 1,300 of them. They had to organize originally at the zoo, because it was the only space available for them.
AMY GOODMAN: The organized here—
MADELEINE REES: Here in what was the zoo. It is not a zoo anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: The zoo in The Hague.
MADELEINE REES: Yes, and then had the congress. And at that congress, they made the demands, which were as relevant then as they are now.
AMY GOODMAN: And those demands, among them, what they were calling for in the midst of World War I?
MADELEINE REES: So they wanted immediate cessation of hostilities. They wanted the neutral powers to engage with the belligerent powers to stop the conflict. They were actually bringing their demands at a time where over 100,000 men were, at the very days, being slaughtered at the Somme. So what they wanted was universal disarmament, a complete commitment to addressing root causes of conflict. They saw that the colonialism was one of those root conflicts, so they—root causes of conflict, so they demanded there be arbitration to understand the power dynamics in the decolonization process. And importantly—and I think, for us, particularly today—they wanted democratization of foreign policies. They wanted to make—they said that war was too profound an act to be left to those who had power and who would use it for wrong. So they wanted "we, the people" to be in charge of those foreign policies and making those decisions. And, of course, underpinning all of that was the demand for universal suffrage for women.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, one of the things you’ve spoken about in this huge gathering at the World Forum in The Hague is the foreign minister of Sweden. Talk about what—the recent controversy around Margot Wallström.
MADELEINE REES: It’s interesting, because with Margot Wallström, we had what I thought was one of those moments in history when things should have shifted. For those who don’t know, she was speaking about Saudi Arabia and the treatment of a blogger, who was, as you may well recall, was sentenced to a thousand lashes for criticizing the regime. She said that this treatment was medieval, and she went on to denounce the lack of human rights for women in Saudi Arabia. She was saying no more or no less than we all say and most heads of states will say behind closed doors. But, of course, one doesn’t say that about Saudi Arabia because of the huge trading implications that there are.
As a result of her having made that denunciation—or that clarity, I would suggest—she was refused entry into the Arab League, where she was going to make a speech on human rights. And as a result, instead of just giving way, she went home, and she said, "OK, we will now cancel our cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia on all things military." So they did that, and the response from the Saudis was to withdraw their ambassador, to impose visa restrictions on Swedes to go into Saudi Arabia, and the Arab League was going to follow suit. So there was uproar in Sweden amongst those who sought to trade with the Arab League. They were saying that—companies like H&M, Volvo, which shows just how easily the military is seen as a way of military—the sales of military equipment and others is seen as a way in for trade agreements, which then follow from that. So, by closing that door, they were afraid they were going to have the door closed on their trading agreements. And they tried to get the trade unions and others, saying, "This is going to lead to loss of jobs. It’s going to lead to the loss of trading possibilities for Sweden, more generally." And Carl Bildt and others were wheeled out to say that it prejudiced Sweden’s attempt to get a position on the Security Council, as if standing up for human rights and for furthering the real hard law of the Arms Trade Treaty was actually something which the Security Council should not be responsible for.
So the backlash in Sweden from those interests was profound. But the support from the people was excellent. And I think that that was, for me, one of the greatest sadnesses of this, was every other foreign minister stayed silent. Instead of every foreign minister standing up and saying, "Actually, what Margot Wallström has just done is to assert international law, international human rights principles, and the dominance and predominance that we must give to the control of arms to countries where they subordinate human rights to their own interests." Instead of doing that, there was this resounding silence, save for those who criticized her, and in a highly gendered way, to say that she was just being emotional, that she was naïve.
As peace activists gather in The Hague, Japan is moving toward taking a more active military role internationally despite having a pacifist constitution. On Tuesday, President Obama hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a White House state dinner. The two nations have just unveiled new guidelines for military cooperation. We examine Japan’s growing military role with Kozue Akibayashi, the newly elected president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She also discusses opposition to the presence of some 25,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Okinawa. "The U.S. military has been granted almost diplomatic immunity to whatever they do. Crimes are committed, but they are not punished. They get away."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, as peace activists gather here in The Hague, Japan is moving towards making—taking a more active role militarily, internationally, despite having a pacifist constitution. On Tuesday, President Obama hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a White House state dinner. The two nations have just unveiled new guidelines for military cooperation.
Well, the new president of WILPF is from Japan, Kozue Akibayashi.
Kozue, thank you for joining us here on Democracy Now!
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: So, as you’re being inaugurated here in this gathering of almost a thousand women from around the world, Prime Minister Abe is in our nation’s capital in the United States. They’re talking about how—they’re welcoming him into the military fold. What is changing in Japan? Can you explain what the peace constitution is—or, should I say, was?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Oh, it still is. It’s our constitution, made in 1946, '47, after the World War II, after Japan was defeated by the Allied countries. And it has—it's called the peace constitution because it has an article, Article 9, that renounces war to settle international disputes and possession of armed forces. That has been there, and that’s still there.
AMY GOODMAN: And it says you can’t have a military, right?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: We cannot have a military, but in reality, we do have a military, and that has been controversial, as well, the military. We don’t call it "military"; it’s called the Self-Defense Forces.
AMY GOODMAN: And it was the U.S. that pushed for that to be included
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —after Japan was defeated in World War II.
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: But now it’s the U.S. is pushing for it to be amended.
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: It’s both the U.S. and some people within Japan. I think the majority of people in Japan is supporting still the peace constitution. But, well, those who are in power currently, obviously, want to change the constitution so that we can have—we can legitimize the military and even increase the military power, and also increase the military cooperation with the United States. The Self-Defense Forces has been participating in—not operations, but exercises with the United Nations—I mean, with the United States for quite a while. Well, we have lived in—we have been living in that contradiction. And the peace community has been working hard to change or to put it back to what it used to be, the constitution was originally meant to be, but that’s been a struggle.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, you have been a peace activist in Okinawa for a very long time. What is happening in Okinawa today?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Now, is—like, as of now, people are protesting. More people are participating in protesting, nonviolent action on the street, on the sea. There have been a sit-in on the sea, done on the boat, boats, and canoe, even, against that huge Coast Guard ships that have been very brutal against people of Okinawa.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. military?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: No, it’s the Japanese Coast Guard. But also, I participated in many of the sit-ins around the gate of military bases in Okinawa. And I have been—
AMY GOODMAN: Are these U.S. military bases?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Yes, U.S. military. Marines, mainly.
AMY GOODMAN: How big is the U.S. military presence in Okinawa?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: In Okinawa, there are a little less than 30,000 soldiers stationed and additional 25,000 dependents and families.
AMY GOODMAN: Why do you object to them being there?
KOZUE AKIBAYASHI: Because it’s our land, it’s our sea, Okinawan people’s lands and sea. And the U.S. military has been granted almost diplomatic immunity to whatever they do. Crimes are committed, but they are not punished. They get away. Many people’s properties have been damaged. The United States military has never, almost, compensated. I have been working on sexual violence by soldiers, the issue on sexual violence by U.S. soldiers, for many years. That has been—that has occurred since 1945, many, many cases.
In Nigeria, hundreds of bodies have been found in the northeastern town of Damasak, after an apparent massacre by the militant group Boko Haram. Local sources say the death toll exceeds 400. We speak with African women’s rights activist Hakima Abbas about Boko Haram, militarization and fundamentalism. "In your own country, the white supremacist and Christian right fundamentalisms is also exacerbated by the gun culture and the promotion of an armed police force which is killing black women, men, trans people, and children in the U.S.A.," Abbas notes. "So fundamentalism is really something that we have to address globally, and the people at the forefront of that battle are women’s rights organizations and women’s rights organizers." Abbas is the director of programs for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A hundred years ago, women came from around the world, not from Africa, as Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said. Now that gap has been filled. In Nigeria, though, the latest news, hundreds of bodies have been found in the northeastern town of Damasak after an apparent massacre by the militant group Boko Haram. Local sources say the death toll exceeds 400. Hakima Abbas is also with us, director of programs for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development in Africa. Can you talk about Boko Haram, militarization and overall fundamentalisms in Africa, and around the world?
HAKIMA ABBAS: Yes. Thank you, Amy. As you mentioned, a mass grave of about 400 people was found in Damasak yesterday. But at the same time, the news is that between 200 and 300 women and girls have been rescued from Boko Haram. And it’s as yet unclear how many of those might be the Chibok girls that there was much international attention around yesterday—or, throughout the last year.
But I think what’s important to note around the story of Boko Haram is how much of an intersection it is. It’s an intersection of fundamentalisms, violent Islamist fundamentalisms, with global capitalism and with militarization. So what we see in northern Nigeria is that Boko Haram is waging a so-called war on Western education, in the most educationally deprived part of the country. Only 10 percent of women in northern Nigeria are literate. Boko Haram is also active in the country—in a country that was named the top economy in Africa, surpassing South Africa only two weeks after the Chibok girls were taken. And yet, the vast majority of Nigerians live in poverty and, in real terms, live in increased poverty than they were in the 1960s. And so, what we’re seeing in northern Nigeria is also that the country is spending up to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars on its 73-million-man military. And that’s a huge amount of money. Putting that in context, that’s about 30 percent of the national budget. So you can imagine what could be done with that kind of money, other than putting it into military spending. And yet, the response to the massive civil society mobilizations to bring back the girls was more militarism—and, in fact, some U.S. troops on the ground in Chad and in Nigeria.
The story of fundamentalisms, though, doesn’t start and end with Islamic fundamentalisms in Africa. We’ve seen Christian fundamentalisms in Uganda, and the persecution of LGBTQI people. We’ve seen Christian fundamentalisms in the Central African Republic, and the persecution of Muslim peoples and them having been forced to flee their homes. But it also doesn’t begin and end in Africa. I mean, we see fundamentalisms on the rise throughout the world. And you started the program with a segment from Baltimore. I think, in your own country, the white supremacist and Christian right fundamentalisms is also exacerbated by the gun culture and the promotion of an armed police force, which is killing black women, men, trans people, and children in the U.S.A. So fundamentalisms is really something that we have to address globally. And the people at the forefront of that battle are women’s rights organizations and women’s rights organizers.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us. When we come back, we’re going to speak with a Colombian journalist, rape survivor herself, as well as a woman who’s been organizing in Iraq. Thank you so much, Madeleine Rees, who is secretary general of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Kozue Akibayashi, who is the new president of WILPF; and Hakima Abbas, director of programs for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development in Africa. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back.
As we broadcast from the World Forum in The Hague at the Women Stop War conference, Amy Goodman interviews Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima, who has covered her country’s armed conflict for more than 18 years. She received the International Women of Courage Award in 2012 after she came forward about being kidnapped, tortured and raped by a paramilitary group while she reported on the arms trade, and notes, "I refused to go into exile after this, and I continued to work as a journalist." Bedoya Lima went on to found the group Survivors United for Action.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re inside the World Forum at The Hague, where women from around the world have gathered for the Women Stop War conference. It comes a hundred years after over a thousand women held the International Congress of Women to stop World War I. Well, this past Sunday, I spoke to the Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima, who received the International Women of Courage Award in the United States in 2012. She started Survivors United for Action in Colombia. I asked about what happened to her in her country. We were speaking as women from around the world were greeting each other as they gathered for the World Forum in The Hague.
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] I’ve been covering the armed conflict in Colombia for 18 years as a journalist. And as part of my work, on the 25th of May of the year 2000, I was kidnapped by a paramilitary group in Colombia. I was documenting arms trafficking inside a prison in Colombia at the time. And they kidnapped me, tortured me, and three of them raped me. I refused to go into exile after this, and I continued working as a journalist in Colombia. And five years ago, I decided to come out and publicly speak about what happened to me.
AMY GOODMAN: How long were you held for?
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] There were actually two different kidnappings. The first one, during which I was raped, I was held for 16 hours. The second kidnapping was in 2003, and that was by the guerrillas, the FARC guerrillas, and I was held by them for 10 days.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you also brutalized during that kidnapping?
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] They did not attack me physically, but I was isolated, held separately. Me along with the photographer that was with me, we were treated in a degrading manner. They took our equipment. But clearly, the first kidnapping is the one that really changed my life.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what it meant for you to come out five years later. Had you kept this from the public, that this happened to you? So, talk about that decision to come out and then what you did.
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] I think that making the decision to speak has been the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make. To go publicly and say that you’ve been a victim of sexual violence changes your life forever, because we live in a very machista world in which they tell you that you’re guilty for your rape. But I realized that if I didn’t speak, other women wouldn’t be able to, either. And I feel like having spoken out has changed the life for many women in Colombia. And that’s how I decided to take this on.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what you did, the organization you started.
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] When I decided to speak, a campaign began, which is now known internationally. It’s called "It’s Not Time to Be Quiet." And the goal of this organization is to motivate a lot of women throughout the world to not feel shame of admitting and denouncing that they have been victims of sexual violence. For this past year, I’ve been part of the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s project as one of the survivors of sexual violence in the world who has the goal of trying to give courage to other survivors as a means to be able to change the reality of many women who, like us, have had to face sexual violence.
AMY GOODMAN: So what do you do with these survivors?
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] The first thing is to tell them that they’re not alone. And second place, to explain that there’s a lot of ways to find support, to get ahead and move forward. But I think the most important thing, not necessarily with the survivors, but with the people who are responsible for changing the reality of women survivors, that’s the biggest work we have to do.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the government response, your neighbors’ response, the community, and if things have changed.
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] In my case, I still receive threats. I have to live with bodyguards in Colombia and drive in a protected car, an armored car. But I think I have attained a lot and achieved a lot of things, as well. The first thing is to achieve that really sexual violence is now on the agenda of my country and the government. Thanks to our work, there’s now been a protocol set forth within the armed forces about sexual violence. And six months ago, I was able to achieve that the president of Colombia actually declared the day that I was kidnapped as a national day of women who have been victims of sexual violence. So that’s really a way to change women’s lives.
AMY GOODMAN: How have the lives of women changed who have spoken out?
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] It’s been amazing. I believe that it’s been difficult, because it really is exposing oneself and exposing our pain, but at the same time, to feel that we’re not alone, to be able to raise our voices has shown these women that life can go forward, that our dignity is much larger than the weapons of the man who marked our bodies and our lives.
AMY GOODMAN: Jineth, through all of this, you are still a reporter and editor at El Tiempo in Bogotá. How do you continue to do that work?
JINETH BEDOYA LIMA: [translated] Because journalism brought me back to life, and journalism is what gives me life every day. I can’t imagine moving forward without writing stories. That’s my oxygen.
AMY GOODMAN: Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima.
As Yanar Mohammed, co-founder and the director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, attends the Women Stop War conference in The Hague, she describes the current situation in Iraq. "The country is under a prevailing culture of militias, which have the upper hand. … They say, ’It’s either us or ISIS.’" Mohammed says civil society is sandwiched between Shia and Sunni extremists, and argues a secular approach is the only way to resolve the conflict in her country.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I also spoke on Sunday with Yanar Mohammed, co-founder and director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. She came to The Netherlands from her home in Baghdad. I spoke to her on a bus after she had addressed Nobel Women’s Initiative on her way to the WILPF event. I began by asking her to describe the current situation in Iraq.
YANAR MOHAMMED: The country is under something that’s nothing less than a civil war, where the Iraqi government, led by the Islamist Shia parties, is attacking the ISIS-conquered cities, and the massacres are underway, both sides. And we, in the Organization of Women’s Freedom, are trying to get to the women who are escaping the enslavement of ISIS, and opening shelters for them. But in general, the country is under a prevailing culture of militias, which have the upper hand. And nobody can be complaining about it, because whenever we say anything, they say, "But we are the ones who are liberating you from ISIS. It’s either us or ISIS."
So, the Shia Islamist government is bombarding us with the Shia culture, militia culture first, and then we are afraid that they bring us the laws that we had just stopped last year, the Jaafari law, where they bring legal status to the marriage of nine-year-old girls, daughters. This is a law that we had just stopped in 2014. And now, with the victory of the Shia militias, they might take the opportunity and bring it back on us in Iraq. So, the civil society is doing its best to work against the trafficking of the Yazidi women, to speak out against the oppression of ISIS to people, but we are being sandwiched between a culture of Shia Islamism from the government and Sunni barbaric Islamism from the ISIS. If you are a young person in Iraq, if you are a woman in Iraq, you are totally alienated, because there are massacres left and right, and there is enslavement in the 21st century. And everybody tells you that this is a democratic times that we are living in.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you see as the answer?
YANAR MOHAMMED: I see only a secular answer could be a real solution. It cannot be done in a short time. It will take its time, but it’s the only savior for all the people of Iraq—the religious, the Muslims, the Sunni, the Shia, the Christians, the Yazidis. Only a secular government and constitution can be the—can save everybody.
AMY GOODMAN: Your evaluation of what happened after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003? And what responsibility today do you think the United States has, and what the U.S. should do at this point?
YANAR MOHAMMED: When the U.S. invaded Iraq, we were under the oppression of one single dictator. And there wasn’t much discrimination between the people of Iraq. Whoever was in opposition would be discriminated against. We did have problems of how to deal with dictatorship, but nowadays we are at the necks of each other. We found out that we are Sunnis, we are Shia, and we are given so many reasons to be killing each other. We have 10 million youth who are carrying machine guns and going to the rest of the country, killing the rest of the youth in that part of the country. We are in a very big trap where killing each other doesn’t seem to be ending soon. Once you are in the trap of hatred upon ethnic and upon sectarian lines, it takes many years to wash away, to cleanse this hatred. I feel that at this point, even when we destroy—when the Iraqi government destroys ISIS, we have a very big problem on our hand. There are major massacres that have been committed both ways, and these will not end, because the relatives, the children of the people killed, will still continue these massacres.
Women have been—women’s rights have been totally lost. By laws, they have been lost. By their status in the society, they have been lost. Our voices of the women are being silenced continuously. Our radio, community radio for women, was shut down by the government on June 12. They gave us different stories, and we still don’t know what’s the final story for silencing us, but we know that this is no democracy. Women cannot breathe. Youth are killing each other based on the sectarian ID. This is something we were not expecting. This is not democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Yanar Mohammed, co-founder and director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. And that does it for our show here at The Hague.
Headlines:
Baltimore: Hundreds Defy Curfew as Peaceful Protests Continue
In Baltimore, Maryland, police in riot gear fired tear gas and smoke grenades overnight as hundreds of people defied a 10 p.m. curfew to continue protesting the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died of spinal injuries a week after an arrest where witnesses said he was bent like a pretzel. He was accused of making eye contact with a police lieutenant, then running away. His family said his spine was 80 percent severed at the neck. Overnight at least 10 people were arrested amid relative calm, following the previous night’s uprising, which led to more than 200 arrests, dozens of cars set on fire, and many buildings badly damaged. The overnight curfew was enforced by 3,000 police and National Guard troops. On Monday, President Obama called for "soul searching" over police killings but criticized the previous night’s destruction.
President Obama: "There’s no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday. It is counterproductive. When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting, they’re not making a statement, they’re stealing."
Nepal: Earthquake Toll Tops 5,000 as Aid Reaches Epicenter
The death toll from a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal has topped 5,000 with twice that number injured. Aid has reportedly finally reached an area near the epicenter for the first time, four days after the earthquake struck. Remote villages remain cut off from needed supplies. Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called the aid effort a race against time.
Jens Laerke: "The headline is really that this is a race against time. It’s also a race against a moving target, in the sense that we still do not have a full assessment of the needs and the requirements in the rural areas outside of Kathmandu. As you know, the disaster itself has created a lot of infrastructure problems, and it is simply a country that, because of its geography, is such that it’s difficult to move into these areas."
Supreme Court Divided on Same-Sex Marriage
The U.S. Supreme Court appears sharply divided after hearing arguments on a case that could establish the constitutional right to same-sex marriage across the United States. Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered a key swing vote, gave conflicting signals but appeared to side more with same-sex couples. A decision is expected in June.
Burundi: Protests Against President Continue After Deaths
The United Nations and African Union are sending envoys to the Central African nation of Burundi amid the largest mass protests since the end a civil war in 2005. Protests erupted Sunday over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. At least six people have been killed as police fire tear gas, water cannon and live rounds at protesters.
Nigeria: Army Rescues Nearly 300 Girls and Women from Boko Haram
The Nigerian military says it has rescued nearly 300 girls and women from the militant group Boko Haram in the northeastern Sambisa Forest. Despite initial hopes, the army said the girls are not the same ones who were captured from a school in the town of Chibok a year ago.
Saudi King Fires Successor Opposed to Yemen Campaign; Strikes Hit Sana’a Airport
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has fired his chosen successor, reportedly over his opposition to the Saudi-led military campaign against Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen. Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, the crown prince and deputy prime minister, was replaced by the king’s nephew as part of a broader shakeup, which also saw the country’s foreign minister replaced by the U.S.-educated Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition struck the international airport in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, damaging the main runway, to prevent the landing of an Iranian plane, which Iran said carried food and medicine.
Obama, Japanese PM Tout TPP as Over 2,000 Groups Protest
President Obama hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a White House state dinner Tuesday during Abe’s week-long visit to the United States. At a meeting earlier in the day, Obama said the two leaders discussed strengthening military ties and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
President Obama: "Based on the progress we’ve made, Prime Minister Abe and I discussed how the United States and Japan, as the two largest economies in the TPP negotiations, will now work together to lead our TPP partners to swift and successful conclusions of the broader negotiations."
Japanese Prime Minister Abe will push for the TPP in an address to Congress today. Last week, panels in both the House and Senate passed a measure to give Obama authority to negotiate the deal, then rush it through Congress on a yes-or-note vote. More than 2,000 organizations have now joined together to urge Congress to reject fast-track authority for the TPP, saying the deal would hurt workers, undermine regulations and expand corporate power. Signers of the letter include environment, labor and family farm groups, the NAACP, Presbyterian Church USA, and Alliance for Retired Americans.
Indonesia Executes 8 for Drug Crimes; Filipina Spared
Indonesia has executed eight people for drug crimes despite pleas from around the world to spare their lives. The eight men shot to death by firing squad earlier today include two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian. A Filipina woman also scheduled to die was granted a stay of execution after a woman who allegedly recruited her to carry drugs reportedly turned herself in. Australia has deplored the executions and recalled its ambassador to Indonesia.
Swedish Court to Let Julian Assange Appeal Arrest Warrant
Sweden’s top court has granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the right to appeal an arrest warrant which has kept him holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for nearly three years. Assange sought refuge in the embassy over fears the warrant on sex crime allegations could lead to his extradition to Sweden and then to the United States. Last month, after years of refusal, Swedish prosecutors said they would travel to London to interview Assange. He has not been charged with a crime.
Indiana: Purvi Patel’s Attorneys Appeal 20-Year Sentence for "Feticide"
Attorneys for an Indiana woman sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for what she says was a miscarriage have filed an appeal. Purvi Patel was convicted of both feticide and felony neglect after she arrived at a hospital, bleeding, and later acknowledged disposing of her stillborn fetus in a dumpster. Prosecutors accused her of taking abortion-inducing pills, even though no such drugs were found in her system, and used a discredited "float test" to argue the fetus was born alive.
Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to Run for President
And Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is running for presiden
t.
News reports say Sanders, a democratic socialist and the longest-serving independent member of Congress in history, will announce his candidacy on Thursday. He is expected to continue his focus on climate change, inequality and opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Click here to see our interviews with Senator Sanders.
Follow
SPEAKING EVENTS
5/2 Washington, D.C.
5/2 Washington, D.C.
ACTION ALERT
WEB EXCLUSIVE
207 West 25th Street, 11th Floor
New York, New York 10001 United States
___________________________________
___________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment