12/06/18 12/06/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> that is how our time went, participating in those political lessons. month after month. inmates started growing. we could see how many people had arrived when we lined up for the flag raising ceremony and the singing of the national anthem. amy: the united nations is requesting access to masassive so-called re-education camps in western china where up to 2

million ethnic uygurs and other muslims are being held. the u.n. has compared them to internmement camps, but china ss they are needed to prevent radicacalization. wewe will speak to a uygur -american activist whose aunt and sister disappeared after she spoke out about what is happening. partyn spain, a far right has seized election for the first time since the 1960's -- 1970's. we will look at the new film "the silence of others" up all of several survivors of spanish didictat andnd their pursuit of justice. is, all of this has beenoverered up until now. t theres nonot town wiouout the e viimsfranco, right? >> we want our children ale, nodedead. fofolks is is not about loong at the past. we' fightinfofor thfututure

>> it is the first te ththe vovoice of the ctims wi be ard befo a court 10,000 kilometers away from our country. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. global carbon dioxide emissions climbed to a record high in 2018, setting the world on a path toward the most catastrophic effects of climate change. that's the stark warning of the global carbon project in a new report that found global co2 emissions are on track to grow by 2.7% this year. under goals set out in the united nations paris agreement in 2015, the world needs to rapidly cut its emissions to keep average global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees celsius, or 2.7 degrees fahrenheit. the report came as the united nations climate summit got underway in katowice, poland. thisis is renowned broadcaststed naturalist sir david attenborough.

he was speaking at the opening ceremony. >> right now we're facing a man-made disaster of global scale. our biggggest threat in thousans of years -- climate change. if we don't take action, thehe collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. amy: attenborough's warning came as the world health organization said in a new report that meeting the commitments of the pariris climate e agreement coud save millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars by 2050. speaking from poland on wednesday, the world health organization's maria neira said some 7 7 million people cucurrey die eaeach year from air pollutn alone. health, want to protect if we want to make sure that we will reduce dramatically those 7 million deaths that are occurring every year because o f

pollution, we need to accccelere this energy transition. we know there will be a transition, but we wanant to tel countries thehe more you delay this transitition, the more you will be respsponsible e for the number of millions o of dead evy year. amy: the who's warning came as ththe trump administration is expected to o announcece plans y to roll backck obama-era regulations on coal, paving the way for a new generation of dirty power plants. democracy now! broadcast all next w week from the u.n. climae summit in poland. in canada, an environmental group is launching a class action lawsuit against the government on behalf of the nearly 3.5 million quebeckers under the age of 35,5, who they say wiwill be ththe mo affececty climate chgege. the non-profitroup,, environnement jeunesse, is accusing the canadian government of gross negligence by refraining from taking decisive action to combat climate change. a similar suit is making its way through the courts in the u.s., pitting 21 children and young

adults against the federalal governmement. 30,000 customers of barclays are demanding that the british bank divest from pipelines that carry oil from canada's tar sands. greenpeace says at least 6000 of those who signed a petitioion dedemanding barclaysys divest fm ththe dirtiest f fuel onon the t hahave pledged to close theieir accounts unless the e bank chans itits ways. rclays recentltly told shsharehdeders that itits finang ofof extreme f fossil fuels is r rereview and clalaimed it currey has s no investmenents in tar ss projectsts. but barclay''s was a a major investor in n the $4.5 bilillion trans s mountain pipipeline prot bebefore it was nanationalalizey cacanadian prime minister justin trudeau. in washingngton, d.c., f former presidents and top dignitaries gathered for the funeral of wednesday george herbert walker bush in the washington national cathedral. the main eulogy was delivered by bush's son, president george w. bush, who called

-- father president trump and first lady melania trump attended the funeral, sitting in the front row. trump briefly shook hands with president obama, whom he just whose citizenship trump princely question while leaving the further conspiracy movement. president trump did not shake hands with hillary clinton, who looked straight ahead. in canada, authorities have arrested a top executive with the technology giant huawei and are preparing to extradite her to the united states to stand trial. chief financial officer meng wanzhou was arrested in vancouver on december 1. both the canadian justice department and the trump administration have so far refused to say what she's being charged with, althoughgh "the nw york times" reports the treasury and commerce departments have subpoenaed the company over suspected violations of sanctions against iran and north korea. china's government demanded meng's immediate release, saying the detention violated her human

rights. meng wanzhou's arrest came on the same day that president trump met with c chinese presist xi jinping in argentina to discuss the growing u.s.-china trade war. on tuesday, after trump declared in a tweet, "i am a tariff man!" the u.s. stock market plummeted, with the dow jones dropping nearly 800 points. president trump on wednesday praised chinese president xi jinping for cracking down on the synthetic opioid fentanyl, saying he hoped china would employ the death penalty against traffickers of the drug. on twitter, trump wrote -- "last year over 77,000 people died from fentanyl. if china cracks down on this 'horror drug,' using the death penalty for distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!" in a statement, the drug policy alliance responded -- "president trump's push for china to execute more of its citizens for drug offenses is morally repugnant and ignores the decades-long failure of extremely harsh drug policies here in the u.s."

in wisconsin, lawmakers have sent outgoing republican governor scott walker legislation to limit the power of the democratic governor and attorney general-elect, while rolling back early voting in future elections. democrats have blasted the power grab as a legislative coup and have promised immediate court action if governor walker signs the bills. meanwhile, republicans in michigan are following on the heels of wisconsin's actions, which in turn follow a similar power grab by republicans in north carolina in 2016. in november, michigan voters elected three democratic women to the state's top offices -- governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. in response, michigan's republican-controlled legislature voted wednesday to advance a measure that would strip the incoming secretary of state of her oversight of campaign-finance rules. republicans also advanced legislation that would give them

power over the state's incoming attorney general, a move that would prevevent her from withdrawing michigan from a federal lawsuit challenging the affordable care act. "the new york times" is reporting that president trump's former campaign chair paul manafort tried to negotiate a deal with ecuador to hand over wiwikileaks founder julilian ase to the united states. manafort reportedly met with incoming ecuadorian president lenin moreno in 2017 and discussed the possibility of turning in assange, who has s bn holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london for over six years, in exchange for debt relief and otherer concessions from the united states. lobbyists representing saudi arabia's government paid over a quarter million dollars to rent rooms at donald trump's washington, d.c., hotel within a month of trump's election in 2016. that's according to "the washington post," which reports the lobbyists then offered the rooms to u.s. military veterans, as part of a free trip to

washington. once in d.c., the veterans were sent to capitol hill to lobby lawmakers against a bill the saudis opposed. "the washington post" reports the lobbyists paid for some 500 nights' stay at the trump international hotel at an average rate of $768 per room. the case is a central focus of a lawsuit charging president trump violated the foreign emoluments clause of the constitution by receiving payments from foreign governments. and a correction to one our headlines on the attorneys wednesday. general of the district of columbia and maryland have sent subpoenas to the trump organization for financial documents relating to president trump's business interests. maine and the five federal agencies have also been subpoenaed. they did not issue subpoenas. the architects of a landmark treaty aimed at ridding g europe 198787 of nuclear r missil arere calling on the trump administration to abandon its plans to leave the inf, or

intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty. in a jointly-authored op-ed in "the washington post," former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev and former u.s. secretary of state george shultz warn -- "abandoning the inf treaty would be a step toward a new arms race, undermining strategic stability and increasing the threat of miscalculation or technical failure leading to an immensely destructive war." the trump administration has accused russia of cheating on its commitments to the inf, and said this week the u.s. would pull out of the treaty in 60 days unless russia changes its behavior. russia, in turn, accused the u.s. of cheating and warned of retaliation if the u.s. walks away from the deal. turkey has issued an arrest warrant for a journalist for his alleged involvement in the 2013 protest against the turkish president. he is ceo of the prominent newspaper, which won the 2016

right livelihood award, often referred to as the alternative nobel prize. and usa gymnastics fileled for bankruptptcy wednesday in the latest follow-up from the case of dr. larry nassar, the former usa gymnastics doctor who has been convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of women and girls. the organization faces hundreds of lawsuits over the abuse, and said it will use the chapter 11 process as a vehicle for resolving those claims. a number of usa gymnastics officials face criminal charges for allegedly covering up larry nassar's abuses, and the group faces possible removal as the governing body for gymnastics in the united states. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. u.s.-china trade relations remain one of the world's top stories this week.

on saturday, president trump and chinese president xi jinping met at the g20 summit in argentina and agreed to a 90-day truce in the ongoing trade war between the two countries. but tensions remain high. on tuesday, trump threatened to impose new tariffs, tweeting "i , am a tariff man." the move shook the world's financial markets. meanwhile, authorities in canada have arrested a top chinese executive at the request of the u.s. government. meng wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the telecom giant huawai, now facess extradition to t the united stss on unknown charges, possibly alleged violations of u.s. sanctions against iran. she is the daughter of huawai's founder. while trump's meeting with xi jinping focusesed on trade, it s uncleaear if the two leaders discussed anotother major issuen china. the united nations and a number of human rights groups have accused the chinese government

of setting up large re-education camps in the far west xinjiang province to hold an unknown number of ethnic uygurs and other muslims. some estimates put the population at the camps up to 2 million. on wednesday, u.n. human rights high commissioner michelle bachelet requested permission to visit the camps. >> we have been asking -- i think i mentioned to you before, for direct access to the region to be able to check and verify the reports we are receiving. we have also offered technical assisistance to the governrnmenn addressing threats posed by viololt extremism. in a way to sort of enensure the protection of human rirights. engage china on this pressing matter. amy: after months of denials, the chinese government acknowledged the existence of the camps in october. that's when the local government in xinjiang changed its laws to formally allow the formation of

what they call "vocational skill -- - "vocational skill educational training centers" to o "carry out anti-extremist ideological education." satellite images published by reuters shows these caps off and bill for receipt years. for years china has crcracked dn on the uygurs and other r muslim groups. officials in xinjiang banned men from wearing beards, women from covering their faces and homeschool. xinjiang has also become a high-tech surveillance state. video cameras with facial recognition software track everyone's movement on the streets. all vehicles must have gps trackers. checkpoints are set up throughout the region where police scan people's irises and phones. china has defended its actions saying the measures are needed to prevent xinjiang from becoming what one chinese official described as "china's syria" or "china's libya." we are joined now by rushan abbas.

she is a uyghur-american activist based in washington, d.c. after she spoke out against china's repression of the uygurs earlier this year, her aunt and sister disappeared and have not been heard of since. her recent piece for "the washington post" is headlined, "my aunt and sister in china have vanished. are they being punished for my activism?" thank you so much for joining us, rushan abbas. saying,an start off by have you heard anything at this point, even from other family members, what you believe has happened to your family? and also, the situation right now for the uygurs in china? >> i have not heard anything about the disappearance of my sister and my aunt. speakers at the hudson institute, one of the think tanks and washington, d.c., on september 5. on september 11, they both

disappeared at the same day. currently, over 2 million uygurs are being held in those concentration camps. they arese government, saying those are vocational training centers. my sister was a retired medical doctor and speaks fluent chinese. i don't understand what she is being trained over there. regionpopulation of the is being collectively punished right now, going through indoctrinationon's in thosese concentration camps, this communist philosophy and propaganda. could you tell us if you know anything about where your aunt and sister might be being held and have you came to learn of their detention? informationknow any about where they are being held. of theirhat -- i heard

disappearance from my nieces. they live in the united states. they were into medication with my mother and my aunt -- my cousins in communication with her. i did not communicate with them punishments in the taking people to internment camps, concentration camps, starting from spring of 2017. so i don't directly communicate with anybody in the region, but i heard from other members of the family. amy: can you tell us who the uygurs are and for people to ?nderstand, the word " uygur" >> correct. ownersurs are the land

currently being named by the chinese government as xinging, which means new border, new territory. since the communist occupation in 1949, the entire uygur population has been under attack. chinese government relentlessly ased to label the uygurs counterrevolutionaries, nanationalist, separatists for years. after 9/11 tragedy, the chinese government rebranded the effort as war on terrorism. used war on terrorism very effectively to punish entire population of the uygurs. amy: they are muslim? >> yes. xit is going on today is jinping has presented a war on

islam, basically, and the ethnicity and the culture and try to wi out the entire culture and religigion. just t the regegular practicicef islam like e priam eating certan foods ararreading the koran, are a crime e these days.. aboutn: i want to ask you chen quanguo, who assumed position in august 2016. it was at that time that the mass internment of the uygurs was accelerated. could you explain who he is and what happened since he took office? >> he was a party secretary. liket up a similar system the whole the scheduling systems in quebec after 28 uprising. in the end ofved

2015. and starting from 2016, he used systemar surveillance you mentioned earlier. wholehat, right now, the area became a complete police state. everybody is -- like, homes have at the doors. and also, the chinese officials, 1.1 communist officials in the country moved into people's houses to live with them for a few days to a week. imagine you have been invited chinese people living in people's houses, sharing their beds, sharing their food, meals. just to monitor their daily activities. amy: let's turn to the 29-year-old uygur woman who

testified bebefore congress s lt month about her time in a detention center in xinjiang. this is part of mihrigul tursun's statement read in -- read by a translator. cooks i was taken to a cell. there were cameras on all four sides so officials could see every corner of the room. there were around 60 people in one of the cells where i was held. rotate sleeping every two hours. some people had not taken a showerer in over r a year. before we ate breakfast, which was water with very little rise, we had to sing songs hailing the communist party. we had repeat in chinese "long ."ve xi jinping

anyone who could not memorize a book of slogans or the rules within 14 days would be denied food or beaten. i also experienced torture in a chair the second time i was detained. i was taken to a special room and placed in a high chair. theyey held my arms and legs in tightened bands and and they pressed a button. the guards put a helmet on my shaved head. each time i was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently anand i could feel the pain in y veins. a woman words of statement read by a translator. rushan abbas, if you can elaborate on what she said -- first of all, do you know her? and everything she said from the torture to chinese officials

moving into the homes of the uyghurs to monitor them? what she said is one of the millions of stories that the uyghur families are expressing. we have other witnesses, just like mihrigul tursun in central asia. sheigul tursun was lucky was released because she is an egyptian citizen. and other uyghur -- and other citizens being released. according to those eyewitnesses, everything she is saying is absolutely true. unfortunately, this terrible arocity is not just systematic human rights abuse anymore. this is a crime against humanity. we need international leaders

and international communinies to imimmediately intntervene to stp jiangis going on in xin today. amy: we're going to come back to this discussion with rushan abbas, to hear, among other things, chinese officials moving into the homes of uyghurs. uyghur orsspelled uygur. , after she spoke and sisterrt disappeared. she has not heard from them since. this is democracy now! back with her in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: music from the uyghur musicians from xinjijiang. this is democrcracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: there have been widespread reports of chinese government workers being placed

in uyghur to report on what residents are doing. 4is woman spoke to channel about what hapappened to her mother. she did not reveal her identity out of fear r for her famimily l in xinjiang. folks chinese agents moved into her house. they take it in turns to bring her food. she can't pray at home. they monitor her. if theyy work reporting that thy found her practicing her religion, , she could be sent ta camp. whatever she does at home, they are watching her. nermeen: rushan abbas, can you comment on what this anonymous channels telling u.k.'s 4, and when to this practice begin? chinese government officials living in uyghur homes to report on the activities of residents?

>> this practice started a couple of years ago under the name of double relatives program. -- they call them relatives of the family, come in to visit. they try to speak to them and get their ideas about their national identity or religious practice in the homes. and now, since the mass incarceration of more than 2 million uyghur people, they are putting the chinese people in the homes to live with them so they can take notes of what they're doing at home. they will bring them food. if anybody refusused to you or asked, "what is in this food?" they will get labeled as, "--

currently them even refusing to an to you in trouble. this is continuing everywhere. now we have more than 40% of the population in some of the counties and some of the region, and the south or northern part of the area. amy: china has repeatedly denind accusationons that the uyghurs f xinjiang are being persecuted. they call them training centers aimed at preventing terrorism.. this is china's vice minister of foreign affairs le yucheng speaking last month at the u.n. human rights council in geneva. >> prevention is an effective measure to curb terrorism. xinjiang is an anti-terrorism measure them set up training centers to help the people affected by terrorism toto stay with from extrtremism by means f training, so they can be integrated into the society,

preventing them to participate in terrorism. amy: if you can comment on this, and also tell us how the u.s. sees uyghurs. your history is extremely interesting. you translated for the government at guantanamo were a number of uyghurs were held, then quit that job to represent the uyghurs and those that were released from guantanamo to bermuda -- you worked with them to help them adjust. the about where china and u.s. share interests or the same attitude toward uyghurs and where they do verge? >> for the comment that the chinese official made, we have a news report from one of the western journalists who went through over 1500 documents from the chinese government side.

and it shows purchases of large electricf police beatings, like almost 3000 of them. sprayed.2800 pepper almost 1400,0, the shaleles and stuff like tt. if it is a vocational trainining cecenter, as they claiaim, why t ththe one countyty makes such ha o those, you know, ncentration camps? we have e ts of accoununts and reports like thahat. details t tt --he it is more more lookin le soviviet bloc-stylyle concentran camps.s.

s,out theeuantanamo uyghur detainees, and how the u.s. sees the uyghur situation today, the guantanamo uyghurs were left to escape persecution after an incident in 1997. , butwent to central asia in central asia, central asian countries also, not extending their staying there. their passports are expiring and their visas are expiring. so they ended up going to .fghanistan as people say, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. the u.s. government did not see any threat from the uyghurs because uyghur people have never, ever looked at the western countries as enemies..

it is people like the former guantanamo uyghurs, in their eyes, the chinese government is the only government that is persecuting innocent uyghurs. therefore, the united states did investigations and interrogations and decided to release them to third countries. they did not send them back to china. because sending them back to china could turn -- it is sending them to execution. amy: how many were held at guantanamo? >> there were 22 altogether. amy: how long were they held for? >> altogether, 11 years. not because the u.s. wouldn't help them, it is because the other countries were not willing to accept uyghurs. so the u.s. government could not find a place to send them. nermeen: could you also explain some of the background about the uyghurs? i mean, there has been a separatist movement carried out

by uyghurs were promoted by uyghurs in xinjiang. out,s many have pointed there have also been lethal attacks in xinjiang by uyghurs and by muslims from other muslim amenities, calling for a separate state. could you say a littlele about that? extremethere is suppression, of course there is going to be very minor handful of people reacting the way they do. just to retaliate against the oppression are trying to fight against the chinese government attack on the uyghur people. like i said, this has been happening for years. it is not just something that just happened the last couple of years in the concentration

camps. this is happening ever since the occupation of communist china starting from 1949 or goes the 1940's,during 1930's. wereg 1933 and 1944, there twice short-lived -- republic was established. some people look at the current situation, it is because we are being occupied. that is why the chinese government is targeting entire population of the uyghurs. because of some of the resentment movement, entire population is right now being persecuted. we're not just talking about 2 million or 3 million uyghurs in the camp, but also people living in their regular lives.

they are living in this entire 24ice state, being monitored hours, checkpoints everyone hundred meters. nermeen: i want to ask about another issue, a crucial form of suppression that the chinese government has been carrying out population,uyghur that has to do with the number of children who reportedly have been separated from m their parents and d put in orphanagesr simply disappeared. and this is while their parents are reportedly a live. a mother living in exile in istanbul expressed concern for her missing children in xinjiang. >> when i left xinjiang for turkey, my youngest child was two years old. he could not look after himself. if i don't feed them, they won't eat. they're so many things i need to do. i need to bathe them. if there were 10 or 15, i might

think differently. but where are they? where are they sleeping echo what are they doing? 10 that you their food? if they are sick, what will happen to them? i think of these things every day. nermeen: so that's a uyghur mother in istanbul, turkey, whose children are no longer with her or her family. rushan abbas, what can you tell us about the number of uyghur children who have placed in orphanages? and how many of them, so far as you know, have parents who are alive but have been detained in these camps? >> because of the information blocked by the communist regime, it is difficult to get the exact count. but right now am a i saw on one of the chinese outlets, there are about 500,000 uyghur kids at the orphanages. very large number of orphanages are being built these days.

imagine there are more than 2 million uyghurs in concentration camps today. their children left behind. even if some of the children were with the custody of the grandparents, as long as their parents are not with them in the house, the chinese government is taking those kids to orphanages. and they are raising them with chinese philosophy, chinese ideology -- completely regenerating the population of the younger uyghur, kids, even we have credible news accounts of children as young as not just hollers, like six months to a year being held in some of the concentration camps. some of the orphanages. amy: i'm looking at a piece in the atlantic is is china's treating islam like a mental illness. dowhat kind of to medication

you have with the u.s. government? what are they saying echo you worked for the government, then witt when you were at guantanamo. what is the u.s. policy? raised the if trump issue of the uyghurs? >> president trump did not raise the issue with president xi jinping, but secretary pompeo and vice president pence did raise the issue of the current situation. america's leading the movement of stopping this horrendous atrocity. i'm very grateful to the united states government. the current war -- the current negotiations with china should .ot only be regarding tariffs i really hope the trump administration and the lawmakers are e going to push this legislatioion introduced, uyghur

human rights policy 2018, which was introduced by senator rubio and senator menendez and congressman christopher smith and the other 13 congressman and senators. this is to stop this atrocity. question,ne last there is speculation that all of this is going on because of the enormous gas and oil reserves in xinjiang. could you quickly tell us about that? >> yes, one third of total china's oil and gas reserves are in the region. and also 60% of the cotton growth is there. 1/6 of hold china. therefore, the population density, china proper are ising, is -- you know, that

not the case in xinjiang. so taking the uyghurs to internment camps and moving the detainees to china proper, basically, making room for resettlement of the chinese population. that is what we worry, too. amy: rushan abbas, thank you for being with us uyghur-american , activist based in washington, d.c. after she spoke out against china's repression of the uyghurs, her aunt and sister disappeared and have not been heard of since. we will link to your piece in "the washington post" is headlilined, "my aunt and sister in china have vanished. are they being punished for my activism?" when we come back, elections stunned many in spain when a far right fascist group has takenena number of seats in a regional area of spain called andalusia. we will look at a new film "the silence of others" that looks back at the franco europe, the

n spain dreshener f fascism wh iteans tod. st with us. ♪ [musibreak]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: on monday, thousands marched across southern spain to protest the rise of the far-right vox party, which recently won multiple seats in a regional parliamentary election in andalusia. former trump adviser steve bannon threw his support behind vox earlier this year and has apparently been advising the far-right party. vox campaigned on an anti-immigrant, anti-abortion platform, and has many worried about the rise of far-right political populism in spain. this is ana gonzalez, a resident of madrid. think theyately, i will keep on rising and i think it is like a marketing technique as the one trump had. i think it is very dangerous because it is a marketing technique which is gathering people and taking them on its side, people abrupt do not have

a clear ideology. amy: vox's victory marks the first successful election for the far right in spain since the country returned to democracy in the after the death of military 1970's dictatator francisco franco. today, many y spaniards are too young to remember general franco's brutal 40-year dictatorship, but a remarkable new film hopes to remind the younger generation of spain's past lest history repeat itself. the film is called "the silence of others" and it follows several survivors of general franco's regime in their pursuit of justice as they organize an international lawsuit to investigate crimes against humanity. this is the fi''traiaile >> it isimply a rgetting anmnesty f all, byll. the getting for l,l, by l. i was s years o when they

ca f for mmothther he graveite. is is thmass gra. >> i lived jusmeters from the pers whoho ttured d . the thing i a all othisis h been covered up untinonow. >> there is not a town ispspain wiwitht victims of the franco regime, right? >> we want ourhildren alive or dead looking at the past were figiging for the futu. voicethe fit titimehe of the vtims wilbe heard bere a a crt. ,000 kilometers ayay froourr countrtr case, there are

prprotagist. me i is e of t tm. week, and hundrs of thousands vicms, died the right justice us,erhaps w of havell colborated that silence. how unjust fefe is. nonot fe. we, we humans, ware unju. for t newil lm, "theilence oothers." fomore, weo to los aeles, where we are jned by ey awd-winninfilmmakealmudena carraco who, ang with bert bahar,rote, pruced and directedthe silee of hers." almuna carrado, welce to mocracy w! i know y're headeback to spain ere you ve. is ian astonhing fil

t before go deep into th filmif you cld comme on what h taken pce in spn anhow so -- h idirectly relate to whatou covern th fm. >> tnk youou a, thank you for having me on the show. it is beautiful to be here to share the story of this film. what has happened in spain, for the first time since the death of franco in 1975, the far right has taken over certain parts of power. what we try to do in the film was precisely to bring back the past, to make a film about the legacy of the franco regime in the present so that new generations could actually learn what had happened. because if you don't know what happened in the past, it is very hard to fight for your future and for your present. we never u understood that t the future we work trying to avoid was going to become present, like, so fast.

amy: talk about your film, the lawsuit is is based on, and who the people are who have brought this lawsuit. -- wethe film follows filmed for six years. we followed the journey of a group of survivors, victims and survivors who decide to take on this internatialal lawit.. it is bad on t t priiple universa jisdictio which allowsourts inny parts o the worldo prosecute crimes in other pas s of torld if e country wherehey y ocrred fuses s do s so. this is e same princip that was used detaine augusto pinochet in london and start trying some of the military in argentina. based on the same principle, with the reversal that now it is is the characters in the film embarked on this journey. getfilm tries to actually

into their skin and feel what it feels like to be them, you know, go through their moments of success and frustratition so tht people can actually undererstand what it feels like e to be a victim, a survivor in spain. 40 years in silence. even with her status as victims, completely denied. , youen: almudena a carracedo mention this issue of universal jurisdiction. inin passed an amnesty law 1977. part of the reason that spain can't try people who were associated with franco's dictatorship is because of this amnesty law. but as you point out in the film, this law was followed by .any in latin america but once countries in latin america became democratic, they overturned this amnesty law. spain did not.

could you explain why, and in this issue of universal jurisdiction in this case taking place in argentina? >> right. that are played in the film because spain was a kind there in the application of universal jurisdiction, but when it was the turn of spain to judge its own crimes and the judge started to do that, judge gars on was disbarred. what is sort of fascinating now is spain is an outlier in international law right now because it breaks international law. all of these countries, yes, modeled after spain, sort of model of transnsition, the amney law was very much a moral and other countries, especially from past dictators. but now a lot of these countries have actually put it behindnd ad have overturned their amnesty laws and are dealing with her past -- this is something the

fifilm tries t to do. it putaa mirror t to many otherr countries as well and say, you know, there are many ways to deal with your past and with the legacy of the past in the present. it actually allows peoplple to think about those past crimes that theheir countries or those dark s shadows that the country has and that project themselves into the present. amy: it is really interesting that the way this law is referred to by many in spain, called the pact of forgetting. the idea -- you see this repeated over and over in the film, spanish officiaials saying "we must move forward. we must forget together." i want to go to a clip from "the silence of others." the first few minutes of your film in which an 84-year-old woman, maria martin, walks through her village to lay

flowers at the side of a road. a highway. martin's mother was killed when she was six years old. his is theravesite. this ithe mass gra. lookhere and thibrbrambl. ndthey tough the clothes left the womenen n ned. w unjustife is. not life h human we are unjust. y: so th is marimartin. we flow hertory thrghout

this hting, breathls whpery voi of ts older sick wom who cou not makit torgentinao testi with th others. ll us whapappeneto herer mother other wasmart's ptured. her ha was shad. e was eventually exeted ongith thousds of spaniard at the ry beginni of the spash civil war in areas actually not experiencing war. they were areas that have been taken over by franco in his coup d'etat. maria has been fighting since she was little. when her father passed away, he asked her in his bed, we you know -- he was dying, to please bring his wife to him. and she fought all of her life for that.

her case really represents a case of so many thousands and thousands of people in spain who are passing away without seeing something so fundamental as to the able to bury your loved ones in a dignified way. that is exactly what we try to do. we did not want to deal with this issue from a political point of view. it is a fundamental desk fundamentatally political film because we deal with situations around us, but we wanted to deal humans, to be at understand what it feels like to be maria martin when you have to go all your life to sit by the side of the road to put flowers to your mother. i want to ask about what amy mentioned earlier, the fact that in the film you show repeatedly government officials saying that it is their collective responsibility too

focus on the future and to not dwell on the past. one of the most striking moments in the film itself is when you take your camera man and go into a square and ask all of these young people, you know, what they know of franco and they say, -- and whether anything should be done and they say either they don't know or it is not relevant. could you talk about the significance of that and also the fact the executive producer of your film is this world-renowned director, ward-winning director? how many people give this moment significance? and is it a generational thing? >> in the transition to democracy in spain, there was this hacked of forgetting -- pact of forgetting, this pact of silence that basically forced people are basically stated that it was much better to leave

things behind. let's put everything under the carpet and start over. and obviously, the problem is you cannot legislate forgetting something. peopleleave the right t to memo. precisely so we learn about the pastst so we can avoid future issues the same, right? during the transition -- it has been 40 years of democracy in spain right now -- where essentially, it has taken all of this time for new generations to actually come into the political sphere or come into a procession where they can actually demand to know and to learn. this is not taught in schools. it is not talked about in families. and a lot of peoplple under 40 come to us very indignant and say, "they stole my history." illustrate so well in the film, and we want to go to two or clips. this is the first from "the silence of oerers." >> there is not a town inpain

without ctctims the franco regi, , righ start looking at the past -- >> historic memory assiation. >> we're joining thiproject withreatat ehusiasas wwant to bng this to lile towns together signateses d alalsotatememe of support from towhahalls. one town at a time.

amy: so this lawsuit continues. interestingly, being brought in argentina, which has universal jurisdiction. the very place where human rights watch attempted to get the crown prince of saudi arabia arrested, mohammed bin salman, when he went there for the g20. for crimes against humanity. in this last 10 seconds, the response in spain to this film? like spain wasel needing a tool, another tool. but a really powerful, emotional tool to be able to discuss her family's to talk about, for people to bring their parents into that the evers. theaters keep selling out. we are running our fourth week in theaters.

seen videos have been millions of times. it is been an amazing and beautiful moment. amy: we have to leave it there. thank you so much, almudena carracedo, emmy award-winning film maker, together with robert bahar, she wrote, produced and directed "the sile