08/26/19 08/26/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the situation we found just days after this decision to take away kashmir's autonomy, the situation was very bad. we felt the whole of kashmir was one big jail and people were really suffering very badly. haveresidents of kashmir entered their fourth week of a india lockdown after

revoked the special status of the region. as many as 4000 people have been detained, communication to kashmir has been cut off. we will l speak with an activist to travel to the region to document the crackdown. at first, we look at the recent mysterious nuclear accident in northern russia that killed seven people, including five nuclear scientists august 8. soon after,, four russian nucler monitoring stations went silent, leading some comparison to the cover-up of the 1986 chernobyl disaster. we will speak with m.i.t. professor kate brown. most of what we have been told and led to believe about chernobyl is incorrect or incomplete or just plain wrong. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the g7 summit has entered its last day in biarrtiz, france, as member countries have agreed to an immediate $20 million fund to help fight raging wildfires in the amazon. they also said there were launching a global initiative to protect the amazon rain forest. president trump was absent as g7 leaders met for a climate change session today. a french president macron said the u.s. supported t the measur. trade was also high on the agenda at the g7 as the u.s. se c confused d signals about is ongoing tariff warar with china. today, trump told reporters that "china called and they want to make a deal," however, questions are being asked about the supposed call. this comes after trump appeared to express doubts about his decision to raise tariffs

against china, telling reporters sunday, "i have second thoughts about everything." hours after trump made the comments, the white house claimed trump's statements were misinterpreted and that he actually meant he wanted to ramp up tariffs even further. on friday, the president unleashed a series of tweets saying he would raise existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of chinese goods to 30% and he would tax an additional $300 billion worth of chinese imports at 15%, rather than the planned 10%. this followed china's announcement it would retaliate against upcoming u.s. tariffs by raising taxes on american products. trump also demanded friday u.s. companies stop doing business with china. meanwhile, trump touted a trade deal with japan as he met with prime minister shinzo abe. the deal includes an agreement for japan to buy large amounts of corn from u.s. farmers. the two countries said they hoped to sign the deal next month, but japanese prime minister shinzo abe said more

work remains before it can be finalized. at the g7 summit, trump also expressed his desire to bring russia back into the group of 7 -- formerly the group of 8 -- after it was kicked out for annexing crimea in 2014. european officials, including european council president donald tusk, rejected the idea, saying that next year "it would be better to invite ukraine." trump also said his miami resort would be an excellent location for the next g7 summit. one of the biggest surprises of the weekend came when iran's top diplomat, foreign minister javad zarif, arrived at the summit amid mounting tensions between the u.s. and iran. zarif tweeted a photo of himself in a meeting with french president emmanuel macron and wrote -- "iran's active diplomacy in pursuit of constructive engagement continues. met @emmanuelmacron on sidelines of #g7biarritz after extensive talks with @jy_ledrian and

finance minister followed by a joint briefing for u.k./germany. road ahead is difficult. but worth trying." trump today claimed emmanuel macron asked for his approval before inviting zarif, but reports say trump was blind sighted by his dish blindsided by his presence at the summit. meanwhile, protesters rallied outside the g7 summit in biarritz and in other french cities denouncing the leaders of the world's richest countries for their role in the climate crisis and economic and gender inequality, among other things. this is aurelie trouve from the group alternatives g7. >> we are not speaking to the g7, to the seven liters we consider this g7 to be illegitimate. we are killing to the population to say there is hope, that we can and must build alternatives to the policies of the seven leaders who are at the service of the rich and the multinationals. weatherby trump, trudeau, or others, they have all the same.

we are opposing them with values of solidarity, answers to the environment of crisis, human rights, and the end of domination. amy: at mid -- amid growing international outrage about the massive wildfires ravaging the amazon, the brazilian military has started fighting the blazes, with military planes dropping thousands of gallons of water onto the forest. president jair bolsonaro ordered military operations in seven states to combat the thousands fire sunday. the fires are rapidly destroying the world's largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. the fires are also devastating large swaths of land in bolivia were president r ellis said he would accept international aid to fight the blazes that have doubled in size sincece thursda. the amazon produces 20% of the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere and often is referred to as the lungs of the planet. protesters across brazil and the

world to the streets over the weekend to protest bolsonaro has worked to open up the amazon for agribusiness, logging, and mining since he came into office in january. thousands rallied in sao paulo. a heritage fors the world's health. it is unacceptable what is happening in our country today. today, people are out on the street for the removal of a government from a place it should not be at, destroying our country, destroying our riches, killing the first peoples of this land. amy: political unrest continues in hong kong as pro-democracy protesters took to the streets for the 12th straight week. on sunday, police drew their guns for the first time since the uprising started and fired a warning shot above a crowd of demonstrators. police alslso used water cannons for the first time and fired tear gas and plastic bullets as they clashed with protesters in the tsuen wan district. authorities say 36 people were arrested sunday, including a 12-year-old, and 29 people were

arrested saturday. sunday's violence followed seseveral large-scale peaceful demonstrations over the weekend, including the formation of human chains across miles of hong kong streets friday. the action was inspipired by the baltic way protetest 30 years earlier when around 2 million people from three baltic countries held hands to call for an end to soviet rule. earlier this week, hong kong's chief executive carrie lam vowed to "start a platform for dialogue," but officials have so far not responded to any of the protesters' demands for democratic reforms or to withdraw the proposed extradition bill to china, which triggered the popular protest movement. on saturday, a senior hong kong official warned that china's military could intervene if civil unrest persisted. attacks in attacks in lebanon, syria, and iraq targeting iranian-backed forces over the weekenend escalating tensions acroross the middle east. the attacks were blamed on israel, though israeael only

coirmed ititas responsnsible for an overwrite air raidd saturday in syria, which theyey said wawn attack on an rainy and operatedd based d that was preparing to launch a drone assaults on israel, israel said. on s sunday, to drones crasheden beirirut leaving hezbollah leads to vowow retaliation of any further strikes occur. more thahan 350 migranants strad on a a rescue ship in n the mediterranean sea disembarkekedn malta friday after six european countries agreed to accept them. the ocean viking, which is run by french charities doctors without borders and sos mediterranee, had been in a tense standoff for two weeks ass it remained in interernational waters after b being deniedd permissision to dock i in italy malta. most of the passengers on the ocean viking were e from sudan d had been rescued in four separate missions. the shipip was carrying around 0 children, most of them unaccompanied. the migrants will now be relocated to germany, france, romania, ireland, portugal, and

luxembourg. in bangladesh, an estimated 200,000 rohingya refugees took part in a genocide day rally sunday, marking the second anniversary of their flight from burma after a brutal military crackdowown. rohingya refugees demanded burma grant them citizenship and a guarantee of safety as they marched in the world's largest bazar. camp in cox's two years agago, over 700,000 rohingya muslims fled burma's rakhine e state.e. this is mohammad salim, one of the approximately 1 million rohingya refugees now living in bangladesh. >> they burned our houses, took away our cattle, seized our land. if they return our lands, homes, and give us citizenship, then we will go baback. otheherwise, we will not go. amy: president trump is denying he suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes a after axios reported he raisised the questin multiple times at meetinings wih

national security and homeland securityty officialsls. acrdrding to a sourcrce presidet e suchcheeting, trump said -- "they start forming off the coast of africa, as they're moving across the atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. why can't we do o that?" the idea of nuking h hurricaneso stop them has been around since at l least the eisenenhower era, despite scscientists confirmingt woululd not work. the natitional oananic and atmospheric administration has published a a fact sheet entntid "tropicacal cyclone e myths pagn whicich it debununks the idea. former illinois congressmember joe walsh announced he is challenging president trump for for thehe republican presisidenl nomimination in 202020. walsh won his cocongressional st as aeaea party canandidate in n0 but seserved just t one term b e losing in the nextxt election to demomocrat tammy duckwth.. hehe was a vocal supporter of

candidate trtrump in 2016, but said in an intnterview with ab's george stephanopououlos sunday i helped create trump"p" but thate now thinks "trump p is erratic, he''s cruel, he stokes bigotry." joe walsh also apapologized f fr past racist commentsts about prpresident obama. in 2017, he tweeted, "we lowered the bar for obama. he was held to a lower standard because he was black" and later said obama was elected because he was black. he also promoted birtherism and made anti-muslim comments about obama, even though obabama is nt muslim. joe walsh is thehe second republican to announce he is challenging trump after former massachusetts governor bill weld declared his candidacy in april. in more 2020 news, the democratic national committee rejected a resolution that would have allowed candidates to participate in a debate focused solely o on the climate crisis. a coalition of activist groups including sunrise movement and greenpeace usa said in a

statement -- "dnc chair tom perez decided it wasn't politically expedient to have democrats discuss their solutions for our climate crisis on the same national stage as one another. our entire future is at stake, but tom perez just swept aside the climate crisis for someone else to solve. that isn't leadership." in public health news, a patient in illinois is believed to be the first casualty linked to vaping. health officials said friday the patient died after contracting a severe respiratory illness but did not give details about what the patient was vaping or the exact device used. this comes as the centers for disease control and prevention has identified nearly 200 possible cases of lung disease linked to vaping in at least 22 states. dozens of young people with an unidentified lung illness have been hospitalized around the country in recent weeks. it's unclear if the condition is linked to the vaping devices or what the patients were smoking before they became sick. a recent study says that

e-cigarettes impact people's blood vessels after a single use. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has gone through three weeks of radiation treatment for a cancerous pancreatic tumor, the court announced friday. justice ginsburg's doctors said the disease did not appear to have spread beyond the pancreas and the justice does not require further treatment for now. ruth bader ginsburg continued to work, as well as a attend many cultural evevents, during her outpatient treatment in nenew yk at the memorial sloan kettering cancer center. the 86-year-old justice is now a four-time cancer survivor. she had surgery for lung cancer in december and previously survived pancreatic cancer in 2009. the supreme court's new term opens s in early october. and billionaire conservative donor david koch died friday at the age of 79 from prostate cancer. david koch, who was worth some $42 billion, and his brother

charles koch inherited their fortune from their father and his oil and gas ventures. in addition to oil refineries and pipelines, koch industries also owns many major u.s. companies. the pair poured massive amounts of money into funding climate change denial through conservative think tanks and politicians. the koch brothers founded the political advocacy group americans for prosperity in 2004, which is credited with turning the tea party into a full-fledged political movement. the kochs also backed right-to-work efforts, which aim to weaken labor rights and quash union membership. the new yorker's jane mayer was on democracy now! in 2016 to talk about her book "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." kochs have built a kind of assembly-line. it includes think tanks, which vapors, advocacy

groups that advocate for policies, and it includes giving money to candidates. you put those three together and they pushed against doing anything about climate change on all those three fronts at once. you get papers that look like they are real, scientific opinion doubting that climate change israel, you get advocacy groups saying we can't afford to do anything about it, and you get candidates who have to sign a pledge that the largest political group is americans for prosperity, they have a pledge that says if you want to get money from this group, from their donors, you have to sign a pledge sayingg if elected, you will do nothing abouout climate change that requires bending any money on the problem. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. questions are still swirling over a mysterious nuclear accident in northern russia on august 8.

seven people, including five nuclear scientists, died in an explosion which caused a radiation spike in the surrounding area and possibly as far as scandinavia. at least two of the deaths have been linked to radiation sickness. u.s. experts suspect the explosion was caused during a test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. russia initially denied a radiation leak had occurred and four russian nuclear-monitoring stations went silent after the blast. but earlier today, russia's state weather agency confirmed radioactive isotopes have been found in test samples near the military test range. russian agencies have also given out conflicting information about what was happening at the time of the explosion. norway's nuclear test-ban monitor now believes two explosions occurred august 8, with the second one being the likely source of radiation.

norway has also said it has found small amounts of radioactive iodine near its arctic border with russia. russia's handling of the nuclear accident has drawn some comparisons to the soviet union's cover-up of the far more severe disaster at a nuclear 1986 plant in chernobyl, which is considered the worst nuclear accident in history. it sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into russia, b belarus d over a large portion of europep. 50,000 people living in chernobyl's immediate surrououings had to o be evacuad and a vast rural region became uninhabitable. the death toll from chernobyl remains unknown. estimates range from under 1 100 to up to 4000. we go now to boston to speak with kate brown, a professor of science, technology, and society at m.i.t. specializing in environmental and nuclear history. her new book is "manual for survival: a chernobyl guide to the future."

professor brown, welcome to democracy now! can you talk about what we know so far about this nuclear accident in russia, where it is, the fact the four closest nuclear monitoring stations have been silent since the blast? >> yes. what people are saying and the russian blogosphere is this is chernobyl redux. they are under lock and key. they are surrounded by gates and guards.. and the public h has very little access to it.. there are 40 closed nuclear cities in russia, and this area in the russian north. when this explosion occurred, there was lots of confusion, as you said. the monitors were shut down. people went to the web in their recorded with her own geiger

counters varying accounts. we think there is about a 16 times higher spike that occurred because of the accident. it was definitely a tragedy. seven people died because of it. the doctors at the hospital were really angry because they were not told they were working with people exposed to radioactivity. they were in a critical ward where there are little babies, people in critical condition. and the doctors themselves were exposed because of these bodies brought in that had radioactivity on them. amy: and reports it -- of two people know who did d not die explosion -- i don't know if it was two ofof the nuclear scientists -- but on the wood to the airport, radiation sickness and exposure? >> yes, yes. and this has caused a lot of consternation in russia. it is let us to think again about situations of chernobyl where leaders in russia and in other parts of the world have these accidents.

it is difficult to detect and certainly y y cannott since radioactivivity, but it t is something that has legal consequences andnd also has subacute consequences s that mae pepeople very y sick. peoplele get nervous. they don't know what is going on. government control the landscapes in which these accidents occur r and are not terribly forthcoming about what is going on. russia is a prime example of this. the u.s. expertrts suspect explosion was caused during a test of a nuclear powered cruise missile. what do you understand caused this explosion? they were fueling, from what i understand, they were fueling radioactive isotopes, the combustion of the missiles. that makes this missile a long-lasting 1, 1 1 that can be controlleded, and it does not bn out usually. nuclearnew class of missiles. amps up the race..

up ththe race. i think this goes beneath the radar of thehe media. during t the cold war, there wee lots of threats made back and forth. people knew we had a nuclearar arms racace going on. we have forgotten about that since the end of the cold war, even though we are s still in te midst of the same color processes as during the cold war. amy: you have that which was a possible test of a new nuclear cruise missile, and then you have the u.s. sort of boasting, putting out video of its own test of a cruise missile off long beach in california. and then you have president putin saying he is going to respond, saying the u.s. pulled out of the inf agreement, the intermediate nuclear forces -- the inf agreement, just recently trump pulleled the u.s. out of ,

simply so he could test that missile. >> yeah. we're headed toward a dangerous situation. in 1963, the major powowers, including the sosoviet union, te united date, ban the testing of nuclear weapons in the air. we look at 45 million curies of radioactive iodine, which goeoes right t to human thyroroid's and causeses cancers and all k kindf other fallout more problems in the body, 45 million curies from chernobyl accident, 20 billion curies from the u.s. and soviet union alone testing nuclear the 1960's. if we're going to go back to a period of testing weapons, i fear our escscalating rarates of cancer, espepecially thyroroid cancers which are often chart, will continue to cause a real problem for human health globally. amy: you just came from estonia

where people in the baltics -- were the people in the baltics concerned about what is taking place? >> yes. but they're even more concerned about how they're going to solve the fossil fuel problems. , electricityle oil and the tiny country in the baltics, and they make a very big footprint in terms of producing carbon into the atmosphere. green partieswo in estonia and are both on the right and both went to them at two nuclear reactors. a lot of people are nervous about it. they have lived in the shadow of chernobyl for the last 30 years. amy: where going to go to a break and come back to talk about what happen in chernobyl and what lessons can be learned. kate brown is a professor of science, technology and society at m.i.t., specializing in environmental and nuclear history. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. are still swirling over this mysterious nuclear accident in northern russia on august 8 with seven people, putting five nuclear scientist, dead in explosion which caused a radiation spike in the surrounding area and possibly as far as scandinavia. we are speaking to kate brown, professor of science, technology and society at m.i.t., specializing in environmental and nuclear history. her new book is "manual for survival: a chernobyl guide to the future." kate brown, talk about what we should understand, the greatest as conceptions and the most important fact we should understand about what happened in chernobyl in 1986 and why it is still relevant today. we knknow a lote about chernobyl ---- that is wht i thought when i started this project is to i worked my wayay ththrough 27 archiveves and tald toto three dozen scientists and farmerers andeople who o worked withth the chernobyl accident. i followed biologists around the

zone who worked there twice the year.. after about five years of research, i realized much of what we know about chernobyl is just either incomplete or fully incorrect. for example, we thinknk -- there is just one chernobyl zone. but what a few people know is there's a second chernobyl zone nearly as radioactive as the first one, and southern belarus. it was created because a couple of days after the accident, moscow leaders realized a big storm front was brewing and it was sitting northeastward several large russian cities, including moscow. they sent pilots and the pilot manipulated the weather so it rural belarus.-- it probably prevented the exposure of millions of iran dwellers but they did not tell anyone in belarus. lived in these rural

areas intra-prickly raging hot conditions of radioactivity. another misconception we have about the chernobyl zone is about 300 peopople were hospitalized. nuclear plantstly operators and d firefighters. that was only one count from m e hospital. ,hat i foundnd is 40,000 people with 11,000 being children, streamed in the hospitals in the summer after the accident for chernobyl-related exposures, especially in the southern territories of belarus were wondering what was goioing on, y are my children fainting? why are they nauseous? whwhy can't all of u us get outf bebed in the morning? so that isis another misconceptn is whahat kind of fatalities. if you look at u u.n. records, they say from 35 to 50 people died from the chernobyl

exposures. they project that in the future 4000 people might die of cancers. what i fouound is belarus and russia were -- have not been brave enough to make a count, but in ukraine, 35,000 women ceived compensation for their spouses who died of chernobyl-documented exposures. these are just men who died. these are not children. it does not include women. it does not count anyone who was not married. off the record and at the chernobyl visitor center, they give the number of 150,000 ukrainians dead, not 35, but at least 35,000. amy: i want to read from your book -- >> why is there no real conclusive science? dosesw w a lot about high of radioactivity and what that does to humans. jujust like the accident that jt happened in russia on august 8. people die from acute radiation

poisisoning. ththat is sysy to dedetect. it i is fully documented. we have a big studydy from the corruption a-nagasaki bombings. but we really y don't know what happens to people e exposed to w doses stop chronically overlong. of time. that is the chernobyl syndrome. , let's far more likely hope, to be to the people will not be exposed to nuclear bombs again. but we probably will have on this globe more nuclear accidents at nuclear power plants. we have dozens of power plants that were over 40 years old operating. so we need to know what happens when people are exposed in a chernobyl-like situation to a slow drip of low doses of radioactivity. what i found looking through the agricultural records of the soviet archives is quickly, radioactivity saturated the food chain. it was in the wheat, tea, meat. milk,

livestock. had been sued really contaminated. they butchered the livestock and loathed to throw it out as nuclear garbage and sent a manual -- this is why i call it for survival" they sent manuals to packing houses and said, take the meat and graded in three levels. the low and medium levels, take that meet and mix it with clean meat and make sausage. so that sausage all over the soviet union and label it as you normally would, just don't send any instructions to moscow. the high-level meat was supposed to be put in freezer so it could decay and every time they hoped it would be cleaner and safer to eat. at the packing houses were writing moscow saying we need more freezers. that is how much radioactive me they have. they got no more freezers so that took it and stuff tons and

tons in refrigerated train cars elsewhere. for four years, this radioactive train filled with radioactive meat circulated the western half of the soviet union. no one wanting to touch it. by 1990, kgb officers very the train car back in the chernobyl zone where it should have gonene in the first place. so what we see are a path of contagion where people were ingesting radioactive contamininants in the food and taking it in on the dust. it w was sort ofof an uncontrole mix of radioactivity going all over the place. now, i would have expected that scientists would h have pileledo thisis area -- international scientists as soon as chernobyl hahappen said, this has been a tragedy, but it is also a living x ehrman. and perhaps we should find out

finally what happens to humans exposed chronically to low doses of radioactivity. 1990 soviet union is falling apart will stop a lot of people were upset aboutut chernobobyl d moscowow offials a asked u.n.. agencies to come in and do an independent assessment by foreign experts. .ell us what happens first, the world health organization went in and three scientists spent 10 daysys visisiting contaminated unpopulated areas. they can away and said, no problem, you could or triple the dose. no problem. they were thinking they were looking at hiroshima. see anyd, we don't problem. nobody believed the world health organization's 10 day assessment and so moscow as the international atomic energy agency to go in. you have us an assessment of how high the doses are and whether people should -- are in harm of

further damage. international atomic energy goncy got 200 scientists to in o over 18 months. mostly just short trips, two weeks or 10 days, and they were approached by doctors, ukrainiaians andnd those on the ground who lived in working for the previouous four yeaears with these contaminated populations. they said, look, we have a serious problem with childhood thyroid cancer. western experts did not believe it. they did not expect this kind of bump epidemic and childhood cancer. ukrainian scientists gave the biopsies of children from their thyroid. they brought them home. western scientists, the thyroid cancers were checked out. but in the big report they wrote in 1991, they omitted that information from the report. they said there were rumors of butdhood thyroid cancers, they were anecdotal in nature. this is unfortunate what i found

working my way through u.n. archives is that a few key u.n. scientists and administrators worked to diminish the story of a public health crisis occurring in chernobyl having contaminated lands. they just missed most of the research that came in -- they dismissed most of f the research that came in. dust hid these biopsies and kept repeating over and over again there is no need for chernobyl aid, for long-term healthth studies. so that is why to this day when people tell you we have no evidence of low-dose exposures cause harmrm to human healthth,t is because that big study was never done. there is no real evidence. what i found working my way in the the medical files former soviet unioion, and w wet from the federal level down to the republic level down to the

county hospital level, is people got sick long before they got cancer, long befefore theyey di- acute death tolls, you know. they got sick from five major disease categories. that included autoimmune disorders, respiratory disorders, digestive tract disorders, cardiac and circulation disorder, and problems with fertility. getting pregnant. women had trouble caring full-term. infantnts born within 28 days of birth died at t much higher r rs than beforore. there were far greater number of brick effects. journalry is all in the of archives. amy: before we go to break, i want to o ask about the push i some saying nuclear powers, the answer in the climate crisis, to the reliance on oil and gas. >> yes. if we're going to full or replace fossil fuels, we will have to build 12,000 new

rereactors around the globe. there e are about 400 now. that is a big upscale a nuclear power. there would have to be nuclear power stations outside of every major populalation point. there e all kinds of problems wh cost versus renewables, but the thing that eats me up at night is the health h effects. wewe really don't know what the health effects are for sure. this is heavily disputed. there is been no big study. the chernobyl records show health effects at low doses of radioactivity are severe and they run through population causing people to feel -- before they get cancer, before they are reported as acute effects, the subacute effects cause people have sort of a full bouquet of health problems that make life just miserable on a daily level. finally, professor brown, we just cap 30 -- >> and joy of living. amy: i want to ask, if you feel

it could happepen here in the united states? >> yes, i'm afraid that not only could it happen here, but in fact it already has happened here. our biggest nuclear power plant in hanford, power plant in western -- eastern ukraine -- i'm sosorry, is turn washington state, spill 350 million trees of radioactive waste into the surroundining environment during cold war proroction, nucuclear arms. we tetested thehere's only couny in the worldld that testeded nur bombs in our heartland in nevada. those nuclear weapons or b blown up on n the amererican continent spread bilillions, not millions like chernobyl, but billions of juries of radioactive waste around the american country. so we have hot spots of radioactivity in tennessee and chicago thahat are as high as nr as the bottom. what we have as a public health crisis that we have yet not yet fully addressed.

we have rising rates of thyroid cancer, rising rates of pediatric cancers, which used to be in the 1930's, a medical rarity. amy: kate brown, we're going to have to let -- >> whether there is a connection between these troubling health oftistics and the kind contaminants, putting radioactive contaminants i in te environment, something we need to address. amy: kate brown, we have to leave it there. thank you for being with us. professor of science, technology and society at m.i.t. her new book is "manual for survival: a chernobyl guide to the future." when we come back, residents of kashmir have entered their fourth week of a severe lockdown . we will go to a person who traveled there to investigate. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. we turn now to kashmir where residents have entered their fourth week of a severe lockdown after india revoked the special status of the indian-contrololld partrt of the muslim-majority region. on august 5, india imposed a curfew and cut off all communications to the region. the press reports as many as 4000 people, including many political leaders, have been detained. "the new york times" puts the number at local residents report 2000. facing increasing shortages of food and medicine. over the weekend, india blocked a delegation of indian opposition politicians from visiting kashmir, including rahul gandhi, the former president of the indian national congress. india's actions have also led to a spike in tension with its nuclear armed rival pakistan,

which also claims control of kashmir. the two nations have fought two wars over kashmir. while india has shut down telecommunications and the internet in kashmir, some firsthand accounts of what's happening are emerging. we recently spoke to kavita krishnan in new delhi, india. she is a leading women's rights activist in india who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to kashmir. she's the secretary of the all india progressive women's association and a member of the communist party of india. i asked her to talk about what she found during her visit. inthe situation we found kashmir just days after this decision from the situation was very bad. we felt the whole of kashmir was one big jail and people were really suffering very badly. they were unable to communicate with each other. any kashmiri protests were being met with the most brutal kinds of crowd control, including

pellet guns and tear gas. and kashmiri people were feeling terribly betrayed because their leaders, as well as the people themselves, are all kind of locked up. and so decisions are being taken about the kashmiri people without any semblance, even a pretense, of consulting them, even a pretense of democratic process. so what is left of the contract between kashmir and india, which was the special status article 370, is basically nothing. and so all you are left with is open, kind of brutal military control of the kashmiri people. so the situation was indeed very, very bad. amy: you've described the situation as under complete siege, and even yoyoung children are being arrested as an act of intimidation. explain what you saw and who you talked to on the ground. >> yes. so we tried to meet as many ordinary people, kashmiri

people, as possible of diverse communities in different parts of kashmir, so that included urban srinagar, as well as various parts of rural kashmir. and we were probably the first team to do this, because most journalists had not ventured out of srinagar or even out of a small enclave in srinagar, 'til we did so. and what we found there was that people were wanting to protest, they were very upset, but they could not protest because peaceful protest is not allowed, a, and also the fact that in many of the households in rural kashmir, young children had been picked up by the police completely illegally. so they were being illegally detained in police stations or army camps. and so the parents would be so fearful for the safety of their children that they would not be able to voice any protest. and this is what we found there. we also spoke to a lot of kashmiri women and girls who were especially angry that the indian prime minister and the indian government was talking about liberating kashmiri women. and they were upset because the

leaders of the ruling party in india were talking about kashmiri girls as though they are the spoils of war, and saying, "oh, indian men can now get fair kashmiri brides," and things like that. so there was a lot of anger and a lot of sense that kashmiri people didn't count, that kashmir has been reduced to territory, which is being treated by the indian government as though it is a muslim territory to be conquered by a hindu-majoritarian government. amy: seven million people have been confined to their homes without any communication for more than two weeks in disputed kashmir. this is ishrat, a kashmiri woman from srinagar. >> for 12 days, we have been locked inside our houses. we cannot go out of our homes. we cannot go and get medicines. we have small children, and we can't even go and buy toffees for them. there is nothing for us. we have relatives outside, brothers and sisters in countries outside, but we have no contact or news of them. we have absolutely no

information about their well-being. amy: so how are you getting information now, kavita krishnan, as you've left the territory and you're back in new delhi? >> well, after we got back, we found that, you know, journalists have started going, so some journalists of some independent portals and papers have started doing very good work reporting from there, although they've also been talking about how difficult it is to report from there. so kashmir-based journalists, kashmiri journalists are saying that the armed forces are forcing them to delete their foototage, video footage, as wel as taking away o other material that they have. and kashmiri papers are finding it hard to come out bececause theyey're even finding it difficult to get newsprint. so reporting from kashmir is still very difficult. but still, there are some journalists on the ground doing a great job. amy: last week, the kashmiri political leader shah faesal was interviewed on bbc from new delhi, where you are right now,

kavita. faesal was asked whether he had exaggerated the extent of india's control over kashmir. he was detained shortly after this intnterview. >> most of the political leaders who belong to my political party and all other political parties have been detained. i am the only person from the all-party meeting, which met there in srinagar on 4th, who is free. and honestly speaking, i'm'm ashamed of myself that i a am fe at a time when the entire leadership of kakashmir is unde, you know, in jail and all the 8 million people have been imprisoned. >> do you think, in all honesty, when this interview is done and perhaps over the next few days, you will try to go back to kashmir -- do you think you will be free for long? >> police has come to my home couple of times after i left. and it's also a story in itself, the way i reached the airport

and came to delhi. because of communication breakdown, maybe people could not cocommunicatate to their highgher-ups about my cacape frm the airport. but i am verery much apprehensne that soon after r i leave from here, , i may be detained, like anybody else. amy: so that's kashmiri political leader shah faesal. -- byafteter this interviview the way, in it, he said he was ashamed he hadn't been arrested. in fact, as he left, he left the studio and went to the airport, he was arrested and has not been released since then. can you talk about his significance? his own father was killed by kashmiri separatists. >> that's right. and shah faesal, as well as many of the leaders who were arrested, are, in fact, people who were seen as pro-india in the valley. they were seen by kashmiris as being a part of a middle ground that was arguing for continuing the relationship with india and remaining part of the indian union. so what the indian government

has now done is to completely lock all those people up. and so a lot of kashmiri people totold us thatat, look, those wo were singing praises of india are the ones that india has locked up today. so that's a message to us that we should not, you know, place faith in the indian political process and democratic process anymore. amy: i want to ask you about indian prime minister modi saying kashmir's previous status was unjust for kashmiri women because they lost their inheritance rights if manning a person outside the region. your response to modi implying he was doing this for the women of kashmir? >> the kashmiri women have the best response to this. they said, look, we are fighting patriarchy but so are you. women are fighting country are key all over the world but who are our oppressors to be claiming to liberate us? and it is especially galling to hear these words from modi went

his party, men, are actually saying things like, oh, now that our indian men can get fair kashmiri brides so kashmiri women will tell us, we are being talked aboutut as thougugh we ae the spoils of war, as though we are apples and peaches for someone to steal. this is rape colter language coming from the ruling party toward the kashmiri girls and women. amy: before we end, i want to ask you about the significance overall of what is happening and what modi has done, what this means for kashmir when you pit two countries, india and pakistan, both nuclear rivals, could this be a trigger for some kind of nuclear rivals. -- nuclear attack? and how do you see, and what are you calling for, the resolution in kashmir? >> for the first time ever, recent we india said it would

n no first use policies,, so whehere probably the firstt country in the world is thatat e wiwill not have a no first nuclr policy. so i indeed there is a very real dangerer of a nuclear armed conflict here. but also i would say that, you know, the issue is not just a bilateral one. when kashmir is treated simply as a something which india and pakistan are fighting over, i think that that is an injustice to the kashmiri people, because i think that any resolution should respect the fact that the status and the political future of kashmir, kashmiri people need to have a say in that. and that is what we need front and center. and also, india needs to you know, as a start towards this, india needs to withdraw its military presence from the civilian landscape of kashmir. it needs to actutually address e long history of very terrible human rights violations there, including mass graves and custodial torture, custodial violence, custodial rape.

all these allegations need to be really addressed. and that would just be the smallest step in the direction of actuaually resolving this conflict respectfully, with respect for the kashmiri people and their voice. amy: president trump and prime minister modi of india have a very close relationship. can you talk about whether you think islamophobia plays a role in this? >> certainly. i think that islamophobia plays a huge role because with the indian government right now, they know that what you know, what they're doing in kashmir, they know that's not going to resolve the kashmir conflict. what they are doing is that they are projecting this victory over kashmir, this triumph over this rebellious muslim province, which is how they project it, to do their politics in india as a whole and to say that basically muslims, by their very nature, tend to be pro-pakistan and

anti-india, you can't trust muslims, and all of that. and therefore, i think that, you know, the ways in which trump dealt with the disputed territory of jerusalem and just declared it unilaterally to be an israeli capital is similar to the way in which modi is dealing with kashmir. and you have, in fact, hindu-majoritarian groups in india which have expressed a lot of admiration for donald trump, precisely because of his islamophobia. there is also a link between israel and india and the bjp government in india, because the ruling bharatiya janata party, they really look at israel as a model for the way israel creates its minorities, for the way israel is basically openly a jewish state -- they want india to be a hindu state in the same way -- and also for the way israel treats palestine. they want india to treat pakistan that way. amy: kavita krishnan, if you can talk about the response inside

kashmir right now? what kind of opposition is there? and also, in india, what kind of opposition is there to modi's move in kashmir? can you talk about the peace movement? >> see, in kashmir, there is -- there are some sporadic protests. as i said, widescale protests are probably extremely difficult now, given the paramilitary -- complete paramilitary control over such a large part of kashmir. but what a lot of people told us is that what they would like to do is to be able to protest peacefully, you know, to be able to protest the way people are doing in hong kong, for instance. they said that we would d like o be out on the streets of srinagar in the thousands and peacefully without expecting bullets and pellet guns. in india, on the other hand, i would say that while, of course, the indian government has got a whole lot of support from very wide quarters, because of the lack of knowledge about, you know, the history of kashmir's accession to india, and because of islamophobia, there are still protests by left organizations, by people's movement and civil

liberties groups and young students and women's organization groups and all of these. they have had quite significant large protests in major cities, as well as small towns, basically making various points here, pointing out that if modi government said that the status, autonomous status, was a temporary provision and they can do away with it, they look at india's constitution itself as a temporary provision and they want to get rid of that as well. they want to get rid of affirmative action for the oppressed castes in india, which is something modi's organization, the rss, said just very recently, just the other day, that we need a dialogue to, you know, discuss what to do about affirmative action. they've always seen affirmative action also as a temporary provision. so we've tried to, you know, do what we can to have indian people, people all over india, empathize with the situation of the kashmiri people now and stand up for them right now. amy: you were there during o one

of the most sacred muslim holidays, eid. can you talk about the timing of modi's announcement at eid? >> yes, i think kashmiri people felt that this was an especial, you know, piece of cruelty that the islamophobic modi government had unleashed on them. many of them told us, you know, even if he had to do this, couldn't he have done it after eid? because, you know, their entire eid was spent in mourning, in worry and fear about their young boys who were in police or army custody. and we found that no one was celebrating eid. many in rural kashmir were not allowed to the mosques or the mosques were not allowed to broadcast the prayers from there, you know, the speeches from the mosque, which are usually done. and apart from very small children, no one even wore new clothes on eid. and many of them could not

afford because they hadn't been earning for more than a week. they could not afford to get home, you know, ninice things to eat and, you know, the sacrifice that is done on eid and all of that. so there was a terrible sense of mourning and sadness there, and a feeling that this was especially cruel on the part of the modi government. amy: and pakistan asking the u.n. security council to intervene in this, what would this mean? >> well, i wanted to talk briefly about the significance of that because i think that for a long time, since 1972, there's been an international acceptance that kashmir is a bilateral issue after the simla accord between india and pakistan. and since then, there has not really been that much international discussion of kashmir. but i think modi's move essentially breaks this simla agreement. and that i is why the u.n.n. security council at all discussed the issue, which in itself is significant. it is also significant that while russia spoke sort of in support of india, they also

mentioned that the issue should be resolved bilaterally, in keeping with not only the simla agreement, but with u.n. resolutions. i think that this must be the first time in decades. you know, since 1972, i don't think any major international country would have mentioned the u.n. resolutions on kashmir in this manner. so i think that for you know, whether it will really push towards a resolution or not, one cannot say. but definitely, the modi government has pushed the issue in the direction of internationalization of the kashmir dispute e once again. amy: is there any other thing you would like -- >> and that isis seen as a diplomatic failure on part of the modi government. amy: is there anything else you'd like to add for a global audience to understand what's happening right now in kashmir, and what would you like to see, how you would like to see this resolved? >> yes, yes. see, i think that for a global

audience, i think, you know, the tendency to look at such issues cynically, it's very important for people across the world, i think, to refuse to look at it cynically, and to say that this is an entire people that are stripped of their, you know, basic mobility and their basic right to talk about their own status, their own future. and, you know, they're essentially being imprisoned here and decisions are being taken about them without consulting them. so it has to, you know, people have to stand up and speak for kashmir. and also, they have to realize that the indian government, you know, is taking that this is only the first move of the indian government in the direction of very speedily pushing india in the direction of becoming a hindu-majoritarian country, a totalitarian country. and so people really need to speak up in solidarity with people in india, with people in kashmir, yes. prime minister narendra

modi has reportedly rebuffed .resident trump's that does it for the show. happy birthday vesta goodarz and jeremy cabalona! [captioning made possible by democr