Transcripts For DW The Day 20240713

Division overunity in 2019 when did we forget those lessons of 1989 im bringing off in berlin this is the day. That much of a think of when you really an eyewitness to such an event and its something very moving by it and it makes you realize that everything can be changed. Enough and not always everything that was set in stone just folds this is something that keeps happening in the history of humanity in the past year. That everything that came after it could not contest to this day. Also coming up of protesters in iraq are demanding a functioning government that works for everyone instead of a system that cheats as many as possible the response so far has been brutal and at the United Nations see they use life bullets weak human beings protesting into minding our rights look at what they did to my leg and my hand they started shooting live ammunition at us. Once who our viewers on p. B. S. In the United States and all around the world welcome we begin the day with the bridges that were supposed to replace the walls. When the berlin wall crumbled 30 years ago the peaceful revolution that followed gave much of the world a reason to hope for a different future the reunification of germany the expansion of the European Union and even the enlargement of nato these were significant events that looked like progress but progress for whom not for the post soviet wild west russia of the 1990 s. That diminished great power that would eventually demand respect again with Vladimir Putin in charge tonight one of the authors a journalist who reported on that time he wrote the rough draft of post wall history or joined me to talk about the lessons of 1989 that we thought we learned maybe we did but 1st how did we get here lets remind you of exactly what happened 30 years ago when the berlin wall fell on the night of november 9th 1989 east germanys communist regime reopened the border for the 1st time in 30 years east germans could safely cross to the west now it turned the hated and Deadly Border wall into simply a wall this week as berlin remembers the people who died trying to escape the city is also celebrating the freedoms that followed for everyone. And our very own David Leavitts he is out in the balance in berlin among the festivities this week good evening to you david i can tell behind you you must be the east side gallery tonight. Thats right and its been turned into a kind of a screening show this is not just a new movie its a movie about the history of the berlin wall and what better place to see it than on a piece of the wall itself the east side gallery is the biggest and one of the only remaining parts of the berlin wall that are Still Standing and no where im standing today is not has not always been a place to watch movies if i had been here 30 years ago i could have been shot dead by east german Border Guards just for being here now they would have been maybe in the towers as part of the wall complex or they could have been on patrol boats in the river behind me and where i am in this part of berlin the wall itself is not the border the border itself is in the middle of the river split a which you can see marked by these lit up blue poles and right here about 10 people died trying to cross from communist east berlin into what was known as free west berlin now if you look at the figures across east germany during the time of the berlin wall the number of people who tried to escape east germany and died during their attempt is over a 1000 some say its around 1200 and most of those who died trying to escape were young men between the age of 18 and 25 now its no wonder if you look at those figures that in 1989 when the border opened people came down to the berlin wall with picks with hammers to take it down and there was there was a Huge Movement to take down the berlin wall and really the only reason that this stretch of the berlin wall 1300 meter stretch of it survived is down to the efforts of around 100. 00 artists. On the east time calorie was started in. February 990 artists were invited to paint an original portion of the berlin wall back then the initiative was designed to help east german artists who had suddenly been left without an income but in those exciting days of the former communist state opening up artists came from all over the world. When berlin was divided it was common for people on the western side to draw graffiti on the wall but on the eastern side people approached at their peril the wall became more and more fortified with heavily armed guards tripwires searchlights and lookout towers Border Guards were ordered to shoot to kill anyone who tried to escape and more than 100 people were killed trying to cross the border in berlin alone just a few months after those instruments of oppression were dismantled the east side gallery turned the symbol of terror into a canvas for Free Expression some of the artworks have become famous around the world because the gallery is exposed to the weather the images of had to be restored or even repainted several times today the east side gallery is a popular tourist destination. Im very own David Leavitts hes there at the east side gallery david i remember being exactly where you are about 25 years ago as a reporter talking about berlin 5 years after the fall of the wall that weve got 30 years after the fall of the wall talk to me a little bit about what its like there now other than the fact that its raining and people are trying not to get wet. Oh you did notice that yeah it is raining pretty heavily but what i can tell you is despite that im see a lot of people here stopping with their umbrellas with their rain coats with their bikes and they are fascinated by the film that is playing behind me this is a film that takes you from the early days of the berlin wall from its construction what youre seeing now. All the way through to the popular movements they gave way to the peaceful revolution the end of the east german regime and what came out after the. East side gallery the berlin wall this stretch of the berlin wall that had been a symbol of division turning into a symbol of of unity and of berlin as an open and cosmopolitan city that it is today and even though its dark and its raining and the people are running for shelter i really feel that you can you can feel history here even now 30 years later yes i think thats a very good point its impossible to escape it even if you are getting drenched our very own david love itself there braving the elements at eastside gallery david thank you. Well tonight im joined here at the big table by a man who needs no introduction quentin peel spent much of his career as a journalist reporting on the east west conflict during and after the berlin wall hes now a fellow at the much review Chatham House think tank in london when its good to have you on the day where were you that 1st week of november 1909 and what were you planning to report. On i was sitting in moscow as i had been for a couple of years at that stage reporting in the extraordinary revolution that was happening in the soviet union and the effects of course that it was happening right across the warsaw pact and the old communist countries and of course east germany was just about the last to topple if you like and. It was something we do been waiting for but didnt quite believe it was going to happen and then it was several vs that there was this tension tension between go to shove and somebody like eric connick you know they were so different as characters and there was go but you of actually dismantling the system whether on purpose or by mistake and hunnicutt desperately trying to preserve the order that he had in east germany did you did you since quitting in 1909990 that there was this rare opportunity emerging for maybe a new and better world order to be constructed without any doubt i mean it was an extraordinary exciting time to be alive and to be reporting as a journalist of course my russian friends didnt see it like that they were pretty miserable ever there was not know much food in the shops and so on but as a journalist we were reporting what was very learned julie a peaceful revolution yes there was some there were deaths in georgia up and they both republics but nonetheless overwhelmingly here it was a completely rotten old system actually and you could see it was a rotten system the moment you arrived in moscow it was falling apart and that happened much more quickly than we expected because the peoples of the empire if you like rose up then and then finally the russians themselves rose up and supported yeltsin and tossed off their own empire. I found an interview today the transcript of an interview you conducted with Mikhail Gorbachev the last soviet leader the interview was from 2006 and in that interview he told you and im quoting here you the west should not impose your vision of what we should do in russia we are not stupid democracy cannot be programmed there was euphoria towards cooperation with america in russia now there is wild antiamericanism and that was 2006 this week mr gorbachev was asked by the b. B. C. If russia and the west are still engaged in a cold war take a listen to how he responded. But surely but still a war. In different places. Near there is shooting it have craft and it was outings and he would do that and everywhere glued this is not the kind of situation we want to move to another that. And when gorbachev was foreshadowing in 2006 what he was describing today in 2019 i mean it seems that he was a minority at the time why do you think that was the case. I think that he could see clearly the tensions that were rising and they had been up over things like the iraq war d and russia was on the other side but he could also see i think the return of nationalism in russia with which he would be quite uncomfortable hes been very careful over the years not to be too critical of Vladimir Putin as having said which he is critical of him because he doesnt recognize a real democrat but hes really quite right in saying that nor could we the west export our democracy you know as a ready made model to them after all theyve been through 70 years of communism as weve also seen in the form of the idea in east germany also in the former soviet areas that it actually has affected people very deeply and i think as a suspicion of if you like a multiparty system that still exists and theres also a suspicion that some of the west led the way they didnt help russia and all its bits to really stabilize they basically said its over its finished now so its yourselves do you think it you think that is the true story ive heard former u. S. Secretary of state Madeleine Albright say that several times she met with yeltsin and all 3rd to change the whole nature of nato and to include russia in that to create a new Security Alliance and she said either he was drunk or he just refused to believe that she was since. But she said the offer was made do you think that that gets reported the way it should be i mean that it was quite that was quite an offer from the United States i think i mean the story in russia is different perception is clearly different and one of the perceptions that i think we underestimated was the degree to which nato was seen as the enemy it was seen as the hostile and the soviets and therefore by extension and to Russian Alliance and i think that the offer to say well you can come into it just sounded to them as something they didnt want to really know but i think that we also made mistakes we didnt engage the ordinary well a middle ranking officers level we didnt really get through to people that actually we should be on the same side and if theres a lot of pride in russia which was deeply thing by this process and i suspect that in the excitement of say but its freedom but its liberation we use that word freedom very loosely and what the end of the cold war actually did with the liberated a lot of quite bad things to pop out to get old ethnic rivalry in surprise has never gone away in yugoslavia in many parts of the former soviet union people who had been if you like done by that ideological stances of the cold war in this weeks Time Magazine gorbachev has written the cover story and he says that the current leaders in the west as well as russia have felt as they forgotten the commandment of unity that we received in peace in 1989 is what he says would you say your home country britain gregson britain is the best example of that failure right now. Yes i do. Not sure that the reason for bret say it goes back to the cold war i think a lot of it is partly the economic crash that we suffered 20082010 that really hit people very high what about this image that we hear all the time coming from brits in 2 years about we have to free ourselves from the shackles of europe they dont see europe as being part of the solution part of the piece weve had many british conservative british politicians describing the European Union as something akin to the soviet union as a source of. As a pressure that controlling pressure that we dont have to liberation but what actually i think is behind that is that i dont believe that that is a correct analysis but we are seeing a revival of this sense of nationalism and weve seen it in russia weve seen it in britain dont forget the both ends of europe east and west we have. That have if you like collapsed very different than does the british was all over the world the russians once or around them but nonetheless 90 the country has really come to terms with that loss event and i think were seeing that in the revival of this nationalism and then if youve got somebody like that you may have putin in russia who is a russian nationalist and also sat of course in dresden for 5 years watching the country come apart and said deep inside him is a desire to maintain order and that sponsor is vision in britain were seeing extraordinary disorder really i mean ok its not riots in the streets but the undermining of very ancient institutions in this increasingly nationalist debate i fear could see the United Kingdom split and wed have an independent scotland a unified and. Back to Little England and wales wow well unfortunately were out of time but we appreciate you coming in tonight and sharing your insights and your experience valuable insights into what happened then and it helps us to understand how how its happening now clint thank you thank you very much. Well there appears to be deescalation on the streets in chile Authorities Say the number of people taking part in street protests is falling after 2 weeks of huge demonstrations at least 18 people to die and thousands have been injured since the protests began sparked by a price hike on metro tickets the mayor of santiago said yesterday that only a couple of 1000. 00 protesters were still willing to demonstrate but according to our reporter nicole further in the chilean capital people are using other ways to express their anger. Its another day of protests in santiago but any ball isnt going he lives only a stones throw away from plus a tell you the epicenter of the countrys mass demonstrations but a couple of weeks ago he kicked off a different kind of mobilization a neighborhood gathering known as. We didnt think anyone would come and we were a bit pessimistic. But the turnout exceeded all or expectations. So we sat down to analyze what had happened and what we hope the chile of the 21st century who would look like. The meeting soon grew too big for the park so today the neighbors are meeting at a local hostel some 80 people from all walks of life. This type of forum is not a New Invention in latin america the open could build oh dates back to colonial times as a communal gathering in response to emergencies or disasters and standing together in the face of adversity is still very much the essence of the could build or today. If we want a Better Future as much of a cliche as that might be we cant just think about ourselves we cant fall back into individual. We have to take care of each other this is bigger than ourselves the builders are emerging all across these days but his grassroots assemblies they all have a common weakness in the big problem with the can build those is that they generate hope and lead people to think they are determining their own destiny on the floor really their only providing a platform for desires that can be taken into account but can also be ignored and thats a problem. But at this could build you in santiago nobody wants to believe that theyre just dreaming up their own version of utopia broken up in small task forces they drafted. Growth for their future work in order to make any of this happen the neighbors will have to get the government to listen how theyll go about that will certainly be worth a discussion during the next. Protesters in iraq are accusing Security Forces of firing live rounds at people who were blocking a bridge in the countrys capital demonstrations against the government started early last month since then more than 260. 00 people have been killed thousands injured the military has called on people to stop blocking roads ports and Oil Refineries saying it is costing the country billions of dollars. Gunfire ricochets around the streets of central baghdad. Demonstrates is trying to take shelter as bullets rained down fired witnesses say by iraqi Security Forces. Since tuesday antigovernment protest is have been blocking a major bridge in the capital. Police want them gone oh if youre in the United Nations see they use life bullets were human beings protesting and demanding our rights. Are you in there with those who fail got severely beaten look at what they did to my leg and my hand they started shooting live ammunition at us. Pretense have also broken out in on the parts of iraq in basra in the south of the country Security Forces broke up an Anti Government sit in demonstration. More than 250. 00 iraqis have lost their lives since the unrest began at the beginning of the. Violence is being condemned by the international community. The secretary general says he is shocked by the death toll we have seen in recent days in iraq since the start of the demonstration but with neither side prepared to back down chaos has returned to the streets of iraq. For campaigning in the u. K. The general election next month has officially begun voters will lect a new parliament on december 12th the Outgoing Parliament was formally dissolved this morning before Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed to bung hume palace to notify the queen Opposition Leader Jeremy Corben of the labor party begin his partys campaign with speeches in several constituencies britains withdrawal from the European Union breaks it is likely to dominate the w. Corresponding to a lot of pots is in london she says the tone of the campaign has already been set. Day one of the campaign and it has already gotten nasty with name calling and accusations from all sides for the british though this election is all about bricks it according to latest opinion polls 80 percent of voters say that this issue will make them decide how to costs and vote and they have a clear choice johnsons conservatives want to get brakes a done with the brakes a deal that he negotiated in brussels the labor Party Demands a 2nd referendum but wont say whether they leave or remain one party to watch out for other liberal democrats they are the only party that have clearly stated that with them the United Kingdom would stay in the European Union the conservatives at the moment are ahead in the polls but with 5 weeks to go a lot can change til that election day its already looking like a Divisive Campaign as british people gear up to once more have their say on bricks it at the ballot box. There was a lot of thoughts reporting from london well the day is almost done the conversation continues online youll find us on twitter either at g. W. News or you can follow me at brant golf t. V. Dont forget to use our hash tag the day will leave you now with more of the celebrations at the iconic east side gallery here in berlin as the city marks 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day well see you then everyone. Shortage of teachers in rural areas its a big problem for russia and a huge problem for children. Arsalan jaan isnt a teacher but he wants to do something positive. In terribly travels to remote areas in teaches kids to open doors of opportunity for them. In 90 minutes on g. W. He wanted to smash the berlin wall long before it finally fell. Below 0 should any new york state you know linda is actually better known as the female legend of german rock music. Lets find among those amazing my list of those. Costs 21. This week on g. W. Takes good personally i went with the wonderful people in stories that make the game so special. For all true fans. The become more than football online. Content. To. Just cover your concept. Cover with the colorado. School. After 100. 00 it is the ideals of the bombs. Today the late was. Years ago the. People interested to see this live shaping society. That are part of the core future. Of our house as castellan interested in the same time it sounds to me found house means a vision of the future. Look makes the house its clear. To the spirit. And sound house. Starts november 14th w. This is d w news from berlin tonight remembering when the wall became just a wall in our special coverage of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall well take you to the world famous east side gallery where our symbol of division into a canvas for hopes and dreams also coming up obama cut it. In iraq protesters say Security Forces are shooting at them with. A brutal crackdown as the battle of the bridge