Democracy Now! March 4, 2002

Program Title:
Democracy Now! March 4, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0450.111
Description: 

Writer, ARUNDHATI ROY, author of The God of Small Things. She faces prison for speaking out against the privatization of rivers and essential resources in India : report on seige in Palestine by Israeli forces.

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:20 INSIDE THE STATE OF SIEGE: ISRAELI TROOPS RAID PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMPS AND PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS AND SNIPERS STEP UP ATTACKS IN JERUSALEM AND THE WEST BANK Backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, Israeli troops carried out assault raids on two densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank today. This came just hours after Ariel Sharons government said it was intensifying its campaign in the occupied territories. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in what are now regular assaults on refugee camps. More than a dozen Israeli tanks and troops tore through the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank today. This weekend, ground troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships moved from house to house in the Jenin and Balata camps. Despite Israeli claims to be hunting down what it calls militants or terrorists, reports from the camps say the assaults have indiscriminately killed civilians including children. Refugees say 20 Palestinians have been held hostage in the Balata camp by the Israeli army in one building for 10 days. Neither the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross have been able to reach the building. Early yesterday, a lone Palestinian sniper armed with an antiquated rifle opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, killing 10 people, seven of them soldiers. On Saturday a suicide bomber blew himself up in an ultra-orthodox west Jerusalem neighborhood as residents poured out to celebrate a bar mitzvah. Nine people were killed. GUEST: MICHEL WARSCHOWSKI, Israeli peace activist, journalist, and former director of the alternative information center, a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization. GUEST: QUEEVA BUTTERLY, activist with the International Solidarity Movement, in Balata refugee camp LINKS: www.alternativenews.org www.freepalestinecampaign.org www.rapprochement.org www.seruv.org.il/defaultEng.asp www.junity.org 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:40 ARUNDHATI ROY, AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, FACES PRISON FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE PRIVATIZATION OF RIVERS, ENERGY, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL RESOURCES IN INDIA As the situation in Israel-Palestine escalates, some of the worst ethnic fighting in decades has also erupted in India. In the last six days alone, more than five hundred people have been killed, many in clashes between Hindus and Muslims. There is no telling when and how the violence will end. Meanwhile, as hundreds die in ethnic in-fighting in India, thousands continue to lose their lives and livelihoods to the privatization of essential resources like water and energy. While Enron has been by far the highest profile example of this kind of privatization, another and equally disastrous example has been unfolding around the construction of big dams in the Narmada Valley. The Narmada Valley is home to millions of people in Central India, many whose families have been working its soil or fishing its rivers for generations. These days, however, it is also home to one of the country's largest "big dam" projects a project, which involves the construction of hundreds of dams and an extensive irrigation system. While dams have been hailed for decades as a means of boosting development in India, these projects have more often led to further impoverishment, degraded environments, and human rights violations. In the process they have also spawned a social movement one of the most significant and vibrant in India today. Among the most clarion and intrepid of voices in the fight against big dams has been that of the great writer, Arundhati Roy. After publishing her acclaimed first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1997, Roy became increasingly active in the struggle for the Narmada Valley, as well as in struggles around nuclear disarmament, Enron, and most recently the so-called war on terror. She has walked miles in protest, written pages in outrage, and spoken movingly in front of thousands. But in a surreal twist, Roy's activism has recently led her to the brink of imprisonment. After defending herself in an impassioned affidavit against false charges of threatening the lawyers for the Narmada Valley Development Project, she was slapped with a contempt of court charge, which could send her to jail for up to six months. She will be sentenced on Wednesday. I caught up with Arundhati Roy just days before the violence escalated between Indias Hindu and Mulsim populations. GUEST: ARUNDHATI ROY, author and activist. Her books include, "The God of Small Things," for which she won the Booker Prize in 1997, "The Common Good," "The Cost of Living," and "Power Politics." CONTACT: www.narmada.org, www.irn.org, www.southendpress.org/books/arundhaticourt.shtml 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:58 ARUNDHATI ROY, AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, FACES PRISON FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE PRIVATIZATION OF RIVERS, ENERGY, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL RESOURCES IN INDIA GUEST: ARUNDHATI ROY, author and activist. Her books include, "The God of Small Things," for which she won the Booker Prize in 1997, "The Common Good," "The Cost of Living," and "Power Politics."CONTACT: www.narmada.org, www.irn.org, www.southendpress.org/books/arundhaticourt.shtml 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS

Date Recorded on: 
March 4, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
March 4, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
Keywords: 
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Distributor: 
WPFW; Amy Goodman, host. March 4, 2002
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