"THE BACK OF THE WORLD" "THE CHILD" "I get up at 6.30, very early." "I have to do everything very quietly getting up putting on my work clothes." "I try not to waken anybody else, because if I do they'll waken my other brothers and sisters and my mom." "So that's why I have to go out quietly with the tools." "Nearly everyone in Carabayllo works at quarrying stone." "In the mornings, children, adolescents and adults all go to the quarry." "Sometimes, some men rest and others keep working." "Everyone around here works at quarrying stone." "The first time I came in all the different quarries I saw adolescents, children even old men working because at times they don't have a steady job and this is the best option quarrying stone and making a bit of money by selling it." "My dad told me that that's what they do when there's no work." "It's the only alternative." "As my dad was going to the hill on his own and you need two or three people to gather the stones he started taking me along when I was six." "I still wasn't used to the tools and they weighed an awful lot." "My dad said, "One day you'll get used to it"." "I've got used to it now." "I can carry all the tools and use them like I'm supposed to." "I start to work and then I get a tire from my house and then I light it and then I add straw and kerosene and then I get a match and light it and then, when the stones are nice and hot in the weakest part, in the middle of the stone that's where you split it." "We come here every day and..." "What do you call it?" "We break the stones, we put in the tire." "Ever since we met we've been quarrying stone." "You lever up the stone." "After you do that you put a little stone under it to keep it raised." "You put the tire in that space underneath but you light it before you put it in." "You put kerosene on it and light it with a match." "Once all the tires have caught fire you put them under the stone." "They heat it up and the stone splits." "When all the smoke comes out it's very hard to work." "My dad says, "While it's burning, you have to rest" because we're working constantly all day." "Then we hit it with a mallet to break it." "The little bits of stone that are left behind are put in the wheelbarrow and thrown away." "And we just keep going, burning and breaking and throwing away." "You don't get too tired." "All you do is burn it and then you get it out and then you break it." "The other day we quarried nearly 30 feet and they paid us 100 "sols"." "I kept 7 "sols" and my mom got the rest." "If I sell a lot of stone..." "If I get a lot of stone and I can sell it when I get my money I give all that money to my mom and I keep one "sol" or two for myself so that I can buy my shoes." "The next day it's the same." "We come here and quarry and burn and break until another truck comes." "I bring the children some food and something to drink as well in these earthenware pots of mine to help fill their stomachs." "When we arrived here we had travelled on foot the whole way and we were crying." "We came here looking for food." "I came with my husband and our two sons and all we found was sadness." "We looked everywhere for work." "We went all over the place and asked everywhere." "We looked for work on the beaches, in the fields but we could never find anything." "Three or four years ago we came here and started quarrying the stone." "We select the stones and gather them up and then we sell them so we can buy books and notebooks and the children can go to school." "Some families go together to quarry stone and some mothers stay at home to clean and cook." "I've got an older sister who's going to high school." "She helps my mom, because there are six of us and a baby." "My sister looks after the baby and my mom cooks and cleans." "The only income we have is the money we get from selling stones." "That's all we have to live on." "Because of my parents' financial situation I had to leave school and start working." "So I worked and looked after my brothers and sisters." "Later on, I had my own family." "When my husband comes home from work he's very tired." "He washes, has supper and as soon as he lies down, he's asleep." "And now my son, who's even younger, does the same because he works there too." "And it's harmful." "For example, the dust that comes from breaking the stones." "That dust affects them, it affects their lungs." "So does the smoke." "That's why we should drink a lot of milk here but at times you can't do it." "I think that children shouldn't have to work but very often the economic situation means they have to." "The children themselves realize that." "I mean, that's why Guinder goes to work." "He goes with his father and learns the job and he always earns something." "And he's happy that he can help put food on the table or give something towards running the house." "The people's canteens are run by a women's organization." "Before, if money was scarce we couldn't always feed them well but now, in the canteen we can help them because we've got organized and we can prepare a meal for them very cheaply." "We have children who were underweight at times or undernourished because there was no money to feed them properly." "For example, my husband works with stone." "He quarries stone." "My children help him." "They have to work at that because there are no other jobs." "I feel sorry for my children." "I don't want them doing this." "Old men have worked here adolescents, children." "Some old men who used to work here don't do it anymore because their older children are working and they keep them." "But some old men still have to keep working." "Their children are grown but they can't get jobs." "I've been working for 24 years in this area, in this part." "I was the first person to start quarrying stone here in order to make a living." "My children were all small." "I had to work because my children were all small." "They weren't really able to work." "They helped me, of course, rolling stones whatever they could do." "At times, my grandchildren work too when they have time." "They can't always do it because they work somewhere else with their fathers." "I'm seventy years old, I'm still not old." "I have to struggle on a bit longer." "First, the parents worry about looking after their children." "When they get old it's the children's turn to look after them." "But if there's no work what can you do?" "I work Monday to Saturday, and on Sunday, my day off I like to go and play on the soccer pitch with my friends." "I pushed Gringo." "Then Maicol came after me." "I kicked the ball between his legs." "I ran until Nestor tackled me and then I kicked the ball." "I scored all the goals." "The others didn't score any." "You have to block the ball very closely." "If you don't see the ball, they'll score a goal." "I keep my eye on the ball and block it." "Goal!" "The kids say that when you're a forward and score lots of goals they write about you in the papers and you become famous." "We've won!" "I think the city looks big." "Compared to where I'm from, it looks big." "The houses are more modern." "They're like palaces." "They're like the ones you see on TV." "They're like castles, not houses." "These houses are made of cement, they're hard to knock down." "You could do it with mallets." "They're really hard." "You don't see the stones because they're mostly under the ground." "Ladies and gentlemen!" "We are two children who, regrettably are forced to come on the bus in this way because my father is unjustly imprisoned." "We have come to offer you the most important news in Peru and in the world from the official newspapers and from those of the opposition." "Please remain seated." "This is what El Ojo says." ""Visco sells its international tobacco subsidiary."" ""ICE to pay for food division."" "El Comercio." ""Even the mayor gets a touch!"" ""Brother's welcome home party ends in mass food poisoning." "Roast chicken put an end to the revelry of 120 guests and sent them all to hospital."" "International." ""Europe begins a search for life on the planet Mars."" ""Setting out economic objectives." "The economy will expand by up to 7.6% in the first quarter." "This announcement was made by the Minister of Finance Victor Coyhuar."" "And in sport..." ""Once again, Alianza Lima has won the sporting classic after beating Universitario de Deportes, 3-0."" "Brother let me have 10 cents." "It'll help me to bring something, even just some milk to the table in my home." "My thanks to those who have understood me." "To those who didn't, I thank you too." "What's your name and what's your job?" "My name is Elver Vega de la Cruz, I'm 12 years old and I push a wheelbarrow from 4.00 a.m. Until noon." "My names is Alexandro Romero Maringo." "I'm 11 years old." "My job is selling mineral water." "I come from Pucalpa, the jungle of Peru." "I've worked at a lot of different jobs like selling eggs, bread, "huancaina" potatoes." "And my present job is washing cars." "I'm 13 years old and I've sold soft drinks in Bolognesi Square since I was 5." "I've been working since I was 8 looking after cars and cleaning tombs in the cemetery." "My name is Angel Leberto La Rosa Vedra." "I steal so that I can eat and smoke." "I ran away from home because my stepfather mistreated me." "He always hit me." "I steal, I smoke." "Sometimes I eat, sometimes I don't." "I keep smoking and stealing." "Sometimes the police lift me, and they beat me up." "When I sniff glue I get hallucinations." "Hallucinations about all sorts of things, maybe a skull." "Or you just sit there staring, like you were flying or you think the sky's falling down." "You get hallucinations with glue." "I started with one girl." "Then more and more kids came along so we could get organized and so that people wouldn't mistreat us and wouldn't be disrespectful to us." "We always look after each other." "If anything happens, if anyone tries to hit us we always look after each other." "It's good for everyone to have a job and it's good for children to study so when they grow up they can have a proper job and not be washing cars or selling bus tickets or selling bread, like everyone does." "Some people even steal." "I suppose that in rich countries like Spain and the United States there are jobs." "But as there are no jobs here, even children have to work." "I waken at 4.00 a." "M and come to work at the market." "But they don't pay very much." "When you say two "sols", they only pay you one." "And sometimes men take your barrow from you." "When I grow up I want to be a car mechanic." "I want to fix cars." "That's what I want to do." "Get your papaya juice!" "The best honey from our bees!" "Fresh radishes!" "Some days, when the stone just won't come out we go home early, at around 5.00 or so." "Some kids go and help women pack away the fruit." "We help put the fruit into the different boxes and then carry them back to their homes and put them in the store." "When the lady sees that we're helping her and as she won't have much extra cash with her she gives us some fruit as a way of paying us something." "I think it's good." "It's good to work and have some responsibility." "That way, when you're grown up, you won't be lazy." "When you're grown up, you'll already be a worker." "I get home, I wash, I watch a bit of television." "Then, at nighttime, my dad comes home from work too." "We sit down to eat at night." "At times we children talk about what happened on the hill if the stone was sold or not, if there was an accident if the stone was very hard if we could fill the truck." "And the adults talk about grown-up things, for example about what happens between adults and so we find out about all sorts of things." "We've got three beds and we all sleep comfortably and very well." "My dad sleeps in one bed with my mom and the new baby and the rest of us sleep in the other two beds." "We go to bed early and we get up early so we can spend a bit more time on the hill." "My grandad was levering up a rock and suddenly it fell." "It fell on his leg and my grandma couldn't get him up so they called some neighbors." "They took him to the medical center and took pieces of stone out of him." "At times, when it comes to crushing the stone and even if you've got your shoe like this any stone will still go through it if it's sharp." "I crushed it and a big piece flew up and cut me on the arm." "Everyone says that once you've formed your family you start to get old you reach old age and then you die." "The man went to the hill and he was throwing down stones and his daughter had gone off to chase a lizard and one of the stones that her father threw fell on her head." "Her father didn't realize that his daughter was dead." "Afterwards, he buried her on the hill and he brought her flowers." "Once the stone is quarried the owner gets paid a certain amount of money depending on the number of cubic feet and the stone is taken to the city to make trenches for buildings houses, hotels." "Come along, ladies and gentlemen." "We'll be expecting you tonight at our wonderful circus spectacle!" "The ticket office is now open for you." "The Happy Boy Brothers' Circus is inviting all the children of Carabayllo!" "Lights, camera, action!" "Popular Action!" "Popular Action!" "People of Peru!" "I promise to give you electricity and water if you pay your electricity and water bills." "There you are!" "Thank you for your applause!" "Why are you on strike if there's work?" "I don't work, ma'am, I'm lazy." "You're lazy?" " Yeah." " And you?" "Me too, I'm with him." " You're his assistant?" " That's right." "I can't work either." "Do you know why?" " Tell me why." " My mom and dad worked really hard and I was born tired." "The problem is you get out late, and as you have to get up early for work you get hardly any sleep and then you don't have any energy when you have to work." "Mostly it's my dad who takes risks rolling down the stones." "Sometimes they're very big." "There's nowhere to stand." "That's why he bought a long jumper bar." "The longer the bar is the further back you can stand and the safer it is." "My son's dream is that I stop doing this and that his brothers and sisters can stop too." "When you're a child you can think so many things but there's a whole world between that and reality." "What do I want for Guinder?" "I'd like to give him what no one ever gave me." "When I grow up I want to be an accountant because people say it's a very steady job." "You have to know how to add up, subtract do accounts, everything." "When I grow up I want to be a male nurse and learn to do what male nurses do and when I've learned I won't charge very much." "I'd like to be a lawyer and defend prisoners who go to jail for doing bad things." "THE WORD" " Did you see Leyla Zana?" " Yes, I saw her." " From a distance." "What about you?" " I saw her in Batman." "I saw her in Diyarbakir, she was wearing our colors." "The people loved her very much." "She had a son and a daughter." "Who took care of them?" "Their mother was put in prison." "The first time I came to Stockholm was 22 years ago and I was invited by the mayor." "I came to Stockholm then as mayor of Diyarbakir and now I'm an exile." "I live here now as a refugee." "You never know where you'll end up." "My children live in Paris." "My companion, Leyla, is in jail in Ankara." "As we are part of them, we too have had to suffer the pain of the Kurdish people." "It isn't easy being Kurdish." "I too have spent time in the Turkish jails." "I have hardly seen my children." "From time to time I can visit them now, two or three times a year." "They're coming to see me in a few days time." "I'm looking forward to seeing them." "I'll fix a Kurdish meal for them." "We'll spend a few nights together." "That will make me happy." "When I came to Europe I'd intended going back home but I was given another sentence." "My friends advised me to stay here a while longer." "My children were in Paris and Leyla, my companion, was in jail." "I appealed to the French government to give me a visa and to allow me to stay with my children." "I lived illegally in France for seven months." "The French government never answered." "After that, I decided to come to Sweden." "My children decided to stay on in France because of their studies." "I could only communicate with Leyla by letter but I found out later that she never actually received my letters." "Now I get news of her through her sister but she has to travel from Diyarbakir to see her." "Afterwards, we speak on the telephone and that's how I find out about how she is." "This is Diyarbakir, where Mehdi Zana was mayor and where Leyla Zana was later elected as deputy." "Leyla isn't with us now." "She's in Ankara, in jail." "Next week, I'll go and visit her." "This is the river Tigris." "This is where young lovers used to come." "Now it's where we recover the bodies of the disappeared." "Next to the house where I was born there was an army barracks." "From time to time, you could hear noises and so I asked my parents "What's that noise we can hear?"" ""Son, the police are making noise to cover the screams of the people they're beating."" "That surprised me." "Why were they doing that?" "Time passed, we grew up and I too became acquainted with a detention center." "And there, every time they tortured me I would remember those noises." "Many times, in my dreams I hear the screams of my friends while they were tortured." "I see my children too." "Hello, Ronahi." "Is that you, son?" "I'm going to fix something special for you." "You and your sister are coming together." "I'll meet you at the airport." "Yes, I'll go and pick you up myself." "I was born in Silvan." "Silvan is a town in Diyarbakir, in Kurdistan." "I always remember the market in Silvan." "That's where I spent my childhood." "The people passing by their beauty, the fountain there the workshops the people having breakfast in front of their stalls friends chatting." "Until you see it you can't sense what it's like." "You have to see it." "When I was a child, I was an apprentice in a workshop." "Then I became a tailor and we set up a workshop in Diyarbakir." "There were several apprentices." "Mustafa was one of them." "Mustafa was with us to the end to the very end." "I've got a photo taken back then." "That was our best time." "I've carried it with me for 25 years." "How did Mehdi become a candidate?" "There were only six months left." "It was going to be hard for us, and I said to him "Why don't you run?"" "And he said, "How?" "We've got no money."" "He ran, and the whole thing snowballed, it just snowballed." "And he became mayor." "Whenever I think about those good times I have to smoke a cigarette." "All I've got left are these photos." "This one is of Leyla and Ronahi." "The other photos I have were all taken in jail." "And this photo is from 1984." "It was taken on one occasion when they allowed Leyla, my children and my mother to come and visit me." "They let us take a photo." "And this one..." "I look at it and it takes me back." "In 1978, when I was mayor, I went to Cizre." "I spoke to the people there." "They really liked what I said to them and they took me to the Town Hall." "All in all I spent sixteen years in jail." "And what crime did I commit?" "I was a young Kurd and a mayor." "And this is a photo of Leyla when she spoke in court at her trial." "A few months ago, when Leyla was in jail her father died." "Her mother lives in a village in Silvan." "When Mehdi was in jail Ruken was very young and Ronahi was a little older." "We would go and stand in front of the jail." "It was snowing." "Leyla suffered, she suffered a lot." "She hasn't suffered as much as our people whose villages have been burned but Leyla has suffered." "What can I tell you?" "We are the largest group of stateless people in the world." "There are some 40 million of us." "They divided us up between four countries, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria." "Today, in Turkey, there are at least 20 million Kurds who cannot say they are Kurds." "They can't speak their language or practice their customs." "My own city, Diyarbakir and other Kurdish cities have been in a state of emergency for twenty years." "There was a coup d'état in 1980." "They put us in jail." "They burned almost four thousand villages." "The police tore the women's dresses." "Mothers were looking everywhere for their sons who were missing but many of them had already been shot and even more had disappeared." "They covered his head with a jacket and then they pushed him into a doorway." "They were talking on walkie-talkies." "Then a white truck arrived with some more policemen." "They pulled him out of the doorway and took him away." "My son was a year old when he lost his father." "He'd say to me, "Why doesn't my father come home?" "I want him to come back, I want to see my father."" "He's still waiting to see him." "They put him in a room with a blindfold over his eyes." "His hands were tied as well." "Suddenly I could smell burning plastic and I got very scared." "I thought he was dead." "I thought, "Don't let them kill my children"." "I ran down to the room he was in and I saw him lying on the floor." "His hands and feet were tied and the station officer who was called Ceyhún, or maybe it was Ceyhán was burning plastic on his chest." "I wanted to cover him with my own body but they grabbed me and locked me in another room." "We've been looking for him since then." "He disappeared." "I want his body." "No, I want him alive because he was alive when they took him away." "We came to Istanbul and we became the "Saturday mothers" in Galatasaray Square." "But they don't leave us in peace here either." "They don't let us exercise the right to look for our children." "Why don't they judge the people who murdered them?" "He called me on the telephone and he said "Mother, what are you going to cook for my birthday?"" "I said to him, "Tell me what meal you would like most"." "And he answered, "Mother, don't worry about it." "Don't cook anything." "I'll bring some fish."" "Four o'clock came, five o'clock came but my Hassan never arrived." "I was losing my mind." "I came here, to Istanbul." "I asked the trees, the corners, the bridges." "I looked for him everywhere." "I'm waiting for my Hussein to come back." "I want the whole world to know they took the son I had reared with love in terrible hardship." "Jail forms part of our lives." "I came out and Leyla went in." "Of the 24 years we've been married we've been together for barely four and half years." "Let's see, what do we have here?" "What...?" "What would my children like?" "As I don't normally buy cakes I've got no idea." "These egg plants will probably do for making "tirsik"." "And some zucchini." "The parsley that you get here doesn't have any smell." "On the other hand, ours..." "I've only got two children." "When they come, I'm happy." "I can't help it, I like doing things for them." "It's as simple as that." "Do they think this is bread?" "You should taste the bread in Kurdistan." "When you get that smell of oven-baked bread it makes you hungry." "Pass me the flour." "Leyla Zana, I send you my very best wishes from here." "I want to thank you." "We worry a lot about you." "You've suffered so much for us." "You opened our eyes for us." "After all they had suffered, the Kurdish women wanted a woman to get into parliament." "That way, their voices would be heard." "When the elections came round, I said to her "I'm going to make a dress and a headscarf for you." "That way, when you go to see your people they'll be happy."" "She said, "Mother, it's very long." "I might trip on it and fall"." "I said, "If you wear a belt, you won't trip on it"." "I sewed it all myself by hand, I didn't use a machine and I helped her to get dressed." "That's how she appeared before her people." "Hello, friends!" "There were thousands of people in the square." "Children of four years of age, mothers of sixty grandfathers of eighty." "Leyla couldn't leave the square for hours." "Leyla Zana was a country girl." "She went to Diyarbakir and put herself forward as a candidate." "Everyone loved her and they voted for her." "When she spoke, there were a lot of people." "I saw her from a distance." "She was wearing our colors in her hair." "That's how she spoke to the people." "I voted for her, she was elected and went to parliament." "The day Leyla went to parliament the eyes of the Kurds were fixed on the television." "Mothers didn't cook any meals, they did nothing." "They only asked, "What will Leyla say?"" "Those colors!" "Get those colors out of here!" "I swear by my honor and dignity before the great Turkish people to protect the integrity and independence of the State the indivisible unity of people and homeland and the unquestionable and unconditional sovereignty of the people." "I swear loyalty to the Constitution." "I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people." "Deputy!" "Where are we anyway?" "This is parliament!" "And what caused all that commotion?" "A couple of words." ""I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people."" "Just a few words in Kurdish, and what a price!" "This is a conspiracy." "What I am defending is perfectly clear." "I don't accept any of these accusations." "And, if they were true I'd assume responsibility for them even if it cost me my life." "I have defended democracy human rights and brotherhood between peoples." "And I'll keep doing so for as long as I live." "They invented a string of excuses and sentenced her to 15 years." "Two years later, the European Parliament awarded Leyla the Sakharov peace prize." "The applause at the time made me think of Kurdistan because the present situation in Kurdistan is also the responsibility of all those countries." "They are guilty too." "The tanks, the arms the repression the arrogance of the Turkish state." "That made me think a lot." "My children really like "tirsik"." "It's a traditional dish of ours." "It's got meat on the bone, "surmak" and garlic." "Even though I devote my time now to writing and politics as a child I wanted to be a soccer player." "I really love soccer." "It's what I like most, that and eating ice cream." "Both things are very important for me." "If I still had the chance, I'd be a soccer player." "I love soccer, I think it's wonderful." "When I got out of jail Mustafa was grown up." "He had become a very good tailor by then." "He was very good at his trade and he'd made a suit for me." "I still have it." "I hope he comes back soon." "We love him very much." "Mehdi Zana is a greatly loved man." "Mother, I'm going to Ankara." "Do you want to send anything?" "I'll send her cheese and pomegranates." "I miss her so much." "Tell her it's winter and I can't go, I can't." "I voted for her and they put her in jail." "Even if she's there for 1,000 years for 1,000 years she'll be our deputy." "LIFE" "I'm from Burger and I've come to the border to collect my daughter Chayo." "We're going to Houston to support the mothers of those people who are on death row, who have been sentenced to death." "It's even more important now because it seems there's going to be an execution and we want to be there so that we can join with the family or the parents of the person who's going to be executed and give them our moral support." "In this case, we are just people who have children in jail." "They committed a crime." "I think that by doing the same by murdering the person who has murdered they're not solving anything." "But..." "They say they're authorized to kill." "I always thought that all I had to do in life was work." "Then, all of a sudden, this thing happened." "I was completely confused because when a member of a family the whole family feels guilty." "I would like the family of the victim to understand that their sorrow is our sorrow too." "I don't know how my daughter will be by then." "She's trying to cope with all this but she can't do it." "There are times when she has to go to the doctor." "She feels ill..." "The doctor always gives her tranquilizers, not medicine because it isn't an illness that can be cured." "I get very depressed." "At night, I have to take tablets to get to sleep." "If I can sleep, I try not to take so many tablets because it isn't very good for me." "At first, I wanted to die too, but..." "If I died, who'd go to see my son?" "For him I am alive." "Why don't they think about the feelings of the people whose children are going to be executed?" "All we're asking for is clemency that they treat those people like human beings." "These people who have organized themselves I mean the mothers of those people who are on death row I hope they can achieve something." "We know it's very unlikely that we'll be able to help our relatives but if we keep fighting perhaps mothers in the future won't have to go through what we're going through." "I'm Irene Gutiérrez and my son, Vicente Gutiérrez was sentenced to death one year and four months ago." "I'm Cesaria Flores and my son Miguel has been sentenced to death." "This is my dad, that's my mom." "My name is Antonia Rangel." "Thank you, ladies." "We know how you're feeling at this time but I want to tell you again that you are not alone." "I am very deeply touched by what all of you are suffering." "I have an older brother." "He's 27 years old." "He was sentenced to death a few years ago for something he didn't do." "Right now, we're fighting to get a retrial." "A man had been sentenced to death and that was the date they set to put him to sleep." "And it was very hard to see this man whom they put to sleep." "Then they asked us to go with the family to the funeral home." "And it was very sad to see how the family ran to hold the body, to touch it." "The relatives heartbroken, were saying:" ""He is still warm"." "Why didn't they let us touch him before they executed him?" "EXECUTION IS NOT THE SOLUTION" "I'm getting on in years and what I've thought and wished for is that if they finally do kill him I won't be alive." "I don't know how we'd survive that." "No, no, we don't want to see that." "I'd rather be dead when they kill him." "Every time I come to an airport I feel a sudden urge to get on an airplane and leave." "In my life I've waited for many things but if you were to ask me waiting for a country to be free is the hardest." "When you grow up, you work even harder than I'm doing now." "You don't play as much as when you're a child." "I think I'd like to be a child forever."