Transcripts For BBCNEWS Witness History 20200902

Is still in exile in paris. Schools in england are now, to one of europes most preparing to welcome back pupils after nearly six months dramatic public art projects. Out of the classroom. Injune 1995, artist christo the education secretary and Jeanne Claude wrapped the former German Parliament Gavin Williamson insisted building, the reichstag, in fabric. Students were returning to a safe environment and said the re opening of schools was a massive milestone. Our education editor bra nwen jeffreys reports. Kirstys getting ready for the new term, to welcome her class back to lessons and sending her own son more than 5 Million People came back to his school. To see it and it became a symbol for berlins renewal after the fall of the wall as a teacher, as a parent, and the collapse of communism. Im really happy for my christo tells witness son to return. History how they did it. Its an eccentric dream, but one that a husband and wife hes really excited to see his team have cherished for more than a quarter of a century friends and just getting and this weekend, stuck back the bulgarian born artist christo and his wife in with the learning. Jeanne claude began wrapping the German Parliament ok, so i think we can leave this one here, building in silver fabric. This is still completely it is very difficult to explain relevant and quite helpful. It if you dont see it. No drawings, no sketch and no from morning drop off scale model can match onwards, its all changing. Signs warning parents they cant the complexity of the project. Come beyond the gates. For the head, an extra cost the fabric is actually it is not completely touching to making the school safe. The stone, the surface of the structure. The project started in 1972. Things like sanitiser, soap, the cold war is paper towels, tissues, still in full speed. We have to have an awful lot you know, the berlin of that if you think wall was built. Permission to wrap that were going to have 400 the reichstag was refused three plus children washing time. If the wall would not fell their hands at least down, probably will never have six times a day. Ava is getting ready do the reichstag. To start secondary school, her mum a bit worried but trying to stay positive. Shes not actually worried about starting school, shes worried about the covid preparations for more than two decades, and if shell be behind the artist christo and his wife in her work at all and not Jeanne Claude have wanted to work with the building that, the actual start of school. For them, symbolised the cold war. So, what happens if you know, i was born a case is confirmed . In bulgaria in 1935, highly sovietic, communist schools will have to ask close country, and i escaped contacts of the person whos to the west alone, speaking only russian and bulgarian. Tested positive coming from communist country, to self isolate. I had to do something involving close contact means face to face contact, within a metre the east west relation. Of the infected person for more than 15 minutes or direct skin to skin contact. Proximity contact, thats more its been bombed and set on fire, seen war and than 15 minutes under two revolution, but never before has the reichstag been wrapped metres from in silverfabric. The infected person. And travelling we never can believe what is the project in a small vehicle, until we see the real. Like a car, with an infected person. Local Health Officials will help christo himself is paying identify these contacts. For the project, helped su bsta ntially by sales mps are back, plenty of questions of his sketches and other work. From all sides about education. The reichstag cost us tomorrow, theyll 12 million in 1995, which is was about quiz officials probably today is about 20 million or 25 million. About gcse and a level grades. So, today, an apology to students from the education secretary. Im deeply sorry that those who have it was wrapped by near borne the brunt of it have been 100 rock climbers. Students themselves. They come down, installing i can only apologise all this 100,000 square metres of fabric in the matter of one week. To them again for this. Now, Jeanne Claude and myself, we are both together artists, we took immediate action you know, and this is why to provide certainty as soon as it was clear that i miss so muchJeanne Claude if we didnt, today. Too many students would have received grades that didnt reflect their hard work we were partners, we lived together, we fight together, and their ability. And its like an adventure that you cannot repeat it. Getting schools open, pupils back, this novel treatment is, is one political challenge they say, in the classic tradition of art. Sorting out what happens to next years exams is another. Delay is on the cards, the reichstag was the victorian with answers expected soon. Building with a lot of ornaments or decoration. Branwen jeffreys, bbc news. Suddenly, it was changed, like a sketch, like what is essential of the height, the width, the forms, and they are all hidden by this fragile material that moves with the wind, now on bbc news, witness history. In constant motion. Hello, and welcome the building took on a shrine like nature to witness history, and was treated with something with me, tanya beckett, here at approaching reverence. The Royal Academy in london. Today, we present its very special and its it always changes with the light. Five extraordinary moments the first time in history from history as told to us probably that this building is nice and makes people happy. By people who were there. I came to germany especially coming up, the british to see this project and i think alternative to prison it is great. Oh, i dont know really that was copied what the point is around the world. For two weeks, the area has the moment idi amin expelled witnessed one continuous Party Thousands of ugandan asians in the 1970s. With scenes reminiscent of when the berlin wall came down six years ago. Everybody who came to see and the artist couple the project, and there was 5 who wrapped germanys reichstag Million People in two weeks in the reichstag, in fabric. They know that they were seeing something will never happen again. But first, we go back to a defining moment in modern chinese history. In 1989, the chinese army opened fire on tens of thousands last night was the final of students in Tiananmen Square and the biggest party, in the centre of beijing. With 100,000 people swarming they had been demonstrating around the building well for weeks, into the early hours. Demanding greater today, the dismantling work began and germanys former and future Parliament Political freedom. Building came blinking into the summer sunshine. Dan wang was one of the protest leaders. This is his account of what happened. The noise of gunfire rose from all over the centre of peking. Translation someone called us from a phone box and then rebuilding starts, in a street near ready for the German Parliament, which arrives in 1998. Tiananmen square. After two weeks, its gone for ever. He said the gunmen had cannot be repeated. Something happened, it opened fire on the students. Will stay forever in that particular unique moment. Ive never thought anything the remarkable artist christo. Like that would happen. Thats all from witness history i was in shock. This month, here at the Royal Academy. Well be back next month with more first hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. But for now, from me the troops have been firing indiscriminately, and the rest of the witness history team, goodbye. But still, there are thousands of people on the streets who will not move back. Translation we immediately organised about 200 students to go to Tiananmen Square to support the others, but all the main roads were blocked by the army lorries. I was in my first year in peking university. Hello there. I was 20 years old. The first day of september was dry for most of us, but the second day of the month looks a good deal wetter. Well see some outbreaks i play a leading role of pretty heavy rain moving eastwards through the day and with that, it will from the very beginning be fairly windy. Now, if we look at the recent of the protests. Satellite picture, we can see we went onto the streets this area of cloud heading in our direction. This is a frontal system which is going to bring some to demand democracy. Outbreaks of rain. Although the communist party had tried to reform, it hadnt done enough, and we wanted to pay tribute to the communist party leader, hu yaobang, who had just died. Its all tied in with an area of low pressure drifting we students love him deeply, to the north west the british isles. Because he was open minded. You can see quite a few white lines, quite a few isobars i left Tiananmen Square around noon onjune 3. Squashing together although we all knew on the chart, that shows we were surrounded by troops, that it will be fairly windy, people were smiling. And we will see a break of rain pushing from the west toward the east. Now, the rain will be moving quite erratically eastwards. It will be quite sporadic, quite on and off in nature, but some of it will be pretty heavy, particularly across some parts of south west scotland, where there is the risk of some localised flooding. Brisk winds, particularly up towards the far north west, those are the average speeds we could see gusts of 45 50mph everyone was so optimistic that we were going to win. For very exposed spots in north west scotland. On the evening ofjune 3, it will be a little bit warmer than it has been i was in my dormitory in peking university lately, 15 20 degrees. With other students, discussing the future of our protests. Tanks and troops are patrolling and it looks as if the rain the streets of central peking wont get into east anglia after the bloody operation or the south east of england to crush student led protests. Until quite late on in the day. Some reports say but we will see some splashes more than 2,000 civilians of rain here as we go were killed in last through wednesday night and into thursday. Nights army assault the outbreaks of rain increasingly becoming confined on Tiananmen Square, held for seven weeks to england and wales. By students demanding some clearer skies developing, greater democracy and an end to corruption. Still with one to two showers for Northern Ireland and scotland, and it will be milder than some nights weve had recently. So we head into thursday, and our frontal system will still be in place. This front is going to take translation other student a little while, i think, told me i have to hide. To clear away from england and wales. They hid me in the other universities so, were going to see and i went on the run a lot of cloud here. It could be quite a murky start in places, and there will be for about a month. Some outbreaks of rain moving quite slowly south eastwards. I didnt have a radio to listen but the further north and west you are, there will be sunnier to updates about the crackdown. Skies, some showers, some of which will be heavy. Another windy day, and another ididnt dare slightly warmer one than weve had lately, 17 21 degrees. Now, by friday, it looks as if our weather front will still be lingering turn on the tv either. Across southern england in south wales. So, further pulses of rain here but for north wales, northern england, Northern Ireland and scotland, its a day of sunny spells after being on the run for a month, and heavy showers, and those i decided to go back temperatures start to to beijing, come down once again because i realised things turning cooler that the longer i hid, as we head towards the weekend. The more guilty i would look. For the weekend itself, there will be some showers at times, a fair amount of dry i didnt want to live like a rat hidden weather, but some rather cool 00 08 06,524 2147483051 40 47,978 days and some fairly 2147483051 40 47,978 4294966103 13 29,430 chilly nights. In a tiny room, never coming out for daylight. As soon as i went back to beijing, i was arrested. I was in prison for nearly a year before i was put on trial. Then i was sentenced to four years injail. I even thought i would be executed because i was number one on the chinese governments wanted list. It turned my life upside down. Id always been a top student and i was a leader in the communist party youth league. Who would have thought i would end up in prison, then in exile . The Tiananmen Square crackdown changed my whole life. Otherwise, i would be a poet. The former Tiananmen Square protest leader dan wang. Next, the story behind a legal reform that has changed many lives. In 1972, england and wales became the first countries to pioneer a new alternative to prison. It was called Community Service. The scheme was soon copied around the world. We hear from one of the people in charge of implementing this new sentence for criminals. Britain has one of the Worlds Largest prison populations. We maintain 42,000 prisoners in victorian conditions designed for half that number. It costs more than twice as much to send your son to wormwood scrubs as it does to send him to eton. Prison sentences, particularly short term prison sentences, were not effective. About 70 of people who were serving less than 12 months were being reconvicted, so prison in that sense was a failure. Some of the younger chaps who are in here, they come in here for small sentences and go out as animals. The great and the good in legal terms began to think we must be able to do something more constructive as an alternative to prison, and Community Service was at least a worthwhile experiment to see if we could have some positive results and reduce the level of reoffending. In 1972, the then home secretary introduced the criminaljustice act, which brought forward Community Service orders as a new method of reducing the prison population. This was completely new, in fact it was a world first. As an alternative to prison, an offender is given between 40 to 240 hours, its a penalty, a fine on time, and is expected to do constructive work in the community. I was the senior probation officer responsible for the introduction of Community Service in one part called nottinghamshire. Any sentence in the court is a punishment, i think thats one point weve got to get over very clearly. On the other hand, you could use Community Service as some kind of springboard for rehabilitation. Some people have said its a form of reparation, making up for the damage one has done in the past. We have people on Community Service for burglary, for theft, grievous bodily harm, dangerous driving, all kinds of different offences. Come on, beth, come on. You can do better than that. We had negotiated a whole series of tasks with voluntary organisations, with Public Sector organisations, social services, hospitals, youth clubs. The benefits to the community are obvious enough. This church hall has had £3,000 worth of work done by offenders. People who had been in trouble felt valued. They learned new social skills. In that sense, it bore great fruit. Sports night at a youth club in nottingham. The instructor is an ex boxer and an ex convict. Aged 32, he has spent 20 years inside. He has been convicted of robbery with violence and would be injail again today if he hadnt been given an alternative 200 hours Community Service in his spare time. All the times id been inside, i knew, no matter what i said or what i wrote people, that eventually i was going to be in trouble again, but this time, just. I dont think so. Weve had more lasting effects in terms of staying out of trouble than those people whove been into prison and didnt have the benefit of a Community Service order. And it was about a third of the cost of prison. We had lots of visitors from overseas countries wanting to study our legislation. We became the most copied piece of legislation in the western world. But i think these days, politicians talk up punishment because i suspect it gets you votes with members of the public. The pioneering probation officer, john harding. Now, we stay in the 1970s. Over in uganda, in east africa, the dictator idi amin was in power and in august 1972, he announced plans to expel the countrys asian population. About 60,000 people were given 90 days to leave the country. Gita watts tells witness history about her familys traumatic experience. We had 90 days to sort everything out, then get out of the country, and he sort of made an impression that if we didnt get out on time, we would be sitting on fire. Its estimated there are more than 12,000 towns and villages like this in uganda, and in every one of them, the government is pressing its campaign against the asian traders. The Asian Community was really close knit, so all the asian shops went and enrolled together and we all knew each other. Each family and all the kids knew each other. We were not well off, but we were comfortable. People started rushing to the embassies and my dad had to sign everything over, that means his assets and his business, over to the ugandan bank. We were given £55 thats all he was allowed to take with him. It was just unbelievable, you know, after everything that you owned, he was just left with £55. When we first got to the airport, peoples luggage was opened out and clothes and everything thrown everywhere so they can check for gold and money, and for some reason, my parents put a ring on my finger and we were told to get that ring off me, and because the ring was so tight, it was quite a struggle to take it off and my parents tried everything to take this ring off and in the end, it was cut off. The scariest bit was that we had soldiers with guns and knives surrounding. Im panicking, really, to get this ring off. It was a relief that we actually got on this plane and the planes taking off and were safe. And probably for my dad, he was probably thinking he, you know, he got through, he got his family out of the country at last, but he was leaving back something that he really loved, the country that he loved. The asians arrived in cold, wet weather at stansted. Whole families had arrived with little cash. The few belongings they brought often seemed of nothing more than sentimental value. The time of the year that we arrived as well, it was like the wintertime. And that made it worse as well with the rain and the snow, and id not seen the snow before. We were. We were scared. Because we didnt know where would we go. I mean, we were and my mum was told that to take is to leicester, a town called leicester, and we did not know what it was like. We did not know any english. When i grew up and went to secondary school, i came through a lot of, you know, abuse, racial abuse from kids, you know, again calling names and waiting for me outside school and wanting to, like, beat me up and not liking my colour. Recently, we just went back to uganda. I just wanted to see the country that i was born in and why my parents love that country so much. It was nice to go back to the hospital where i was born. It really was an amazing experience. Gita watts, who had to begin a new life in britain. Remember, you can watch witness history every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all of ourfilms, along with more than 1,000 radio programmes, in our online archive. Just Search Online for bbc witness history. Next, we go to cuba. In july 1989, four top cuban Army Officers were sentenced to death and executed after being convicted of drug trafficking. But critics of the regime believe the case was, in fact, a political attempt to punish the officers for advocating change in Fidel Castros communist cuba. We hearfrom ileana de la guardia, the daughter of one of the executed men. It was the show trial that shook havana. General arnaldo ochoa, a comrade in arms of fidel castro and hero of the revolution, was sentenced last friday to be shot by firing squad, along with three other Army Officers. Translation when they read out that my father, antonio de la guardia, as well as ochoa and the others were all sentenced to death, it came as a massive shock. My father looked over to where i was sitting, but i did not want to start crying. Some of the other relatives broke down and cried, but i did not want to show that weakness. Maybe it was my way of giving my dad a little hope. My father, antonio de la guardia, was head of a Government Department created by fidel castro, tasked with breaking the us blockade on cuba. His job was to smuggle in high tech equipment from the us. My father was accused of being in contact with drug traffickers. It was said that was the only reason he was executed. But for me, it was all about politics. Fidel castro wanted to do away with a group of officers who had different opinions to those of the regime. From about 1985, we began to feel the influence in cuba of the reforms in the soviet union, perestroika. These were issues that were being openly talked about here. My friends and i used to sit in the garden with my father and talk about how if things were changing in eastern europe, then cuba should change too. I did not imagine that expressing those opinions 00 20 22,049 2147483051 46 55,739 could mean being arrested 2147483051 46 55,739 4294966103 13 29,430 and then executed