Transcripts For WHYY Frontline 20140910 : vimarsana.com

On the one hand, you have the atrocities committed by boko haram. On the other hand, you have the atrocities committed by the Security Services. People are scared to death. Narrator tonight, two new reports, one exclusive hour of frontline. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Narrator in sierra leone, west africa, a catastrophe is unfolding the worlds deadliest outbreak of ebola. Sebastian stein is part of the team at an emergency Field Hospital thats been built by the relief Group Doctors without borders. You see patients in the most horrible states, and you can have patients who come in one day, and the next day im packing them in a body bag. People are dying left and right here. Narrator another patient has just died. Sebastian, whos in charge of the morgue, must enter the isolation tent to recover the body. You need to be covered everywhere, so you have to have no exposed skin so theres no chance of being in direct contact with a patient or with body fluids from a patient. Narrator the ebola virus doesnt travel through the air, but through contact with bodily fluids. Theres a tiny bit here. Its okay . Narrator the virus causes vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding. Simply touching a victim can be fatal. Beyond the orange barrier are the wards Holding Patients infected with the virus. The latest victim is a nineyearold boy. His body is still highly infectious. knocking narrator sebastians morgue ledger is filling up. So well put in number 78 now in a few minutes. So yeah, and thats just since the first registration, the 2nd of july. So thats, yeah, thats exactly one month tomorrow. Its not a nice book. Its thick. I hope we dont need to fill the whole thing. car horn honks narrator an ambulance brings more victims, six members of the same family. This has spread at an unprecedented level. I mean, weve never seen such a large outbreak ever in recorded history, and so now we come here to try to do to the best of our ability, but were overstretched. Narrator local nurses are on the streets warning the outbreak is worsening. Even in the Doctors Without Borders hospital, ebola is killing 70 of those it infects. Because so few people who go to the hospital ever return, victims are hiding in their homes and infecting their families. You must report them to hospital staff, who will come and check them. Narrator the only way to contain ebola is to isolate the infected. If were able to do it. Narrator manjo lamin works with one of sierra leones disease Surveillance Teams. Its their job to find victims and get them to the Doctors Without Borders hospital. But manjo and his seven colleagues cant keep up with the number of cases. Narrator two weeks ago, manjo went through a terrifying ordeal when he was quarantined with suspected ebola. It turned out to be a false alarm, and he returned to work. Now hes about to head to another contaminated village. Narrator the Surveillance Team has only four vehicles to monitor the half Million People living at the center of the outbreak. They meet up with the vehicle thats being used to transport ebola victims. Narrator its a hearse. Narrator theyre heading to a village where ebola has already killed an old man. Everyone they encounter, even those who look healthy, could be infectious. The team used to wear protective clothing, but the suits terrified the villagers who ran, hid and sometimes even attacked them. Manjo now relies on keeping his distance from everyone he meets. Narrator a young woman is clearly unwell. Narrator kadiatu jusu is 25 years old, the mother of four children. Narrator her husband fallah is a farmer. Hes 35. It was his father who died two weeks ago. Isheta conteh can see kadiatu is almost certainly infected. Narrator manjo disinfects kadiatus home with chlorine. Everything she touched could have been contaminated. Isheta notes the names of everyone whos been in close contact with kadiatu. Her children and husband are at the top of the list. Narrator fallah cant risk touching his wife to say goodbye. Narrator they begin the two hour journey to the Doctors Without Borders hospital. The local hospitals are barely functioning because so many doctors and nurses have died from ebola. voice muffled . Because she is vomiting, she said. Okay. Narrator the team at the hospital quickly begins to treat kadiatu. Although there are no known cures for ebola, sometimes the body can fight it off, especially if the victim can stay hydrated. A canadian doctor, tim jagatic, passes antinausea drugs into the isolation ward. We just gave her a medication to prevent the vomiting, and the rs solution just to rehydrate her because shes losing a lot of fluid and electrolytes. Our job here is just to kind of keep the body at an optimal state of health so that the immune system can kind of do its work, find the virus, create the antibodies, kill off the virus. Were just trying to clear the path for the immune system to get to that point. Narrator the van is disinfected, ready to pick up the next ebola case on manjos list. The hospital is busy through the night. The pain and the symptoms caused by ebola mean its victims get little sleep. I need a flashlight. You need a flashlight . Some nights are different than others. It all depends. Last night was kind of quiet. The night before, we had one death. Narrator when the hospital was built four weeks earlier, 64 beds seemed more than enough. Thats no longer the case. Theres like an onslaught of patients. Were quickly filling up. Were getting a lot more patients coming in now. This is another problem because one doctor was treating the patient as typhoid. Narrator anja wolz, from germany, is the Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator. She says the sierra leone government and the International Community were slow to react to the virus when it initially appeared. To be honest, i feel helpless and frustrated. I always think about my first day. One guy came to me and told me, like, my brother died, my sister died, my wife died, my child died. Nobody came to disinfect the houses, and i got three body bags for four people, but i dont know how to use it. And i was thinking, oh bleep , we are too late. Narrator an ambulance arrives, bringing a woman and her little girl. The mother has died on the journey. As the body is carried to the morgue, the girl cries out. Narrator her name is fatmata. Shes seven years old. Her grandmother died of ebola at home. As is customary in sierra leone, fatmata touched her body at the funeral. Narrator sebastian has just been inside the wards to retrieve another body. He saw fatmata. Another patient passed away on the floor right next to this poor little girl. So shes been through a lot now. We come in dressed up like spacemen, and we can try and say nice things, but the fright and the terror of being alone as a child in a hospital, especially in these circumstances, is just. Its too much for any small child. Narrator later that day, fatmata died. Nearby, kadiatus symptoms are growing worse. And now the hearse that doubles as an ambulance has arrived with another case from her village. Its her husband, fallah, whose father died in this hospital two weeks ago. Narrator hes left their four children in the village and joins his wife in the isolation ward. This man narrator manjo wants to talk to the couple. The fence keeps them six feet apart. You found this body in the center of town . Yes. In kailahun . Yes. Narrator a dead girl has just been brought to the Field Hospital. You came here and you spoke to the doctor. Yes. But before . Narrator but nobody knows who she is. Just hold on and ill just try to figure out whats happened, okay . Okay, perfect. This guy cant explain properly where the body is coming from. Its a pediatric body bag in there, so. Narrator each new victim who arrives here has potentially infected more people. If they cant be traced, then the virus will continue to spread. Well put the body in our mortuary here overnight until we can figure out who this is and why this body was brought like this. So if you can spray the bag, and then well take it out and well put it in another bag. I dont think you can be prepared for this. You have to just look at it as a job. Its, uh. Narrator manjo and his team head out to a remote village where two more victims have recently died. They are now in pursuit of yet another infected man. Hello narrator theres no sign of the infected man, and the villagers wont cooperate. Narrator manjo says the villagers are afraid of going to the hospital and they dont realize the infected man could spread the virus. Narrator they have to give up and move on. Narrator they later hear that the infected man has fled his village into neighboring guinea, taking the virus with him. One of the reasons the outbreak has persisted is that infected people travel freely across the borders between sierra leone, liberia and guinea. Its causing panic and unrest. gunshots in nearby kenema, the Third Largest town in sierra leone, rumors about the virus have brought people onto the streets. A story is going round that ebola is a hoax, a trick devised by doctors to steal peoples blood. The rioters are trying to break down the hospital gates and rescue the patients inside. news report on radio narrator the Police Use Tear gas and fire live bullets to disperse the rioters. But the rumors that ebola is a hoax mean that more victims hide in their homes, infecting their families and neighbors. Back at the Field Hospital, its kadiatus sixth night in isolation. Shes still very sick, but shes more worried about her husband fallah. Narrator fallahs battle with the virus is reaching a critical phase. Narrator with both fallah and kadiatu in the hospital, manjo returns to their village to check on their four sons. Narrator to everyones relief, they are healthy. But theyre missing their mom and dad. Narrator they record a get well message. Narrator manjo returns to the hospital with the childrens message. Narrator against the odds, kadiatu is feeling better. Narrator fallah has been vomiting blood, but he wants to see the message from his children. Narrator by august, the hospital is full. The dead are taken to a nearby clearing. Its really horrible, right . Youre just walking, trying not to step on the graves, trying to show some respect, but at the same time, its so unceremonial. This is going to continue to grow, im afraid. I lost my brothers. I lost my sisters. I lost my best friends. Narrator the gravediggers are volunteers. Theyve each lost a number of loved ones. Two. My mother, my son, and my father. Likewise myself, because hes my older brother. Five. Three. Four good people. Four good people. Narrator officially this Ebola Outbreak has claimed over 1,900 lives but the real figure is believed to be higher and rising fast. The World Health Organization warns that the virus could ultimately infect more than 20,000 people. Narrator coming up next on frontlinwhen the terrorist Group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 nigerian schoolgirls, there was an international outcry. The kidnapping by boko haram is an unconscionable crime. Narrator and a crackdown by the Nigerian Military. Why are they beating that man . Narrator starting right now, reporter Evan Williams investigates the hidden story of nigerias hunt for boko haram. rooster crowing car horn honking Evan Williams nigeria is africas most populous country, divided between muslims in the north and christians in the south. For the past five years, its been fighting a brutal islamist insurgency. loud explosion the radical Group Boko Haram has been trying to impose an islamic state. Their name means western influence is sinful. people shouting williams in almost daily attacks, boko haram has been beheading police officers, setting off bombs, and killing school children. They burn schools like the taliban. They kill government officials and attack military and police locations like the taliban. They see themselves as the taliban of nigeria. girls singing williams last april, the group shocked the world by kidnapping nearly 300 schoolgirls. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by boko haram is an unconscionable crime, and we will do Everything Possible to support the Nigerian Government to return these young women to their homes. horns honking williams i arrived here this past may just after a double car bombing by boko haram had gone off in the Northern City of jos. explosion woman screaming siren blaring williams just going towards now the center of jos, where just yesterday, there were two vehicle explosions killing about 118 people, injuring many more. This has now been determined as a boko haram attack. The whole town in this area has now been emptied, and theres a very eerie feeling. Williams joss main hospital was filled with victims from the bombing. In one room, i found this woman. She had been riding in a taxi when the explosion tore through the vehicle. She told me the two people sitting next to her were killed instantly. Williams what goes through your mind when you remember what happened . Williams in the face of these attacks, the Nigerian Military launched an allout war against the Group Two Years ago. It was called operation flush. A state of emergency was declared in the countrys three northern states. Thousands of troops were sent in to operate alongside local militias made up of young muslim men who feared boko haram. These are young men that have the knowledge of the northeastern part of nigeria, so now the military can have someone by proxy carrying out their activities without them being held responsible. My other colleagues here tonight. Williams nigerias president Goodluck Jonathan hailed the militias as national heroes. But soon after i started investigating boko haram, i began hearing stories about these militias atrocities some of them were committing, along with members of the military, as they carried out operation flush. I talked to witnesses and militia members who described arrests, torture and even the summary execution of civilians. And as proof, they gave me over 120 videos, many of them they shot themselves. I independently corroborated these videos with multiple eyewitnesses, militia members and human rights experts. Weve managed to track down an insider who has agreed to see us, but only in a safe location. He belongs to one of the militias and asked to be called abdul. He gave me 35 videos. translated we only have one life. God has given us the same as hes given them, so we thought, why not just confront them . We either kill them or they kill us. Williams he said members of the military trained some of them and even paid some of them directly. translated they took us and trained us for four weeks. They formed us so that we could be their boys and said theyd support us in our operation. Williams they armed themselves with whatever weapons they could find machetes, swords, bows and arrows and were encouraged to deal harshly with boko haram suspects wherever they went. Williams initially, he said they had some success capturing boko haram members. But then abdul started to grow uncomfortable with their methods. He showed me a video he says he filmed during an operation flush mission in the city of maiduguri in july 2013. His militia had gone through the countryside capturing villagers suspected of supporting boko haram. The suspects were turned over to the military. translated we all turned into monsters, as you can see. There is no bailing out. Take the cloth off his face, motherf. Is he dead . He is not dead. Williams abdul said people were beaten to try to get them to confess they were boko haram. Williams one young man was singled out by the soldiers. Williams why are they beating that man . translated because he refused to admit hes boko haram. Williams he was alarmed by what happened next. translated they said, we dont trust you. You are boko haram since you have this strong head. They were beating him, beating him, beating him. He is just a young boy. The boy is not boko haram. Hes not boko haram. Even People Living in the area testified that hes not boko haram. His parents were there and they tried to stop it, but they couldnt. In the end, they just had to turn away. Williams abdul says he later found out the boy died of his injuries. Soon after that raid, they moved into the town of bama. Three weeks earlier, it had been attacked by boko haram. The group had threatened to kill teachers and government workers if they didnt leave their jobs. translated boko haram has been killing people for a long time burning shops, police stations, barracks and killing people. They kill anybody who refuses to work with them. Williams i met another member of the militia who asked to be called mohammed, and also gave me videos. He was there that day, and he proudly told me how they violently extracted confessions from young men theyd rounded up. translated we tie their hands and legs and place them in the sun. We beat them with a stick until they scream. Then they tell us everything. If he has killed someone or has a gun, he will tell us. He will tell us if he is boko haram. He will tell us everything. Because there were many of them, we stripped them and our boys screened them. We scare them. Otherwise, they would not tell the truth. Williams i found a witness, a local school teacher, who said he looked on in horror as more and more of the towns young men were accused of being terrorists, even though he had seen the boko haram fighters fleeing before the military arrived. Williams i showed the teacher video of that day. As he watched the footage, he spotted someone he knew. Williams and was he connected to boko haram . men shouting williams dozens of young men like Mohammed Bello were loaded onto an army truck, and the militia celebrated their success. Two days later, people began finding the bodies of the men whod been taken away on the outskirts of town. Williams around 35 men were killed, he says, including Mohammed Bello. The teacher found his bulletridden body lying in a ditch. Williams he told me some people are so scared of the military and the militias, williams i met these women who are from a town thats been repeatedly attacked by boko haram. As far back as two years ago, the military has been conducting sweeps there too. Williams the women went to the local army barracks, thinking that their husbands and relatives were being held there. Williams the army says that theyve arrested people because theyre members of boko haram. Were your brothers ever members of boko haram . Any connection or support of boko haram . Williams how many other women do you know are in your situation . Williams i wanted to interview someone from the Nigerian Military or government about the allegations, but they wouldnt agree to it. In several statements, theyve said Collateral Damage could occur in the fight against the insurgents. But they denied Human Rights Violations and noted that boko haram has impersonated soldiers before. But some of the same incidents seen in these videos prompted secretary of state john kerry in may 2013 to say the u. S. Had concerns about credible allegations that Nigerian Security forces are committing gross Human Rights Violations. I think obviously the u. S. Would like to have a closer relationship with the nigerian authorities straight across the board, including the military. Williams i showed several of the videos to ambassador campbell. What the videos do is they show, in an extraordinarily graphic way, what we had been hearing from a variety of sources over the past couple of years. Williams hes been following boko haram and the allegations against the Nigerian Military. The people detained are not formally charged. Theyre not brought before a magistrate. They appear to be selected for detention in a more or less random way. Government Security Services must be held to a much higher standard than a brutal insurgency. A much higher standard. Williams most of the people rounded up are brought here, to the armys giwa barracks in the northeastern city of maiduguri. This man told me hed been held at the barracks for four months last year. translated after we got to giwa barracks, they said, welcome to your death house. From the time we were taken to giwa barracks to the time we were out, no one investigated or asked us any questions as to why we were there, whether we were boko haram or whether we knew boko haram. We were just kept in giwa barracks. There were no questions or answers nothing. Williams he said he was released after his father paid a bribe. Others were not so lucky. translated in the night, they call peoples names, and if they answer, they are taken, blindfolded and shot. Williams of the 122 men who were taken to the giwa barracks with him, he knows of only nine who came out alive. He told me the bodies of dead prisoners were loaded onto military vehicles and driven away. What happened next was even more alarming. These pictures were taken outside the city morgue by people who told me the bodies had come from giwa barracks. And this happened in 2013. Williams one of the photos was taken by a human rights investigator from Amnesty International. Hundreds of people, some even say several thousands of people, been detained in giwa military barracks and have gone through various forms of ill treatment. People die of starvation, they die of beatings, the lack of proper ventilation which leads to suffocation. These are the various causes that lead to people dying in military custody. Williams abdul, the young militiaman, said it was his job to unload the corpses from military vehicles and dump them in front of the morgue. How many corpses in a week, say, were you offloading . translated the vehicle takes 24, 25 bodies in a trip. They come four, five times a day, so every day, they were bringing 100, 120something. Williams and then one day, abdul unloaded a body he recognized, a close friend who had been taken away to giwa barracks a friend he knew was not a member of boko haram. translated why would they kill him without having strong evidence . Where was the person that said he was a boko haram member . I said, this is a false allegation. I put his corpse to one side. I cried and cried and cried. Williams the Nigerian Military has publicly denied that there have been mass deaths in detention. But local human rights investigators and the u. S. State department told me the number could be several thousand. There are families that have not seen their loved ones. There are women who have not seen their husbands for the past three to four years. No one, not even the state, the country, or the government as a whole, have a comprehensive list of people that have disappeared or people that are currently in detention. gunshots men shouting williams last march, with giwa barracks filling up, boko haram filmed themselves raiding the barracks and freeing hundreds of prisoners. But very few went with boko haram. Eyewitnesses say most appeared to be civilians who ran for their homes. shouting continues but they didnt get very far. I found a man who says he watched the prison break and saw the militia rounding people up. translated they were looking for something to eat or drink. One was begging for water with his hands. All of them were crying, saying that they were not boko haram. Two soldiers came either side and asked people to move away, and poppoppoppoppop, they shot them all. Williams one of the terrified men called out to him. translated he told me, this is the end of my life because these people will not spare me. They will kill me. He had seen the other dead bodies. He was alive, we were together, but in just a few seconds, somebody came and shot him. Williams militia members and people standing in the streets filmed the executions on their cellphones. The videos match the accounts of several eyewitnesses. Bodies were left bleeding in the streets, with spent cartridges around them. Some of the victims appear to be children. Williams no one knows the death toll for certain, but Amnesty International estimates that more than 600 people died that day. And the killing didnt stop there. The military hunted other escaped prisoners down on the outskirts of town. I received two horrific videos that show what happened next the bodies of what witnesses say are giwa detainees being thrown into a pit by soldiers. One carries a rifle with the number of a battalion thats part of operation flush. The soldier who appears to be in charge wears a uniform marked with the name operation flush. I was told that the soldier goes by the name haruna, or harrison. Williams of all the videos ive obtained, these are the most graphic. They show him presiding over six executions. All the prisoners have their throats slashed, with a line of men behind him awaiting their turn. It has reached a point where people couldnt even clearly draw a line between the wanton violence and evil unleashed by the insurgents and the acts of brutality committed by the Security Forces against innocent persons. Williams in august the Nigeria Military said it would e who was behind the executions in these two videos. But as of now, its unclear what the response will be to the many other incidents weve reported on. Go to pbs. Org frontline to track ebolas spread through west africa with an interactive map, and find out more about why this outbreak has been so difficult to contain. Learn more about u. S. Relations with nigeria, and read a statement from the Nigerian Government. Then connect to tfrontline community. Sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on youtube, facebook, twitter and pbs. Org frontline. Next time frontline, on the coast of china. Macau generates six or seven times the revenue of vegas. American casinos are making huge profits. There is significant Illegal Activity Associated with gaming in macau. To be fair to the casinos, theyve tried to run a clean house. Correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates. How do you collect the debt . By following the guy until he pays. What happens in macau never happened. Bigger than vegas. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh, access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. FrontlineEbola Outbreak is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org. Or call 1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. What if television. Ali i shook up the world could remember the heroes we honored . The music we danced to . The dreams we chased . Kennedy the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. No one tells our nations story like pbs. Give to your pbs station, and help bring americas story to life. R r r tonight, a special preview of the new film from director ken burns the roosevelts an intimate history, with exclusive interviews and behindthescenes footage. See how ken burns will tell the story of the most influential family in the nations history. Woman its an extraordinary story. The drama of it is unmatched in our history. Announcer theodore, the oncesickly boy who stormed into washington as if he was charging into battle. He didnt dare slow down. There were demons. Announcer franklin. Struck down by illness, he would pull himself back up while lifting the country out of depression and war. Franklin the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Man you just had a sense this guy can do it. Announcer eleanor. She would go where her husband could not, redefining the role of first lady and inspiring millions. Man Eleanor Roosevelt is a sort of miracle of the human spirit. There are so many times in her life