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We begin today in Northeastern Italy where 13 people are now known to have died in the region of Emilia Romagna. After six months worth of rain fell in just a couple of days. 20 rivers have burst their banks nearly 300 landslides have been recorded.
The area has experienced serious flooding before most recently just two years ago. But this is on a different scale.
这个地区曾经经历过严重的洪水,最近仅仅两年前。但是这次情况比以往更加严重。
Michele De Pascali is the mayor of Ravenna, a city close to the Adriatic coast. It's one of the places in the region worst hit by the flooding. And he told news out about the impact the waters have had.
The flood that hit my city and my region especially Romagna has been like someone pointed the perfect storm. And the facts have been catastrophic. Many people have lost their homes their possession someone their life. We have in the town of Ravenna 25,000 people out of home.
Well, among the people who have had to leave their homes further inland are Nicolo Santoro's parents in law. He was clearing out their house in the town of Bottaginno, Dezocca, just south of the regional capital, Bologna, when we got through to him.
I'm currently in the countryside of Bologna, we are here taking care of the house of my father's in law, which yesterday got covered at the first floor with the water and mud like we have never seen before. It happened two years ago that we had the same problem but it was not that much water at the end as it is time. So in that period we decided to take care of the cleanlands and the mountains of the river in front of the house, at our own cause obviously because no one here is taking care of the cleanlands of the rivers anymore here in Italy. We have a big problem on the side.
And we raised the embankment by four meters, but yesterday it was not enough. We found ourselves with one meter and a half mud and water inside the house at the first floor. What is the scene like now? Can you perhaps describe it?
When we arrived yesterday everything was floating around because there was still water inside the house, it was still like one meter and the water left there was 40 cm of mud and it was so difficult to walk around even. Now we are trying to clean everything. I really need to thank a lot of people in the neighborhood which are really helping us a lot in this moment, but no one from the state or the region is coming here to help us. So I really, really want to thank these people who are helping us.
And you say that you had to yourselves build up the embankment to try and put some protection in following the most recent floods? Yeah, but we just cleaned the like one hundred meters off the river in front of the house, but the problem is much bigger. We need to take care of the rivers.
Why did you have to do it yourselves? Because no one came here to ask us if we needed to clean that on the mountains of the river.
为什么你们非要自己动手呢?因为没有人来问我们是否需要清理河山上的东西。
What is the damage like? How much can you save? Yeah, probably nothing on the first floor since the mud was everywhere. In every door we found everything floating and TV is electronic, it's all gone and the furniture etc. Really crazy.
And what about insurance, flood insurance? Fortunately this time we had that not like the two years ago, and we will try to get something back, but we don't actually know what is covered and what is not.
So you learned a lot from what happened two years ago, but you're saying the authorities didn't? No, actually not at all.
所以你从两年前发生的事情中学到了很多,但你在说当局没有学到吗?实际上根本没有。
And your parents in law they got out in time. You got them out? Yeah, they can yesterday to our house because we saw the danger coming and with five dogs two cats they had to move yesterday. And if not an easy moment for them to arrive at a level where they get crazy seeing their things, get destroyed and really we are here to help them, but it's really hard.
You say the authorities haven't really helped out until now, but what are you expecting them to do? I mean we still have not seen no one from the authorities here. I think they are all occupied in a bigger center like CT or a river. No one came here.
You can hear the machines, but the machines are from people in the neighborhood. We had that and they are really helping us in this moment because no one from the state came here. So that's just local farmers helping out? Yeah.
And how long do you anticipate this clear up effort will take? We are taking away the bigger part, but we still need to clean all the whole the house inside, dry everything and see what we can recover and what has to be thrown away.
You're probably not reflecting too much on the causes of this, but do you think the fact you've had these two extreme weather events in just a couple of years and so much damage is directly related to climate change? It probably can be also two weeks ago. We had a big rainfall with the river coming out, so the floor was probably already saturated. And yeah, all this period of dry and big rainfall, those extremes could obviously be referred to to climate change. Given that, what do you think of the way the authorities have reacted? As I told you, no one came here, so I know they have a lot of work now, but really no one can hear asking if we need to help. Well, Nicolau, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us and best of luck with all the clear up. Thank you, Jamie. I go back to work. Back to work. Nicolau Santoro, speaking to me from his in-laws house in the town of Bottagino di Zocca, just south of Bologna, and we'll be putting that criticism to the party that runs the region Emilia Romagna later in the program.
The bodies are still being found in a forest in southern Kenya, where members of a starvation doomsday cult lived and died. The bodies of 227 people, mainly women and children, have been exhumed so far, but hundreds are still missing, possible victims of what is being called the Shakahola Forest Massacre. They belonged to a cult whose leader Paul McKenzie allegedly told his followers that they would see Jesus if they starved themselves to death. He was allowed to continue preaching, despite arousing suspicions, indeed, despite being arrested on several occasions. The Kenyan government has launched an investigation into the case and another into the wider problem of cult membership.
The BBC's Barbara Platt Asher has been to the Shakahola Forest area, and she sent this report. We're on our way now to visit a woman who escaped from the forest with her five children, and she lives quite far off the main road, so we're now having to navigate along narrow lanes next to cornfields and also gullies that have been half washed out with rain. Salama lives in a cluster of small mud huts, the space between them is filled with children and farm animals. She's cooking food for her family just a few months ago, that would have been considered a sin. Salama rescued her children from a Christian doomsday cult. She introduces them one by one. She was told they must starve so they could see Jesus. If she hadn't escaped, they would be dead. When the child cries or asks for food, water, we were told to take a cane and beat them, so they could go and eat in heaven. So I thought about it and I said I cannot go along with this, and I can't eat while my child is starving. But how come so many parents could? Salama asked many questions about the meaning of the deaths all around her. We would gather every Saturday and the pastor would tell us the word was coming to an end. He said we should fast and die because if we delayed heaven would be full. But when I was fasting, God spoke to me. He told me this wasn't his will.
Salama and hundreds of others had moved to the Shakaholy Forest, invited by their pastor. He sold them plots in what he called a new holy land. Now it's a crime scene. Gravediggers are unearthing hundreds of bodies as grizzly details emerge. Survivors say there was an order of death. Children went first, but not the pastor's children, and he went last. Some of the bodies loaded onto the trucks show signs of strangulation or suffocation. Police say those who resisted appear to have been beaten, even killed, but dozens have been found alive. My name is Victor Kaudo, the executive director Malindi Social Justice Center. Victor has been helping the survivors, but not all of them wanted to be rescued. Some truly believed this was the way to heaven. Like an emaciated elderly woman he shows me in a video. It's one of the women that we addressed you that day. She's calling on Jesus to come and help her because these people are taking me to the devil. These people are evil. Is she alive? She's still alive, but yesterday she then decided not to take her meals. She says it wants to start fasting again. Do you think she and others are saying they want to fast again out of their own will or do you think that someone is convincing them? There were two people who are convincing them. They were part of that militia that Mackenzie had. So after identifying them, we had to isolate them from those two people.
The man accused of ordering mass suicide is Pastor Paul Mackenzie. I don't do it. Yes, please. Praise Jesus. He shouts as he leaves the police station for a court hearing. He denies any guilt, but he's been tried before on charges of radicalization. So he was known to the authorities. I asked the regional police commissioner, Rota Anyantcha, about that. Why was this allowed to go on for so long? He was known before he moved to Shakahola. He was born and he was taken to court three times. And even now we have an active case in court. But in the evening, this is a matter that has come up now in the matter that we are underliect, in the matter that is under investigation. Thank you. There's a public inquiry and a shake-up in the local security services. But hundreds of people are still missing. Urbana's Kialo is outside the local morgue and has just given a DNA sample to the Red Cross to help in the search for his brother's family. They are lively, lively kids. The boy loves me very much. He just learned of them. You still have hope that they might come running to you? The horror, the sheer scale of it, has settled deeply into this community and traveled far beyond it. The agonizing question still is how this could have happened. That was Barbara Platarsha reporting.
Well, many questions raised by that, including why our religious cults so prevalent in Kenya. Later on in the program, we'll be putting that to the President of the Kenyan Psychiatric Association. Just remind if you miss any live editions of this program, you can always catch up with our podcast. We updated twice a day, seven days a week. Just look for BBC News and Podcast in your search engine. You're listening to News Hour from the BBC.
The conflict in Sudan hasn't taken long to settle into a familiar and violent pattern. Once again, today, airstrikes pounded parts of the Capitol Khartoum as the fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitaries of the rapid support forces shows no sign of pausing. Nearly a thousand people are thought to have been killed and more than a million displaced with civilians caught in the middle. The conflict between two military factions, which is now in its second month, comes less than two years since a power-sharing agreement involving a civilian grouping called the forces of freedom and change and the military was snuffed out by a coup.
Amar Hamudah is spokesman for the central council of the forces of freedom and change, and he's currently in London. The situation is very sad and bad in Sudan, especially in Al-Janena, West Darfur. Waya is very close to being slaved into civil war because the clash there seems to be with the tribal view. So this is the ugly face of the war. And it's a war that's been lasting for several weeks. And any sense of who has the upper hand? Is it the army? Is it the rapid support forces? We're not talking about the upper hand, but we're talking about zones.
Those who are controlling certain zones are responsible for what's going there in their area. So areas controlled by RSF, they are witnessing a wide range of bad stories of people who entered many houses and hospitals. Another they are saying that they have been hit by the air force. They are very afraid of having the plane going on and coming putting them under fire. So many things. What hopes in this context are there for a ceasefire? We hope so. We hope so. We are civilians. We should push for having number one, it's in fire.
Number two, having a political solution and a settlement. We hope that the negotiations in Jeddah with the efforts from Saudi Arabia and United States can come to an agreement. Yes, they have made an agreement on paper, but the fighting still escalated. And the talks in Jeddah, what are you hearing about? What is happening there? What's happening there? What kind of progress is being made? The talks in Jeddah of a kind which is with a very limited access for the media and other politicians, they wanted to succeed anyhow and we appreciate that. They said, yes, we have some faces to be done. First, we have to go for the humanitarian and medical issues, safe corridors, those kinds of things. Then we should go for the ceasefire phase. After that, we should come to solution with the participation of civilians.
At that point, you would hope that the forces of freedom and change will be included in talks. Yes, of course, because the absence of civilians in general will left the area for the military voices. And then we should have, we will end up with something either the civil war or a long new dictatorship. So having the civilians on board may put an end for the upper hand for the military side. But as things stand, what is your understanding? Can aid get into the country? Can it get to the people who need it? They add there are many problems related to that one.
Number one, distribution channels used by the government could not be neutral. This is very crucial issue. Another thing is related to security. If you took those kinds of aids and you put them in the right place, you cannot grant that armed people cannot take it from that place. So it's not only about the safe corridors, it's also about having protection for these blires and medical aids. That was Amar Hamuda from Sudan's forces of freedom and change.
He started his career as school teacher Gordon Sumner. But it wasn't long before he changed his name to Sting and became one of the world's most successful musicians. He was of course the lead singer of the police in the 1970s and 80s. They had hits like message in a bottle every breath you take. And the school teacher themed don't stand so close to me. He later of course became a solo star rations and Englishman in New York among his best known songs. Today, Sting joins the likes of Elton John and Paul McCartney in becoming just one of a handful of fellows of the Ivan Avello songwriting academy here in London. And ahead of that ceremony, he spoke to the BBC's Mark Savage.
We are here because you're being given the fellowship of the Ivan Avello's academy. Now, if people who don't know what that is, explain why that's so important. It sounds a bit like Lord of the Rings doesn't have a fellowship.
It's very meaningful to me because that's what I put on my passport. What am I? I'm a songwriter. That's my profession and it's a profession I'm very proud of. The first hit song you had was Roxanne. Do you remember listening to the chart kind done on Radio One the week that went into it?
Yeah, I was in my kitchen in Beiswater on a plank on top of the ladder, painting the ceiling with some white emulsion and I had Radio One on and I suddenly recognized this song. It's Roxanne and I literally fell off the ladder. They immediately called the other guys the band. They were on the radio there. They were listening to but nothing will ever beat that first you know time you hear it yourself on the radio. That is incredible.
And then you write what is I think the most played Radio Song of all time.
然后你写下了我认为是有史以来最受欢迎的广播歌曲。意思是说你写下你认为是历史上播放量最高的广播歌曲。
Well that's interesting. It was in 1982 in the In Fleming's house. The In Fleming's desk was there and at night I would sit and try and write songs. I think the song of a spirit of James Bond in this song because it's so ambiguous you know it's it's a love song but it's also quite sinister. And tell me about Fields of Gold because that's a song Paul McCartney said he wished he'd written.
Well there I can't tell you how many Paul McCartney songs I wish I'd written. The process of songwriting is kind of mysterious. To this day I'm not quite sure I understand it. I'm very happy when it comes but there's no formula. My satisfaction of finishing a song lasts about 20 minutes and then I get anxious about where the next song is coming from. I think there's been I guess what you could call convincing facsimiles of music. What's your take on that?
It's similar to the way I watch a movie with CGI. It doesn't impress me at all. I get immediately bored when I see a computer generated image. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music. I think maybe for electronic dance music it works but for songs you know expressing emotions I don't think I will be moved by it. And that was Sting in conversation with the BBC's Mark Savage just ahead of collecting his fellowship of the Ivan novello songwriting academy here in London.
You're listening to the BBC World Service and this is news hour coming to you live from our studios in central London with me James Camara Samy. Now do you ever argue with your partner about who does the most chores around the home are the men in your household not pulling their weight compared to the women? Well if the answer to those questions is yes you may want to take some inspiration from Spain. The country's equality ministry says it will launch an app designed to monitor the sharing of housework.
您正在收听BBC World Service,我是詹姆斯·卡马拉·萨米,我们现在正在从伦敦市中心的演播室向您直播新闻时段。现在,您是否会与配偶争论家务活分配的问题,男性是否没有像女性那样分担家务负担?如果答案是肯定的话,您可能需要从西班牙汲取一些灵感。该国的平等部门表示,他们将推出一款旨在监控家务劳动分配的应用程序。
So how will that work? News hours James Menendez has been speaking to Melissa Kitson. She's a journalist at the English language edition of the newspaper L-Pace in Madrid. The equality ministry says it wants to create an app that will work similar to apps which track how much you've spent on a holiday for instance. So if someone spent X amount of dollars on the accommodation or on other travel expenses to create a similar division in terms of who's done the washing up and how many hours you spent with cooking. The voices said that the app will include push notifications so that could mean that if someone's falling behind they'll get a little notification warning them to this day game.
So but does it require the couple assuming it's a couple to enter the information about how much they've done them rather than the app sort of watching you around the home?
所以,这是否需要情侣输入有多少次进行了而不是应用程序在家中观察你?
Yes, I mean this as opposed to the loophole. It is a self-reporting system, so the app is not what you knew. You do need to be honest about how many hours you are dedicating to your household chores. Yes, I can see a flaw here. What's been the reaction to this news in Spain? The reaction has been generally negative, I would say. Some have complained that it's a waste of money.
The app is going to cost just over 210,000 euros to make. Others say that the government is sort of meddling with people's lives. They're trying to say to families how much time they should be spending, and others say look, you know gender equality is a problem. This is an issue, but an app is not necessarily the best way to solve it. Right, here comes the personal stuff.
I think your partner is called Juan, isn't he? He's obviously not here to defend himself, but who does the most in terms of housework in your home? It's tricky, but I mean to say it's fairly even, although I do feel like I do the worst chores. So, for instance, Juan does the cooking and I do the washing up, we would say, and I perhaps do sort of more of the everyday cleaning where he would do sort of the bigger projects that they you know the cleaning of the all the windows and you're reorganising the cabinets that doesn't happen quite as often as big as the day-to-day cleaning.
Right, so that's interesting, so actually, if you know, and that might be quite useful because then you could total up the time taken because it's quite hard to keep track of those sort of occasional blitzes of cleaning, isn't it, and how much it actually contributes? Yes, it's we'll be a tricky one for us. Also, you know, one of his favourite gadgets is the robot back-in cleaner so I'm not sure if that will count, you know if you're not actually doing the work of self-reflecting. It definitely doesn't count. It definitely doesn't count. And that was Melissa Kitson from the newspaper El Pace in Madrid speaking to James Menendez about the app from Spain's equality and well about her own domestic arrangements as well.
You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is news hour, coming to you live from London with James Camarassami. Let's return now to our main story, the floods in northeastern Italy where 13 people have died after the Amelia Romagna region was deluged by the equivalent of six months of rainfall in just a couple of days. One local mayor has described it as the worst disaster there in a century. Thousands of people have been forced out of their homes after 20 rivers burst their banks.
Earlier on news hour, we heard from Nicolo Santoro who was cleaning out his in-laws' flooded house just south of the regional capital Bologna. He told me the authorities were still nowhere to be seen. When we arrived yesterday, everything was floating around because there was still water inside the house. It was still like one meter, and the water left was 40 centimeters of mud, and it was so difficult to walk around even. Now we are trying to clean everything. I really need to thank a lot of people in the neighbourhood which are really helping us a lot in this moment, but no one off from the state or the region is coming here to help us. So, I really, really want to thank these people who are helping us.
Why did you have to do it yourselves? Because no one came here to ask us if we needed hands to clean that or on the mind of the river. The government in Rome is led by Georgia Maloney of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, but the region of Amelia Romagna is a left-wing bastion. The regional government is run by the Democratic Party or PD. All the parties recently elected national leader is the MP Ellie Schlein who was previously vice president of the Amelia Romagna region, and she told me first about the situation on the ground.
It's a dramatic situation. It's devastating extreme events never seen before in history. There are more than 10,000 people out of their homes and more than 30,000 without electricity. The scale is bigger than on previous occasions, but they have been extreme weather events, have they're not just a couple of years ago, for example. There was one. I think when you were still vice president there so people will have not been taken completely by surprise by the fact of it even if the scale of it was much bigger.
Yes and Italy is a particularly fragile country in terms of hydrological risks. Which does beg the question and we've spoken to at least one local resident who said look more should have been done to prepare the region for this eventuality. Is that not a fair thing for people in that region to feel given that it has happened before?
Well it's obviously a problem of the whole system I have to say because we live in a country that has never really dealt with hydrological risks. It's true that all the institutions should work together to find the necessary resources. But who is responsible? You've said there that the risks have not been dealt with ahead of time. Who is responsible for that? Where does the ultimate responsibility lie? Do you think?
Well I have to say it's mainly a problem of lack of funds and I have to say all the institutional level have to do more in this direction but I cannot say that it's one particular level responsible because only the regional levels would hardly be in condition to find the necessary resources for very expensive interventions like these. Will you partly hold your hand up and your party is in control of the region as I said you used to be vice president. Would you hold your hand up and say yes we were in part responsible?
Well I think that hold the political scope is responsible for not addressing enough climate changes itself. We have to do obviously more in terms of resources but it's very hard to point the finger at one or the other because it's a problem of the system Italy I would say.
Yes and people there again people we've spoken to who have directly affected say look we have had to do some of this adaptation ourselves. They said that they actually built up the embankment. We spoke to one man clearing out his in-laws house near Bologna said in the last couple of years the local people had to try and do some of this adaptation and that feels wrong doesn't it?
Well for sure and there's a problem also of clarifying the legislative framework to intervene. Too many competences are mixed up and it's difficult then to understand where the responsibility lies. So I would say together with finding the necessary resources and we said today now it's the time to have all the institutional working together it's time for a national unity and we are open to help.
Can you say with confidence then that if this happens again in the next couple of years roads will be ready that the system will have worked will this be a moment when the Italian system comes to terms with this?
I hope so and we will work in this direction even being at the opposition of the national government. We will try to convince also the national government that it's high time. But on a local level where you do have power I mean this is very specifically the region where you do have power.
Yes for sure also the regional will make it spark and to try to continue to prepare the country because climate change is not going away. And just one final question on what is happening now again we have spoken to a local resident who said the authorities are not on the scene given that it's your party that is the regional head why is that happening?
No I mean I have different information on this side I mean I know that there are more than 700 people including the local authorities and the system of civil protection by the region and I think everybody is doing the best they can to intervene and I think that there is a good cooperation at the moment between regional local and national authorities. That was Ellie's kind the leader of Italy's democratic party the party which governs the Emilia Romagna region which is the worst hit by the recent floods.
Now let's return to a story we were reporting on earlier the 227 bodies recovered in a forest in Kenya and the allegation that a charismatic cult leader managed to convince people to starve themselves to death so they could meet Jesus he said to have told him that the end of the world was coming and they should be the first to go to heaven more than 600 other people are still missing.
So how does that sort of thing happen what would make people want to starve themselves to death? Well there are two inquiries underway in Kenya to try and get to the bottom of those questions one man who's been thinking about those questions is Dr Bonifastia Tye the president of the Kenyan Psychiatric Association I asked him what are people saying about this in Kenya?
This case has been horrifying to everybody and there's been a lot of conversations and questions about what may have led to this tragic incident in Kenya it is common for people to seek help from religious leaders large numbers of Kenyans usually will seek spiritual intervention for their diseases and for issues of poverty a lot of this conversation about why such a large number of people may have found themselves in this tragic situation boils down in my opinion to the hopelessness that is associated with poverty and disease. Why do they turn to religious leaders and not health professionals mental health professionals such as yourself why why to religious leaders or cult leaders?
You find these religious leaders writing themselves as having these magical powers to turn people's fortunes around which which it's a lie but also you find that you have dysfunctional health systems. So where you have these functional health systems people with chronic conditions will usually turn to these religious leaders for for mirror calls. We have cases where people live hospitals to go and seek prayers because they have chronic illnesses. No this lie is also spread very fast in news about a preacher who is able to perform mirror calls is spread very fast and you'll find people flocking to them.
And this case obviously is particularly horrific but in terms of the numbers of cults you say it's prevalent it's very prevalent and the people who follow these kind of leaders find themselves being exploited. The practice of cultism you know and sex is common across African countries you find that a lot of these preachers will also theoretically flound their wealth a lot of them you know appear to be doing very well probably from the offerings of the followers in that process there is visible abuse so there are many videos that circulate even on social media where preachers are physically and verbally abusing their followers and then so also financial abuse informs of contributions and in the extreme cases like what you are seeing in Kilefi where people are advised to sell their earthly possessions and follow this preacher so there are cases where people are also locked up in confined spaces some of them seek and there's a whole spectrum of exploitation of followers of these preachers.
But what about this ultimate and very extreme aspect of this case where people were told not to eat that if they starved themselves to death they would meet Jesus. In your view what would make someone want to believe that? This is an extremely, an extremely tragic case and investigations are ongoing and we will hopefully establish the reasons why this should happen but in psychology it's not impossible it is extremely possible for someone to act in putting such a setting. Number one when your other charismatic leader when your other charismatic leader who assumes control of a group where there is elements of conformity and obedience within the group where it is very difficult to raise an objection to questionable instructions it can be very possible to have a group of people of sound mind a preacher of sound mind and people of sound mind engaging in an activity that can end up tragically and in death it has to be an extreme form of unfortunate group dynamics playing around conformity and obedience for someone to get to that level but it is possible.
You are saying if I understand correctly that you can be of sound mind and believe that starving yourself to death to meet Jesus is a reasonable thing to do. I mean have you met people who have been in cults yourself have you spoken to them on a professional level and and found them to be of sound mind? It is known that people of sound mind once in a group where there is a charismatic leader it becomes very difficult to question because a human being is often persuaded to conform when they are in a group and to obey the leader. Reflections of Dr Boniface Chitai, president of the Kenyan Psychiatric Association.
You are listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. For more than a year people in El Salvador have been living in a state of exception that's the name of an emergency measure designed to tackle powerful street gangs and it's seen certain constitutional rights being suspended. The police have been granted wide ranging powers of detention and more than 65,000 people have been arrested.
Now while the crackdown has seen El Salvador's murder rate plummet, human rights organisations say that thousands of people with no link to the gangs have been unjustly detained and their relatives are now demanding their immediate release. From El Salvador, Will Grant reports.
The sprawling municipality of Soyobango was once a battleground for rival street gangs. The decades of victims bodies were dumped in ditches and on road sides, in streams and wasteland all over the notoriously dangerous district of San Salvador.
Today though the sounds of war come from a joint police and military operation to reclaim gang-controlled neighbourhoods across the capital. It is quite a significant deployment. There's a good number of boots on the ground in this particular neighbourhood and as you can hear a helicopter flying overhead they've seen it day in day out in Soyobango for over a year. The sum troops carry out search warrants are the stop young men in the streets checking them for gang tattoos and pulling up their criminal records. The heavy-handed approach is controversial but has more than 90% support with the Salvadoran public, tired of the years of gang intimidation and extortion.
Things were so bad here before so ugly said this local resident. If we went into the neighbourhood next to ours run by another gang you might never come back. Now we can calm and go as we please he adds. But while most Salvadorans applaud the ruthless new policy it hasn't brought peace to everyone. Thousands of people with no discernible link to the gangs have also been swept up in the dragnet of arrests far from the urban neighbourhoods of Soyobango in a rural village in Bajo Lema, a young tractor driver, Jose Duvalmata was among them.
A year ago soldiers stopped him, took his telephone and he was accused of unlawful association, shorthand for gang membership. His mother Marcella hasn't seen or heard from him since and is sick with worry. You hear so many things that they are torturing them in there, they hit them. When my son was imprisoned I went to the jail and spent 80 days outside with a crowd of people and you would hear their cries coming from inside.
Help us, help. I can't take anymore. That caused me so much pain in my heart, my poor son. Marcella says that her son's only trial was a mass hearing with 360 other inmates in which they were all sentenced to an initial six months in prison. Before the trial Marcella was advised to bring a stack of documents from his clean criminal record to his high school diploma which are tested to his innocence. The court ignored them all. Jose Duval is far from the only one in that situation. On the year anniversary of the state of exception hundreds of families gathered in the centre of San Salvador to demand the immediate release of their relatives, who they say were arbitrarily detained without calls.
Undeterred by the criticism the government of President Bulkheiley has built a new supermax facility to house more than 40,000 people. The cutely aware of the boost the crackdown has given the administration at the polls the government's images of the new facility called SecCart were broadcast around the world. They showed Shaven headed in barefoot gang members being corralled into their cells at gunpoint. The perfect is enemy of the good. Like we are doing something really good, I appreciate by over 90% of the population in an exclusive interview. I spoke to the vice president of El Salvador Felix Ujua. He insisted the plan was working in terms of bringing peace to the country but admitted that thousands of those arrested had not committed any gang crimes. It could be when you have an operation of this size, we have so far a 65,000 person impression.
Probably could be some mistake and some people could be arrested with no link with the gangs. And thousands of people has been released. Over 3,000 person have been released because in the due process of law in court they prove that they have any links but they have gone and they were released. In Bajolema, Jose Duval's family visit the half finished home he was building when he was detained. His children are there, including the baby boy who was born after his arrest and who he's never seen. As his mother Marcella shows me around she explains that the bank is now threatening to repossess the home as they're struggling to keep up with the repayments.
But worse than all that for Jose Duval is that there's no end in sight to his ordeal. In prison and branded a gang member by a government that won't accept any proof to the country. Will Grant reporting from El Salvador and we'll have more from Will tomorrow including some of the people who have benefited from the gang crackdown.
And to end today a sign, a pretty strong sign that one of the great sporting careers may be nearing its end. Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis player, who's won 22 grand slam singles titles announced today that 2024 will probably be his final year on the circuit. My goal on my ambition is to try to stop to give myself an opportunity to enjoy next year. That's probably going to be my last year in a professional tournament. That's my idea even that I can't say 100% that's going to be like this because you never know what's what can happen. But my idea and my motivation is try to enjoy and try to say goodbye of all the tournaments that I have been important for me in my tennis career.
None more important I would guess than the French Open. He's won it 14 times, 14 of those 22 grand slams at the Roland-Garrel Stadium. And he announced today the 36th year-older because of a hip injury he'd be missing this year's French Open for the first time since his debut in 2005 or Carlos Alcarazam unexpected to soon take over the number one world ranking from Novak Djokovic tweeted, good luck Rafael, very painful and sad for everyone that you can't be at Roland-Garrel's or play more this year. But I hope that 2024 will be a great season for you and that you can say goodbye like the great champion you are real sense that the changing of the guard is possibly happening at the top of men's tennis.
That brings us to an end of this edition of NewsHour from me James Gamarassami and the rest of the team here in London. Thanks very much for listening. Goodbye. NewsHour has been a download from the BBC to discover more and our terms of use visit bbc.com slash podcasts.
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