TRANSCRIPT OF SPANISH TV DOC 12 TRIBES 2015
0:09
They scream when the police tries to rescue them from their own parents.
0:15
They are the forty children from a religious community called the Twelve Tribes.
0:22
They keep their children unschooled, isolated, not allowing them to come out of the community.
0:29
This is why the agents do not hesitate.
0:34
All have seen this video
0:37
You can see a mother with her daughter go up the punishment room
0:43
I am not tired
0:45
-Say: I am tired
0:47
-No
0:50
-What?….to the ground!….Say: I’m tired
0:55
…to the ground!
0:56
She beats the child with a wooden rod until the girl says what she wants her to say.
1:04
It doesn’t come into your heart
1:06
I want you to be a strong tree.
1:10
Say: “I’m tired”
1:11
[little girl] -I’m tired
1:13
….what?
1:14
- I’m tired
1:15
The German state takes their custody because they are endangering the mental wellbeing of their children.
1:27
We have found a 12 T. Community in Spain.
1:34
-It’s around here!
1:37
We look for their refuge,…
1:39
-Look, there is their house!
1:43
…the place where they live like the first Christians,…
1:53
…following the Bible and waiting for the return of the Messiah.
1:59
We confirm that they are children in the Spanish community.
2:06
Every man has to wear a ponytail.
2:11
To come into the group all had to give up
2:14
Their jobs and turn over their possessions.
2:18
- Let’s have a look!
2:21
You’re from the community!?
2:22
- Sure
2:24
- Can we ask you a few questions?
2:25
- They have asked us too many questions already and have twisted everything!..so,…
2:30
Each to their own conscience….
2:31
- If you don’t show up, an important part is missing,
2:34
The people we are talking about.
2:37
- I’m not saying you are not decent people, nor that journalism is bad,
2:41
But we’ve had such an overall bad experience.
2:49
They do not want contact with journalists,
2:53
But their neighbours might.
2:58
The 12 T. have been in the area for already 16 years.
3:03
How are the neighbors?
3:03
-Well, I can’t complain
3:05
We hardly see them, just walking around.
3:07
They have sheep, chickens and other animals.
3:12
They have vegetable gardens, greenhouses. I do not get involved with them.
3:20
But some of the neighbours have been inside the community.
3:25
When they are born until 4 months of age the parents have their babies totally tied up, completly tied up, immobilized.
3:31
- Why is that?
3:32
Because they say the kids become more docile later, more humble.
3:34
You can see the education is at home.
3:39
- They don’t go to school!?
3:40
- No, nothing, nothing until 14 years of age.
3:41
And when they reach 14 they put them to work. It’s a disaster…
3:47
Poor kids, they educate them their own way nd the kids do not have any opportunities aside from that.
3:51
- How many people are there?
3:54
- Don’t know, maybe 70 or 80 of them.
3:59
His report is surprising.
4:08
We are travelling to another one of the communities in San Sebastian.
4:25
Did you notice the sign?: a picture of a pilgrim. This is intentional.
4:32
We are right in the middle of the Pilgrims Walk to St James of Compostela.
4:37
Hello, I’m a journalist for “La Sexta”
4:39
- Can you turn off your machine!
4:41
He called it a machine. Seems like they live in another era.
4:46
- I would like to talk to someone.
4:48
- No, we don’t want any documentaries
4:50
- He can come then over here….not the camera!
4:53
- I’ll take my mics off otherwise they won’t want to see us.
4:58
They only allow us for one minute, they refuse to give us an interview
5:03
But we manage to speak with some of the members of the tribe.
5:07
Of the tribes people I’ve met there’s a couple whose grandchildren have been taken from the parents over in Germany, these 2 kids are included in the 40 taken by the state.
5:29
We get closer to one of the houses they have in the area.
5:36
The Basque police arrives.
5:41
Hello Sir -Hello -Hello, what are you doing?
5:49
- Looking into the 12 T., do you know them?
5:52
- No
5:54
Just then someone sticks their head out the gate….maybe someone is going to come and talk to us, well I don’t know
6:06
- Did they call you?
6:10
- Yes, they called us saying they were people outside filming into the inside of their house.
6:14
But you guys are just here, that’s not a problem, it’s just the outside.
6:23
The 12 T. make it clear that they want us to leave.
6:29
But we have an appointment
6:36
with the president of an association
6:39
That has been reporting for years the isolation in which the children live.
6:45
Hello, good afternoon, is this the Child Family Services?
6:50
I want to report child abuse in a community here in San Sebastian called the 12 T.,
6:58
Here in Monte Ulia, there are 2 houses.
7:00
I have very precise information on child abuse and I think justice needs to come into some actions about certain situations.
7:10
Until now no one has given a damn!
7:14
He informs us that all communities of the 12 T. are under the exact sameregulations.
7:20
Juantxo Dominguez President of a Network for Cultic Prevention
7:23
This group is the same group that is in France, Germany, Belgium.
7:26
In those countries the concerned authorities have rescued the boys and girls but here,in Spain, nothing of the sort.
7:34
- What child abuse is there?
7:36
- They beat their children with a strong, long stick on the bottom, and this is not the occasional spanking.
7:40
And they hit them hard and long.
7:42
And so some of the kids still have scars quite a while later.
7:47
- Do they go to school? – No, they don’t go to school, school is in the community,
7:52
But their education is strict and narrow.
7:54
The group interprets the Bible sort of Taliban style.
8:00
We know youths who have come out of there and show insufficient levels of education.
8:05
And on top of that if they don’t want to stay in the community, it’s a problem.
8:08
It’s the perfect blackmail because if you come out of the community
8:10
You don’t have an education, you lack the tools to live outside your day to day life.
8:17
What do you do?….you could end up in the streets. So you think: I’d better go back.
8:20
For them their goal is to produce 12,000 children we could say,
8:25
Based on their peculiar way of interpreting the Bible and the Gospel,
8:32
For them to be the liberators of let’s say their own paranoia…
8:35
- …of their Messiah – yes, their Messiah, that’s it.
8:40
But what is happening here? In order to obtain what they desire the children have to be very docile;
8:44
And so we are not talking about education here, nor of pedagogy.
8:46
And most importantly…what they are trying to do with these kids is that from the most tender age all the way into adult life
8:51
They will be like authentic robots.
8:55
We are not talking about members who come in as adults, that is yet another story.
8:59
At the very heart of their pseudo religious paranoia are the minors.
9:03
- What do they do, how do they live?
9:05
- The sale of homecrafted goods and food products.
9:09
- Thank you very much – My pleasure
9:11
Their businesses are the exception in their isolation.
9:19
From their warehouse they distribute their health food products across Spain.
9:28
On their door is a sign saying they accept credit cards.
9:32
They’re taking photos of us
9:36
The religious organization operates in our country through 5 cooperative enterprises
9:46
But their businesses spread across the globe.
9:48
Spain 5 France 1 UK 1 Germany 2 Czech Republic 1
9:52
USA 20 Canada 4 Brazil 1 Argentina 1 Australia 2 Coffee-shops, restaurants, shops, bakeries
9:57
It is a multinational holding with its views on Spain.
10:09
In a few months they are opening another shop right in front of their health food shop.
10:20
Do you know this store..”Sentido comun”(Common sense) ?
10:22
- Yes,Only been there once, I live around here….they all dress the same, with the part in the middle and a ponytail.Don’t know much else.
10:33
-they keep everything tidy and beautiful.
10:38
- Do you know who runs this store?
10:39
- No
10:40
- Never been in there?
10:42
- Yes,yes I’ve been in there 2,3 times but don’t know who runs it.
10:46
- 12 T….have you heard that name before?
10:51
- I felt something strange about this place.
11:00
One of the persons in charge of the store comes out
11:04
- You guys can’t express what we feel in our hearts…no it’s delicate…you understand?…
11:07
We want to appreciate everyone, and you too but you should also understand…
11:12
Leave your cameras aside and come as a person…
11:16
So you can give yourself a chance to understand something.
11:18
- But you have to see from our side [journalist speaking] in one of your communities…
11:21
40 kids have been taken from their parents…
11:23
And that creates an unease in the community at large.
11:24
- But I’m not not in Germany, I’m here
11:26
- But there are people here whose grandchildren have been taken from them.
11:33
- But they’re not here
11:35
- Yes but it’s their grandchildren in Germany, they are the granparents
11:39
- Yes, hard to talk…it’s delicate.
11:40
I know you are not under obligation to defend yourself, but you surely have an opinion and a stance on this matter.
11:46
- They will come back, the kids
11:50
- you think they will come back?
11:51
- Yes, for sure