Video Length: 31:53
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Driving at night, on a road in northern
Iraq where insurgents often attack, a Kurdish government official is
headed for a clandestine meeting. Dr. Mohammed Ihsan is investigating
the disappearance more than 20 years ago -- during the early years of Saddam Hussein?s
brutal dictatorship -- of 8,000 Kurdish men and boys. ?This case is particularly
significant,? says
FRONTLINE/World
reporter
Gwynne Roberts
.
?Their abduction marks the point when Saddam?s regime moved from
isolated acts of brutality to mass murder.?
The case Dr. Ihsan is putting together
will become a vital part of the indictment against Saddam at his trial
in Baghdad.
Ihsan is meeting a former Iraqi secret
policeman a few miles from the oil city of Kirkuk. Spotting a car waiting
by the side of the road, Ihsan pulls up behind the vehicle and jumps
out to collect a handful of documents -- more evidence he needs in order
to unravel the mystery of the missing Kurds.
Back in his office, Ihsan, who is
the minister for human rights in the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan,
shows Roberts an official document he has uncovered that says the missing
Kurds were executed in August 1983 in the town of Bussia, near the border
with Saudi Arabia. But he needs proof.
Before beginning his journey to the
remote desert town, Ihsan visits a mountain village where Kurdish women
covered in black are still mourning the loss of their husbands, fathers,
brothers and sons. Their suffering and continuing uncertainty about
what happened to their loved ones is the driving force behind Ihsan?s
investigation. His search is authorized by Masoud Barzani, a clan leader
and now president of the Kurdish region of Iraq. Barzani has a personal
motivation: He says he lost 37 members of his own family. Moreover, it
was Barzani?s decision to side with Iran against Iraq during the Iran-Iraq
war in the early 1980s that provoked Saddam?s wrath. The dictator took
his revenge on Barzani Kurd civilians living in government camps.
Ihsan shows Roberts an eerie September 1983
black and white videotape in which Saddam summons Kurds to hear him
denounce the ?treachery? of the Barzanis. ?They?ve been severely
punished and have gone to hell,? Saddam declares. A captive audience
obediently applauds. The abduction of the Barzani Kurds was the precursor
to Saddam?s infamous Anfal campaign, in which his forces used terror
tactics, including poisonous gas, to kill more than 100,000 Kurdish men,
women and children.
Ihsan?s expedition gets under way
from Arbil, a relatively peaceful and prosperous Kurdish city in northern
Iraq. But even here, there is danger. In a bloody, chaotic scene, a
suicide bomber kills 70 and injures 120 in a line of young Kurds waiting
to join the police.
The Kurdish team of investigators,
accompanied by Roberts and his video crew, finally make their way to
Baghdad, where insurgent attacks are at a record high. They stay at
the Babylon Hotel, outside the heavily fortified Green Zone where the
Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy are hunkered down. Worried about
the safety of his team, Ihsan puts his brother, Azad, in charge of security.
Azad explains to the hotel staff that he will have to shoot anyone who
comes to their floor after midnight. ?I gotta kill ?em,? he emphasizes.
?No excuses.?
From their base at the hotel, Ihsan?s
team makes forays into Baghdad to track down government documents that
were looted after the defeat of Saddam?s regime in 2003. Amazingly,
they are for sale in various cluttered ?document shops.? In the
markets, they also find videotapes showing the old Ba?ath regime torturing
and murdering prisoners. Once more, Ihsan obtains an important document --
this one a 1987 letter from Saddam?s secretary to Ali Hassan al-Majid,
aka ?Chemical Ali,? notorious for using poisonous gas against Kurdish
civilians. The document says, ?No one knows the fate of these families
[the Barzani Kurds] except the leadership of the State.?
Pressing on into the southern desert,
Ihsan?s convoy weaves its way through territory controlled by al-Qaeda
terrorists. ?They prey on traffic jams,? notes Roberts, ?and Dr. Ihsan
orders his drivers not to stop at any cost.? The convoy also tries
to steer clear of U.S. military vehicles and fears that it may come under
?friendly fire? from U.S. Apache helicopters overhead.
At last, nearly 300 miles southwest
of Baghdad, they reach a remote desert fortress, an abandoned prison,
Nugra Salman, which once held political prisoners, including the Barzani
Kurds. A few who survived their incarceration recall the torture and
death of their fellow inmates. ?I often asked God to take my soul,?
says one old man. ?I begged God to put an end to my life.?
Ultimately, Ihsan?s team arrives
in Sunni-dominated Bussia, where Ihsan hopes to find witnesses who will
lead him to the graves in which the bodies of executed Kurds are buried.
There is deep distrust here between
the majority Sunnis and the minority Shi?iahs. The Shi?iah prove
helpful. Ihsan finds two important sources among them -- a shepherd who
confirms that the Kurds were executed and a shopkeeper who says a security
officer in charge of the Kurdish prisoners barged into his store demanding
the kind of cloth used for burial shrouds.
But the Sunnis, who were closely
allied with Saddam?s regime, are closed-mouthed. Ihsan arranges a
meeting with the town?s Sunni elders and offers them money as a reward
for information. He peels off hundred-dollar bills to pay those who
provide assistance. ?Will money break their silence?? Roberts wonders.
The next day, two shady-looking characters,
Sunni bounty hunters, come forward to claim their share of the reward,
leading Ihsan to a Bedouin camp in the blistering desert where they
say they believe the Barzani Kurds were executed and buried. Ihsan orders
his bulldozers to begin excavating, but they find nothing. Another informant
sends Ihsan and his men deeper into the forbidding desert. Again they
dig, again they are frustrated. The process continues for 15 days until
they begin to run out of food, water and hope.
At the same time, they get word that
insurgents are circling the area, monitoring their movements and waiting
for an opportunity to attack. Reluctantly, Ihsan orders his team to
suspend operations and withdraw to the north. It appears that his investigation,
which began 14 years ago, will fail.
?But five months later, Dr. Ihsan
is called back to Bussia,? reports Roberts, ?after his Shi?iah
contacts finally locate three mass graves, just a few hundred feet from
where he?d searched in May. The remains of 500 Kurds are recovered,
all of them believed to be Barzanis.?
In a stark and unforgettable scene,
Ihsan and his team unearth the skeletal remains of the Kurdish men and
boys, holding up blindfolded skulls and bits of traditional Barzani
Kurdish cloth. This forensic evidence will be used by prosecutors in
Saddam?s trial. It is a heart-wrenching discovery, and for Dr. Ihsan,
it confirms the worst about Saddam and the Iraqis who supported him.
?Forget it,? he says. ?I personally
don?t think there is any hope that we can live together.?
Read the full transcript
The film is dedicated to our
colleague
JOHN WILLIAMS
Produced, and Co-Directed by
GWYNNE ROBERTS
Co-Director and Cameraman
JOHN WILLIAMS
Executive Producer
SADIE WYKEHAM
Film Editor
JERRY RAMSBOTTOM
Dubbing Mix
JAKE ROBERTS
Additional Camera
- HUSSEIN HAMZA
- KHOUTAIBA AL JANABI
Associate Producer
- JACK ROBERTS
- DANIEL STACEY
Research
KHASROW ALMASI
Additional Research
HARRY CHEVENIX TRENCH
Music
Translation
- KAREEM ABDULRAHMAN
- KHADUM NOURI FEROUZ
- MOZARRFAR SHAFEIE
FOR FRONTLINE/WORLD
Coordinating Producer/Editor
DAVID RITSHER
Senior Associate Producer
SACHI CUNNINGHAM
Associate Producers
- MARJORIE MCAFEE
- JOELLE JAFFE
- TIMOTHY WHEELER
- SAMANTHA GRANT WIESER
- SINGELI AGNEW
Senior Interactive Producer/Editor
JACKIE BENNION
Interactive Designer/Developer
KEI GOWDA
Copyeditor
JOAN SAUNDERS
Series Editor/ Senior Producer
STEPHEN TALBOT
Series Executive Director
SHARON TILLER
Executive Producer
DAVID FANNING
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