0:00:02 > 0:00:04LOUD EXPLOSION
0:00:06 > 0:00:09This is war as I've known it all my career.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12It's rarely been armies fighting armies.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15For the most part, it's been guerrilla warfare.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17EXPLOSION
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Suicide bomber and the sniper on the one side,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23tanks and planes on the other.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26GUNFIRE
0:00:34 > 0:00:37'My producer and I are on the road in northern Iraq.'
0:00:37 > 0:00:40There's not an awful lot of room.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46This is the kind of thing I've been doing for virtually all my 50 years,
0:00:46 > 0:00:51heading off to some front-line in an armoured vehicle
0:00:51 > 0:00:54with my flak jacket and my helmet
0:00:54 > 0:00:58and a small team of friends and colleagues.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01In this case we're heading up to Mosul,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05still held by Islamic State, so-called.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09In this programme, I want to look at the way the world has changed
0:01:09 > 0:01:12during my 50 years as a foreign correspondent.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14And we are in Iraq
0:01:14 > 0:01:19because it's played such an important part in my career.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24'It's easy to assume that bad news is the only news,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28'but my experience has been rather different, as we'll see.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33'With our cameraman sitting in front and our security adviser driving,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35'we are getting near Mosul now.'
0:01:35 > 0:01:38There, it looks pretty recent, actually, doesn't it?
0:01:38 > 0:01:43'Until a few days ago, this territory was held by Islamic State.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48'Craters were made by IEDs - roadside bombs.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Islamic State captured Mosul two-and-a-half years ago.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Now the Iraqi Army is on the offensive
0:01:57 > 0:02:00but the ground is littered with hidden explosives
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and booby-traps left by IS.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06When we get there, gents, please be aware of your footing,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10in case there's any mines or anything that hasn't exploded yet.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13There you are. And then you will be able to say, "Well, I told them!"
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Just off the main road are some well-to-do family houses
0:02:18 > 0:02:21which IS used as a bomb factory.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25'They've smashed through the walls and heaped up earth
0:02:25 > 0:02:27'to protect themselves from attack.'
0:02:29 > 0:02:32'The earth comes from the tunnels and bunkers
0:02:32 > 0:02:34'which IS carved out under the houses.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40'Islamic State is a formidable enemy with experienced soldiers
0:02:40 > 0:02:43'from Saddam Hussein's old army,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47'fighting alongside the religious extremists.'
0:02:51 > 0:02:53He says the tunnel's just here.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56Oh, my God, yes.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59Yes.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01This is the main tunnel entrance.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06It's quite deep, full of rubbish and stuff that's collected there,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08I suppose, when it was captured.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13It just runs all the way, what is that, about 200, 300 yards,
0:03:13 > 0:03:18to the main road, so they could take the bombs with them
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and not be seen by aerial reconnaissance or drones.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25I'm tempted to go down there, but...
0:03:25 > 0:03:29I think it's a job for a producer, actually, Peter.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31I suppose it's a bit dodgy.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33We don't know if it's been clear to what extent
0:03:33 > 0:03:37- so it's probably not the best idea. - Cleared of explosives?- Explosives.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42'A Western air strike destroyed this particular bomb factory.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45'The area is now controlled by the Peshmerga,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48'a pro-Western Kurdish force.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53'The lethal evidence of the factory's output is all around us.'
0:03:53 > 0:03:59This is pretty much a bog-standard IED - a roadside bomb.
0:03:59 > 0:04:05It's not terribly sophisticated but absolutely does the business.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11I've been reporting on wars like this since the early 1970s.
0:04:11 > 0:04:17Proxy wars, sectarian wars, dirty wars, with civilians getting
0:04:17 > 0:04:21the worst of it and being forced to become refugees.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24GUNFIRE
0:04:25 > 0:04:27More shooting.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32It all brings back quite difficult memories for me.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36The worst incident really, I suppose, in my entire career
0:04:36 > 0:04:3813 years ago,
0:04:38 > 0:04:43during the invasion led by the Americans of Iraq,
0:04:43 > 0:04:48when my team and I got caught up in a, well, what they call
0:04:48 > 0:04:50a friendly fire incident.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54REPORT: The Kurdish troops had been advancing all morning
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and had just captured the town of Dibajan.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00In order to get there, we tagged onto a convoy
0:05:00 > 0:05:03of American and Kurdish special forces.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08It was very soon after this moment that the bomb landed.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12BOMB STRIKE
0:05:12 > 0:05:14SHOUTING
0:05:17 > 0:05:19It's the ammunition going up. Just keep your head down.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23They're coming back. It's coming back.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Get away from here.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Get down.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31SHOUTING
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Keep down. Keep down. It's just the ammunition going up.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Just keep your head down.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41A thousand-pound bomb landed within yards of us.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45We were a big team. We were doing a Panorama and news
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and there were seven of us altogether.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49REPORT: There were bodies everywhere.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52I counted 15 and more died later.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Dozens of people were injured.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Is that somebody in the back of our vehicle?
0:05:59 > 0:06:01No, it's not. I can't find Kamran.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05That was when we realised that our translator, Kamran Abdul Razak,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07was missing.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09There's Kamran lying down on the grass.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11I'm going to go and check him out.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Our security adviser went over to help him.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18A big bit of shrapnel had hit Kamran's leg.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24We and the American medics worked for some time to try to save him.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28This is just a scene from hell, here. All the vehicles on fire.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31There's bodies burning around me.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33There's bodies lying around.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36This is a really bad own goal by the Americans.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Set fire to all the chickens.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42- Burnt the chickens? - Yes, the chickens.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46I'd spent the previous few weeks with Kamran,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48working with him day and night.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52And when the US Navy plane mistakenly dropped its bomb
0:06:52 > 0:06:55right on us, I was standing next to him.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Kamran was young and really pleasant.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00An Iraqi Kurd.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03He'd seen my reports on television
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and thought he'd have plenty of adventures if he joined us.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Fred, just turn towards me, mate.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Our entire team was injured, including Fred Scott,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15who carried on filming throughout.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17But Kamran died.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19It's coming back.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Of those seven, six of us had escapes...
0:07:22 > 0:07:24that were...
0:07:24 > 0:07:27really miraculous.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30'Now I've come back to where it happened.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33'A memorial has been set up here to the dead.'
0:07:33 > 0:07:37This all seems completely different.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40I wouldn't know...
0:07:41 > 0:07:43I wouldn't know where we were.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50There are the names of the people who died.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54And that's dear Kamran's name there.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00Poor, poor Kamran was...
0:08:00 > 0:08:03lay against a bank of earth...
0:08:04 > 0:08:09..with both his feet, really, almost entirely cut off by the shrapnel.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13It just seems such a stupid waste.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16There he was, 24 years old.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Erm, I've never really...
0:08:20 > 0:08:22..got over the loss of him.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25I think it's important not to, actually.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27I want to keep his memory with me
0:08:27 > 0:08:30so I've got a photograph of him on my desk.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Such a nice kid and the only reason he was here,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38the only reason he died, was because he wanted to work with me.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And that was, erm, that killed him.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49I've arranged to meet up with Kamran's family in a few days' time.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52- REPORT:- 'Pull the statue down.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:56After the bomb attack, I carried on to Baghdad,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58to report on the fall of Saddam Hussein.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03The overthrow of a dictator is usually a messy business,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06which countries take years to recover from.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Yet, over my career, the number of dictatorships
0:09:11 > 0:09:15has dropped sharply from 90 to only 20 now.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21A worldwide appetite for freedom really took hold
0:09:21 > 0:09:24with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30It brought an end to the Cold War and changed our world radically.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34I was in Berlin to see it. An unforgettable memory.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36CHEERING
0:09:36 > 0:09:41The old Soviet empire was in a state of total collapse everywhere.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45In Eastern Europe, I watched the series of major after-shocks
0:09:45 > 0:09:47which followed.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Most of them were pretty much bloodless, but not in Romania.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53GUNFIRE
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The Army deserted the Communist regime
0:09:57 > 0:10:01of President Ceausescu and sided with the revolutionaries
0:10:01 > 0:10:03against the secret police,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06who fought a brief but savage rearguard action.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09GUNFIRE
0:10:09 > 0:10:11We've come round the back of the building
0:10:11 > 0:10:16where the secret police are holed up and you can hear them firing now.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18They're firing down in this direction.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Every now and then, bullets zing off the walls behind us.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24The battle started at dawn.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29The break up of the Soviet empire led to a succession
0:10:29 > 0:10:32of vicious little wars, like here in Bosnia.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37As big groupings broke up and small nations asserted their independence,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41the worst conflicts were in the former Yugoslavia.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44The siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian-Serbs
0:10:44 > 0:10:46was one long, brutal war crime.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48GUNFIRE
0:10:51 > 0:10:56I've covered wars and insurrections and massacres throughout my career
0:10:56 > 0:10:59and have witnessed some terrible sights.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05'Until recently, the world seemed to be getting a lot better.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09'There's been a dramatic decline in wars over 40 years,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11'with the deaths down by three-quarters.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15'Generally speaking, deaths from terrorism dropped too.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18'They're on the rise again now
0:11:18 > 0:11:21'but not yet back to the levels of the 1970s.'
0:11:24 > 0:11:301989 could have been the year China, too, became democratic.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33It certainly wasn't immune from the changes sweeping the rest of
0:11:33 > 0:11:36the Communist world.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42Campaigners for democracy gathered in Tiananmen Square and paralysed
0:11:42 > 0:11:48the Chinese government for a month. It took a massacre to defeat them.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Everybody knows that the Army has the power to do something
0:11:51 > 0:11:53about this, to clear this entire place, if it chooses to.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57The only question is, does it choose to?
0:11:57 > 0:11:59I watched as it happened.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11The front line in the battle for political change in China
0:12:11 > 0:12:16has shifted to Hong Kong, where there is now a clear threat to democracy.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19I've returned with my producer, Peter Leng,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and my cameraman, Joe Phua.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Over the years, we've often worked together,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27especially on human rights stories.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31First, though, there's a chance for us all to catch up.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37OK, let's get a steamed fish head.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Goose intestine with preserved vegetables, that sounds good.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46And...I think pork knuckle stew. OK.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Tuck in, because the fish heads are very good, actually.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51You and I have worked together all over the world,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55for the last 20 years. Why do you do the job you do?
0:12:55 > 0:12:57I think, like you, John, I think, you know,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01there's a story out there, you know, we want to see the truth.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04I mean, we see things like nobody else sees.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Unbelievable journey.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10- And good friends, too. - Here's to good friends.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16A lot of my life has been spent reporting on people freeing
0:13:16 > 0:13:19themselves from authoritarian rule.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Democracy has flourished worldwide.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27In the 1970s, there were fewer than 40 democracies.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Today, there are around 100.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33But democracy hasn't happened in China.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36And now the Chinese government seems to be trying to clamp down in
0:13:36 > 0:13:42Hong Kong, despite the promises Beijing made at the handover from Britain.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50A bookseller named Lam Wing Kee ran a shop in central Hong Kong with
0:13:50 > 0:13:55'four colleagues, selling books which were critical of China's leadership.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58'Lam was grabbed by the authorities during a trip
0:13:58 > 0:14:03'to the mainland and detained, with no access to a lawyer.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05'His shop closed down.'
0:14:05 > 0:14:10OK, well, this is it, all absolutely locked up, padlocked and so forth.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13I can't tell you... Perhaps I'm being naive.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16..but how shocked I am about this.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18I've known Hong Kong for 30 years,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22it's always a place which is normal and safe and the rule of law
0:14:22 > 0:14:27applies, and here comes the hand of Beijing on an obscure little
0:14:27 > 0:14:31bookseller, up two flights of stairs, grabs him,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35kidnaps him and takes his business away from him.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37I find it horrifying.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Hello. 'Lam was eventually released. But he was a shaken man.'
0:14:49 > 0:14:52- TRANSLATION:- When I was detained, an officer from the central special
0:14:52 > 0:14:56investigative unit wanted me to work for them.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59By running the bookshop and monitoring all the buyers and
0:14:59 > 0:15:00readers.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03They wanted to keep the bookstore open and use
0:15:03 > 0:15:07me to monitor Hong Kongers and Chinese mainlanders,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10so the bookshop would become a surveillance point.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Does all this experience you've had make you afraid for the
0:15:17 > 0:15:19future of democracy in Hong Kong?
0:15:22 > 0:15:27I feel the future of democracy in Hong Kong will be even worse.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29But I believe we can fight against it,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33and we fight with peaceful and rational means.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41I've been interviewing dissidents like Mr Lam throughout my entire
0:15:41 > 0:15:44career, and in my experience,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48people who stand up for their freedoms usually win in the end.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54But for now, China isn't giving way, quite the reverse.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58We're outside LegCo, Hong Kong's equivalent of a Parliament.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08A group of pro-democracy demonstrators has gathered outside.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13This is allowed by the authorities, but they oblige Hong Kong's
0:16:13 > 0:16:17politicians to swear an oath of allegiance to Beijing.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20And when, in October,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23two young politicians wanting outright independence for
0:16:23 > 0:16:28Hong Kong refused to do that, they were barred from the Parliament.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34The pro-democracy activists hit a very sensitive nerve in China.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43A very senior Chinese politician said to me once,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48"You can never know how insecure a government feels
0:16:48 > 0:16:51"when it knows it hasn't been elected."
0:16:51 > 0:16:55And that seems to be China's big problem at the moment.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02The country's economic success has brought
0:17:02 > 0:17:04a new aggressive nationalism.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Our brave new world will, it seems,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14be dominated by three mutually suspicious leaders.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Xi Jinping from China,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Vladimir Putin from Russia
0:17:19 > 0:17:22and now Donald Trump from the United States.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29President Xi Jinping presents himself as the iron leader.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35It's clearly the only way he can see to make sure that Chinese communism,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38what's left of it, will survive.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41But if it does, it will be a total exception,
0:17:41 > 0:17:46a throwback in our interconnected, information-rich world.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Russia, by contrast, is in decline.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Its income from oil has dropped disastrously.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Vladimir Putin's answer? To be more militarily aggressive,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03to restore national pride at home,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07and reassert Russia's position as a world power.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12One of his boldest moves, alarming NATO, was to capture Crimea from
0:18:12 > 0:18:17Ukraine, even though he'd signed a treaty promising he wouldn't.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20This is the most important of the bases in Crimea,
0:18:20 > 0:18:25and the Ukrainians had been planning to defend it to the end.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27None of that happened, of course.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34Putin has had an astonishing rise from the low ranking official
0:18:34 > 0:18:39I first saw in the early '90s to the president now commanding
0:18:39 > 0:18:41world attention.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Once a year he gives a press conference in which anyone
0:18:45 > 0:18:48can ask anything, and he answers completely off-the-cuff.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54Western countries almost universally now believe that there's
0:18:54 > 0:18:55a new Cold War.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59Would you care to take this opportunity to say to people from
0:18:59 > 0:19:05the West that you have no desire to carry on with a new Cold War and
0:19:05 > 0:19:10that you will do whatever you can to sort out the problems in Ukraine?
0:19:14 > 0:19:17- TRANSLATION:- Russia has indeed contributed to the tension that we are seeing in
0:19:17 > 0:19:20the world, but only in the sense that it's protecting its
0:19:20 > 0:19:23national interest more and more robustly.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27We don't attack in the political sense, we just defend our interests.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34So, Russia's more aggressive, China's more authoritarian,
0:19:34 > 0:19:35and America?
0:19:35 > 0:19:38Our country is in serious trouble.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42We don't have victories any more.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45We used to have victories, but we don't have them.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48When was the last time anybody saw
0:19:48 > 0:19:52us beating, let's say, China
0:19:52 > 0:19:55in a trade deal? They kill us.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57I beat China all the time.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03It seems to be turning more isolationist and protectionist,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06symptomatic of the way many people in the West feel they've lost
0:20:06 > 0:20:08out as a result of globalisation.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14With such entrenched and conflicting positions,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17the world is entering a more dangerous time.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21And some people are wondering if democracy will survive.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25During my career, I've met and interviewed well
0:20:25 > 0:20:28over 200 political leaders worldwide.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Some have been impressive, most have been average to hopeless.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Only one seemed to me to be unquestionably great.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40- ARCHIVE REPORTER: - 'Mr Nelson Mandela, a free man,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44'taking his first steps into a new South Africa.'
0:20:47 > 0:20:52When free elections came in South Africa in 1994,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55there seemed to be a real danger of civil war.
0:20:55 > 0:21:01Thanks to Mandela and his effect on other politicians, it didn't happen.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Today we are entering a new era for our country.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10Today we celebrate not the victory of a party,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15but a victory for all the people of South Africa.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22South Africa showed that good can genuinely overcome cruelty
0:21:22 > 0:21:24and oppression.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Yet as a young correspondent in the 1970s,
0:21:30 > 0:21:35inexperienced and distinctly plummy, I was just shocked by the way
0:21:35 > 0:21:40black people, and especially black children, were treated.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Coming from homes like this, they start off at a disadvantage.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46With eight or often ten people crammed into each tiny house,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49it's hard for children to do their homework at night.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52They have to do it by candlelight because, for the most part,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55there's no electricity yet in Soweto.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01It's a pleasure nowadays to go back to the Soweto township and
0:22:01 > 0:22:03see the money and style there today.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11It's also a joy for me to visit the school my two daughters went
0:22:11 > 0:22:15to in Johannesburg. When Julia and Eleanor were there in the
0:22:15 > 0:22:17'70s, it was whites only.
0:22:22 > 0:22:28Nowadays, Fairways school has taken its place in the rainbow nation,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31and it feels so much freer and happier as a result.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33# South Africa
0:22:33 > 0:22:35# South Africa... #
0:22:37 > 0:22:42Still, some of the old race hatreds are rearing up again.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46And today, many young black people regard Nelson Mandela as an
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Uncle Tom who sold out to the whites.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53And there's no avoiding the corruption and crime in the
0:22:53 > 0:22:54new South Africa.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00Nevertheless, Nelson Mandela's peaceful revolution created
0:23:00 > 0:23:02a model of change for the world.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07I knew him and loved him.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10And when he died, I went back to report on his funeral.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17It took place away from the cameras, while the South African
0:23:17 > 0:23:20air force paid its last respects.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22BUGLE SOUNDS
0:23:24 > 0:23:28A bugle sounded over the grave of the most admired leader on Earth,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32who once went barefoot over these hills.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40After 50 years of reporting on the world,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43I honestly believe that in spite of everything,
0:23:43 > 0:23:48human beings are starting to order their affairs better.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52If so, it's partly thanks to the example of people like
0:23:52 > 0:23:53Nelson Mandela.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58But there's no ignoring the tragedies that still afflict us.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Back here in Kurdish northern Iraq, there's unfinished business.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07The shocking mistake of an American pilot,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11which killed my translator, Kamran, still troubles me.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19OK, well, time to get ready.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24I've dug out my old notebook from the time.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29"Road to Dibajan, land cruisers, two planes."
0:24:29 > 0:24:33And these are just notes I jotted down right up to the moment,
0:24:33 > 0:24:34really, when we got bombed.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36And I suppose that squiggle, I don't remember,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39but must be perhaps when it happened.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43And then my notes afterwards that I wrote that afternoon.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46"Kamran took 20 minutes to die, poor kid.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48"All my fault that he was with us,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52"though I specifically asked him beforehand if he wanted to come.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55"Even so, I feel dreadful."
0:24:55 > 0:24:57OK, I'll bring this with us. Let's go.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Back in 2003, I had to break the news of Kamran's death
0:25:06 > 0:25:08to his mother, Fauzia.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Now I'm heading back to see the family again.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17I must say, of all the stuff we've been doing for this film,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21this is the one bit that I really, really dread.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25I mean, forget going up to the front line and the mines and the
0:25:25 > 0:25:28tunnels and so on, this is the difficult bit.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Kamran's elder brother, Nariman, had to identify his body.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02HE SOBS
0:26:05 > 0:26:07I'm really... I'm so sorry.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12I know.
0:26:15 > 0:26:16OK.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Here she is.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21Hello.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24KURIMAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:26:43 > 0:26:46So she's saying that every time she sees you on TV,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48she thinks you bring him back, her son.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50Oh, God.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55If only I could.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56If only I could, I would.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09What did she say?
0:27:09 > 0:27:13She's just saying she's forgiven you.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15- Oh, really?- Yeah.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24- KURIMAN:- She say that is his day to die.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34I can't say I feel good now.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37But at least she forgives me anyway.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41It means a great, great deal to me.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46I don't think it will take the pain away,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49but I think it makes it easier to bear.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59I'm sorry.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11My years as a reporter have given me many difficult, but often
0:28:11 > 0:28:13uplifting, experiences.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17I've seen great historical wrongs righted,
0:28:17 > 0:28:23and entire nations escape from cruelty and oppression and flourish.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27But standing at the grave of my friend Kamran Abdul Razak,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31I can't possibly forget that these extraordinary experiences
0:28:31 > 0:28:33have come at a price.