0:00:00 > 0:00:01from me. At 10pm a full round-up of the day's news but first here is
0:00:01 > 0:00:07another chance to see the most memorable stories from witness over
0:00:07 > 0:00:09the last 12 months.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40Welcome to the special edition of witness from the British library.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Hello and welcome to a special edition of Witness
0:00:42 > 0:00:52with me Tanya Beckett, here at the British
0:00:52 > 0:00:53Library in London.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56We'll be looking at five of the most memorable stories from the witness
0:00:56 > 0:00:57team from the past 12 months.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00We'll meet an archaeologist who's worked on the Terracotta Army site
0:01:00 > 0:01:01for decades in China.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03A friend of anti-apartheid icon Steve Biko.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05And the mother of one of Argentina's disappeared children.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08But first, after independence in 1947 India was split
0:01:08 > 0:01:12into two states.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15One of the majority Muslim, the other majority Hindu.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17The repercussions of that split are still being felt.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Mohammad Amir Mohammea Khan, the Raja of Mahmudabad,
0:01:19 > 0:01:29tells Witness how partition affected his family and his home.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31I am Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, known as Sulaiman to family
0:01:32 > 0:01:33and friends, the Raja of Mahmudabad.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36I am from a Muslim family which once ruled a very large feudal estate,
0:01:36 > 0:01:38including a beautiful palace in Mahmudabad in
0:01:38 > 0:01:45which we still live.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47But the Indian government is laying claim to my property,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49saying that it is enemy property.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52No-one is paying for it, so these days, everything is crumbling.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56This dispute goes back to 1947.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58The partition of India into two states, a Muslim-majority
0:01:58 > 0:02:00state called Pakistan, and a Hindu-majority state of India.
0:02:00 > 0:02:06It was estimated that a million people died,
0:02:06 > 0:02:16ten million people were displaced.
0:02:33 > 0:02:42Some Muslims went to the state of Pakistan.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Many Hindus came to India.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49It was not just the country that was divided.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55Families were divided, too.
0:02:55 > 0:03:01In the late '50s, my father took Pakistani nationality,
0:03:01 > 0:03:07and that is when my family's problems began, because when India
0:03:07 > 0:03:09and Pakistan went to war in 1965, the government laid claim
0:03:09 > 0:03:19to our properties.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23There was an act of parliament called the Enemy Property Act,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25which empowered the government to take over, temporarily,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28the properties of Pakistanis.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30It was not just our family which was affected.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Thousands of families were affected.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40The properties are worth billions of dollars.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44But our issue is that only my father took Pakistani nationality.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47I have always been an Indian.
0:03:47 > 0:03:57My mother was always an Indian.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03We had to fight our case from the lowest to the highest
0:04:03 > 0:04:12court, and in every court, we won.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15And the supreme court judge said that by no stretch of imagination
0:04:15 > 0:04:17could I be considered an enemy, and considered me the heir
0:04:17 > 0:04:18to my father's properties.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21But then, the government went and changed the laws,
0:04:21 > 0:04:31and the battle has begun again.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39I suppose, like so many people in India and Pakistan,
0:04:39 > 0:04:41we are still caught up in the repercussions of partition,
0:04:41 > 0:04:48and the acrimonious relations between India and Pakistan.
0:04:48 > 0:04:58In a way, I've been forced to live in the past.
0:05:02 > 0:05:10And, with apologies to Yeats, I feel as if I'm drowning
0:05:10 > 0:05:16in a beauty that has long since faded from this earth.
0:05:16 > 0:05:22Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan there, speaking to us
0:05:22 > 0:05:25from his beautiful palace in India.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Now to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th
0:05:28 > 0:05:31century.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34In the spring of 1974, local farmers in China accidentally
0:05:34 > 0:05:38uncovered the site of the vast Terracotta Army.
0:05:38 > 0:05:47Our next witness is an archaeologist who has dedicated her career
0:05:47 > 0:05:50to the remarkable life sized figures.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52It is a vast pottery army slowly being unearthed from the tomb
0:05:52 > 0:05:55where it has lain for more than 2000 years.
0:05:55 > 0:06:05At one time...
0:06:11 > 0:06:14I've worked at the site for many years.
0:09:29 > 0:09:38She still works at the site of the Terracotta Army in Xian.
0:09:38 > 0:09:39In 1977, anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43died in police custody.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Weeks earlier, he had been arrested.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Witness has spoken to Biko's friend Peter Jones
0:09:48 > 0:09:56who was arrested with him.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00I miss my friend Steve Biko and I am forever in his debt.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Steve Biko is one of the people that originated the new generation of
0:10:04 > 0:10:07young political minded black people.
0:10:07 > 0:10:14The Black Consciousness Movement.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17We believe in our country there will be no minority, no majority,
0:10:17 > 0:10:18there will just be people.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21And those people will have the same status before the law
0:10:21 > 0:10:28and they will have the same rights before the law.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30The apartheid government ensured there was no resistance
0:10:30 > 0:10:35against its doctrines and against its policies.
0:10:35 > 0:10:45There was a roadblock and they then searched the car.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47They found an identity document which was mine, they then said,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49"Who is Peter Jones?"
0:10:49 > 0:10:51And I said, "That's me".
0:10:51 > 0:10:53He said, "Oh, and who are you, big man?"
0:10:53 > 0:10:56That's now Steve.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57And Steve said, "I'm Steve Bantu Biko."
0:10:57 > 0:11:02And we were then locked up together in one cell.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08The next morning we started getting an uneasy feeling
0:11:08 > 0:11:11because there were now more police and in a convoy of three cars
0:11:11 > 0:11:16we sped towards Port Elizabeth.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20In Port Elizabeth was the headquarters of the security
0:11:20 > 0:11:21police for that region.
0:11:21 > 0:11:30The building has been converted into a block of flats.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Steve Biko was being walked to his death along this very corridor,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37a man poised to fill the void left behind after Mandela was jailed.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40We got taken up to the fifth floor and we were manacled each
0:11:40 > 0:11:42to a separate window.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46One of the senior police, a major, came in and said,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50"Now I can confirm that you are officially being
0:11:50 > 0:11:57detained under section six of the terrorism act."
0:11:57 > 0:12:02That is the act in which you literally disappear.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06They separated us, I only had a chance to shout Steve's name
0:12:06 > 0:12:15and that was the last time I saw Steve alive.
0:12:15 > 0:12:22Three weeks and three days later, I just heard a lot of commotion,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24many, many people singing protest songs, the cell next to mine
0:12:24 > 0:12:32was being filled with many people.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Then this young man told me that they have just returned
0:12:35 > 0:12:37from the funeral of Steve Biko and that was the first
0:12:37 > 0:12:47time that I heard about the death of Steve Biko.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51I went to my mat that was my bed and I then just sat there...
0:12:51 > 0:13:01With...
0:13:04 > 0:13:10To me, it was like a huge hole in my soul, just inconsolability
0:13:10 > 0:13:17which even today would make me weep at unexpected moments.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20The police said the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement
0:13:20 > 0:13:23had lost his life by accident when his head struck a wall
0:13:23 > 0:13:31while he was being restrained.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Steve Biko's family believe he was thrown at the wall quite
0:13:34 > 0:13:36deliberately by the police officers.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Steve Biko's death and the brutality of it highlighted like no other
0:13:39 > 0:13:42event at the time the extent to which the apartheid regime
0:13:42 > 0:13:52would go to protect itself.
0:13:53 > 0:14:02Peter James remembering his friend, Steve Biko.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08Remember, you can find all of our programmes online. In the late 1970s
0:14:08 > 0:14:12thousands of young men and women were detained in Argentina for their
0:14:12 > 0:14:17opposition to military rule, amongst those who went missing was Anna
0:14:17 > 0:14:30Maria, her mother spoke to Witness. They are called the mothers, in the
0:14:30 > 0:14:35centre of the capital, where they hold the same sad demonstration
0:14:35 > 0:14:38every way, they have all had at least one relative who has
0:14:38 > 0:14:41disappeared.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15In the offices of the muscles of the disappeared. In 1953 American
0:18:15 > 0:18:21husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric
0:18:21 > 0:18:26chair after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Our
0:18:26 > 0:18:35final witness is the Rosenberg's son Robert.One of the greatest
0:18:35 > 0:18:39peacetime spy dramas in the history of the nation reaches its climax as
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg convicted of transmitting secrets to
0:18:43 > 0:18:49Russia into the federal building in New York to hear their doom.The
0:18:49 > 0:18:52last time I saw my parents was in a prison just a couple of days before
0:18:52 > 0:19:02they were executed in June 19 53. I have this very strong visceral sense
0:19:02 > 0:19:07of a warm and loving family and my father played word games with my
0:19:07 > 0:19:12brother. I sat on my mother's lap, they were pretending like nothing
0:19:12 > 0:19:17was wrong, that we would see them like we would see them in another
0:19:17 > 0:19:24few weeks. My brother, he knew that was wrong, and he wanted them to
0:19:24 > 0:19:31acknowledge the terrible situation that we were all in. And so he
0:19:31 > 0:19:38started wailing, one more day to live. Both my parents were children
0:19:38 > 0:19:43of the depression, they grew up in poverty on the lower East side of
0:19:43 > 0:19:49Manhattan, and my father Julius was an electrical engineer, a member of
0:19:49 > 0:19:52the American Communist Party, and my mother Ethel was a housewife will
0:19:54 > 0:20:01my father was arrested in July, 1950, in New York City. My mother
0:20:01 > 0:20:05was arrested, both were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and
0:20:05 > 0:20:11the government said Julius Rosenberg was a master spy who led an atomic
0:20:11 > 0:20:15spy ring that stole the secret of the atomic bomb and gave it to the
0:20:15 > 0:20:21Soviet Union in 1945. Julius was guilty of espionage but it didn't
0:20:21 > 0:20:25have anything to do with the secret of the atomic bomb, he had no
0:20:25 > 0:20:29knowledge of this, and it is hard for me to believe that my mother
0:20:29 > 0:20:35didn't know about what he was doing but there is no credible evidence
0:20:35 > 0:20:40that my mother participated in it in any way. This was the great red
0:20:40 > 0:20:46scare, the McCarthy period, the government was saying there was this
0:20:46 > 0:20:48international Communist conspiracy that was out to destroy our way of
0:20:48 > 0:20:56life. Fear makes powerful people do very dangerous things. The trial at
0:20:56 > 0:21:03which they were convicted was a travesty, we now know that the judge
0:21:03 > 0:21:06said Goody communicated with the prosecution that evidence was
0:21:06 > 0:21:11fabricated and the chief prosecution witnesses perjured themselves. The
0:21:11 > 0:21:14government of the United States used the death penalty not as punishment
0:21:14 > 0:21:19but as extortion, the purpose as one of the FBI agent said, we didn't
0:21:19 > 0:21:26want them to die, we wanted them to talk. There was a worldwide movement
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and a mass movement even within the United States at the height of the
0:21:30 > 0:21:39McCarthy period to save the lives of my parents. They were executed on
0:21:39 > 0:21:49June 19, a month after my sixth birthday. My brother hung his head.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53I came in and I knew something was wrong, but I didn't want to hear
0:21:53 > 0:21:58about it. Even a month after the execution I'd say, when are we going
0:21:58 > 0:22:01to see mum and dad, and he would have to remind me that they were
0:22:01 > 0:22:08dead. My parents should not have been executed and we took on a
0:22:08 > 0:22:15campaign to exonerate Ethel. Have we given up? No, we haven't thought of
0:22:15 > 0:22:21my brother and I are marathon people and we will keep going.Robert
0:22:21 > 0:22:27remembering his parents. That is all from this special edition of Witness
0:22:27 > 0:22:31at the British Library, but we will be back soon to bring you more
0:22:31 > 0:22:34extraordinary moments of history. And the remarkable people who
0:22:34 > 0:22:42witnessed them. But for now, from the anti-rest of the team, goodbye.
0:22:42 > 0:22:49-- from me and the rest of the team, goodbye.