05/01/2018 Witness


05/01/2018

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 05/01/2018. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

from me. At 10pm a full round-up of

the day's news but first here is

0:00:000:00:01

another chance to see the most

memorable stories from witness over

0:00:010:00:07

the last 12 months.

0:00:070:00:09

Welcome to the special edition of

witness from the British library.

0:00:340:00:40

Hello and welcome to

a special edition of Witness

0:00:400:00:42

with me Tanya Beckett,

here at the British

0:00:420:00:52

Library in London.

0:00:520:00:53

We'll be looking at five of the most

memorable stories from the witness

0:00:530:00:56

team from the past 12 months.

0:00:560:00:57

We'll meet an archaeologist who's

worked on the Terracotta Army site

0:00:570:01:00

for decades in China.

0:01:000:01:01

A friend of anti-apartheid

icon Steve Biko.

0:01:010:01:03

And the mother of one of Argentina's

disappeared children.

0:01:030:01:05

But first, after independence

in 1947 India was split

0:01:050:01:08

into two states.

0:01:080:01:12

One of the majority Muslim,

the other majority Hindu.

0:01:120:01:15

The repercussions of that split

are still being felt.

0:01:150:01:17

Mohammad Amir Mohammea Khan,

the Raja of Mahmudabad,

0:01:170:01:19

tells Witness how partition

affected his family and his home.

0:01:190:01:29

I am Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan,

known as Sulaiman to family

0:01:290:01:31

and friends, the Raja of Mahmudabad.

0:01:320:01:33

I am from a Muslim family which once

ruled a very large feudal estate,

0:01:330:01:36

including a beautiful palace

in Mahmudabad in

0:01:360:01:38

which we still live.

0:01:380:01:45

But the Indian government is laying

claim to my property,

0:01:450:01:47

saying that it is enemy property.

0:01:470:01:49

No-one is paying for it, so these

days, everything is crumbling.

0:01:490:01:52

This dispute goes back to 1947.

0:01:520:01:56

The partition of India into two

states, a Muslim-majority

0:01:560:01:58

state called Pakistan,

and a Hindu-majority state of India.

0:01:580:02:00

It was estimated that

a million people died,

0:02:000:02:06

ten million people were displaced.

0:02:060:02:16

Some Muslims went to

the state of Pakistan.

0:02:330:02:42

Many Hindus came to India.

0:02:420:02:45

It was not just the country

that was divided.

0:02:450:02:49

Families were divided, too.

0:02:490:02:55

In the late '50s, my father took

Pakistani nationality,

0:02:550:03:01

and that is when my family's

problems began, because when India

0:03:010:03:07

and Pakistan went to war in 1965,

the government laid claim

0:03:070:03:09

to our properties.

0:03:090:03:19

There was an act of parliament

called the Enemy Property Act,

0:03:200:03:23

which empowered the government

to take over, temporarily,

0:03:230:03:25

the properties of Pakistanis.

0:03:250:03:28

It was not just our family

which was affected.

0:03:280:03:30

Thousands of families were affected.

0:03:300:03:34

The properties are worth

billions of dollars.

0:03:340:03:40

But our issue is that only my father

took Pakistani nationality.

0:03:400:03:44

I have always been an Indian.

0:03:440:03:47

My mother was always an Indian.

0:03:470:03:57

We had to fight our case

from the lowest to the highest

0:04:000:04:03

court, and in every court, we won.

0:04:030:04:12

And the supreme court judge said

that by no stretch of imagination

0:04:120:04:15

could I be considered an enemy,

and considered me the heir

0:04:150:04:17

to my father's properties.

0:04:170:04:18

But then, the government went

and changed the laws,

0:04:180:04:21

and the battle has begun again.

0:04:210:04:31

I suppose, like so many people

in India and Pakistan,

0:04:350:04:39

we are still caught up

in the repercussions of partition,

0:04:390:04:41

and the acrimonious relations

between India and Pakistan.

0:04:410:04:48

In a way, I've been forced

to live in the past.

0:04:480:04:58

And, with apologies to Yeats,

I feel as if I'm drowning

0:05:020:05:10

in a beauty that has long

since faded from this earth.

0:05:100:05:16

Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan

there, speaking to us

0:05:160:05:22

from his beautiful palace in India.

0:05:220:05:25

Now to one of the greatest

archaeological finds of the 20th

0:05:250:05:28

century.

0:05:280:05:31

In the spring of 1974,

local farmers in China accidentally

0:05:310:05:34

uncovered the site of the vast

Terracotta Army.

0:05:340:05:38

Our next witness is an archaeologist

who has dedicated her career

0:05:380:05:47

to the remarkable

life sized figures.

0:05:470:05:50

It is a vast pottery army slowly

being unearthed from the tomb

0:05:500:05:52

where it has lain for more

than 2000 years.

0:05:520:05:55

At one time...

0:05:550:06:05

I've worked at the site

for many years.

0:06:110:06:14

She still works at the site

of the Terracotta Army in Xian.

0:09:290:09:38

In 1977, anti-apartheid

activist Steve Biko,

0:09:380:09:39

leader of the Black Consciousness

Movement in South Africa,

0:09:390:09:41

died in police custody.

0:09:410:09:43

Weeks earlier, he had been arrested.

0:09:430:09:45

Witness has spoken to

Biko's friend Peter Jones

0:09:450:09:48

who was arrested with him.

0:09:480:09:56

I miss my friend Steve Biko and I am

forever in his debt.

0:09:560:10:00

Steve Biko is one of the people that

originated the new generation of

0:10:000:10:04

young political minded black people.

0:10:040:10:07

The Black Consciousness Movement.

0:10:070:10:14

We believe in our country there

will be no minority, no majority,

0:10:140:10:17

there will just be people.

0:10:170:10:18

And those people will have the same

status before the law

0:10:180:10:21

and they will have the same rights

before the law.

0:10:210:10:28

The apartheid government ensured

there was no resistance

0:10:280:10:30

against its doctrines

and against its policies.

0:10:300:10:35

There was a roadblock

and they then searched the car.

0:10:350:10:45

They found an identity document

which was mine, they then said,

0:10:450:10:47

"Who is Peter Jones?"

0:10:470:10:49

And I said, "That's me".

0:10:490:10:51

He said, "Oh, and who

are you, big man?"

0:10:510:10:53

That's now Steve.

0:10:530:10:56

And Steve said, "I'm

Steve Bantu Biko."

0:10:560:10:57

And we were then locked up

together in one cell.

0:10:570:11:02

The next morning we started

getting an uneasy feeling

0:11:020:11:08

because there were now more police

and in a convoy of three cars

0:11:080:11:11

we sped towards Port Elizabeth.

0:11:110:11:16

In Port Elizabeth was

the headquarters of the security

0:11:160:11:20

police for that region.

0:11:200:11:21

The building has been converted

into a block of flats.

0:11:210:11:30

Steve Biko was being walked to his

death along this very corridor,

0:11:300:11:33

a man poised to fill the void left

behind after Mandela was jailed.

0:11:330:11:37

We got taken up to the fifth floor

and we were manacled each

0:11:370:11:40

to a separate window.

0:11:400:11:42

One of the senior police,

a major, came in and said,

0:11:420:11:46

"Now I can confirm that

you are officially being

0:11:460:11:50

detained under section six

of the terrorism act."

0:11:500:11:57

That is the act in which you

literally disappear.

0:11:570:12:02

They separated us, I only had

a chance to shout Steve's name

0:12:020:12:06

and that was the last time I saw

Steve alive.

0:12:060:12:15

Three weeks and three days later,

I just heard a lot of commotion,

0:12:150:12:22

many, many people singing protest

songs, the cell next to mine

0:12:220:12:24

was being filled with many people.

0:12:240:12:32

Then this young man told me

that they have just returned

0:12:320:12:35

from the funeral of Steve Biko

and that was the first

0:12:350:12:37

time that I heard about

the death of Steve Biko.

0:12:370:12:47

I went to my mat that was my bed

and I then just sat there...

0:12:470:12:51

With...

0:12:510:13:01

To me, it was like a huge hole

in my soul, just inconsolability

0:13:040:13:10

which even today would make me weep

at unexpected moments.

0:13:100:13:17

The police said the leader

of the Black Consciousness Movement

0:13:170:13:20

had lost his life by accident

when his head struck a wall

0:13:200:13:23

while he was being restrained.

0:13:230:13:31

Steve Biko's family believe

he was thrown at the wall quite

0:13:310:13:34

deliberately by the police officers.

0:13:340:13:36

Steve Biko's death and the brutality

of it highlighted like no other

0:13:360:13:39

event at the time the extent

to which the apartheid regime

0:13:390:13:42

would go to protect itself.

0:13:420:13:52

Peter James remembering

his friend, Steve Biko.

0:13:530:14:02

Remember, you can find all of our

programmes online. In the late 1970s

0:14:020:14:08

thousands of young men and women

were detained in Argentina for their

0:14:080:14:12

opposition to military rule, amongst

those who went missing was Anna

0:14:120:14:17

Maria, her mother spoke to Witness.

They are called the mothers, in the

0:14:170:14:30

centre of the capital, where they

hold the same sad demonstration

0:14:300:14:35

every way, they have all had at

least one relative who has

0:14:350:14:38

disappeared.

0:14:380:14:41

In the offices of the muscles of the

disappeared. In 1953 American

0:18:110:18:15

husband and wife Julius and Ethel

Rosenberg were executed by electric

0:18:150:18:21

chair after being convicted of

spying for the Soviet Union. Our

0:18:210:18:26

final witness is the Rosenberg's son

Robert.

One of the greatest

0:18:260:18:35

peacetime spy dramas in the history

of the nation reaches its climax as

0:18:350:18:39

Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg

convicted of transmitting secrets to

0:18:390:18:43

Russia into the federal building in

New York to hear their doom.

The

0:18:430:18:49

last time I saw my parents was in a

prison just a couple of days before

0:18:490:18:52

they were executed in June 19 53. I

have this very strong visceral sense

0:18:520:19:02

of a warm and loving family and my

father played word games with my

0:19:020:19:07

brother. I sat on my mother's lap,

they were pretending like nothing

0:19:070:19:12

was wrong, that we would see them

like we would see them in another

0:19:120:19:17

few weeks. My brother, he knew that

was wrong, and he wanted them to

0:19:170:19:24

acknowledge the terrible situation

that we were all in. And so he

0:19:240:19:31

started wailing, one more day to

live. Both my parents were children

0:19:310:19:38

of the depression, they grew up in

poverty on the lower East side of

0:19:380:19:43

Manhattan, and my father Julius was

an electrical engineer, a member of

0:19:430:19:49

the American Communist Party, and my

mother Ethel was a housewife will

0:19:490:19:52

my father was arrested in July,

1950, in New York City. My mother

0:19:540:20:01

was arrested, both were charged with

conspiracy to commit espionage and

0:20:010:20:05

the government said Julius Rosenberg

was a master spy who led an atomic

0:20:050:20:11

spy ring that stole the secret of

the atomic bomb and gave it to the

0:20:110:20:15

Soviet Union in 1945. Julius was

guilty of espionage but it didn't

0:20:150:20:21

have anything to do with the secret

of the atomic bomb, he had no

0:20:210:20:25

knowledge of this, and it is hard

for me to believe that my mother

0:20:250:20:29

didn't know about what he was doing

but there is no credible evidence

0:20:290:20:35

that my mother participated in it in

any way. This was the great red

0:20:350:20:40

scare, the McCarthy period, the

government was saying there was this

0:20:400:20:46

international Communist conspiracy

that was out to destroy our way of

0:20:460:20:48

life. Fear makes powerful people do

very dangerous things. The trial at

0:20:480:20:56

which they were convicted was a

travesty, we now know that the judge

0:20:560:21:03

said Goody communicated with the

prosecution that evidence was

0:21:030:21:06

fabricated and the chief prosecution

witnesses perjured themselves. The

0:21:060:21:11

government of the United States used

the death penalty not as punishment

0:21:110:21:14

but as extortion, the purpose as one

of the FBI agent said, we didn't

0:21:140:21:19

want them to die, we wanted them to

talk. There was a worldwide movement

0:21:190:21:26

and a mass movement even within the

United States at the height of the

0:21:260:21:30

McCarthy period to save the lives of

my parents. They were executed on

0:21:300:21:39

June 19, a month after my sixth

birthday. My brother hung his head.

0:21:390:21:49

I came in and I knew something was

wrong, but I didn't want to hear

0:21:490:21:53

about it. Even a month after the

execution I'd say, when are we going

0:21:530:21:58

to see mum and dad, and he would

have to remind me that they were

0:21:580:22:01

dead. My parents should not have

been executed and we took on a

0:22:010:22:08

campaign to exonerate Ethel. Have we

given up? No, we haven't thought of

0:22:080:22:15

my brother and I are marathon people

and we will keep going.

Robert

0:22:150:22:21

remembering his parents. That is all

from this special edition of Witness

0:22:210:22:27

at the British Library, but we will

be back soon to bring you more

0:22:270:22:31

extraordinary moments of history.

And the remarkable people who

0:22:310:22:34

witnessed them. But for now, from

the anti-rest of the team, goodbye.

0:22:340:22:42

-- from me and the rest of the team,

goodbye.

0:22:420:22:49

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS