0:00:00 > 0:00:02through unprotected sex.
0:00:02 > 0:00:07Now on BBC News, it's time for Witness.
0:00:29 > 0:00:38Welcome to Witness. I'm here at the British library to guide you through
0:00:38 > 0:00:42another five extraordinary moments from the recent past. We'll meet a
0:00:42 > 0:00:47man who was caught up in written's worst ever nuclear accident. A woman
0:00:47 > 0:00:51who was taken hostage along with hundreds of others when Chechen
0:00:51 > 0:00:57rebels seized a theatre in Moscow. And a man who helped thousands of
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Hungarian Jews escape the Nazis. First, on the ninth of October,
0:01:03 > 0:01:131967, Marxist revolutionary Banesto Guevara was killed in Bolivia. A CIA
0:01:13 > 0:01:19agent helped the Bolivian army tracked him down.I put my hand
0:01:19 > 0:01:25around him before the picture was taken. You can see a man who was so
0:01:25 > 0:01:30powerful at one point in Cuba and to see the way he was at that point, he
0:01:30 > 0:01:35looked like a beggar, he was in rags, he was filthy and a completely
0:01:35 > 0:01:41different image from white people perceived of him in the world. In
0:01:41 > 0:01:481967 there was an interest to provide the Bolivian government with
0:01:48 > 0:01:57capabilities against the gorillas arriving there. I was to provide
0:01:57 > 0:02:01information about Che Guevara and advise them on how to either capture
0:02:01 > 0:02:05or kill him. Che Guevara was in Bolivia to take over the country and
0:02:05 > 0:02:10if he was able to be successful that way he would be able to support a
0:02:10 > 0:02:13revolution to fight different neighbouring countries that they
0:02:13 > 0:02:17have boundaries with. The instruction that we specifically got
0:02:17 > 0:02:22from the CIA was if Che Guevara was captured alive to be able to keep
0:02:22 > 0:02:27him alive at all costs. We received information from the field that he
0:02:27 > 0:02:35had been captured. I was anxious to meet this individual, so on the
0:02:35 > 0:02:42following day we arrived at the area where he was. We all came into the
0:02:42 > 0:02:48room. He was tied down on the floor. In front of him was the dead bodies
0:02:48 > 0:02:52of a couple of Cuban officers who were killed during the operation.
0:02:52 > 0:02:59Later on I came back to the room and stood in front of him and said, Che,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02I've come to talk to you. He looked at me arrogantly and said, nobody
0:03:02 > 0:03:06talks to me. At that point I looked at him and said, Commander, I admire
0:03:06 > 0:03:12you. I used to believe what you believe, although I think your ideas
0:03:12 > 0:03:16are mistaken. I just came here to talk to you, not interrogate you.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Every time I tried to ask him a question that was a tactical
0:03:20 > 0:03:26interest to us he would smile and say, I won't answer that. At times
0:03:26 > 0:03:30he was talking and I wasn't paying much attention and in my mind the
0:03:30 > 0:03:38man I did remember from the news... That arrogant man with the big coat,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42now to see this man who was really in very poor shape, that impacted me
0:03:42 > 0:03:52tremendously. There was a phone call from high Bolivian command and the
0:03:52 > 0:03:58order was 500, 600. We had a simple code. 500, Che Guevara, 600, kill
0:03:58 > 0:04:05him, 700, keep him alive. I asked for them to repeat it and they said
0:04:05 > 0:04:11500, 600. I went to the room, I stood in front of him and said,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Commander, I'm sorry. I tried my best. He turned white like a piece
0:04:16 > 0:04:20of paper and said, it's better this way. I should have never been
0:04:20 > 0:04:24captured alive. I said, is there anything you want for your family,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29if I can get the message through? He said, tell my wife to remarry and
0:04:29 > 0:04:34try to be happy. He approached me, we shook hands, he stood back and
0:04:34 > 0:04:38stood at attention thinking I would be the one to shoot him and I left
0:04:38 > 0:04:48the room. About 0120 I heard a first and that's when he was dead. People
0:04:48 > 0:04:54really don't know who Che Guevara was. A lot of people saw the picture
0:04:54 > 0:05:00of Che on T-shirts, they like it and they have no idea who he was. To me,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04he wasn't an assassin but an adventurer. We really have no
0:05:04 > 0:05:12respect whatsoever for human life. Felix Rodriguez, in Miami. In
0:05:12 > 0:05:18October 1957, a nuclear reactor in the north of England caught fire.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21John Harris was working at the nuclear plant when things went badly
0:05:21 > 0:05:31wrong.The old world ponders the atom. Britain is aiding the peaceful
0:05:31 > 0:05:39pursuit.I joined in August of 1956 when there was a big boost of
0:05:39 > 0:05:42recruitment into the not long form the United Kingdom atomic energy
0:05:42 > 0:05:46authority. There were dozens of us. At least it felt like it. You very
0:05:46 > 0:05:54much felt that this was the future. Britain is making massive progress
0:05:54 > 0:06:00in atomics. This is the first atomic power station to be built anywhere
0:06:00 > 0:06:09in the world.Thursday, October ten, 57, I remember somebody saying,
0:06:09 > 0:06:14look, and you could just see a whisper of some light blue smoke.
0:06:14 > 0:06:22Not much. Just a little drifts coming up the top of one of them,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26reactor number one. Someone said, hey, look at that. That shouldn't be
0:06:26 > 0:06:33there.The atomic energy authority have announced that some Iranian
0:06:33 > 0:06:40cartridges -- uranium cartridges became overheated yesterday.Lima
0:06:40 > 0:06:44got to the gates we were flights through and told to go straight to
0:06:44 > 0:06:48our berries were faces and laboratories and stay there. But
0:06:48 > 0:06:54there was a fire in the reactor and I was given a job to do. I was going
0:06:54 > 0:07:01to go up onto the so-called reactor top and take measurements up there.
0:07:01 > 0:07:08Sitting up there on the top of the reactor, it was quiet and I sat up
0:07:08 > 0:07:19there all night long. I remember that. The whole night.The milk from
0:07:19 > 0:07:22200 square miles of farmland is condemned as radioactive. The
0:07:22 > 0:07:26trouble arose when radioactive dust from the overheated tile fell on the
0:07:26 > 0:07:35Cumberland pastures. The farm is much further away would have faced
0:07:35 > 0:07:44not emergency but disaster. -- farms.I remember the morning came.
0:07:44 > 0:07:51Take was put up everywhere. Don't go past this point. I wondered what had
0:07:51 > 0:07:56happened on the night. What I realised was they had finally
0:07:56 > 0:08:00decided the only way to put this fire out, they tried various ways,
0:08:00 > 0:08:08they decided to pump water through the reactor. That reactor was not
0:08:08 > 0:08:14designed to have water in it at all. At the time we took that decision,
0:08:14 > 0:08:20the people concerned would have been extremely worried to put it mildly,
0:08:20 > 0:08:27but it worked.Now the worst seems to be over. This man helped to bring
0:08:27 > 0:08:31the overheated reactor in control. It was radioactive for four days and
0:08:31 > 0:08:37he couldn't kiss his wife until he was given permission. If it had gone
0:08:37 > 0:08:42wrong the worst that would have happened is we would have had a
0:08:42 > 0:08:45chemical explosion.That would have destroyed the structure of the
0:08:45 > 0:08:51reactor and see uranium would have been shot out. Which would have
0:08:51 > 0:08:55meant at least a temporary evacuation of west Cumberland, at
0:08:55 > 0:09:02least.Milk samples were found to contain six times as much
0:09:02 > 0:09:05radioactive iodide as international health standards permit. So for the
0:09:05 > 0:09:14time being down the drain it goes. With atoms you can't be too careful.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And John Harrison went on to be a lecturer in nuclear engineering,
0:09:17 > 0:09:24specialising in system safety. In October 2002, dozens of Chechen
0:09:24 > 0:09:29rebels seized a theatre in central Moscow and held hundreds of people
0:09:29 > 0:09:36hostage for over two days. One couple and their daughter were in
0:09:36 > 0:09:42the audience when the rebels stormed the building.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47700 people, including many children, are being held hostage in a theatre.
0:09:47 > 0:09:56Gunmen armed with explosives raided the building in the capital, Moscow.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01TRANSLATION: On the 23rd of October, we went to see a musical in evening,
0:10:01 > 0:10:13the three of us. Me, Sacha, my daughter, and Sandi, my fiance. The
0:10:13 > 0:10:20second part of the show started with the pilot's songs. After that we
0:10:20 > 0:10:25heard some sort of noise. We saw a man in military camouflage go up
0:10:25 > 0:10:31onto the stage. To draw attention to himself, he fired a gun.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41And then I looked around to the left and I saw that there was a crowd of
0:10:41 > 0:10:47people in military uniform walking along the aisle.
0:10:51 > 0:10:57People reacted very differently. Some were hysterical. Some people
0:10:57 > 0:11:02seemed to turn to stone in shock. Some people took it calmly.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12The gunmen want Russia to stop a war that's been raging for years.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and the gunmen have
0:11:16 > 0:11:19given the government a week to remove their soldiers from their
0:11:19 > 0:11:23homeland. The two sides are struggling for who gains control of
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Chechnya, in the south of Russia.
0:11:31 > 0:11:37A group captured the theatre and seized 1000 people with great ease.
0:11:37 > 0:11:45I don't think they had a plan about what to do with us after that. Only
0:11:45 > 0:11:49after the rebel leaders announcement did I realise that we were really
0:11:49 > 0:11:55being taken hostage. I didn't want to believe this. Sandi was the
0:11:55 > 0:12:01quickest to understand it and Sacha was a child, 13 years of age. She
0:12:01 > 0:12:08reacted as though she was in a film. There was no real fear.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20The last time I looked at my watch it was just after three o'clock. I
0:12:20 > 0:12:29have this feeling, a little bit longer and we'll be freed. Sacha and
0:12:29 > 0:12:34Sandi were asleep holding hands. I thought, I need to falsely asleep
0:12:34 > 0:12:39quicker so that the morning comes sooner. -- fall asleep.
0:12:46 > 0:12:53I came to in hospital. I didn't see the storming of the theatre or gas,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57because my sleep gradually turned into a coma.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07Within just one hour, hundreds of the hostages were being carried out,
0:13:07 > 0:13:12free at last after two-day ordeal. Many were unconscious. It is special
0:13:12 > 0:13:16forces had pumped gas into the building to disable the Chechen
0:13:16 > 0:13:22rebels, but it also affected the hostages.On the 27th of October, I
0:13:22 > 0:13:28heard on the radio that Sacha died. On the 28th of October, the
0:13:28 > 0:13:38presenter gives of the US embassy told me that Sandy died.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52Anne went on to help found survivors group for those caught up in the
0:13:52 > 0:13:56theatre siege. Remember, you can watch Witness every month on the BBC
0:13:56 > 0:14:00News Channel or you can catch up on all of our films along with more
0:14:00 > 0:14:07than a thousand radio programmes on our online archive.
0:14:07 > 0:14:14We turned out to 1944 hungry during the brief but brutal occupation of
0:14:14 > 0:14:20the Nazis. David was a young Jewish man and part of an underground
0:14:20 > 0:14:27organisation trying to assist Hungarian Jews assist -- escape.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32This job was to produce tens of thousands of carefully forged
0:14:32 > 0:14:40identification documents for those trying to flee. TRANSLATION:When
0:14:40 > 0:14:46the Germans invaded Hungary I changed my identification documents
0:14:46 > 0:14:51to Arian. I left the flat I was living in as a junior and began to
0:14:51 > 0:15:00live with a different identity as a Gentile. A few days later I met with
0:15:00 > 0:15:05the leaders of the underground Zionist youth movement who told me I
0:15:05 > 0:15:09would be joining a team to forge documents. I became part of the
0:15:09 > 0:15:14biggest rescue operation during the Holocaust run by Jewish people. I
0:15:14 > 0:15:27was 18 at the time. A month or two after the invasion, orders were sent
0:15:27 > 0:15:33to all Hungarian provinces for Jewish people to wear the yellow
0:15:33 > 0:15:39star of David and to be concentrated in ghettos. Any Jew who arrived at a
0:15:39 > 0:15:52train station was arrested. They were the first to be deported to our
0:15:52 > 0:15:56fleets of -- Auschwitz. In our workshop we prepare the documents
0:15:56 > 0:16:01needed for everyday life. To rain a flat um to prove your residency and,
0:16:01 > 0:16:11later on, work permits. The most difficult stands to forge with a
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Hungarian government because their emblem had so much detail. You had
0:16:14 > 0:16:23to be very accurate. I was always busy, thinking about how to secure
0:16:23 > 0:16:27the safety of the workshop, how to provide documents that would
0:16:27 > 0:16:30withstand inspection, how to keep my friend says by providing them with
0:16:30 > 0:16:39the right documents. I felt responsible for life-and-death. For
0:16:39 > 0:16:43safety reasons, we often had to change location, moving from place
0:16:43 > 0:16:53to place around 15 times over a period of nine months. On December
0:16:53 > 0:17:0021, as the Russians were at the gates of Budapest I was arrested
0:17:00 > 0:17:04along with two of my workshop team. We were taken to the Hungarian
0:17:04 > 0:17:19fascist party headquarters where we were interrogated. Later on, we were
0:17:19 > 0:17:28beaten up. One of us, Nicki, died in the early hours of that morning in
0:17:28 > 0:17:35our rooms. I spent three days in the prison in the hands of the fascists
0:17:35 > 0:17:44until my friends managed to free us. The police fled because Budapest was
0:17:44 > 0:17:48under siege. They wanted to save themselves. Only the civilian guards
0:17:48 > 0:17:58were left. We couldn't save all the Jews but at least through our work
0:17:58 > 0:18:03we saved as many as we could. Tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest
0:18:03 > 0:18:17were saved thanks to the work of the underground.Dated now lives in Tel
0:18:17 > 0:18:23Aviv with his wife, also a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. Finally, for
0:18:23 > 0:18:27five years this woman and her family lived on the frontline of the
0:18:27 > 0:18:32Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip. In 2005 when Israel pulled
0:18:32 > 0:18:35its troops and settlers out, she finally regained possession of the
0:18:35 > 0:18:42family home after years of occupation by Israeli soldiers.
0:18:42 > 0:18:49Israel has been in Gaza since the six days in 1967 when it won a war.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54The war shaped the modern Middle East and the conflict that Israelis
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and Palestinians have been fighting ever since. Israel occupied land
0:18:58 > 0:19:10including Gaza and the West Bank and started moving its own people in.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16Under occupation I lived in a very serious situation. Two, it happened
0:19:16 > 0:19:27yesterday. I am 25 years old. My father was an English teacher. After
0:19:27 > 0:19:35the few patient of the Jewish people they started to build a settlement
0:19:35 > 0:19:46in the Gaza Strip. Close to my home. Because my home was a tall building
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Israeli soldiers occupied my home for five years. They put all my
0:19:51 > 0:20:01family in one room and the rest of the home was for the soldiers.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Soldiers were sleeping here and they are so... I felt like it was not my
0:20:05 > 0:20:15home. My grandmother told my father please, leave the home. My father
0:20:15 > 0:20:22said no. This is my place, from my grandfather and I will die here. My
0:20:22 > 0:20:29family really suffered at that time. Five years. In 2004, the Israeli
0:20:29 > 0:20:35Prime Minister announced an agreement to withdraw from the Gaza
0:20:35 > 0:20:44Strip. I could not believe that. Because the settlement here, we have
0:20:44 > 0:20:50the building in the school they lived in. They lived a life as if
0:20:50 > 0:20:57they were going to stay forever. But I kept dreaming of the day they
0:20:57 > 0:21:01would leave my home.On Israeli television tonight Prime Minister
0:21:01 > 0:21:07Sharon said that holding Gaza for ever was impossible. Over 1 million
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Palestinians live there, he said, and hatred is growing with no
0:21:10 > 0:21:14prospect of peace. The soldiers found out across the sand dunes of
0:21:14 > 0:21:21this Mediterranean paradise. The police took the beaches. The teams
0:21:21 > 0:21:26moved in to negotiate with the residents. They did not get far. How
0:21:26 > 0:21:29can you be offering help, she shouted. You are destroying
0:21:29 > 0:21:38everything. And then the time for talking was over.The people in the
0:21:38 > 0:21:42settlement who were Jewish, they were upset and angry because they
0:21:42 > 0:21:49have lived there and they do not want to leave. If we hear the sound
0:21:49 > 0:22:02of the people in the settlement shouting now, don't leave. I used to
0:22:02 > 0:22:06be positive, as my father taught me, but you have to look at the reality
0:22:06 > 0:22:13and the reality right now is quite difficult. I wish that in the future
0:22:13 > 0:22:19it will be Palestinian and Jewish together. OK, but before that, give
0:22:19 > 0:22:29me my rights.That is all from witness this month here at the
0:22:29 > 0:22:33British library. We will be back next month for another five accounts
0:22:33 > 0:22:40of extraordinary moments in history. For now, from me and the rest of the
0:22:40 > 0:22:43witness team, goodbye.