“Saddam’s Road To Hell”
I was at the House of Commons this evening for an advance showing of a moving British television programme called “Saddam’s Road To Hell”. Labour Friends of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Foreign Policy Centre were responsible for showing this film to MPs and invited guests.
Saddam Hussein is standing trial for mass killings of Kurds in the 1980s. Like no other documentary before it, “Saddam’s Road To Hell” exposes the fault lines of this fractured society, revealing how Iraq’s dark past impacts on the present and future. Investigators set off on a journey across the country to find out what exactly happened to 8,000 Kurdish men and boys who went missing in the early years of Saddam’s rule. Saddam’s butchering of the Kurds has left many in this mountainous part of Iraq in mourning, not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
Those of you living in Britain can and should see the programme on Channel 4 at 8 pm on Monday 20th November. It will be shown later throughout Europe and North America.
After this showing at the Commons, the veteran filmmaker Gwynne Roberts spoke about the dangers of making the programme but the importance of Iraqis facing up to the unpleasant truths of what happened. He wondered if, in the face of such atrocities, the unitary nature of Iraq can be maintained or whether it will fracture into Sunni. Shia and Kurdish statelets. However, a member of the Iraqi Embassy in London was clear that the Kurdish leadership is committed to a single state with devolved powers for the Kurdish north.