RETURN TO KIRKUK - a unique historic report about Iraq's first democratic election

a 16 min report was edited for BBC News Night on 08/02/2005

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SYNOPSIS

Introduction:
Twenty-five years ago, when he was 19, Karzan Sherabayani escaped from Iraq, where he had been imprisoned and tortured by Saddam’s secret police. He started a new life in Britain but he has never forgotten his homeland, South Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. Now he returns to his hometown, Kirkuk, where he will participate in Iraq’s first democratic national elections. Karzan is a bold, charismatic and inquisitive man. His journey offers a rare perspective of these turbulent times. It paints a moving picture of this newly liberated Iraq and of those individuals who are still bound up in it’s ethnic struggles.

Summary of events:
At night in a taxi heading towards the Turkey/Iraq border, Karzan explains that he will add his voice as a Kurd to Iraq’s election but, he says, he doesn’t really believe in the future of a federal System. Since his torture by Saddam’s secret police, Karzan no longer trusts Arabs. He is convinced that lasting peace will be possible only by the creation of an independent Kurdistan – starting with South Kurdistan in northern Iraq. He can understand why Kurdish politicians do not want to openly talk about such a vision. It is taboo. They don’t want to upset neighboring Iran, Syria and Turkey. All are countries that have their own large Kurdish minorities with their own Kurdish separatist movements.

Karzan doesn’t care about the taboo. Inspired by the Kurdish Referendum Movement that, on the 22nd of December 2004, presented 1.7 million signatures to the UN in New York, he decides to conduct his own opinion poll with his fellow Kurds as he journeys to Kirkuk. He prepares a sealed ballot box and voting coupons that have two options: 1) I want to remain part of Iraq and 2) I want an independent South Kurdistan.

At arrival in Kirkuk, Karzan meets his family for the first time after 24 years. It’s a very emotional scene filled with joy as well as tears because Karzan’s mother just recently died.

Karzan pays his respect at the family graveyard not only for his mother but also for his father and two brothers, one of whom saved Karzan’s life by bribing his torturers.

The next day Karzan and his brother Abo try to find the ruins of their birth village right outside Kirkuk in the middle of the oil fields. In 1963 the village was razed to ground and the Sherabayani family was deported. Karzan and Abo find only the graveyard. However, they meet an Arab shepherd who complains about Kurds taking control of Kirkuk since the fall of Saddam.

In the evening Karzan gets first impressions of the election campaign in Kirkuk. The Kurds are rallying in a huge convoy with a lot of razzmatazz. It’s party time, as it seems certain they will form the dominant force in town. Radical Turkomen are gathering in front of their party headquarters, they feel threatened by the Kurds and are calling for the intervention of Turkey.

However, Hoshyar Zebari, the current Iraqi Foreign Minister who is also a Kurd, reassures Karzan in a press conference that he fully trusts in the future of a federal Iraq. He doesn’t want to know about a separate independent South Kurdistan.

Karzan starts his opinion poll at a Police College where his 19-year-old niece, Avin, recently enrolled to train as a police officer. The entire group of thirty young women is eager to vote and Avin doesn’t hide her strong Kurdish feelings. She doesn’t mind risking her life for the fate of Kirkuk as a Kurdish city.Kirkuk’s chief of Police, a Kurd of the older generation, is more diplomatic. He gives his word to respect the rights of all ethnic groups.

However, Kurdish refugees who are living in miserable conditions in Kirkuk’s stadium, have less enthusiasm for the concept of ethnic harmony. In 1991, after the first Gulf war, most of these people were deported to the ‘Safe Haven’ of the Kurdish areas further north. Since the fall of Saddam they have returned in large numbers to Kirkuk, hoping to find a better life. However, until now they have received little or no support. They are bitter and feel betrayed by Kurdish political leaders. These refugees, who have had no voice, give Karzan a lot of support for his opinion poll.

Karzan meets the Sunni Arab leaders of the United Pan Arab Movement. They announce the boycott of the elections. For them the election system is simply not fair.

Despite all the voices predicting ethnic clashes, the local American commander, colonel Miles, remains optimistic. He spent over a year in Kirkuk and is impressed by how well the new Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army have managed to defuse tensions. Colonel Miles might be right.

Karzan meets some new Iraqi soldiers who are in charge of protecting polling stations. He expects exclusively to meet Kurds. But these soldiers, working together, are from all ethnic groups and seem united in their will to fight the Bathist insurgents.

A random rocket attack that landed in Nazanin’s living room, one of Karzan’s nieces, quickly replaces his optimism with new anger. By sheer luck nobody died, but the family is deeply shocked. However, they remain determined to vote and do not think of revenge. It is not the first time their neighborhood has been attacked and they will not give in to the threats of the “coward insurgents”.

The day before the elections Karzan visits the Mukhabarat torture chambers where he was held 24 years ago by Saddam’s secret police. With great distress he talks about his most gruesome experiences. A fellow Kurdish teenager, for no reason, falsely denounced Karzan. This other teenager had been tortured until he gave two new names to his captors. Unfortunately Karzan was one of them. Despite the passage of many years, Karzan still finds it impossible to imagine Arabs and Kurds ever living together under the same roof. “At best we might live together as good neighbors.”

On Election Day, early in the morning, Kirkuk looks like a ghost town. Cars are banned. At every corner the Police and Army have set up security checkpoints. Despite warnings from family members, Karzan decides to meet radical Arabs who are suspected of being behind the random rocket attacks against the Kurdish areas of the city. Karzan’s bold approach pays dividends. Many Arabs talk to him. None of them will vote because they fear being blackmailed by radical elements within their own community.

At a busy polling station, in an area dominated by Turkomen, Karzan meets a beautiful and idealistic Turkomen girl who is proud to be part of Iraq’s first free national election. She doesn’t see any reason for ethnic tensions as long as everybody respects the rights of minority groups.

Some Christians at another polling station also appear to be relaxed. Since the fall of Saddam they are allowed to run their own schools and teach in Aramaic. Already life has improved for them and they are positive about the future.

Finally, Karzan casts his ballot at his former Primary school. He votes the Kurdish list for Iraq’s national parliament and he chooses the Brotherhood list, which is supported by representatives of all ethnic groups, for Kirkuk’s city council.

The Election Day is a great success but in the evening Karzan hears terrible news. Early in the morning, at 07:20 a.m., a rocket landed in the Kurdish refugee camp within the Stadium. It killed Yusuf, a 16-year-old boy. Karzan rushes to the site where the grieving family describes what happened. Shrapnel blew off Yusuf’s scull. He died immediately and was buried. His devastated brother shows us a Kurdish flag: “Yusuf sewed this flag with his own hands to celebrate the Election Day. In his honor, all of us still went to vote. Tell George Bush and Tony Blair not to abandon us.” The terrible loss of this refugee family casts a dark shadow over the entire day. We see Yusuf’s mother grieving at her son’s grave. She embraces the Kurdish flag and calls for peace in a free Kurdistan.

Karzan’s journey is coming to an end. But before he opens his own ballot box he wants to make sure that his mother will receive a proper gravestone. By an incredible coincidence the stonemason turns out to be the Kurd who denounced Karzan to Saddam’s secret police 24 years ago. The confrontation between the two is extraordinary. The stonemason pleads for forgiveness and Karzan agrees to bury their terrible past.

Finally Karzan opens his ballot box and counts the coupons. This independent poll of 1329 coupons shows an overwhelming vote of 1269 for an independent South Kurdistan. Nevertheless, because of this journey, Karzan decides to give a final chance to the newly elected Iraqi federal government and the hope of living peacefully with Arabs in the same country.

The Team

Karzan Sherabayani was the main character in the acclaimed 1996 documentary “Karzan’s Brothers" for BBC1’s Inside Story. His mission then was to rescue his brothers from northern Iraq’s 'Safe Haven', which he succeeded in doing the day before Saddam’s troops moved in. Karzan is a warm, engaging character with a proven track record of on-screen charisma. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and fluent English. He is a skilled interviewer, and is calm and resourceful under pressure. With roots in Iraq and a home in Britain, Karzan is the ideal person to guide audiences through the complex web of Kurdish issues at a pivotal moment in his people’s history. After escaping Saddam’s prison, Karzan went on to higher education in Europe, became happily married to an English woman, brought up three children, and developed a successful career as an actor.

Claudio von Planta is a highly experienced documentary director/cameraman specializing in single-handed operations. He has a track record of over 20 years. In 1996 he became involved in Kurdish stories and filmed “Karzan’s Brothers” for BBC1’s Inside Story – his first film with Karzan. In 1998 Claudio worked with film maker Gwynne Roberts and shot the Channel 4 Dispatches programme ‘Saddam’s Secret Time Bomb’ about the after effects of chemical weapons used in Halabja. In August 2003 he shot and directed the ITV documentary “Saddam’s Legacy”.