SCRIPT
00:00 Bars and tone
Black
Slate
Countdown
01:00 ARCHIVE
July the 8th,1982. The day Saddam Hussein escaped death. His convoy drove into the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. He moved amongst the people with little overt security apart from his bullet-proof car... but a few hours after these displays of ritual loyalty, the would-be assassins made their move.
WS Saddam and entourage entering gate in wall around houseThese pictures were taken by Saddam's own cameraman. A few were shown on Iraqi TV news at the time, but most lay in an archive, never broadcast until today. They show - for the first time - the events which started to unfold in Dujail that July, which would end with hundreds dead and thousands destitute. Now, what happened in Dujail has come back to haunt Saddam Hussein.
Saddam liked to visit people's houses and be seen with their children. It softened the harsh image he'd created in three years of power. Yet even in a family home, he refused water, fearing poison.
He knew that, despite the outer show, the largely Shi'ia population of Dujail did not support the war against Shi'ia Iran, which he had started eighteen months previously.
02:27
High shot of crowd
The crowd gathered round the the Ba'ath Party headquarters ....individuals tried to out-do each other to prove their loyalty - they knew local Baath party officials would note who had failed to perform.
The President said he would visit the old part of town... but before that he praised the sons of Dujail fighting on the front against Iran.
03:00 SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"I'm not even going to ask you about your morale in the war. I know and everyone knows that the people of Dujail are courageous."
03:13 Tilt down to cheering crowd
It was after this speech that militants of the banned Shi'a Dawa party struck. Today, they're seen as heroes - and martyrs. Their families say they were holy warriors who tried to deliver Iraq from the evils of Saddam Hussein. Amongst them was Karim Khadem Jaafar.
03:31
MS Man in white robe SAADI KADHEM JAAFAR
BROTHER OF MILITANT
"My brother Karim fought a jihad against Baathism in the best possible way, and was martyred in the operation against the damned Saddam Hussein. When Karim and his group heard about Saddam coming, they wanted to kill him, but fate prevented it."
03.52 ARCHIVE
Saddam headed out of town through the date palms where Karim and the Dawa militants were hiding... it's not on camera, but they opened fire on his convoy. Everyone in Dujail remembers that day.
04:05 NEW FOOTAGE
JASSIM MOHAMMED AL-HATUW
SURVIVOR
"When we heard gunshots, we started asking those who were coming back to town what had happened. But they had cut off the roads and weren't allowing anyone to come or to go. Some people said the firing was in celebration of the President, but other people said, no the President has been shot!"
04:24 ARCHIVE
This footage - never before broadcast - shows Saddam's reaction to the attempt on his life. Now much more closely guarded, he headed back into town.
He was determined to give the impression that it was just a minor incident, it wouldn't deter him.
Women threw sweets - a desperate attempt to pledge allegiance. Everyone knew what might happen to them now.
Saddam Hussein addressed the crowd for a second time from the roof of a clinic.
04:56
MS Saddam SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"These few shots don't frighten the people of Iraq, and they don't frighten Saddam Hussein.
We'll find them and question them …
and all they will be able to say is that they were agents of foreigners.
They will turn out to be just 3, 4 or 5 people - but the 39,000 people of Dujail are all loyal to the Revolution.
We distinguish between the people of Dujail and a small number of traitors in Dujail."
06:03
But the retaliation which followed made no such distinctions. Already as he was leaving town Saddam Hussein was filmed interrogating suspects himself.
06:13 SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
Where were you going?
YOUNG MAN (Arabic)
"I am fasting and was on my way to my house"
SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"We're all fasting. Even Khomeini's fasting."
06:27
Even those in the Baath Party militia, the Popular Army, were not above suspicion.
06:33
MAN IN UNIFORM (Arabic)
"Please Sir, I'm in the Popular Army."
SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"Keep them separate and interrogate them."
06:43 NEW FOOTAGE
Suspects were taken to this building - then the Baath Party headquarters, now occupied by one of the Shi'a religious parties, and dedicated to the memory of the martyrs. Karim Jaafar, the militant, was amongst the first to be killed. His body was brought here.
07:00
His father describes how soldiers demolished the family's houses, and chopped down all their orchards.
07:18 MS Elderly man KADHEM JAAFAR
FATHER OF MILITANT
"They took the whole family. Seven girls, and their mother and me. My brother and his wife, maybe seven or eight from his family and my cousin. A hundred and fifty of us altogether. They took us to the intelligence headquarters for 20 days or a month or so, then to Abu Ghraib for two years and then they sent us to the desert."
07:34 WS road and grassy scrubland; pickup truck passes
Closer shot of barbed wire and bushes Twenty three years on, the site of the assassination attempt is still a wasteland. Dujail was bombed from the air.
07:44 MS Woman in black against wooden door UM ABBAS
SURVIVOR
"Some people ran away and some fought. Whoever fought was killed. Some were saved by hiding in the irrigation pipes in the orchards. My son resisted but couldn't fight. He climbed a palm tree and they struck him from a plane."
08:08
WS Elderly woman
That was Abbas. Three other sons, Fares, Mohammed and Ahmed disappeared - and the parents were imprisoned.
08:08 MS Woman in black UM ABBAS
SURVIVOR
"They started beating the boys and young men, and the old men and the women. Humiliation, beating and death. After Abu Ghraib they sent us to the empty quarter, the desert. Dust, nothing but terrible dust everywhere, the worst. We were there maybe two or three years. It was death. People were dying."
08:42 WS Two lines of men bending in prayer in mosque; carpets on floor, religious posters in frames on white wall
WS Men praying
MS Line of men kneeling; pan L as men shake hands at end of prayerWS Two men on bench in living roomYoung man in robe standing; woman in black sitting
The people of Dujail pray for their sons... four hundred, including the families who spoke to us, have been interviewed by Special Tribunal prosecutors. Greater numbers were killed and tortured in other atrocities but in Dujail prosecutors may have evidence implicating Saddam personally. Dujail's Committee of Freed Prisoners is reported to have a decree signed by Saddam dated July 23rd 1985 ordering the execution of 148 local people. But some families didn't find out the fate of their children until Saddam fell from power.
09:20 MS Elderly man
JASSIM MOHAMMED AL-HATUWSURVIVOR"We heard nothing about them until the fall of the regime when we finally found out for sure that they had been executed. Before that we were never really certain. Later when I realised that all four of my sons were dead, I collapsed, I had a brain haemorrage."
09:40 SPECIAL TRIBUNAL VIDEOCUT
Saddam Hussein in white shirt and suit jacket with greying beard, against green wall
The Special Tribunal has released mute pictures of Saddam Hussein being interrogated by the prosecuting judge about Dujail. His defence team say this will be a show trial - they say they haven't even been told the charges against the former President. Iraqi officials have suggested that if convicted of the mass killing of 143 people in Dujail, he may be swiftly executed, without waiting for trials on other, better known atrocities like the gassing of the Kurds.
10:12 ARCHIVEWS Saddam with entourage and imam of mosque in bare interior – ancient building being renovated. Torch swung around interior as Saddam looks on with hands on hipsSaddam with man in white coat and veiled woman outside door of clinic; woman ululates As he visited the mosque in Dujail that day, he can never have imagined it would come to this. He cheated death then, but nearly a quarter of a century on, the events set in train by that botched assassination attempt could yet seal the fate of Saddam Hussein.
00:00 Bars and tone
Black
Slate
Countdown
01:00 ARCHIVE
July the 8th,1982. The day Saddam Hussein escaped death. His convoy drove into the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. He moved amongst the people with little overt security apart from his bullet-proof car... but a few hours after these displays of ritual loyalty, the would-be assassins made their move.
WS Saddam and entourage entering gate in wall around houseThese pictures were taken by Saddam's own cameraman. A few were shown on Iraqi TV news at the time, but most lay in an archive, never broadcast until today. They show - for the first time - the events which started to unfold in Dujail that July, which would end with hundreds dead and thousands destitute. Now, what happened in Dujail has come back to haunt Saddam Hussein.
Saddam liked to visit people's houses and be seen with their children. It softened the harsh image he'd created in three years of power. Yet even in a family home, he refused water, fearing poison.
He knew that, despite the outer show, the largely Shi'ia population of Dujail did not support the war against Shi'ia Iran, which he had started eighteen months previously.
02:27
High shot of crowd
The crowd gathered round the the Ba'ath Party headquarters ....individuals tried to out-do each other to prove their loyalty - they knew local Baath party officials would note who had failed to perform.
The President said he would visit the old part of town... but before that he praised the sons of Dujail fighting on the front against Iran.
03:00 SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"I'm not even going to ask you about your morale in the war. I know and everyone knows that the people of Dujail are courageous."
03:13 Tilt down to cheering crowd
It was after this speech that militants of the banned Shi'a Dawa party struck. Today, they're seen as heroes - and martyrs. Their families say they were holy warriors who tried to deliver Iraq from the evils of Saddam Hussein. Amongst them was Karim Khadem Jaafar.
03:31
MS Man in white robe SAADI KADHEM JAAFAR
BROTHER OF MILITANT
"My brother Karim fought a jihad against Baathism in the best possible way, and was martyred in the operation against the damned Saddam Hussein. When Karim and his group heard about Saddam coming, they wanted to kill him, but fate prevented it."
03.52 ARCHIVE
Saddam headed out of town through the date palms where Karim and the Dawa militants were hiding... it's not on camera, but they opened fire on his convoy. Everyone in Dujail remembers that day.
04:05 NEW FOOTAGE
JASSIM MOHAMMED AL-HATUW
SURVIVOR
"When we heard gunshots, we started asking those who were coming back to town what had happened. But they had cut off the roads and weren't allowing anyone to come or to go. Some people said the firing was in celebration of the President, but other people said, no the President has been shot!"
04:24 ARCHIVE
This footage - never before broadcast - shows Saddam's reaction to the attempt on his life. Now much more closely guarded, he headed back into town.
He was determined to give the impression that it was just a minor incident, it wouldn't deter him.
Women threw sweets - a desperate attempt to pledge allegiance. Everyone knew what might happen to them now.
Saddam Hussein addressed the crowd for a second time from the roof of a clinic.
04:56
MS Saddam SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"These few shots don't frighten the people of Iraq, and they don't frighten Saddam Hussein.
We'll find them and question them …
and all they will be able to say is that they were agents of foreigners.
They will turn out to be just 3, 4 or 5 people - but the 39,000 people of Dujail are all loyal to the Revolution.
We distinguish between the people of Dujail and a small number of traitors in Dujail."
06:03
But the retaliation which followed made no such distinctions. Already as he was leaving town Saddam Hussein was filmed interrogating suspects himself.
06:13 SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
Where were you going?
YOUNG MAN (Arabic)
"I am fasting and was on my way to my house"
SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"We're all fasting. Even Khomeini's fasting."
06:27
Even those in the Baath Party militia, the Popular Army, were not above suspicion.
06:33
MAN IN UNIFORM (Arabic)
"Please Sir, I'm in the Popular Army."
SADDAM HUSSEIN (Arabic)
"Keep them separate and interrogate them."
06:43 NEW FOOTAGE
Suspects were taken to this building - then the Baath Party headquarters, now occupied by one of the Shi'a religious parties, and dedicated to the memory of the martyrs. Karim Jaafar, the militant, was amongst the first to be killed. His body was brought here.
07:00
His father describes how soldiers demolished the family's houses, and chopped down all their orchards.
07:18 MS Elderly man KADHEM JAAFAR
FATHER OF MILITANT
"They took the whole family. Seven girls, and their mother and me. My brother and his wife, maybe seven or eight from his family and my cousin. A hundred and fifty of us altogether. They took us to the intelligence headquarters for 20 days or a month or so, then to Abu Ghraib for two years and then they sent us to the desert."
07:34 WS road and grassy scrubland; pickup truck passes
Closer shot of barbed wire and bushes Twenty three years on, the site of the assassination attempt is still a wasteland. Dujail was bombed from the air.
07:44 MS Woman in black against wooden door UM ABBAS
SURVIVOR
"Some people ran away and some fought. Whoever fought was killed. Some were saved by hiding in the irrigation pipes in the orchards. My son resisted but couldn't fight. He climbed a palm tree and they struck him from a plane."
08:08
WS Elderly woman
That was Abbas. Three other sons, Fares, Mohammed and Ahmed disappeared - and the parents were imprisoned.
08:08 MS Woman in black UM ABBAS
SURVIVOR
"They started beating the boys and young men, and the old men and the women. Humiliation, beating and death. After Abu Ghraib they sent us to the empty quarter, the desert. Dust, nothing but terrible dust everywhere, the worst. We were there maybe two or three years. It was death. People were dying."
08:42 WS Two lines of men bending in prayer in mosque; carpets on floor, religious posters in frames on white wall
WS Men praying
MS Line of men kneeling; pan L as men shake hands at end of prayerWS Two men on bench in living roomYoung man in robe standing; woman in black sitting
The people of Dujail pray for their sons... four hundred, including the families who spoke to us, have been interviewed by Special Tribunal prosecutors. Greater numbers were killed and tortured in other atrocities but in Dujail prosecutors may have evidence implicating Saddam personally. Dujail's Committee of Freed Prisoners is reported to have a decree signed by Saddam dated July 23rd 1985 ordering the execution of 148 local people. But some families didn't find out the fate of their children until Saddam fell from power.
09:20 MS Elderly man
JASSIM MOHAMMED AL-HATUWSURVIVOR"We heard nothing about them until the fall of the regime when we finally found out for sure that they had been executed. Before that we were never really certain. Later when I realised that all four of my sons were dead, I collapsed, I had a brain haemorrage."
09:40 SPECIAL TRIBUNAL VIDEOCUT
Saddam Hussein in white shirt and suit jacket with greying beard, against green wall
The Special Tribunal has released mute pictures of Saddam Hussein being interrogated by the prosecuting judge about Dujail. His defence team say this will be a show trial - they say they haven't even been told the charges against the former President. Iraqi officials have suggested that if convicted of the mass killing of 143 people in Dujail, he may be swiftly executed, without waiting for trials on other, better known atrocities like the gassing of the Kurds.
10:12 ARCHIVEWS Saddam with entourage and imam of mosque in bare interior – ancient building being renovated. Torch swung around interior as Saddam looks on with hands on hipsSaddam with man in white coat and veiled woman outside door of clinic; woman ululates As he visited the mosque in Dujail that day, he can never have imagined it would come to this. He cheated death then, but nearly a quarter of a century on, the events set in train by that botched assassination attempt could yet seal the fate of Saddam Hussein.