It's April, 1989 and Saddam Hussein is visiting the north of Iraq, Kurdistan.
Channel 4 News has obtained this exclusive footage taken by one of the Iraqi President's personal cameramen.
It shows Saddam looking on top of the world - and Kurds desperate to reach him to hand him petitions.
This woman has swum across the river with her plea in a plastic bag. We don't know exactly what - maybe a son missing, a husband arrested.
Saddam graciously signs. The father of his people, approachable - here, let me help you with your cloak.
There was a reason for Saddam's broad smile, and the Kurds desperation to ask favours. The year before, Saddam's army had swept through Kurdistan in a campaign AGAINST KURDISH REBELS which killed anywhere between 50 and 100 thousand men, women and children.
(OUT THERE NEWS)
Saada Ali lost 8 members of her family - her husband, 2 sons, her daughter in law and five grandchildren. Her house was bulldozed and her livestock killed. With all her immediate family dead, she's never been able to rebuild her farm and lives far from her village with an elderly brother-in-law. She blames it all on Saddam.
SAADA ALI
Just like he destroyed my life and killed my relatives, my hope and wish is that he ends up dead and buried as well.
....When I see these photos I just cry - it's just a piece of paper. I can never see the boys or talk to them again....
(GRAPHIC)
This was the Anfal campaign. Anfal means 'spoils of war' and it's a chapter in the Koran about defeating God's enemies.
From February to September 1988, eight military operations attacked areas where guerrillas FIGHTING FOR KURDISH INDEPENDENCE were strongest. The campaign was led by Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, now on trial alongside him.
Thousands of Kurds died in their villages, thousands more in prison camps far away from Kurdistan, buried in mass graves only uncovered after Saddam was overthrown in 2003.
Chemical Ali's forces are accused of attacking villages with mustard gas and nerve gas on at least 40 occasions.
Channel 4 News's Iraqi news team reached Qeitoul, a village at the heart of the 3rd Anfal operation.
(OUT THERE NEWS)
It was a tough three-hour drive from the regional capital, Sulaimaniya, across unmade roads to a farming community that's still dirt poor.
Hussein Abdullah Karim was a teenager when the Anfal hit Qeitoul. Now he's the prayer leader of the mosque.
HUSSEIN ABDULLAH KARIM
Imam of Qeitoul
"On the morning of 9th of April 1988, the people woke up and found the army all over these hills. There were 7 helicopters. The people started realising what was going on. The tanks arrived in the village by 11 am. The villagers started fleeing. Then the army started burning and destroying the village."
Jalal Jabbar Amin was working away from home. An uncle working at a hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, tipped him off that the army was heading for Qeitoul and he hurried for home. He got as far as the village of Kader Karam, where the army and a pro-government Kurdish militia called the 'jouhoush' had gathered scores of men arrested as suspected guerrillas. Families were allowed to visit the detainees for three days. Then they were trucked away and never seen again.
JALAL JABBAR AMIN
'this is Jamal, my eldest son. I saw him in the police station in Kader Karam. He was with my other kids. I kissed them all... He told me, 'we don't know what's going on or what our fate will be, but please save us.'
'this is Kamal, my second son. His wife and 5 of his children were also 'anfalised'. They are missing.
Three of Jalal's six sons were taken away and killed. This is where the army bulldozed their houses.
Here was Jalal's brother's house. He says his brother and 10 members of his family were killed. There used to be 150 families in the village. Today, just 45.
Saada Ali was living in the nearby village of Darawar that April. The army rounded up the villagers and took them to a prison in Kirkuk, the nearest big town. She said the men were taken to one side and strippped of everything they had on - watches, shoes, even clothes. Three days later they were all moved to a fortress at Nugra Salman in the desert far to the south west.
SAADA ALI
'they tortured us - they tortured us a lot. They had these iron bars, which they would tie us to and beat us until we collapsed.
'the worst was what they did to us every morning. We would be taken outside into a field - in the middle of the desert - and they would force us to stand facing the sun all day until sunset, turning to face the sun throughout the day so the sun was always in our eyes. They wouldn't even give us a glass of water.
During those 7 months, I think more than 1,000 people died.
One night, they took all our children, especially the little girls. We don't know where they took them. Three or four hours later they brought them back.You can't imagine how hard it was for my husband and me. You didn't know what those soldiers were capable of.
(more pix of Saddam visiting the north)
When he visited Kurdistan the next spring, Saddam Hussein looked relaxed and confident, delighted that Kurds were throwing themselves at his feet.
Judging by today's proceedings, Saddam and and his cousin's defence at their trial will be that they were simply fighting an anti-insurgent campaign, much as American and Iraqi government forces are now in Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq.
Shino Majid was seven when she was held in that fortress prison in the desert. She and other people whom Channel 4 News interviewed in Kurdistan said there was no point in putting Saddam on trial for the Anfal campaign.
SHINO MAJID
I blame Saddam Hussein. It's clear and obvious what he has done. It doesn't require a trial. He should not just be executed, he should be shredded into pieces.'
(ends)
Channel 4 News has obtained this exclusive footage taken by one of the Iraqi President's personal cameramen.
It shows Saddam looking on top of the world - and Kurds desperate to reach him to hand him petitions.
This woman has swum across the river with her plea in a plastic bag. We don't know exactly what - maybe a son missing, a husband arrested.
Saddam graciously signs. The father of his people, approachable - here, let me help you with your cloak.
There was a reason for Saddam's broad smile, and the Kurds desperation to ask favours. The year before, Saddam's army had swept through Kurdistan in a campaign AGAINST KURDISH REBELS which killed anywhere between 50 and 100 thousand men, women and children.
(OUT THERE NEWS)
Saada Ali lost 8 members of her family - her husband, 2 sons, her daughter in law and five grandchildren. Her house was bulldozed and her livestock killed. With all her immediate family dead, she's never been able to rebuild her farm and lives far from her village with an elderly brother-in-law. She blames it all on Saddam.
SAADA ALI
Just like he destroyed my life and killed my relatives, my hope and wish is that he ends up dead and buried as well.
....When I see these photos I just cry - it's just a piece of paper. I can never see the boys or talk to them again....
(GRAPHIC)
This was the Anfal campaign. Anfal means 'spoils of war' and it's a chapter in the Koran about defeating God's enemies.
From February to September 1988, eight military operations attacked areas where guerrillas FIGHTING FOR KURDISH INDEPENDENCE were strongest. The campaign was led by Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, now on trial alongside him.
Thousands of Kurds died in their villages, thousands more in prison camps far away from Kurdistan, buried in mass graves only uncovered after Saddam was overthrown in 2003.
Chemical Ali's forces are accused of attacking villages with mustard gas and nerve gas on at least 40 occasions.
Channel 4 News's Iraqi news team reached Qeitoul, a village at the heart of the 3rd Anfal operation.
(OUT THERE NEWS)
It was a tough three-hour drive from the regional capital, Sulaimaniya, across unmade roads to a farming community that's still dirt poor.
Hussein Abdullah Karim was a teenager when the Anfal hit Qeitoul. Now he's the prayer leader of the mosque.
HUSSEIN ABDULLAH KARIM
Imam of Qeitoul
"On the morning of 9th of April 1988, the people woke up and found the army all over these hills. There were 7 helicopters. The people started realising what was going on. The tanks arrived in the village by 11 am. The villagers started fleeing. Then the army started burning and destroying the village."
Jalal Jabbar Amin was working away from home. An uncle working at a hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, tipped him off that the army was heading for Qeitoul and he hurried for home. He got as far as the village of Kader Karam, where the army and a pro-government Kurdish militia called the 'jouhoush' had gathered scores of men arrested as suspected guerrillas. Families were allowed to visit the detainees for three days. Then they were trucked away and never seen again.
JALAL JABBAR AMIN
'this is Jamal, my eldest son. I saw him in the police station in Kader Karam. He was with my other kids. I kissed them all... He told me, 'we don't know what's going on or what our fate will be, but please save us.'
'this is Kamal, my second son. His wife and 5 of his children were also 'anfalised'. They are missing.
Three of Jalal's six sons were taken away and killed. This is where the army bulldozed their houses.
Here was Jalal's brother's house. He says his brother and 10 members of his family were killed. There used to be 150 families in the village. Today, just 45.
Saada Ali was living in the nearby village of Darawar that April. The army rounded up the villagers and took them to a prison in Kirkuk, the nearest big town. She said the men were taken to one side and strippped of everything they had on - watches, shoes, even clothes. Three days later they were all moved to a fortress at Nugra Salman in the desert far to the south west.
SAADA ALI
'they tortured us - they tortured us a lot. They had these iron bars, which they would tie us to and beat us until we collapsed.
'the worst was what they did to us every morning. We would be taken outside into a field - in the middle of the desert - and they would force us to stand facing the sun all day until sunset, turning to face the sun throughout the day so the sun was always in our eyes. They wouldn't even give us a glass of water.
During those 7 months, I think more than 1,000 people died.
One night, they took all our children, especially the little girls. We don't know where they took them. Three or four hours later they brought them back.You can't imagine how hard it was for my husband and me. You didn't know what those soldiers were capable of.
(more pix of Saddam visiting the north)
When he visited Kurdistan the next spring, Saddam Hussein looked relaxed and confident, delighted that Kurds were throwing themselves at his feet.
Judging by today's proceedings, Saddam and and his cousin's defence at their trial will be that they were simply fighting an anti-insurgent campaign, much as American and Iraqi government forces are now in Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq.
Shino Majid was seven when she was held in that fortress prison in the desert. She and other people whom Channel 4 News interviewed in Kurdistan said there was no point in putting Saddam on trial for the Anfal campaign.
SHINO MAJID
I blame Saddam Hussein. It's clear and obvious what he has done. It doesn't require a trial. He should not just be executed, he should be shredded into pieces.'
(ends)