Gwynne Roberts
- Gwynne was bought up in the Scarrowscant area of Haverfordwest and attended the old grammar school. He then went to Oxford University before joining Reuters news agency.[1]
- I used to work for Reuters, and I resigned in 1973. I was being trained as a foreign correspondent, and this was the first story I did. So in 1974, I set out for the mountains of Kurdistan where there was a rebellion, a revolt against Baghdad. The revolt, the rebellion, was supported by the Americans. It was supported by the shah of Iran. So that was my first freelance venture, and I was covering it for The Financial Times and The New York Times, and I went back and forth a lot. And then early in March 1975, the whole thing collapsed in ruins, because the CIA -- Henry Kissinger -- had withdrawn support for the Kurds abruptly, as had the shah, and they were left completely destitute.[2]
Contents
The Winds of Death
Roberts' 1988 film The Winds of Death uncovered key evidence of Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.[3]
Gulf War
In a September 1990 article, Roberts suggested that Iraqi chemical weapons were capable of penerating US and UK gas masks.
- Professor Lohs first discovered Iraq's offensive interest in chemical weapons in the early 1970s. After lecturing the Iraqi General Army Staff in Baghdad on chemical disarmament, he was asked to advise them on the use of poison gas against Israel. "One general stood up and said: 'That's all very well and good, but you Germans have a lot of experience from gassing the Jews. That would interest us much more. Can't you advise us how to use chemical weapons for that purpose?' "[4]
A month later he suggested Iraq was mining uranium:
- Freelance film maker Gwynne Roberts said evidence, including photographs taken by a Soviet spy satellite, indicated Iraq had mines in its northern Gara mountains. For his ITN report screened on Channel 4's The World This Week, Mr Roberts talked to Kurds who claimed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had regularly visited the site, about 40 miles south of the Turkish border. One unnamed source said: "The exact spot is not known but that it is in northern Iraq is something that has been verified by Iraqi exile sources, Iraqi defectors and intelligence sources all over the world."[5]
In a January 1991 Dispatches documentary, Roberts reported that the East German Stasi had trained the Iraqis in the use of chemical weapons.[6]
In March 1991, Roberts toured Kirkuk with Kurdish forces and interviewed Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.[7]
Further reporting from Kurdistan
In 1992, The Independent reported on the efforts of the Kurdistan Front to document massacres perpetrated by the Iraqi state:
- "There's a level of suffering in that region which is overwhelming," says Gwynne Roberts, a British journalist who has for two decades been instrumental in bringing the plight of the Kurds to world attention. "Even I thought the brutality was sporadic. But it wasn't."[8]
Saddam's Road to Hell
On 5 November 2006, Roberts spoke along with Mohammad Ihsan of the Kurdistan Regional Government at a screening of his film, Saddam's Road to Hell, hosted by Labour Friends of Iraq at Westminster.[9]
The film was later praised by Nick Cohen in The Observer.
- Look again at Saddam's Road to Hell or, rather, allow me to look at it again on your behalf. All its facts have been triple-checked. The producers present other points of view. Far from being a celebrity hack, the reporter shrinks into the background and allows Iraqis to speak for themselves. I hope Channel 4 sticks to its word and shows it, and not only to quash the Kurds' suspicions. This is an example of a threatened form of television journalism that we will miss more than we know if we allow it to die.[10]
Website
Connections
References
- ↑ Haverfordwest director awaits Emmy result, Western Telegraph, 24 September 2007.
- ↑ Frontline/World: Iraq - Saddams's Road to Hell - A Journey into the Killing Fields, PBS, 24 January 2006.
- ↑ Chemists prove mustard gas use; Iraq offensive against Kurds, by Hazhir Teimourian, The Times, 28 November 1988.
- ↑ Crisis in the Gulf: Poison gas may pierce allied masks, by Gwynne Roberts, The Independent, 11 September 1990.
- ↑ IRAQ 'MAY BE MINING URANIUM', Press Association, 13 October 1990.
- ↑ Crisis in the Gulf: Saddam terrorists 'trained by Stasi', by Harvey Morris, The Independent, 30 January 1991.
- ↑ Crisis in the Gulf: Kurds tell of Iraqi torturers' child victims; Baghdad Radio claimed last night that Kirkuk had been recaptured as Saddam Hussein's forces used Scud missiles and fixed-wing aircraft in their fierce counter-offensive. Gwynne Roberts, in Kurdistan filming for Channel 4's Dispatches, toured the oil city with the Kurdish rebels who captured it. by Gwynne Roberts, The Independent, 29 March 1991.
- ↑ Not Quite Genocide, by [[Tim Kelsey], The Independent, 26 January 1992.
- ↑ Special screening: "The Road To Hell"—Saddam's genocide, by Gary Kent, eustonmanifesto.org, 5 November 2006.
- ↑ British television has a moral duty to show this shocking film, Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2 July 2006.
