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Edition of witness with me, tanya beckett, here at the British Library in london. Well be looking back at five of the most memorable stories from the witness team from the past 12 months. Well meet an archaeologist whos worked on the Terracotta Army site for decades in china, a friend of anti apartheid icon steve biko, and the mother of one of argentinas disappeared children. But first, after independence 119117, india was split into two states one majority muslim, the other majority hindu. The repercussions of that split are still being felt. Mohammad Amir Mohammad khan, the raja of mahmudabad, tells witness how partition affected his family and his home. I am mohammad Amir Mohammad khan, known as sulaiman to family and friends, the raja of mahmudabad. Im from a muslim family which once ruled a very large feudal estate, including a beautiful palace, called qila mahmudabad, in which we still live. But the Indian Government is laying claim to my property, saying that it is enemy property. No one is paying for it, so these days, everything is crumbling. This dispute goes back to 1947, the partition of india into two states a muslim majority state called pakistan and a hindu majority state of india. It was estimated that a Million People died. Ten Million People were displaced. Some muslims went to the state of pakistan. Many hindus came to india. It was not just the country that was divided families were divided, too. In the late 50s, my father took pakistani nationality, and that is when my familys problems began, because when india and pakistan went to war in 1965, the government laid claim to our properties. There was an act of parliament called the enemy property act which empowered the government to take over, temporarily, the properties of pakistanis. It was notjust our family which was affected. Thousands of families were affected. The properties are worth billions of dollars. But our issue is that only my father took pakistani nationality. I have always been an indian. My mother was always an indian. We had to fight our case from the lowest to the highest court. And in every court, we won. And the supreme courtjudge said that by no stretch of imagination could i be considered an enemy, and considered me the heir to my fathers properties. But then, the government went and changed the laws, and the battle has begun again. I suppose, like so many people in india and pakistan, were still caught up in the repercussions of partition and the acrimonious relations between india and pakistan. In a way, ive been forced to live in the past. And, with apologies to yeats, ifeel as if im drowning in a beauty that has long since faded from this earth. Mohammad Amir Mohammad khan at his beautiful palace in india. Now to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. In the spring of 1974, local farmers in china accidentally uncovered the site of the vast Terracotta Army. Our next witness, li xiuzhen, is an archaeologist who has dedicated her career to the remarkable life sized figures. News archive it is a vast pottery army slowly which is slowly being unearthed from the tomb where it has lain for more than 2,000 years. Li xiuzhen, who still works at the site of the Terracotta Army in xian. In 1977, anti apartheid activist steve biko, leader of the black Consciousness Movement in south africa, died in police custody. He had been arrested weeks earlier. Witness has spoken to bikos friend, peterjones, who was arrested with him. I miss my friend steve biko and i am forever in his debt. Steve biko is one of the people that originated the new generation of Young Political minded black people, the black Consciousness Movement. We believe that in our country there shall be no minority, there shall be no majority, there willjust be people. And those people will have the same status before the law and they will have the same rights before the law. The apartheid government ensured there was no resistance against its doctrines and against its policies. There was a roadblock and they then searched the car. They found an identity document which was mine. They then said, who is peter jones . And i said, thats me. He said, oh, and who are you, big man . Thats now steve. And steve said, im steve bantu biko. And we were then locked up together in one cell. The next morning, we started getting an uneasy feeling because there were now more police and in a convoy of three cars, we sped towards Port Elizabeth. In Port Elizabeth was the headquarters of the Security Police for that region. News archive the building has been converted into a block of flats. Steve biko was being walked to his death along this very corridor a man poised to fill the void left behind after mandela was jailed. We got taken up to the fifth floor and we were manacled, each to a separate window. One of the senior police, a major, came in and said, now i can confirm that you are officially being detained under section six of the terrorism act. That is the act in which you literally disappear. They separated us, i only had a chance to shout steves name and that was the last time i saw steve alive. Three weeks and three days later, ijust heard a lot of commotion, many, many people singing protest songs, the cell next to mine was being filled with many people. Then this young man told me that they have just returned from the funeral of steve biko and that was the first time that i heard about the death of steve bi ko. I went to my mat that was my bed and i then just sat there. With. To me, it was like a huge hole in my soul, just inconsolability which even today would make me weep at unexpected moments. The police said the leader of the black Consciousness Movement had lost his life by accident when his head struck a wall while he was being restrained. Steve bikos family believe he was thrown at the wall quite deliberately by the police officers. Steve bikos death and the brutality of it highlighted like no other event at the time the extent to which the Apartheid Regime would go to protect itself. Peterjones remembering his friend, steve biko. Remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all of ourfilms, along with more than 1,000 radio programmes, in our online archive. Just to go bbc. Co. Uk witness. In the late 19705, thousands of young men and women were detained in argentina for their opposition to military rule. Among those who went missing was ana maria careaga. Her mother mirta spoke to witness. News archive they are called the mothers of the plaza de mayo, the square in the centre of buenos aires, where they hold the same sad demonstration every week. They have all had at least one relative who has disappeared. Mirta in the offices of the mothers of the disappeared. In 1953, american husband and wife julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair after being convicted of spying for the soviet union. Our final witness is the rosenbergs son, robert. News archive one of the greatest peacetime spy dramas in nations history reaches its climax asJulius Rosenberg and mrs Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of transmitting secrets to russia, enter the Federal Building in new york to hear their doom. The last time i saw my parents was in sing sing prison, just a couple of days before they were executed in june 1953. I have this very strong, visceral sense of a warm and loving family. My father played word games with my brother. I sat on my mothers lap. They were pretending like nothing was wrong, that wed see them, you know, like wed see them in another few weeks. My brother, he knew that that was wrong, and he wanted them to acknowledge the terrible situation that we were all in. And so, he started wailing, one more day to live. Both my parents were children of the depression. They grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side of manhattan. My father, julius, was an electrical engineer. He was a member of the american communist party, my mother, ethel, was a housewife. My father was arrested in july of 1950 in new york city. And my mother was arrested. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. The government said Julius Rosenberg was a master spy who led an atomic spy ring that stole the secret of the atomic bomb and gave it to the soviet union in 1945. Julius was guilty of espionage, but it didnt have anything to do with the secret of the atomic bomb he had no knowledge of this. Its hard for me to believe that my mother didnt know about what he was doing, but theres no credible evidence that my mother participated in any way. This was the great red scare, the mccarthy period. The government was saying there was this International Communist conspiracy that was out to destroy our way of life. Fear makes powerful people do very dangerous things. The trial at which they were, you know, convicted was a travesty. We now know that the judge secretly communicated with the prosecution, that evidence was fabricated, the chief prosecution witnesses perjured themselves. The government of the United States used the Death Penalty not as punishment but as extortion. The purpose, as one of the fbi agents said, we didnt want them to die, we wanted them to talk. There was a Worldwide Movement and a Mass Movement even within the United States at the height of the mccarthy period to save my parents lives. They were executed on june 19th, a month after my sixth birthday. My brother just kind of hung his head. And i came in and i knew something was wrong, but i didnt want to hear about it. Even a month after the execution, id say, when are we going to go see mummy and daddy . , and he would have to remind me that they were dead. My parents should not have been executed, and we took on a campaign to exonerate ethel. Have we given up . No, we havent given up. My brother and i, we are marathoners. We are going to keep going. Robert meeropol remembering his parents. Thats all from this special edition of witness here at the British Library. Well be back soon to bring you more extraordinary moments of history and the remarkable people who witnessed them. But for now, from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. Hello there. Sunday is set to be another very cold day. We have clear skies which is set to bring us a good deal of sunshine by day, but dawn could well look Something Like this. A lot of sharp frost around, the potential for temperatures close to 15 degrees across the sheltered glens of scotland. So a very cold start with some icy stretches to watch out for as well. A lot of sunshine on offer, though, as we move through the day on sunday. Lets look at the morning. Its across the rural glens of scotland that we will have the coldest temperatures, as i say, potentially close to 15. Around about 8 by 9am. A few showers for the Northern Isles of scotland. Down across Northern Ireland and northern england, lots of sparkling sunshine, frosty watch out for some icy stretches, particularly where we have had some showers. There could still be a few showers across the north east of england. A lot of dry, sunny weather towards the south east. Just a little bit of cloud drifting around. Bit of wind chill with the brisk north easterly winds across southern england and wales, too. But through the day, it is looking dry, fine and settled after that cold, frosty and icy morning. There will be a lot of sunshine on offer for most places. Quite breezy, i think, in the far south, and also for the Northern Isles of scotland with one or two showers. Elsewhere, dry, but temperatures only between around about zero to six degrees for most of us. Sunday also ending on a cold note. Another very cold night ahead sunday night and on into monday morning. If youre heading to work during the early hours of monday, do watch out for some icy stretches forming once again on the roads because even in towns and cities, the temperatures will be down below freezing. Just a little milder along the south coast because we will have a bit more cloud filtering in here through monday morning. And thats going to be a theme for monday. The cloud in the south will nudge its way further northwards, so clouding over, i think, for parts of east anglia, the midlands into wales later on in the day. It will still cold where you have the cloud around, too. Lots of sunshine and northern england, scotland and Northern Ireland, too. Fairly light winds across much of the country. Another largely dry day, 2 6, but that cloud just thick enough potentially for a little bit of drizzle along the south coast. And then eventually, we lose the blue colours, the cold air mass, and well see something a little milder creeping in from the atlantic as we head through monday night and into tuesday, too, with eventually some wet weather arriving in the west. But actually, much of tuesday again dry, fairly cold, fairly cloudy, the breeze picking up from the west. That is ahead of this band of rain which will bring milder but also wetter weather from the west as we head through the end of the day. Temperatures around 4 6 degrees on tuesday. Slowly turning a little bit milder with some outbreaks of rain through the course of next week. Goodbye. Hello, this is breakfast, with rogerjohnson and rachel burden. Plans to give mps a vote on fox hunting are abandoned by the prime minister. The conservatives promised an option on ending the ban on hunting during last years election. Good morning. Its sunday, 7th january. Also this morning, some of the uks biggest retailers agree to stop selling acids and corrosive substances to under 18s, in a bid to cut the number of life changing attacks. Plans are announced to plant a new northern forest stretching from liverpool to hull. And coming up in sport, well have the latest from the final

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