ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The filmed theatrical performance Safe Haven, written by former British diplomat in the Kurdistan Region Chris Bowers and directed by the Kurdish-British filmmaker Yad Deen, will premiere in London on Wednesday.
“It is about taking responsibility and doing the right thing in foreign policy,” Bowers told Rudaw hours before the premiere.
The performance is about two diplomats and Kurdish refugees who succeed in persuading the UK government to take action, according to Acrola Theater, the premiere’s venue.
Its name and story are inspired by events that took place in today’s Kurdistan Region in 1991, when nearly two million Kurds fled to the freezing mountains after staging an uprising against the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In 1991, the UK government lobbied the United States and European countries to launch Operation Safe Haven, delivering aid to the Kurds amid the humanitarian crisis while establishing a no-fly zone, thus enabling the safe return of the displaced people to their homes.
Safe Haven tells the story behind the UK’s decision to facilitate and execute a rescue mission.
Bowers said the show is premised on three pillars: diplomatic efforts in London, Kurdish diaspora in the UK, and the “survival by Kurdish women” in the mountains.
“Political and historical facts can be dry if told on their own - [they] have less impact. Emotion is absolutely important - it is there, it shapes decisions; why should we discount it?” he noted.
Saddam’s regime massacred the Kurds in late 1980s through the notorious Anfal campaigns, killing more than 180,000 through starvation, bullets, burying them alive in mass graves in Iraq’s southern deserts, as well as by chemical weapons.
In March 1991, Kurds in Iraq seized the opportunity of Saddam’s defeat in Kuwait to stage an uprising to expel the Iraqi government from Kurdish cities in the north.
Operation Safe Haven, launched after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 688 to condemn the behavior of the Iraqi government against its people, prevented the recurrence of another genocide against the Kurds.
The operation also served as the catalyst for a broader, years-long US-led military effort known as Operation Provide Comfort, which successfully maintained northern Iraq as a de-facto safe zone and laid the foundation for modern Kurdish self-governance.