HU OSA 350-4-3:102/1

To See: Dying for the Gulf?

C'est A Voir: Mourir Pour Le Gulfe?

Item

Moving Image

1 hour 1 minute

French (Original)

Not Restricted

television program

Belgian television program in three parts about the Persian Gulf and the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. The first part discusses the position of Belgian naval vessels in the Gulf and the Belgium dependence on Gulf oil. It presents an analysis of the war from a Belgian point of view, touching upon the position of the U.S. in the war and their efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime. It includes interviews with Véronique Maurus (journalist, “Le Monde”), Paul-Marie de la Gorce (journalist, “France Inter” and “Le Monde diplomatique”), and Alain Gresch (journalist, “Le Monde diplomatique”). The second part of the program is a report from Basra during war. The analysis includes information about Saddam Hussein’s propaganda war against the Iranian regime, footage from Iraqi television showing the efforts of Iraqi troops in the war and their patriotism, footage of injured children in the Iraqi hospitals, and footage of a patriotic parade which followed the bombing of an Iraqi school. It further contains interviews with civilian Iraqis in Basra about Ayatollah Khomeini and the destructions caused by the war on the civilian population of Basra. The last section of the program is about Kuwait, the oil industry, and the necessity of exporting oil in the Persian Gulf. It covers the attacks on Kuwaiti oil tankers by Iranian troops, the political situation in Kuwait, and the impact of the Iran-Iraq war on the country. The program concludes with a discussion on the possibility of internationalizing the Gulf.