that's all from me. good night. hello and welcome to a special edition of witness with me, tanya beckett, here at the british library in london. we'll be looking at five of the most memorable stories from the witness team from the past 12 months. we'll meet an archaeologist who's worked on the terracotta army site for decades in china. a friend of anti—apartheid icon steve biko. and the mother of one of argentina's disappeared children. but first, after independence in 1947 india was split into two states. one majority muslim, the other majority hindu. the repercussions of that split are still being felt. mohammad amir mohammea 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.

i am from a muslim family which once ruled a very large feudal estate, including a beautiful palace in 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 1910. 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 family's 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 father's 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, we are still caught up in the repercussions of partition, and the acrimonious relations between india and pakistan. in a way, i've been forced to live in the past. and, with apologies to yeats, ifeel as if i'm drowning in a beauty that has long since faded from this earth. mohammad amir mohammad khan there, speaking to us from 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 is an archaeologist who has dedicated her career to the remarkable life—sized figures. news archive: it is a vast pottery army. slowly being unearthed from the tomb where it has lain for more than 2,000 years. at one time... she 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. weeks earlier, he had been arrested. witness has spoken to biko's 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 in our country there will be no minority, 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, "that's me". he said, "oh, and who are you, big man?" that's now steve. and steve said, "i'm 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. 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 steve's 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 biko. 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 biko's family believe he was thrown at the wall quite deliberately by the police officers. steve biko's 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. peterjomes remembering his friend, steve biko. remember, you can find

all of our programmes online. in the late 19705, thousands of young men and women were detained in argentina for their opposition to military rule. amongst those who went missing was anna maria. her mother spoke to witness. news archive: they are called the mothers of the disappeared, in the centre of buenos aires, where they hold the same sad demonstration every day — they have all had at least one relative who has disappeared. 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 the history of the nation reaches its climax asjulius rosenberg and mrs ethel rosenberg, convicted of transmitting secrets to russia, into the federal building in new york to hear their doom. the last time i saw my parents was in sing sing a couple of days before they were executed injune 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 mother's lap — they were pretending like nothing was wrong, that we would see them like we would see them in another few weeks. my brother, he knew 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 fatherjulius was an electrical engineer, a member of the american communist party, and my mother ethel was a housewife. my father was arrested in july, 1950, in new york city. my mother was arrested. both were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage, and 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 19115.

julius was guilty of espionage, but it didn't have anything to do with the secret of the atomic bomb — he had no knowledge of this. it's hard for me to believe that my mother didn't know about what he was doing, but there is no credible evidence that my mother participated in it 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 convicted was a travesty. we now know that the judge secretly communicated with the prosecution, that evidence was fabricated, and 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 didn't 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 the lives of my parents. they were executed on june 19th, a month after my sixth birthday. my brother hung his head. i came in and i knew something was wrong, but i didn't want to hear about it. even a month after the execution i'd say, "when are we going to see mommy 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 haven't thought of that. my brother and i are marathoners and we will keep going.

robert remembering his parents. that is all from this special edition of witness at the british library, but we will 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 team, goodbye. good evening. temperatures have certainly been falling over the past few days and nights they are dropping like a stone. this is how we end the day, glorious and clear skies but that means overnight we

don't have the baggage of cloud to keep temperatures up so sunday start of cold with frost and icy stretches, but sunshine to compensate. through the rest of tonight we will see clouds slowly clearing to the south. any wintry showers across eastern england ease away but we are likely to see icy stretches, with temperatures in the countryside as low as 10 degrees and potentially —15 celsius in the sheltered glens of scotland. bitterly cold on sunday morning particularly further north. but lots of sunshine and light wind with temperatures between freezing in glasgow up to seven in london. the cold continues into the new working week at least four monday but then things turn milderfor week at least four monday but then things turn milder for tuesday as the cloud increases in the west. goodbye for now. this is bbc news. the headlines at

10: donald trump dismisses doubts over his mental stability and describes the author of a new book about his presidency as a fraud. describes the author of a new book about his presidency as a fraudlj consider it a work of fiction, and i think it's a disgrace that somebody is able to have something and do something like that. the libel laws are very weak in this country. if they were strong it would be helpful, you wouldn't have things like that happen way you could say whatever comes into your head. an ambulance service apologises after an 81—year—old woman died while waiting nearly four hours for paramedics to arrive. airstrikes on a rebel—held area of syria are thought to have killed at least 17 civilians. house of fraser confirms it's asking landlords to reduce the rent it pays for some of its stores.