Iraq News Now

When Barry Manners and Roel Botani first met, it seemed unlikely, if not impossible, that the two men would become friends.

It was 1990 and Mr Manners had just been taken hostage by Saddam Hussein's regime, which decided he would be used as a "human shield" to prevent foreign attacks on Iraqi sites.

Mr Botani was the manager of the Dukan Dam — the location chosen by the regime to hold Mr Manners and a small group of other international hostages.

For the next three months, Mr Manners lived under the threat of execution, not knowing if he'd ever make it home to the UK alive.

But now, decades later, Mr Manners and Mr Botani share an improbable bond.

A disastrous stopover 

On 2 August 1990, British Airways [BA] flight 149 was flying from London to Kuala Lumpur, when it made a disastrous stopover in Kuwait.

The plane landed as scheduled but, just hours before, neighbouring Iraq had launched a full-scale invasion of Kuwait, marking the start of the Gulf War.

British man Mr Manners, then 24, was among the hundreds of passengers and crew who had unknowingly landed in a war zone and were then seized by Iraqi forces.

"The first thing I thought was just to get off the plane as quickly as possible … Because I saw an [Iraqi] plane come along and actually drop bombs, just a few hundred metres away from us," Mr Manners tells ABC RN's Sunday Extra.

The passengers and crew were initially put in hotels, before Iraqi forces sent many of them to critical locations around Iraq and Kuwait — locations that Saddam Hussein thought foreign powers may attack in retaliation for the invasion.

Mr Manners and a small group of others found themselves being taken by Iraqi guards to the Dukan Dam.

Life at Dukan Dam

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Mr Botani was working at the Dukan Dam and its connected hydroelectric power station, which are important pieces of infrastructure in northern Iraq.

"I had been the Dukan Dam manager for around 10 years. [One day the authorities informed me], there will be some hostages arriving and we'd have to keep them," he says.

"We'd never faced a job like this before … We were only involved with the management, operation and maintenance of the dam."

The hostages were put in the dam's visitors quarters and their life as human shields began.

Mr Manners says it soon became clear the dam team was very different to the guards who were working for the Iraqi government.

Mr Manners says the Iraqi guards would threaten them with their guns, sometimes firing in the air or pointing them at the hostages.

Meanwhile, Mr Manners says Mr Botani pushed for his "guests" to have exercise time and gave them a radio so they could listen to the BBC World Service. One day, he even "took us to a local cafe and bought us all a beer, presumably with his dam funds."

But the situation soon became more dire.

An uncertain future

After a few weeks, the hostages were moved from the visitors quarters to inside the actual dam.

"We were locked inside the dam … We were in this very, very hot room, which was very noisy with these turbines running — these big, big turbines," Mr Manners says.

"It was a horrible feeling, knowing that your life wasn't in your own hands anymore."

The longer the group was held captive, the more psychologically damaging the situation became.

"We'd hear [positive news] on the radio, and we thought, maybe this is it. You'd raise your hopes up but then soon it would get very, very dark again. It was really psychologically difficult," Mr Manners says.

Then the group was moved yet again to a portable cabin on top of the dam wall. Many were convinced they could soon fall victim to a US or British air strike on the dam.

But, as diplomatic efforts and negotiations ramped up, the situation shifted.

One, and then another, and then another hostage was released from the dam, sent to Baghdad and then flown home.

The farewell dinner

Mr Manners' own final night as one of Saddam Hussein's human shields was unexpectedly enjoyable — thanks to Mr Botani.

"Roel managed to wrangle that we went to a local hotel and [we] all had a farewell dinner," Mr Manners says, with a laugh.

"They actually made the mistake of letting me go down to the wine cellar and letting me help myself to whatever we wanted to drink. So we had quite a heavy night."

Mr Botani says the Iraqi guards did not approve of the event. "No, no. It was very risky," he says.

"But I said [to the guards] — at least let them have a good dinner … And if they want to drink, they can drink!"

Hours after the farewell dinner, feeling a bit worse for wear, Mr Manners was taken to Baghdad and home to the UK.

Trauma and a reunion

Mr Manners says while he was overjoyed to be back in the UK, the experience of being held hostage left him deeply traumatised.

"For two years afterwards, certain day-to-day stuff was difficult. Just taking a train or walking, there were moments when, psychologically, I was in a very bad place," he says.

And while he improved over the years, the psychological wounds never really healed.

So in 2011, he made a big decision.

"There was some unfinished business. I couldn't put my finger on what wasn't quite right. And I thought, well, the best way to deal with something is to confront it head on. So I just booked a flight to Iraq."

A month later, Mr Manners arrived back at Dukan Dam and managed to track down Mr Botani. 

"I was very excited when Barry called me … I was very happy to see him. I'd be happy if I could see some of the other guests [one day], I'd like to see them again," Mr Botani says.

Mr Manners says looking back, he was "emotionally naive" in 1990 and "just thought of Roel at the time as being 'another one of them'."

"I don't think I'd appreciated the way he put himself out … So getting back in touch with Roel, having had the benefit of time, hindsight and maturity, I realised that there was a lot more to the man."

Mr Manners says the trip ? and especially the time spent with Mr Botani ? was cathartic.

"It dispelled a lot of the negative feelings I had about Iraq, or northern Iraq, and the people there. It turned into a holiday. I had a really good time there," he says.

But other aspects of the life-changing event remain unresolved.

"I didn't get an explanation [about the landing of BA 149]. The narrative had always been that it was just poor timing," he says.

"We now know that British Airways had received explicit advice that it was dangerous to land and that we were also carrying some military personnel on board the flight. But that's never been acknowledged by the British government nor by British Airways."

And as the security situation in northern Iraq deteriorated in the years that followed, Mr Botani decided he needed to leave.

In 2016, he and his family migrated to Australia.

"My family felt we couldn't continue such a difficult life in that area. It was not easy for us, there were a lot of problems," he says.

Today, despite being on opposite sides of the globe, Mr Manners and Mr Botani are still in contact, continuing a friendship born in the most difficult of circumstances.