transcript

Since about the beginning of this century when Kurdistan was divided by the French and English empires, the Kurds have lived very miserable lives. Since then we have struggled, living amongst different countries like Irag, Iran and Syria, so all of our lives there has been war, civil war, running away and fleeing our country, I have fled Iraqi Kurdistan three times.

Actually I come from a small town which was bombed by Saddam Hussein with chemical bombs in 1988 and I can remember it was bombed once before in 1974. I was four years old when that town was destroyed, I was a little boy at the time when Saddam Hussein was trying to destroy all these villages under the name of 'fighting terrorism' - you know what I mean - 'fighting terrorism!' The terrorists were these Kurdish parties who are now friends of western countries, I always wondered why they never tried to help Kurdish people and just let Iran and Iraq destroy them between themselves.

I was a little boy and I was in the middle of all these things, I have suffered. These are all my childhood memories until I had to leave the country and come out of there.

I got into trouble with some Kurdish parties because I had some views to talk about. I tried to set up an organisation, not like a normal organisation to be a leader, to gather some people around you and shout against some other people. Actually it was just for conversation, to tell people how to be themselves, to be teachers and students, it was just for human understanding because I believe that we have created thousands of descriptions with which we have divided and fragmented ourselves.

We have brought into being names and labels -Kurdishness, Arabness, Persianess, Englishness or Americaness with which we are destroying each other. I wanted an official centre to study these things, self knowledge and freedom in it's real meaning - being free of selfishness and things like that. This caused troubles and problems with the political parties so I had to leave the country. When the civil war started between the Kurdish parties they became more monstrous and they were trying to catch every single individual who was out of their way of thinking or out of their ideology.

They were going round people's houses and catching them and putting them in prison and things like that. I used to say, well if you are really talking about democracy, first of all you shouldn't go into war against each other because our country has been divided into four parts and now you have divided the part in which we live into two more and you are killing each other. So they weren't interested in my opinions, and that was the main reason I had to leave. I couldn't go to the Iraqi part where Saddam Hussein was still the dominant man because he is not interested in any sort of sophistication, especially with Kurdish people.

We have no good memories of the Iraqi government, it's all chemical bombs, genocide and pushing people out of their towns, especially where there is a lot of oil. I was caught and arrested, I think it was twice but I can't remember, it was three or four years ago, and they started an investigation with me about my views. I tried to persuade them that I am not against any particular party and that I am not about to set up a normal organisation to be a leader. Actually I was talking about freedom in terms of individuality, to be free from yourself, that was the core of my understanding and not a threat to anyone.

In prison you are beaten, sometimes physically, sometimes verbally, swearing and insulting you - it's prison in an eastern country you know. When I came out I felt that I could no longer live where I had been brought up, I had to decide to go. I had to leave secretly and I paid money to smugglers, they took me through Iran, then to Turkey where they handed me over to another agent who brought me here. I wasn't actually aware at the time, I had no clear understanding of what they were doing with me, they just told me that they could take me somewhere safe.

When I arrived here I was happy, at least for the language, because I have always been interested in the English language. You have to adjust yourself with a new society, which is a bit difficult, one's used to living in certain ways and it's a bit difficult to change yourself, especially in some physical habits or traditional things.

If you try to carry on in the same way as in your own country, it may cause you some trouble over here. I don't know if it is correct to use the term isolation, but I am a bit isolated, I don't go out at night and not going around these places where youngsters are and trouble may happen so I haven't come across anything like that. But anyway, sometimes because of your colour and other superficial differences, some young people will swear at you, yes I have come across things like that, verbally or by gesture, you know what I mean. But I don't mind, I just laugh because I am inwardly hurting for people because many people are driven, and have always been driven by the media - in whatever time - the media has never been positive over here.

To say the truth, and it is the responsibility of the government here, or any other European country, to say the truth that socially and economically they need these people. They need the new generation because the numbers of elderly people now are increasing and the numbers of young people are decreasing over here so new young people are need here, both socially and economically, they are need here for labour power.

The majority of people who have arrived recently are working, they cannot sit doing nothing. They want to work, they want to live because they have lost everything in their own country, especially the country where I lived, Kurdistan. There is nothing, nothing to do, it is only like a camp, they are living in camps. There are economic sanctions so there is no work, nothing, everything is stopped, all the factories are stopped.

The people are only receiving a little bit of food monthly, which is not enough to live on, to survive, children are dying every year and there are political problems and civil war. They leave their country to find somewhere to live safely, to find some work and to build themselves a life.

So in that way you cannot say that they are not useful for others, they can help this country, they can pay tax. So the media must explain all these things because they cause trouble for themselves.

Click to see images from Peter Latham's Sanctum exhibition of paintings and drawings of refugees and asylum seekers in Kent.