DangerousAssignments

covering the global press freedom struggle

Spring | Summer 2003 www.cpj.org

Covering the War

Kidnappings in Colombia

Committee to·Protect Cannibalizing the Press in Haiti Journalists CONTENTS

Dangerous Assignments Spring|Summer 2003

Committee to Protect Journalists FROM THE EDITOR By Susan Ellingwood Executive Director: Ann Cooper History in the making...... 2 Deputy Director: Joel Simon IN FOCUS By Amanda Watson-Boles Dangerous Assignments Cameraman Nazih Darwazeh was busy filming in the West Bank. Editor: Susan Ellingwood Minutes later, he was dead. What happened? ...... 3 Deputy Editor: Amanda Watson-Boles Designer: Virginia Anstett AS IT HAPPENED By Amanda Watson-Boles Printer: Photo Arts Limited A prescient Chinese free-lancer disappears • Bolivian journalists are

Committee to Protect Journalists attacked during riots • CPJ appeals to Rumsfeld • Serbia hamstrings Board of Directors the media after a national tragedy...... 4

Honorary Co-Chairmen: CPJ REMEMBERS Walter Cronkite Our fallen colleagues in Iraq...... 6 Terry Anderson

Chairman: David Laventhol COVERING THE 8

Franz Allina, Peter Arnett, Tom Why I’m Still Alive By Rob Collier Brokaw, Geraldine Fabrikant, Josh A San Francisco Chronicle reporter recounts his days and nights Friedman, Anne Garrels, James C. covering the war in . Goodale, Cheryl Gould, Karen Elliott House, Charlayne Hunter- Was I Manipulated? By Alex Quade Gault, Alberto Ibargüen, Gwen Ifill, Walter Isaacson, Steven L. Isenberg, An embedded CNN reporter reveals who pulled the strings behind Jane Kramer, Anthony Lewis, her camera. David Marash, Kati Marton, Michael Massing, Victor Navasky, Frank del Why I Wasn’t Embedded By Mike Kirsch Olmo, Burl Osborne, Charles A CBS correspondent explains why he chose to go it alone. Overby, Clarence Page, Erwin Potts, Dan Rather, Gene Roberts, John Seigenthaler, and Paul C. Tash HAITI IN CRISIS 16 Cannibalizing the Press By Trenton Daniel Published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 330 Seventh While Haiti’s pro-government militias, the most infamous known Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, N.Y. as the “Cannibal Army,” terrorize the local press corps, the government 10001; (212) 465-1004; [email protected]. blames the media for the violence.

Speaking Up: An Interview with Radio Haïti-Inter’s Michèle Montas Montas, widow of slain journalist Jean Léopold Dominique, talks to Dangerous Assignments about the threats journalists face in Haiti and her ongoing quest to resolve her husband’s murder case.

IN THE NEWS: A New Beginning By Phillip van Niekerk Two years after prominent investigative reporter Carlos Cardoso was murdered in Mozambique, journalists there are finally witnessing justice...... 22

DISPATCHES: Part of the Story By Andy McCord Peace may now be possible in the long-disputed territory of Kashmir, but journalists remain in danger...... 24

CORRESPONDENTS: Thinking Twice By Michael Easterbrook For the first time in recent history, Colombian rebels targeted foreign On the cover: A U.S. Marine stands with photographers while they work correspondents in a kidnapping. How did that crisis affect their during a sandstorm in the Kuwaiti coverage of the civil conflict there? ...... 26 desert south of Iraq on February 3. Photo: AP/Laura Rauch KICKER By Constantin Ciosu ...... 28

Dangerous Assignments 1 FROM THE EDITOR

History in the Making

n the six months since the last issue of Dangerous Assignments, much has happened here at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Before the Iraq War, and during the war itself, we I fought for the right of journalists to cover the conflict as freely and safely as possible. As most readers now know, it was a bleak period for journalists—14 lost their lives bringing us news from the front, and two more remained missing at press time. At CPJ, we feel the loss acutely. They were our colleagues and our friends, and we dedicate this issue of Dangerous Assignments to them. The coverage of this war was unprecedented, and to give you a flavor of that, in this issue we hear from Rob Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle, who was based in Baghdad; CNN’s Alex Quade, who was embedded with the U.S. Air Force; and CBS’s Mike Kirsch, who reported from the region independently. And while the world’s attention was focused on Iraq, attacks against jour- nalists were carried out across the globe. The December 2002 murder attempt against Michèle Montas, widow of slain Haitian radio correspondent Jean Léopold Dominique, was a reminder of how dangerous that island nation remains for the media. We talk to Montas and look at the toll that pro-government militias have taken on Haiti’s press corps. In Colombia, the kidnappings of a Los Angeles Times reporter and photographer sent shock waves through the foreign press com- munity there. And in Kashmir, the hope of a resolution to a long-running battle over the territory has put journalists in an even more precarious situation. One bright spot is Mozambique, where six men were tried and convicted in January of killing investigative reporter Carlos Cardoso. They were each sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and while some questions remain about the mastermind behind the November 2000 murder, the verdict was a landmark in the country, setting an example for the region and, hopefully, for the world. Ⅲ —Susan Ellingwood AP/Daniel Morel

Haiti in Crisis, page 16 AP/Dusan Vranic Scott Dalton

Covering the Iraq War, page 8 Thinking Twice in Colombia, page 26

2 Spring | Summer 2003 IN FOCUS

West Bank

n April 19, Associated Press Television News cameraman ONazih Darwazeh (on the left in the top photo with his colleagues) was covering clashes in the West Bank between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators who were throwing rocks and Molotov cock- tails at the troops. Some were also firing guns, according to press reports. Darwazeh was filming an Israeli tank stranded in a nearby alleyway when a group of Palestinian youth began running down the alley away from the tank. According to two camera- men who were with Darwazeh, an Israeli soldier took a position near the tank and fired a single shot at the Ishtayeh AP/Jaffar journalists from a distance of about 11 to 22 yards (10 to 20 meters). The shot shattered Darwazeh’s camera, entering his head above the eye. He was killed instantly, and his body was evacuated shortly after by med- ical workers (pictured surrounding Darwazeh in the bottom photo). Darwazeh and his colleagues, who were clearly identified as jour- nalists, yelled in both English and Hebrew before the shooting that they were members of the media. A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defended the troops, saying that the stranded tank was under attack. Despite eyewitness accounts and video footage, the IDF says it is unclear who fired the shot that killed Darwazeh. Ⅲ —Amanda Watson-Boles AP/Jaffar Ishtayeh AP/Jaffar

Dangerous Assignments 3 AS IT HAPPENED

A look at recent red-letter cases from the CPJ files…

November 23 Grigory Pasko (below), a Russian 10 CPJ board member Terry Anderson military journalist who was convicted urges Tunisian authorities to free 7 Free-lancer Liu Di (below, left) dis- of treason and imprisoned in 2001, Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, appears after expressing fears of is granted parole and freed. jailed since June 2002, and editor being arrested for posting articles Hamadi Jebali (below), imprisoned online criticizing the Chinese gov- since 1991. ernment. Officials say she is under investigation but have not revealed her whereabouts. Boxun.com CPJ/Elisabeth Witchel AP/ITAR-TASS Reuters/Mohamed Hammi

26 Nigerian Islamic authorities issue February 12-13 Bolivians angered by a new a fatwa urging Muslims to kill jour- income tax (below) fill the streets of the capital, La Paz, in protest, leading nalist Isioma Daniel (above, right), 5 CPJ delivers a petition with more to two days of rioting that kill 25 and who had written that the Prophet than 600 names calling for the injure more than 100, including four Mohammed probably would have release of imprisoned journalist journalists. chosen a wife from among the Fesshaye “Joshua” Yohannes (below), women competing at the Miss World a recipient of CPJ’s 2002 International pageant. Press Freedom Award, to the Eritrean ambassador in Washington, D.C. December

9 The Liberian government releases journalist Hassan Bility after holding him incommunicado since June 2002 for reporting on a rebel group.

January

21 Pakistani journalist Fazal Wahab

is killed, becoming the first journal- CPJ ist murdered in 2003 for his work. He had published several articles criticizing local religious leaders and Islamic militants and had received AP/Aizar Raldes regular threats as a result.

4 Spring | Summer 2003 16 Russian Interior Ministry forces 6 CPJ sends a letter to U.S. defense 18 Gunmen in Colombia shoot and (below) in the southern republic of secretary Donald Rumsfeld (below) kill Radio Meridiano-70 host Luis Chechnya, beat, kick, and briefly urging the U.S. military to respect Eduardo Alfonso Parada less than a detain 40-year-old Chechen journal- journalists’ rights and safety during year after the station’s owner, Efraín ist Zamid Ayubov, who was writing a the war in Iraq. Varela Noriega, was killed in June story about the soldiers. 2002.

20 The corpse of Romanian journal- ist Iosif Costinas, who was working on a book about organized crime when he disappeared in June 2002, is discovered in a forest in western .

26 Togo bars the entire foreign press corps from working in the Reuters/Mannie Garcia country, reportedly because Presi- 11 After spending four months in jail dent Gnassingbé Eyadema (below) on criminal libel charges, prominent was offended that foreign reporters Sierra Leonean journalist Paul Kamara declined to cover a government- is freed. sponsored seminar on elections in Africa. In May, CPJ named Togo one 12 Serbian prime minister Zoran of the World’s Worst Places to be a Djindjic is assassinated. In response, Journalist. AP/Musa Sadulayev the government imposes worrisome media restrictions that remained in March effect until April 22.

18 With world attention focused on 1 A bomb destroys the car (below) of the war in Iraq, Cuban authorities Nino Pavic, an influential independ- (below) launch a vicious crackdown ent newspaper publisher in Croatia. on the independent press, jailing 28 Some of his journalists had recently journalists, who were later given received threats for a series of arti- prison sentences ranging from 14 to cles on mafia groups. 27 years. Reuters/Eric Gaillard

April

21 Attackers set fire to the car of Vietnamese journalist Hoang Thien Nga, who had received threatening phone calls only days before for writ- ing exposés on Dai Hung, a lawyer

Jutarnji Iist with alleged ties to both the criminal underworld and high-ranking gov- ernment officials. Ⅲ —Amanda Watson-Boles AP/José Goitia

Dangerous Assignments 5 CPJ REMEMBERS

The Following Journalists Died Covering the Iraq War

Paul Moran, Free-lancer Kaveh Golestan, Free-lancer David Bloom, NBC News March 22, 2003 April 2, 2003 April 6, 2003

Moran, 39, a free- Bloom, 39, a cor- lance cameraman on respondent with assignment for the the U.S. television Australian Broadcast- network NBC, died ing Corporation, was of a pulmonary killed in an apparent embolism. He had suicide bombing when been covering the a man detonated a car war as an embed- at a checkpoint in ded journalist with northeastern Iraq. the U.S. Army’s 3rd AP/News Ltd.

AP/NBC News Infantry Division.

Terry Lloyd, ITV News AP/Hasan Sarbakhshian March 22 or 23 Christian Liebig, Focus Golestan, 52, an Iranian free-lance cam- April 7, 2003 eraman on assignment for the BBC, was Lloyd, 50, a veteran killed in northern Iraq after stepping on a correspondent with Liebig, 35, a reporter land mine when he exited his car near the Britain’s ITV News, for the German weekly town of Kifri. disappeared after magazine Focus, died coming under fire in an Iraqi missile while driving to the attack while embed- , The Atlantic Monthly and southern Iraqi city ded with the U.S. The Washington Post of on March Army’s 3rd Infantry April 3, 2003

AP/David Jones 22, 2003. The fol- Division south of lowing day, the Focus Baghdad. Kelly, 46, editor-at- British television network ITN, which pro-

large of the Boston- Reuters/ duces ITV News, confirmed his death. based Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with Julio Anguita Parrado, El Mundo the daily Washington Gaby Rado, News April 7, 2003 Post, was killed while March 29 or 30 traveling with the U.S. Parrado, 32, a corre- Army’s 3rd Infantry spondent for the Rado, 48, a correspon- Division just south Atlantic Monthly Spanish daily El dent with Britain’s of the Baghdad air- AP/ Mundo, died in an Channel 4 News, was port. The driver of Iraqi missile attack found dead outside the humvee that Kelly was traveling in ran while embedded with his hotel in northern off the road while trying to evade Iraqi the U.S. Army’s 3rd Iraq on March 30, gunfire. The driver, Staff Sgt. Wilbert Infantry Division 2003. Some specu- Davis, was also killed. south of Baghdad. lated that he acci- AP/Javi Martinez dentally fell off the Parrado, who died

AP/Channel 4 News roof of the hotel. with Focus magazine’s Christian Liebig, Britain’s ITN, which was the second El Mundo correspondent produces Channel 4 News, said there killed in conflict in almost two years. “appears to be no direct connection with any military action.”

6 Spring | Summer 2003 , Al-Jazeera , Reuters Veronica Cabrera, America TV April 8, 2003 April 8, 2003 April 15, 2003

Ayyoub, 35, a - Cabrera, 28, a cam- ian journalist with the erawoman with Qatar-based satellite Argentina’s America network Al-Jazeera, TV, died in a Bagh- was killed when a U.S. dad hospital from missile struck the sta- injuries she sus- tion’s Baghdad head- tained in an April 14

AP/via Al-Jazeera quarters. The station’s car accident on the editor-in-chief, Ibrahim highway between

Hilal, said that the U.S. military knew the America TV Amman, Jordan, and office’s location, and that witnesses saw the Iraqi capital. the plane fly over the building twice Eduardo Cura, America TV’s news director, before the attack began. said that a tire explosion in the car in which AP/Pawel Kopczynski, Reuters Cabrera was traveling caused the accident, Protsyuk, 35, a Reuters cameraman from which also killed Mario Podestá. , died after a U.S. tank fired a shell José Couso, Telecinco at Baghdad’s , where most April 8, 2003 journalists in the city were based. The Elizabeth Neuffer, The Boston Globe shell, which also killed José Couso, hit the May 9, 2003 hotel balcony where several journalists were monitoring a battle occurring by the Tigris River, which is near the hotel.

Mario Podestá, Free-lancer April 14, 2003

Podestá, 52, a veter- an free-lance Argen- tine war correspon- AP/ EFE, Telecinco dent on assignment

Couso, 37, a cameraman for the Spanish The Boston Globe for the Argentine television station Telecinco, died after a AP/ television station U.S. tank fired a shell at Baghdad’s Pales- America TV, was Neuffer, 46, a veteran foreign correspon- tine Hotel, where most journalists in the killed in a car acci- dent for The Boston Globe, was killed in a city were based. He was hit in his jaw and dent on the highway car accident “when the car in which she right leg and died in a hospital while America TV between Amman, was a passenger apparently struck a undergoing surgery. Jordan, and Bagh- guardrail near the town of Samarra, about dad. Eduardo Cura, the station’s news halfway between Tikrit and Baghdad,” The director, said that a tire explosion in the Globe reported. Her translator, Waleed car in which Podestá was traveling caused Khalifa Hassan Al-Dulami, also died. the accident.

Dangerous Assignments 7

AP/Steven Senne

Above: A March 27 news conference at the Coalition Media Center in Doha, Qatar Opposite: A pre-war issue of Iraq Daily, an Iraqi English-language paper

Covering the Iraq War

In terms of sheer numbers, the war in Iraq was perhaps the best-covered conflict in history. Six hundred journalists were embedded with coalition forces; several hundred independent, or “unilateral,” reporters roamed Iraq and surrounding countries; and about 150 journalists stayed in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, to tell the story of the bombing campaign and the last days of ’s regime. Dangerous Assignments asked three jour- nalists—one in Baghdad, one embedded, and one independent—to bring us face to face with their vastly differing experiences covering this war. AP/Brennan Linsley AP/Brennan

Dangerous Assignments 9 The regime imprisoned and expelled several reporters who did not have journalist visas and harassed several others. Our move- ments were restricted, and generally we were allowed to work only in bus

caravans organized by the Informa- Journalists take tion Ministry. And although news- cover as they come paper writers were not censored, TV under fire from Iraqi troops in reporters had to show the Informa- northern Iraq on

AP/Peter Dejong tion Ministry’s “minders” their April 4. footage before transmitting it, pre- sumably to prevent the exchange of Why I’m Still Alive militarily useful information. But— except during the heaviest missile By Robert Collier attacks, when fireballs were erupting only a few hundred meters away—we were never prohibited from leaving Robert Collier is aiting in Baghdad’s Pales- the hotel, and many of us could a reporter for the tine Hotel for American move through significant portions of San Francisco Wmissiles and bombs to the city. Chronicle who come raining down on the city was When it came to covering the civil- covers international an act of extreme faith in American ian casualties of the war, there was news. military technology. Aim accurately, nothing improper or unprofessional please. about our work—the bloodshed was But the foreign journalists who real, sickening, and all too frequent. were hunkered down in Baghdad dur- Although it was rarely possible to ing the war were also gambling that completely discount U.S. claims that the Iraqi government would play by the explosions that killed and maimed the book and refrain from kidnap- innocent Baghdad residents were ping or killing us during the regime’s final days. Would the Iraqi government, Saddam’s regime imprisoned and which kidnapped dozens of journal- ists in the 1991 war and held them expelled several journalists who temporarily during and after the war, didn’t have proper visas. repeat the same tactic? We believed that the regime would not, mainly because it was caused by Iraqi anti-aircraft fire or hoping that international coverage of had been set off deliberately to draw civilian suffering would help spur world sympathy, the circumstantial the anti-war movement in the United evidence pointed overwhelmingly States and Europe. That gamble toward U.S. culpability. turned out to be more or less correct. The 150 to 250 foreign journalists in Baghdad during the war were allowed to work and report until the very end.

10 Spring | Summer 2003 COVERING THE IRAQ WAR

But if this was propaganda war- fare and we were being tasked as foot soldiers, it was surprising that the Iraqi Information Ministry turned out to be so incompetent. Information Minister Mohammed Al-Sayyaf will go which we had to interview victims’ down in history as one of the worst relatives immediately after blasts, spokesmen of any country during we felt no danger. wartime. His constant claims of dra- I’ll never forget covering the after- matic Iraqi victories over American math of one particularly gruesome troops became more and more laugh- explosion on March 29 in an outdoor able with each passing day. And his market in a poor Shiite area of west- head-in-the-sand refusal to allow ern Baghdad. After dark, several other reporters to deviate from daily group journalists and I followed the crowds schedules—even for such “positive” of mourners to the neighborhood’s stories as examining dud U.S. mis- mosque. Chaos reigned, with wailing siles that fell over the city—was a and jostling people hovering over bad PR strategy by any standard. coffins laid out on the floor. Despite

A television Perhaps the biggest shock for such extreme grief and anger, the correspondent many reporters, myself included, mourners spoke to me calmly and reports outside was that we encountered almost no politely, even though my American Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel personal hostility on the streets from nationality was displayed clearly on on April 16. average Iraqis. Even in situations in the government press card hung around my neck. They denounced President Bush lividly, but they treat- ed me as an honored guest. This is not the way it is supposed to be, I kept telling myself, with a mix- AP/Hussein Malla ture of embarrassment and relief. Ⅲ

Was I Manipulated?

By Alex Quade

y CNN team was embedded Alex Quade is with the U.S. Air Force dur- a field producer/ Ming the war in Iraq. We lived reporter with CNN with and covered the airmen at a based in Europe. base “near the Iraqi border.” Under She has covered Air Force and host-nation restric- conflicts in , tions, we were not allowed to reveal Macedonia, , the base’s name and location or to Afghanistan, show host-nation aircraft or person- and Iraq. nel. Now that we are no longer embedded, we can disclose that we were at Kuwait’s Al-Jaber Air Base. Air Force public affairs officers supervised our crew 24 hours a day,

Dangerous Assignments 11 until week two of the war, when they grew tired of monitoring our round- the-clock live shots from the flight line. Early in the war, they had looked through our videocamera’s viewfinder regularly to ensure we were not taping Kuwaiti aircraft, buildings, or personnel. Although some television crews embedded with ground forces used AP/Hussein Malla “lipstick,” or small remote, cameras, we were never allowed to use them in On April 10, a plane’s cockpit, even though U.S. journalists wait to travel into Defense Department embedding Iraq at Jordan’s guidelines “highly encouraged” their services had much better access than al-Karama use. The Air Force took days, even we had. Certainly, coverage of air- border crossing. weeks, to grant permission for our crews could have been as compelling crew to go along on sorties, but some as that of the ground forces. For us, permissions never came through. We however, it was clear that the Air sought to accompany the airmen Force was going through a teething being dropped into just liberated process with the embed system. In Iraqi airstrips, and while we managed theory, embedded journalists should to get on a few missions, often by the live and work among the troops, as Three embedded journalists wait time permission was approved, the part of the unit, and accompany them for the all-clear story was no longer news. on missions. But the Air Force is more signal during It’s hard to say whether our expe- accustomed to media who visit bases a March 24 Scud missile attack rience was typical. We heard that on organized, one-day tours. on Kuwait. journalists embedded with the other The public affairs officers were interested in getting out a message of clean and clinical statistics: the daily number of sorties, precision- guided munitions used, and leaflets dropped. Doing in-depth coverage was not their priority for us. While we felt “managed,” we were also given unbelievable access. We did live shots from the tarmac and interviewed pilots as they climbed into the cockpit to go on bombing missions and when they returned. For the first time in history, viewers

AP/Chuck Liddy heard about missions on live televi- sion before pilots debriefed with their commanders—even before the Pentagon brass knew what targets had been hit, what the pilots had encountered, and whether they had been shot at.

12 Spring | Summer 2003 COVERING THE IRAQ WAR

We tried to cover our embed assignment as objectively as we could. Our complaint: There were great stories—great television—that went untold, and, as a result, the Air Force did not benefit from the rocket-propelled grenade launchers, opportunities to record history that hunkered down in trenches on both the embed system could have pro- sides of the road defending the vided. Our coverage was good, but it entrance to the city. It was too late to could have been much better. stop or turn around. My heart sank. I As embedded journalists, were thought about my wife, Almira, back we manipulated by the military? I home in Miami, six months pregnant can only speak for my crew embed- with our first child, a girl we’d call ded with the Air Force: Manipulated Emma. Almira had asked me several is too strong a word. Managed, mon- times to cover the war from Kuwait itored, supervised, baby-sat, and City and not risk going into Iraq. needlessly restricted? Perhaps. But Being shot, killed, and dumped manipulated? No. Ⅲ on the side of the road would now be my grotesque punishment. Filled with overwhelming guilt for driving us into an ambush, I glanced at Rudy Why I Wasn’t Embedded sitting next to me in the passenger seat, who only days earlier had By Mike Kirsch received a happy phone call from his oldest daughter informing him he was going to be a grandfather for the Mike Kirsch e came face to face with first time. The cloud of a bomb dropped on is a correspondent heavily armed Iraqi soldiers In the frozen terror of the April 3 by coalition with WFOR/CBS 4 Walongside the road. My ini- moment, neither Rudy nor I had the forces in northern TV in Miami. He tial thought was, “We’re dead.” professional wherewithal to pick up Iraq swells in front of Kurdish has also covered It was the first day of the war. one of our video cameras and start fighters (right) and Afghanistan, Cameraman Rudy Marshall and I had recording. The failure to perform journalists (left). Central America, sneaked into Iraq from Kuwait the Bosnia, and Kosovo. night before as non-embedded jour- nalists. We were speeding north in a rented four-wheel-drive vehicle, trav- eling on what British soldiers had mistakenly told us was a secured stretch of highway. The sickening reality was that we were deep inside enemy territory, heading directly into the Iraqi army stronghold of Basra in southern Iraq. That’s when I saw them up ahead, about 250 mustached and bearded Iraqi soldiers in dark green uniforms. They were gripping assault rifles and AP/Peter Dejong

Dangerous Assignments 13 stop, but I just kept driving. Any hes- itation or sign of panic would have been like dumping a bucket of bloody chum into a frenzy of sharks. under stress undoubtedly saved our We made it through. Rudy asked, lives. In addition, the fact that we “What do we do now?” We had two were in a lone, civilian vehicle, as options. We could drive into Basra opposed to a convoy of U.S. or and be captured for sure, or we could British military vehicles, definitely drive back through the same gaunt- lowered our threat level in the sol- let of Iraqi soldiers and try to hightail diers’ eyes and bought us some it back to the nearest British forces. time. It was also helpful that we had “We have to go back,” I said. Rudy removed our Kuwaiti license plates remained silent. It was a suicide mis- before crossing into Iraq. But surely, sion either way. I worried, the Iraqis would notice When I was sure we were far the U.S. Marine–style, sand-colored enough past the Iraqi soldiers that combat helmets and flak jackets we they could not see us turn around, I were wearing, not to mention the hung a slow U-turn, telling Rudy to strips of tape we had stuck all over keep his head down. As we approached their positions, I noticed one soldier running to a pickup truck that had an anti-aircraft gun mount- ed in the bed. I floored it, accelerat- ing to more than 100 miles per hour. Soldiers were running and jumping into their trenches. Then I heard the first snapping cracks of machine gun fire over the top of our vehicle. The car began to wobble under such high speed, and I fought to keep it under control, my head rest- ing just above the steering wheel. Then I saw the tracers flying over the top of our vehicle. These illuminated bullets, I knew from previous experi- ence in war zones, were blasting at

AP/Dusan Vranic us from that anti-aircraft gun in the pickup. I thought about the six full A U.S. Marine the vehicle in the V-shape that sym- cans of gasoline racked on the rear of searches a bolized “friendly” and was standard the car. I closed my eyes, hoping the journalist at a security check- on all coalition vehicles. rounds would not strike the gas. I point outside Rudy and I just stared forward, imagined us blowing up and rolling, the Palestine avoiding eye contact. My eyes darted end over end, to our deaths. Hotel in Baghdad on April 16. left and right for quick glimpses of And then it was over. We had their reactions. Soldiers tugged on made it through again. My heart was

one another’s shirt sleeves, pointing racing. I couldn’t believe it. “We The Baltimore Sun at us. Some of them raised their made it?” Rudy asked, looking hands indicating that we should around wildly. “We made it,” I said, shaking my head, still unable to

swallow. This was only the first of AP/Elizabeth Malby, many near death experiences to fol-

14 Spring | Summer 2003 COVERING THE IRAQ WAR

low for Rudy and me as free-bird, non-embedded journalists covering the war in Iraq. The next day, we learned that British television journalist Terry broader scale than embedded jour- Journalists record Lloyd of the ITN network had been nalists. Terry was right, although he the delivery of aid by the Kuwait killed on the same highway less than paid the ultimate price to provide Red Crescent an hour after we were there. Terry that coverage. Society in the had told me a week before his death Indeed, Rudy and I were lucky to southern Iraqi city of Safwan on that as non-embeds, we would be in survive as non-embeds, but what a March 26. positions to cover the war on a much journey we had, entering Iraq from Kuwait the night before the war, moving north to witness the battles for Umm Qasr and Basra, as well as the fall of Nasariyah and Baghdad. Many embedded colleagues I talked to after the fighting marveled at how much we, as non-embeds, saw and reported. Before the war,

Any hesitation would have been like dumping a bucket of bloody chum into a frenzy of sharks.

many of them had teased us, smirk- ing that we would be the empty- handed bastard children among jour- nalists. But now they wished they had had the same freedom we had to buzz around from one British or American military unit to the next, or to stop at our leisure to interview Iraqi civilians in liberated villages along the way. Many of these embeds felt nailed down to one unit and, as a result, felt that their reporting was limited. In the end, embeds had more protection than non-embeds. But non-embeds, at least this one, had more fun—and a much richer tour of the war in Iraq. I’d do it the same way again. Ⅲ

Dangerous Assignments 15 HAITI IN CRISIS

Cannibalizing the Press

For Haiti’s infamous pro-government militias, no news is good news.

By Trenton Daniel

sdras Mondelus, the 31-year-old men—mob the streets to foment November, the perpetrators have set- director and owner of a provin- fear and unrest against real and tled for the next best thing: Mon- Ecial radio station in impover- perceived political adversaries alike. delus, three of his reporters, and ished Haiti, is anxious to pay off the They often erect flaming tire barri- three radio correspondents haven’t loan he used to buy a US$4,500 gen- cades and hurl stones at motorists picked up their tape recorders since erator for his office. But no loan, no and pedestrians. the fire. Instead, all but one have fled matter its size, can buy this journalist It is not uncommon for journal- the country—only Mondelus remains what he wants most—a little peace ists working at privately owned radio there today. and security. On the evening of stations to find themselves in harm’s For these popular organizations, November 25, 2002, Mondelus lost way, often accused of “working for no news, quite literally, is good news. his electrical unit, a backup, and the opposition” or of serving “foreign other equipment when a group of interests.” And by the spring of 2003, n 1986, Haiti overcame 29 years unidentified assailants set fire to part the violence against the media con- Iof a dictatorial dynasty when a of his station, Radio Etincelle, or tinued unabated, with little hope of grassroots movement helped topple Radio Spark. stopping. the corrupt and violent regime of And what brought on the attack? Although the attackers did not François “Papa Doc” Duvalier and Mondelus says that after his news burn Radio Etincelle to ashes last his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc.” A outlet broadcast coverage of large- scale opposition demonstrations, the notorious and feared Popular Organi- zation for the Development of Raboteau, a pro-government group otherwise known as the “Cannibal Army,” violently targeted the station. The Cannibal Army is not the only such group in Haiti, a small Caribbean nation of 8.3 million people. With cryptic yet memorable names like Clean Sweep, Dominican Wasp, the People’s Power Youth Organiza- tion, and Little Church Community, these militia forces—also called “popular organizations” and mostly comprised of young, unemployed

Trenton Daniel, a former Haiti- AP/Daniel Morel

based journalist, writes for The Haitian journalist Rony Mathieu (center), of Magik Stereo Radio, after being attacked Miami Herald. by pro-government supporters in January

16 Spring | Summer 2003 leader of that movement, Jean- Bertrand Aristide, was elected pres- Speaking Up ident in 1990, only to be ousted seven months later by a military junta. In 1994, a U.S.-led invasion restored Aristide, and Washington celebrated the move as a foreign- Michèle Montas, news director of Radio Haïti-Inter and widow of Haitian policy success. But today, with Aristide journalist Jean Léopold Dominique, who was assassinated in the spring of president again, Haiti is a largely dis- 2000 by unknown assailants, has been repeatedly targeted for pursuing her appointing democratic experiment: husband’s killers and for her station’s independent news coverage. In Decem- Political assassinations are com- ber 2002, armed gunmen attacked Montas’ home, killing a bodyguard in mon, corruption is rife, and the what she says was an attempt on her life. The threats continued, and she economy continues to plunge. And was forced to close her station in February. Radio Haïti-Inter remained off the media, while more open than the air at press time. under Duvalier rule, face a menac- ing climate. In March 2003, Montas talked with Dangerous Assignments’ deputy editor, Anonymous telephone calls Amanda Watson-Boles, about the risks that journalists in Haiti face from pro- telling talk-show hosts and their government militias known as “popular organizations,” and why she contin- opposition politician guests to watch ues to fight to bring her husband’s murderers to justice. what they say are common, and some journalists are kidnapped, Amanda Watson-Boles: Tell me about the role that popular organizations either to threaten them or extort currently play in threatening journalists and press freedom in Haiti. money. One radio announcer was abducted by a group of masked Michèle Montas: Well, I think their role has become more important assailants last July. (He was later recently, particularly because of the atmosphere of impunity in Haiti. The found tied and blindfolded, but impunity in Jean’s case, he being the most well-known journalist in Haiti, alive, on the side of a road.) has emboldened those groups to threaten journalists and to make journal- Roosevelt Benjamin, news direc- ists targets. tor for the privately owned radio sta- And I would say not only journalists. Any group that is vocal. There tion Signal FM, believes that most threats against the media can be have been some human rights advocates who have been threatened and are traced to the popular groups. “They now in danger—people who have been vocal in defending and speaking out always threaten us because of the against the way the members of those popular organizations are acting. news that we broadcast, news that is I think the fact that we have had more and more attacks on human unfavorable to the government,” he rights activists, on the press, and on students by those groups is essen- says. “Everyday here in the country, tially related to the impunity situation. Impunity is the crux of the matter. journalists are facing threats from the popular organizations.” AWB: The government has accused the Haitian media of being biased and In addition to risks from these of publishing slanderous coverage. Do you think Haitian journalists are groups, journalists face violence at balanced in their reporting? all levels of society. Since 2000, two MM: I don’t think you can generalize on this. A number of journalists are radio broadcasters have been killed credible journalists doing their jobs, trying to be objective. However, a for their work. One of them, Jean number of other journalists have taken sides. They have been for the Léopold Dominique, wielded a wide reach across the country with his opposition, or they have at times not worked on the side of truth and caustic editorials, which spared vir- objectivity. However, being a journalist who has opted for the opposition tually no one. On April 3, 2000, does not make you a legitimate target. I think it is mind-boggling that the when Dominique was about to enter his station, Radio Haïti-Inter, just before his morning broadcast, the

Dangerous Assignments 17 government has said so candidly that journalist Brignolle Lindor [who was hacked to death by machete-wielding members of a popular organization in December 2001] was not killed as a journalist but as a member of the opposition. It is as if they are saying, “It’s OK to kill him because he’s a member of the opposition.” But they couldn’t say this about Jean Dominique, because Radio Haïti has been a credible voice for 30 years now. And you cannot say that Radio Haïti has taken sides against the government. We have at times criticized the government, but simply by doing our job as reporters. Can you say that Radio Haïti is doing something else besides practicing journal- ism? You cannot say so.

AWB: Do you think the govern- ment has a tendency to charac- terize criticism as slander?

MM: Yes. However, I have to say that slander does exist and is used quite a bit. Libel is some- thing that too many Haitian jour- nalists are not careful about.

AWB: And that probably causes problems for journalists who are careful.

MM: Exactly. Because it sup- ports the government’s argu- ments when they say that jour- nalists are actively playing the AP/Daniel Morel role of the opposition. Some Michèle Montas at her Radio Haïti-Inter office in Port-au-Prince in April 2002. Montas was journalists are opposition. They forced to close her station in February 2003 after numerous threats. A framed photo of her murdered husband is in the background. are being used by opposition groups against the government. But in the case of Radio Haïti, I think it’s very difficult for them to come to that conclusion.

AWB: How did the attempt on your life in December 2002 and the death of one of your bodyguards affect your resolve to continue independent reporting in Haiti and to continue seeking justice in your husband’s case?

MM: It has forced me to think a little more carefully about the dangers incurred by my own journalists. What happened in December proved to me

18 Spring | Summer 2003 HAITI IN CRISIS

that they would stop at nothing. The people who were instrumental in my 69-year-old journalist was shot and husband’s assassination are ready to strike again. They will not stop until killed, along with a security guard, they actually silence Radio Haïti, and it has forced me to make the decision by an unidentified assassin. to temporarily stop broadcasting. But it didn’t change my resolve. I am still In March 2003, the government determined to get justice in my husband’s case, because I happen to think prosecutor issued an indictment charging six largely unknown men there can be no freedom of expression in Haiti if that case is not solved. for the murder. The long-overdue AWB: President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has visited you to assure you of legal action, however, drew criti- his commitment to bringing your husband’s murderers to justice. Based cism from advocacy groups and on your conversations with him, how confident are you in his ability to Dominique’s widow because it failed resolve the case and create a safer climate for journalists in Haiti? to name the murder’s masterminds— reinforcing an already ingrained tra- MM: I’m not that confident. However, I hope he is fully aware of the impor- dition of impunity in the country. tance of Jean Dominique’s case. He has to make choices, and all those (See interview on page 17.) choices determine whether he will be able to stay in power. It’s that impor- Although it is unlikely that pop- tant. For the first time in many months, the Organization of American ular organizations were involved in States has penned its commitment to resolving the political situation in Dominique’s death, they certainly Haiti, the security conditions, and to solving two major civil cases: Jean threatened him before his murder. Dominique and Brignolle Lindor, the two journalists who have been killed In October 1999, a group support- ing Dany Toussaint—a powerful in Haiti in the last three years. senator from the ruling Fanmi Lavalas party who has been linked to Dominique’s killing—demon- Can you say that Radio Haïti is doing strated in front of Radio Haïti-Inter something else besides practicing journalism? to protest one of the journalist’s many scathing editorials. You cannot say so. The organizations, which are widely reported to receive financial support from the Aristide adminis- tration, are not as visibly ruthless as AWB: You’ve said that in the wake of your husband’s death, media owners the Tonton Macoutes, the private and journalists of all stripes came together to condemn the murder and militia of “Papa Doc,” which openly seek justice in the case. Do you think that the same unity has endured terrorized the population and muz- recently as attacks on the press have intensified? zled the press during his family’s rule from 1957 to 1986. In fact, when MM: Yes. Definitely. Media owners have been together on this. Journalists the popular organizations emerged have been together on this. I think they all realize that it’s a question of sur- in the mid-1980s, the groups aimed vival. In the case of Radio Haïti, we have lost lives, but in their cases it can to quash Duvalier rule, serving as happen too. I think they are all aware that we have to stick together on this. advocates for community needs Jean was not just a journalist. He was a symbol of what the struggle for under the family’s harsh regime. But democracy is all about in Haiti. Jean was a product of 30 years of fighting they have evolved into something dictatorships and military regimes, and of fighting for press freedom. More more sinister, journalists say. than freedom of the press, Jean represented all the democratic ideals. So “After the coup in 1991, they what was struck was a symbol. And as long as impunity on that symbol [were] … fighting for democracy and remains, I think it’s not just a question of Haiti, it’s a question of free the return of Aristide,” says Marvel speech everywhere. Ⅲ Dandin, news director of the private Radio Kiskeya, which is based in the capital, Port-au-Prince. But after Aris- tide returned to power, they morphed into groups that aggressively pressure

Dangerous Assignments 19 the president’s opponents. Now, torching it. Désir later retracted his machete-wielding members of a Dandin contends, “They are instru- threats, saying his earlier remarks group known as “Asleep in the ments, the tools of power of the gov- had been misinterpreted. Woods” (because its members are ernment that help repression. … They But some popular organizations’ said to hide in the forest), hacked to are like a militia now.” actions are not open to misinter- death Brignolle Lindor, news director pretation. On December 3, 2001, of Radio Echo 2000, while he was en uyler Delva, secretary-general Gof the Association of Haitian Journalists and a newspaper reporter, has documented 61 cases since 2000—the majority of them in 2002—in which media workers were harassed or threatened. Seventeen of them were roughed up by police, three by opposition supporters, two by students, and five by unknown assailants. Members of ruling party– affiliated populist groups and gov- ernment authorities, such as mayors, harassed 34 journalists, Delva says. According to Delva, even though no journalists have been murdered for their work since 2001, overall the situation has become more dan- gerous because of an increasingly unstable political climate. The report also lists the names of 22 journalists who went into exile shortly after December 17, 2001, when about two dozen unidentified gunmen stormed the National Palace in an apparent coup attempt. The incident prompted pro-govern- ment militias to burn down opposi- tion-party offices and accost jour- nalists working for private radio stations. “It’s been aggravated. It’s worse,” says Delva, who filed a complaint last year against the leader of the People’s Power Youth Organization, René Civil, after the politician made violent threats against Delva at a nationally broadcast news confer- ence. Equally menacing, Figaro Désir, of the Clean Sweep group, called Delva “a traitor serving the white for- eigner” and threatened to have him AP/Daniel Morel

“necklaced,” or killed by placing a Haitian demonstrators protest in February 2003 to demand justice in the case of flaming tire around his neck and murdered journalist Jean Léopold Dominique.

20 Spring | Summer 2003 HAITI IN CRISIS

route to one of his other jobs as a customs official near Petit-Goâve, a provincial town west of Port-au- Prince. Lindor’s name had reportedly appeared on a ruling-party list of opposition supporters who should be specifically targeted by a zero- tolerance crime policy that Aristide had launched earlier in the year implying that police can summarily punish common criminals caught “red-handed.” A government official responded by saying that Lindor was killed not because he was a journal- ist, but because he was an opposition partisan, which, many observers say, insinuated that such violence is acceptable. AP/Daniel Morel In some cases, popular organiza- These journalists were forced into hiding after being threatened by the Cannibal Army. tions have severed the news link between Port-au-Prince and provin- colleagues for the attack on the out- As attacks against the press inten- cial towns, almost creating an infor- let, saying that their “unprofessional” sify in Haiti, the government contin- mation vacuum. For example, in work creates the impression that ues to insist that journalists should November 2002 in Gonaïves—where they are taking sides in a politically take the blame. “As soon as [members Haiti proclaimed its independence in charged climate. Government spokes- of the opposition] use violent words 1804 as the world’s first black repub- man Luc Especa contends that some to provoke the government,” Especa lic and also home to the unrest that journalists can’t report objectively or argues, “you understand how things ended Duvalier rule in 1986—seven impartially. “They need to learn turn violent. It’s not that [popular journalists went into hiding after something about ethics,” he says. organizations] are prone to violence receiving menacing telephone calls “They need to learn how to deal with or attacking the other side.” and verbal threats for covering anti- the news in a polarized environment. Nonetheless, says Especa, offi- government protests. Haitians see … Journalists shouldn’t take sides.” cials are working to restore control those threats as a barometer of change in the country’s political landscape, which underscores the As attacks against the press intensify in importance of having a news opera- Haiti, the government continues to insist that tion based there. For Radio Kiskeya news director journalists are ultimately at fault. Marvel Dandin, whose correspon- dent was among those run out of Gonaïves in November, “It’s not the Jonas Petit, deputy president of over turbulent Gonaïves. However, same,” he laments. His reporter’s the ruling Fanmi Lavalas party, has the Cannibal Army’s leader, Amiot departure has forced him to rely on an even harsher opinion of Haitian “Cubain” Metayer, remains at large second-hand information from an journalists: “They lie every day,” he after escaping from prison in area resident, which isn’t always reli- insists. But he calls accusations that August 2002. None of this comforts able, he says. his party bankrolls the popular Mondelus, who wants nothing more organizations and violence against than stability in the town so he can ack at Radio Etincelle, Haitian journalists “crazy,” arguing that the work again. But, he adds, paying off Bofficials fault station owner and administration is too poor for such the loan for his generator would be director Esdras Mondelus and his expenditures. nice, too. Ⅲ

Dangerous Assignments 21 IN THE NEWS

A New Beginning

It’s taken almost three years, but Mozambique is finally starting to find justice in the murder case of a famous journalist.

By Phillip van Niekerk

wo-and-half years after reappearance was a cover-up that were sentenced to long periods in Mozambique’s best-known could only have been engineered prison for the murder. Tinvestigative reporter, Carlos with the complicity of senior govern- Just hours after the verdict was Cardoso, was gunned down, his ment authorities. The arrests of the announced, wood carvers in the ghost still lingers in this southern police officers now open an intrigu- bustling street markets of Maputo African nation. ing route to discover which impor- began hawking near perfect represen- In April 2003, seven police officers tant officials were involved. tations of the judge, the defendants, were charged with aiding in the Sep- Even more critical is the ongoing and the trial lawyers, down to varia- tember 2002 escape of Anibal dos investigation into the role of tions in skin color. And it’s no wonder Santos Jr., one of those accused of Nymphine Chissano, a son of Presi- the nation was riveted by the trial. killing Cardoso, from a maximum- dent Joaquim Chissano, whom sev- Cardoso was a highly respected security prison before the November eral defendants in the Cardoso trial pioneer in the region, a journalist 2002 trial began. Dos Santos, who was had accused of ordering the assassi- who set an example for all reporters tried in absentia, was rearrested in nation. Nymphine, who has denied by taking on the continent’s rulers and holding them accountable for their actions. The landmark verdict has allowed Mozambique, whose After Cardoso’s death, few Mozambican journalists journalists have lived for years in an were prepared to carry the baton. environment of impunity and fear, to set an example for other nations in the region—that those who assassi- nate journalists will not get away South Africa just seven hours before the allegations, was even forced to with it. (CPJ records show that in 94 the verdict, which sentenced him to appear in court to testify. percent of cases worldwide during 28 years in prison, was announced. he trial, which opened on the last 10 years, killers have not This prevented him from testify- TNovember 18, 2002, almost been arrested or prosecuted for mur- ing in open court about his knowl- exactly two years after Cardoso had dering journalists in reprisal for edge of high-level officials who may been shot dead on a street in the cap- their work.) have had a hand in Cardoso’s murder ital, Maputo, gripped the imagination Cardoso’s murder trial also and their criminal activities. Many of Mozambique’s 20 million citizens. showed that high-level government Mozambicans suspect that the con- The country came to a standstill on officials can be forced to account for venient manner of his escape and the morning of January 31, 2003, their actions—even if those officials when radio and television stations are related to the president. Phillip van Niekerk is a Washington, broadcast the verdict from the maxi- In 1975, hundreds of years of D.C.–based journalist. He represented mum-security prison of Machava on slavery and colonialism under Por- CPJ at the trial in Maputo. the outskirts of Maputo. Six killers tuguese rule gave way to Mozam-

22 Spring | Summer 2003 bique’s independence, followed by faction” inside the ruling party, FRE- ment of Nymphine Chissano. Forced Marxist one-party rule and a brutal LIMO, which he supported staunchly to testify, Nymphine came to court to rebel insurgency backed by the then until his death. But children of proclaim his innocence. One of the apartheid government in South prominent politicians, including most significant parts of Paulino’s Africa. Since 1992, the country has those of President Chissano and judgment was his finding that there been at peace, nominally following a FRELIMO leader Armando Gebuza, is enough evidence to conclude that system of multiparty democracy, but have been accused of illegal pursuits the president’s son and others may economic reforms have spawned a by the local press. have been involved in planning the new, often criminal, political and business elite—what Carlos Cardoso dedicated his life to covering. The murder trial gripped the imagination of In July 2001, a CPJ delegation vis- ited Maputo and found that Cardoso’s Mozambique’s citizens. assassination had created a climate of fear among journalists. He had been exposing bank and real estate After Cardoso’s death, few murder, and that the plot could have fraud, as well as drug trafficking. Mozambican journalists were pre- been hatched at a house of one of Cardoso was particularly exercised pared to carry the baton. According Nymphine’s close associates. by a corrupt clique within the local to his friend and longtime collabora- Judge Paulino ignored political elite that had found common cause tor Fernando Lima, Cardoso was pressure and death threats to deal a with organized crime. No top-rank- killed because he was the only true stunning blow against organized ing state officials have been tied to investigative reporter in a country crime and the culture of impunity in what Cardoso called “the gangster wracked by decades of civil war, cor- Mozambique. ruption, and organized crime. In fact, Cardoso’s murder left the he severest test of Mozambique’s Mozambican press with no leader, Tlegal system lies ahead. How will while fear continued to spread in the government handle the trials local newsrooms. involving bank fraud exposed by CPJ also found disturbing ques- Cardoso before his death, or the tions about the shoddy nature of the investigation into the role of murder investigation, as well as a Nymphine Chissano and other politi- widespread sense that the legal sys- cians in the murder? No matter the tem could never deliver justice. Eight outcome, to most Mozambicans, a months after CPJ’s inquiry, in Janu- critical moment was already reached ary 2003, Judge Augusto Paulino when the president’s son had his day answered the cynics. The ruling, in court and was called to account. which took four hours to render, was But for Mozambique’s press corps, as eagerly awaited as a state of the the trial, verdict, and arrests of the nation address. He sentenced local police officers have gone a long way businessman and loan shark Ayob toward ending the culture of impunity Abdul Satar, former banker Vincente there. Many journalists are now seiz- Ramaya, Carlitos Rachide Cassamo, ing the opportunity to continue the and Manuel Fernandes to 23 years and important work that was brutally six months each. Another suspect, scuttled when Cardoso was mur- CPJ Momade “Nini” Satar, got 24 years. dered. Now, say Cardoso’s col- Investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso was gunned down on November 20, But the most closely followed leagues, his life’s work will not have 2000. aspect of the trial was the involve- been in vain. Ⅲ

Dangerous Assignments 23 DISPATCHES

Part of the Story

For Kashmiri journalists, reporting is difficult when caught between separatists and the government. By Andy McCord

fter decades of strife, there is territory, have only heightened the ists reporting on politics, the media finally a slim chance for dangers for reporters, especially are in everyone’s way. Apeace in Kashmir, but that’s Kashmiri ones. “The most difficult period is when not necessarily a good thing for the Why? Because, say observers, the situation starts getting better,” press. In fact, it may have killed Parvaz both sides in the conflict—the Indian says Muzamil Jaleel, a Kashmiri Mus- Mohammed Sultan. government and pro-Pakistan mili- lim who has covered the region for At 5:30 p.m. on January 31, 2003, tants—have much to lose if peace 10 years. “The separatists think we two men entered Sultan’s office at breaks out. For India, resolving the have one responsibility, and the gov- the independent newswire service conflict means making concessions ernment thinks we have another.” News and Feature Alliance in Srina- it isn’t ready to make, while mili- Sultan’s colleagues say that gar, the summer capital of Jammu tants aren’t ready to give up their although they know of no specific and Kashmir State. They had a brief decades-long jihad, even if the local threats against the journalist, wire conversation with the 36-year-old Kashmiri government is poised for services such as the News and Fea- editor and then shot him in the peace negotiations. In this long-run- ture Alliance are under constant head. Sultan was rushed to the hos- ning conflict, war has become a pressure to carry statements issued pital, but doctors declared him dead business of sorts, and with journal- by competing political and militant within minutes of his arrival. Journalists working in the Kash- mir Valley, which has a large Muslim majority and is claimed by both India and Pakistan, have long been vulnerable to attacks by various par- ties to the conflict. They have been caught in cross fire and have received death threats from sepa- ratist militants backed by Pakistan, as well as from counter-militants backed by India. Recent political changes, which, paradoxically, offer some hope of a resolution to the 56- year-old custody battle over the

Andy McCord is a New York–based writer. He is currently working on a biography of Pakistani poet Faiz

Ahmed Faiz, supported by a fellow- AP/Rafiq Maqbool ship from the National Endowment A photographer runs for cover from border security soldiers during a demonstration for the Humanities. in Srinagar, India.

24 Spring | Summer 2003 groups. In the months before his in Kashmir. The elder Gilani was comes to Kashmir, and many Kash- death, Sultan’s news service had car- charged with receiving Pakistani miri journalists often feel isolated ried reports on fighting within a money and passing it on to armed from their colleagues in other parts principal militant group between militants. He remains in custody. of India. Jaleel also notes that Pak- factions that favor and those that Initial press reports lumped the istani journalists have not paid oppose dialogue with India. “When- journalist together with his father- much attention to the pressures ever a journalist is killed, it remains in-law and sought to brand Gilani as their Kashmiri counterparts endure a mystery,” says Jaleel, who is also a a spy. Fortunately, the press corps in from Pakistan-backed militants. As correspondent for the New Delhi New Delhi took up his case. “I was a for Kashmiri journalists themselves, daily Indian Express. journalist, and so my case was high- Jaleel says, “There is no journalists’ Mystery surrounds much of the lighted,” says Gilani. But that doesn’t union in Srinagar, because nobody violence in Kashmir, where esti- mean he didn’t suffer. According to wants to be known as president of mates of the dead since late 1989— Gilani, for two months guards and the union.” when mass demonstrations against fellow prisoners at Tihar Jail, an State elections last fall brought in India sparked state repression, enormous prison in the capital, beat an opposition coalition promising which in turn escalated the armed him. He says he was accused of “rap- good governance and a wide-ranging insurgency against India—range ing Mother India.” And on one occa- dialogue about the future of Jammu from 25,000 to 75,000 people. sion, a prisoner forced Gilani to and Kashmir. Ironically, though the According to CPJ research, nearly a clean a toilet with his shirt and then new political balance in Indian-held dozen journalists were killed during wear it. areas of Kashmir could ease ten- that same time period. Throughout the summer and fall, sions, the prospect of change has the Delhi Union of Journalists and journalists worried. In Sultan’s mur- he Indian government, which press freedom groups, including CPJ, der, suspicions center on pro-Pak- Thas criticized moves toward worked on Gilani’s case. His defense istan Muslim militants. In the Gilani peace in the region, has also lashed lawyers sought access to a memo case, Gilani himself speculates that out at Kashmiri journalists recently. from the army’s Department of Mili- his arrest may have occurred to pres- In India’s capital, New Dehli, Iftikhar tary Intelligence that reportedly sure his father-in-law. But whatever Gilani sits on a parched lawn near Lodi Gardens discussing his new- found freedom. Having spent seven War has become a business of sorts, and with months in prison, Gilani isn’t used journalists reporting on politics, the media are in to the sunlight. “One can’t know how important this individual freedom everyone’s way. is,” he says. In India, “a peon can be prosecuted if he tells a reporter that his boss takes two lumps of sugar in discredited the Home Ministry’s the reason, India managed to remove his tea,” adds Gilani, a well-respected assertion that Gilani’s documents Gilani, an important non-militant Kashmiri journalist for the Kashmir were matters of national security. Kashmiri, from the debate on Kash- Times and a stringer for several lib- That evidence was finally introduced mir’s future during the crucial period eral Pakistani newspapers and in court in early December 2002. A in the run-up to the elections. Deutsche Radio. On June 9, 2002, month later, the spying charges were To Gilani, Jaleel, and other Kash- income tax investigators raided his withdrawn, and the journalist was miri journalists, there is no bigger home and later charged him with released on January 13, 2003. story than the fate of their disputed violating the colonial-era Official homeland. “As Kashmiri Muslim Secrets Act. His offense? He had or journalists covering Kashmir, journalists, we are part of the society, downloaded from the Internet pub- Fpolitical institutions that may and in a way we are part of the licly available information about the one day provide protection for the story,” says Jaleel. But for the Indian army. press are extremely weak. While moment, neither pro-Pakistan mili- Gilani suspects other motives Indian press associations came to tants nor the Indian government behind his arrest, however. The Gilani’s rescue, they haven’t sup- wants such news reported freely. same day he was detained, his ported their Kashmiri colleagues in And until that changes, Kashmiri father-in-law, Syed Ali Shah Gilani, all cases. Powerful, New Delhi–based journalists will be caught in the mid- an important fundamentalist Kash- media organizations can be extremely dle of a developing—but deadly and miri Muslim politician, was arrested nationalistic, especially when it dangerous—peace. Ⅲ

Dangerous Assignments 25 CORRESPONDENTS

Thinking Twice

The kidnapping of two journalists in Colombia made some foreign correspondents nervous, but it hasn’t kept the international press from reporting on the war there. By Michael Easterbrook

s bloody as Colombia’s 40- year-old civil conflict has Abecome, foreign correspon- dents covering it have always found comfort in the fact that the violence rarely touched them. Barring the occasional brief detention at a guer- rilla roadblock, they’ve roamed freely throughout Colombia’s vast, unprotected countryside for years, reporting stories that would have surely resulted in death threats or worse had local reporters penned them. In Colombia last year, 27 jour- nalists were threatened with death, and three were killed in the line of duty. None of them were members of the foreign press.

Yet for many foreign correspon- AP/Juan Herrera dents working in Colombia, the feel- Journalists in Bogotá, Colombia, at a protest calling for the release of photgrapher ing that they were immune to the Scott Dalton and reporter Ruth Morris mayhem crumbled earlier this year when leftist rebels kidnapped two “I think all foreign correspondents report on rising violence in the area journalists in the eastern department are more careful now,” says T. Chris- and how the government’s battle of Arauca who were on assignment tian Miller, who covers Colombia and against the armed groups was affect- for the Los Angeles Times. Even other Latin American countries for ing civilians. though British reporter Ruth Morris the Los Angeles Times. “They think Early on the afternoon of January and American photographer Scott Dal- twice about where they’re going and 21, they were traveling along a rural ton were later freed unharmed, the why they’re going there.” highway to interview victims of a specter of abduction has prompted Morris and Dalton, both in their wave of bombings blamed on the some correspondents to change the mid-30s, had been living and work- leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces way they cover the conflict, which pits ing as journalists for years in Colom- of Colombia (FARC) when their taxi leftist rebels against rival paramilitary bia before traveling to Arauca, an oil- driver ran into a roadblock manned combatants and the government. rich region on the Venezuelan border by about 10 combatants from the swarming with both rebels and right- FARC and the National Liberation Michael Easterbrook is a free-lance wing paramilitary fighters. The two Army (ELN), the smaller of the coun- journalist based in Bogotá, Colombia. journalists had ventured there to try’s two main guerrilla groups. The

26 Spring | Summer 2003 rebel armies are waging separate that American journalists in particu- insurgencies against the government lar are running a much bigger risk but have recently begun fighting side with the FARC than they did last by side in Arauca to confront the year,” adds Wilson, who believes that growing government military pres- Washington’s increasingly aggressive ence in the strategic region. One of role in helping the Colombian gov- the rebels insisted on taking the ernment fight the rebels has height- journalists to see his commander. ened the risk for all Americans in the Armed with AK-47s, two rebels country. climbed into the taxi and directed Even though most correspondents the driver to a spot 30 minutes down say the abductions will not prevent the road, where a commander known them from traveling to hot zones like as “Gumfoot,” from the ELN’s Eastern Arauca, some say they will spend War Front, and another leader known more time talking to local authorities

as “Geronimo,” from the FARC’s 45th Scott Dalton to determine what the rebels are up to

Front, began a tug-of-war for the cap- A rebel from Colombia’s National Libera- before entering those areas. Other for- tives. Gumfoot prevailed, but only tion Army (ELN), who kidnapped two eign journalists say they will do every- after promising Geronimo that if the journalists from the Los Angeles Times thing they can to avoid running into ELN decided to release the captives, FARC fighters while reporting in zones it would hand them over to the FARC told Morris that after seeing how where they’re known to be active. first, says Morris. much press attention the abductions “Previously, I’d go out to FARC-con- On their first night in captivity, a garnered, the rebels were forced to trolled areas looking to interview 35-year-old female combatant from keep them longer than they had them,” says the L.A. Times’ Miller. “My the ELN promised to take good care wanted to ensure that their release policy right now is that even if I had of the journalists and said they were was handled safely. an offer to meet with a FARC leader, I lucky the FARC hadn’t taken them. However, new anxieties did surface wouldn’t do it, not until it’s clear in “They might have killed you,” the over the behavior of the FARC com- my mind what their intentions are woman told Dalton, before warning mander Geronimo. In an effort to for international journalists.” that they would be shot if they tried force the government to release jailed After visiting their families, Mor- to escape. During the following days, FARC fighters, the 16,000-strong rebel ris and Dalton returned to Colombia they changed camps frequently, mov- army is already holding hostage three and were soon back at work. In an e- ing higher and higher into the moun- American contract workers, 47 police mail message sent in March from tains. Meals consisted of a starch- officers and soldiers, and some 20 Jerusalem, where she was on a short- heavy mix of yucca, plantains, rice, corn tortillas, and, on one occasion, stew from an armadillo the rebels Local Colombian journalists are most at risk: had shot and butchered. After 11 Last year, 27 were threatened with death, and days, the journalists were released in the mountains to a Red Cross dele- three were killed because of their work. gate and flown to their homes in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. politicians, including former presi- term assignment, Morris wrote that, oncerns that the journalists’ dential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. other than making an effort to alert Cabductions marked a new strategy News that the FARC had tried to kid- guerrilla groups before traveling to in the guerrilla war were quickly nap Morris and Dalton stoked fears regions they control, her abduction eased after it was learned that the that it might be trying to strengthen will probably have little effect on the kidnappings had apparently been a its bargaining position by grabbing way she reports in Colombia. spur-of-the-moment decision by the international journalists. Asked how it would change the militiaman at the roadblock, who had “The FARC wanted [Morris and way he works, Dalton ponders the mistakenly concluded that the jour- Dalton], and that signals something question for a moment before decid- nalists might be valuable for the very frightening,” says Scott Wilson, ing. “It might make me think twice rebels, known for kidnapping hun- a Colombia-based correspondent for before going to a dangerous area to dreds of people in recent years to The Washington Post. “Everything do an assignment,” he says. “But I’ll bankroll their wars. An ELN leader taken together, I think it suggests still do it.” Ⅲ

Dangerous Assignments 27 KICKER Illustration: Constantin Ciosu

28 Spring | Summer 2003