(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to United States Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, RSF expressed its concern about the attitude adopted by the American special forces who are said to have asked Afghani fighters to attack press photographers. RSF asked the defence secretary to provide detailed information about this incident and to take energetic steps […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to United States Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, RSF expressed its concern about the attitude adopted by the American special forces who are said to have asked Afghani fighters to attack press photographers. RSF asked the defence secretary to provide detailed information about this incident and to take energetic steps to prevent the recurrence of such lapses. “Using Afghani fighters to mistreat and intimidate journalists is cowardly and contrary to international conventions protecting journalists in time of war,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, Joao Silva and Tyler Hicks, photographers for the American daily “New York Times”, and David Guttenfelder, a photographer for the Associated Press news agency, were mistreated and threatened on 20 December 2001 by Afghani fighters in the presence of members of the American special forces in Meelawa, near Tora Bora (eastern Afghanistan). According to Agence France-Presse, the three photographers tried to get past a barrier set up by the local Afghani forces to keep journalists from reaching an area where the American commandos were searching caves used by now-routed men of the Al-Qaida terrorist network. However, Silva, Hicks and Guttenfelder were turned back by a group of mujahidin and an Afghani working for the American special forces. While they were taking pictures of American special forces men, a soldier came up to them, took their names and photographed them. When they tried to leave the valley, they were blocked on the road by a group of mujahidin who threatened them with their Kalashnikovs and brought them back to the command post. There, the three photographers were mistreated and harassed for more than an hour, and their cameras and computers were confiscated. Two American soldiers who were passing by refused to help them, saying that they “knew full well what the journalists were doing,” and that, in any event, they “had no control over the mujahidin.” They then added, “But don’t worry, they’re not going to kill you.” The three journalists finally had their cameras and computers returned to them, but the mujahidin refused to give them back their digital disks containing the snapshots they had taken. According to Guttenfelder, the American commandos themselves were the ones who ordered the Afghanis to arrest them.
