(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: WAR COVERAGE IN AFGHANISTAN A German and two French journalists killed in a Taliban ambush War reporters Johanne Sutton, Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik were killed on 11 November 2001, in an ambush laid by the Taliban for an armed column of the Northern Alliance, near […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
WAR COVERAGE IN AFGHANISTAN
A German and two French journalists killed in a Taliban ambush
War reporters Johanne Sutton, Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik were killed on 11 November 2001, in an ambush laid by the Taliban for an armed column of the Northern Alliance, near Shataraï (north-east Afghanistan). RSF expressed its deep emotion to the three journalists’ families and colleagues. “We can only salute the courage of these journalists who wanted, in spite of the risks, to closely cover the conflict between the Taliban and the opposition forces”, Robert Ménard, RSF general secretary declared. ” If there is any evidence that the journalists were finished off by the Taliban, it would be an extremely serious precedent”, he pointed out. “Such savagery unfortunately prompts us to predict new victims in the press ranks.”
RSF noted that Article 79 of the additional protocol to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, specifies that “journalists who fulfil professional missions in armed conflicts areas will be considered as civilians” and “enjoy general protection against the dangers resulting from military operations.”
More than 770 journalists have been killed in the past 15 years, twenty of them since 1 January 2001.
According to information gathered by RSF, Johanne Sutton, 34, a war reporter for Radio France Internationale (RFI), Pierre Billaud, 31, a journalist from the French radio station RTL, and Volker Handloik, a freelance reporter for the German weekly Stern, were killed on 11 November, on the Shataraï front line (in the province of Takhar, north-east Afghanistan). The journalists were on a tank of the Northern Alliance (opposition to the Taliban), when the column was ambushed by the Taliban. The three reporters fell from the tank, hurt by shrapnel and machine gun shots. Opposition troops hurried to avoid the ambush. When they came back to the scene of the attack, they found Johanne Sutton’s body. Those of Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik were only found the following day by Alliance soldiers. According to several journalists, the three reporters’ bodies were riddled with bullets.
An Alliance commander has also been reported missing and a soldier was wounded. At least four other journalists who were on the tank survived the attack. Véronique Ribeyrotte, a journalist for the radio station France Culture, was teamed up with her two French colleagues.
Johanne Sutton had worked for RFI since the early 1990s. A graduate of Lille Journalism School (ESJ), she worked for the radio network’s Economics section in Great Britain, and then became a war reporter. She covered several conflicts, particularly in the Middle East.
Pierre Billaud, special envoy for the French radio station RTL, was 31 years old. Ex-journalist for Radio France, he joined RTL’s editorial staff in 1999. He covered conflicts in Bosnia, Algeria and Kosovo.
Volker Handloik, 40 years old, worked as a freelance reporter for the German weekly Stern, but also for the magazines Geo, Spiegel-reporter and Focus. This experienced journalist made several reports in Russia and South America. Three Stern journalists have been killed in war areas since 1995.
In a separate incident, Gary Scurka, a cameraman from National Geographic, was wounded on 11 November 2001 by a shot fired from a Taliban line, also in Takhar province. He is currently being treated in the Khoja Bahawuddin hospital (Northern Alliance-controlled area).
RSF also points out that this is unfortunately not the first time that journalists have been killed or murdered in Afghanistan.
In August 1998, Mahmoud Saremi, a correspondent for the official Iranian news agency IRNA, was killed by the Taliban in Mazar-e-Sharif. Mullah Omar’s forces had just reconquered the city. The journalist was murdered with ten Iranian diplomats.
In July 1994, Mirwais Jalil, an Afghan journalist working for the Pashtu section of the BBC, was executed near Kabul by troops of fundamentalist leader Gulbuddin Hekmyatar.
