DATE=5/25/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=JOURNALISTS SLAIN
NUMBER=5-46374
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Two journalists renowned for covering some of
the world's most dangerous conflicts have been killed
in a rebel ambush in Sierra Leone. Reuters
correspondent Kurt Schork and Associated Press
Television cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno died when their
car was attacked in a region hotly contested by pro-
government forces and rebels of the Revolutionary
United Front. Last January, Mr. Moreno spoke to VOA
after returning from three weeks in the Chechen
capital, Grozny, at the height of a Russian offensive
that left the city in ruins. Correspondent Peter
Heinlein recalls that the journalist spoke openly
about the dangers of his job.
TEXT: It was often through the eyes of Miguel Gil
Moreno that the world saw vivid images of Kosovo,
Iraq, Congo, Chechnya and other trouble spots that
many other journalists were too cautious to cover.
Friends said jokingly that Mr. Moreno was certifiably
insane. He had no fear, and in the end, it seems it
cost him his life.
Miguel Gil Moreno was a lawyer by training, but he
loved the challenge of reporting. Associated Press
colleagues say in the early nineties he was drawn to
Sarajevo to become a journalist. From there, he went
on to cover other conflicts.
/// opt /// Just last month, he was honored by the
Royal Television Society as cameraman of the year. ///
end opt ///
Last December, Mr. Moreno made his way into Chechnya,
slipping past Russian checkpoints and ignoring
warnings of other journalists that the region was too
dangerous. As a result of his efforts, he spent three
weeks in the capital, Grozny, at the height of a
Russian air and artillery assault.
The videotapes he brought back were stunning. When he
crossed back into neighboring Ingushetia in early
January, he shared the first hand account of his
harrowing experience. He told of being hunkered down
in a basement on New Year's Eve during an eight hour
air and artillery barrage.
///Moreno act///
It started as a faraway sound of drums, and then when
it hit it didn't stop for the first 20 minutes, and
immediately after, when the shelling stopped, then
fighter planes came in and dropped bombs. So you can
hear them coming from far away, and you are hiding in
the basement, and you are convinced the plane is
coming for you. /// opt /// And when they finish,
artillery starts again. That lasted from seven till
two, two-thirty a.m., and everyone was pretty much
convinced they were trying to put the city down to
earth, to stones, and finish off all the buildings in
the city center. /// end opt ///
//end act///
Mr. Moreno described Grozny after the New Year's Eve
bombing as an "end of the world scene." He confided
that in such an environment, "every minute of the day
you think you are going to die."
///2nd Moreno act///
It's different, the level. This one reminds me of
what we've seen and heard of the first and Second
World War, and the eastern front (of the war). That's
what Grozny reminds you of, is complete craziness, is
such a level of death and destruction that you doubt
very much that you'll make it at the end of the day,
not only you but everybody around you. /// opt /// So
it creates an atmosphere, it's a mixture of Mad Max
and some nihilist feeling that there is no tomorrow,
and I'm really trying to be objective. This is not me
under the pressure of the circumstances. /// end opt
///
///end act///
/// Opt /// Mr. Moreno said he was convinced the
people of Grozny's constant close proximity to death
had driven many of them mad.
///3rd Moreno act/// /// opt act ///
My impression is civilians have all of them gone
crazy. They've lost the sense of reality. I came
across this one woman with two kids. One was three-
four years old, the other a teenaged girl. The girl
was skateboarding during the shelling, and the mother
thought that was a completely normal thing to do
because that's what teenagers do. And the baby three
years old was playing in the playground during the
shelling in the neighborhood. It wasn't their
building, so they thought it was safe. And I asked the
woman `how's your life?' and she was saying `it's
fine, OK, look what a nice house we've got here'.
She's gone. She's mad.
///end act/// /// end opt act ///
Miguel Gil Moreno acknowledged that his job was
dangerous, but said he willingly took the risk because
he loved it. He was 32 years old, a native of
Barcelona, Spain. His Reuters colleague Kurt Schork
was a Washington, D.C. native. He was 53.
///rest opt///
Tributes to the two are pouring in from around the
globe. U-S ambassador to the United Nations Richard
Holbrooke said "the world does not always understand
how much it owes to journalists like Miguel Gil Moreno
and Kurt Schork." (Signed)
NEB/PFH/GE/PLM
25-May-2000 06:38 AM EDT (25-May-2000 1038 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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