Fri, Sep 11, 2009 page6

• NATO accused of double standards

  OUTRAGE: Local reporters are angry that commandos rescuing a British journalist brought back the body of a colleague but left the Afghan translator’s body behind

  • AP AND AFP
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  Afghan journalists blamed international troops yesterday for the death of a kidnapped colleague during a rescue operation and said British commandos showed a “double standard” by leaving his body while retrieving a foreign New York Times writer.

  The newly formed Media Club of Afghanistan — a group of Afghan reporters who work with international news outlets — also condemned the Taliban for abducting both men last week in northern Afghanistan as they investigated reports of civilian deaths in a German-ordered air strike.

  Local journalists laid flowers yesterday at the grave of reporter and translator Sultan Munadi in Kabul. Munadi, 34, was killed by gunfire during a British commando raid early on Wednesday to free him and New York Times writer Stephen Farrell.

  

  An Afghan journalist reads a statement during a memorial service at the grave of journalist Sultan Munadi in Kabul yesterday. Fellow Afghan journalists have expressed anger over the killing of the much-admired reporter during a NATO commando rescue operation.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Munadi was shot during the raid, but Farrell survived and was taken away in a helicopter. One British commando was killed in the raid as well as an Afghan woman and an Afghan child.

  At yesterday’s ceremony, the group issued a statement holding international forces responsible for launching a military operation to free the journalists without exhausting nonviolent channels.

  The statement also said it was “inhumane” for the British forces to rescue Farrell, who has dual British-Irish nationality, and also retrieve the body of the commando killed in the raid while leaving behind Munadi’s body.

  Fazul Rahim, an Afghan producer for CBS News, said the foreign forces’ actions showed a lack of respect.

  “It shows a double standard between a foreign life and an Afghan life,” he said.

  Munadi’s body was retrieved on Wednesday afternoon through intermediaries and brought to Kabul.

  Colonel Wayne Shanks, a US and NATO spokesman, called the deaths during the rescue operation “tragic” but said he did not want to assign blame.

  “It’s unfortunate that this whole situation occurred, that the journalists were kidnapped,” he said, adding, “I don’t think that during the middle of a firefight anyone can blame someone for what they did or did not do.”

  Criticism also mounted over the timing of the raid.

  Negotiators were deep in talks with the Taliban to free Farrell and negotiations appeared to be progressing well before the commandos intervened, a source told Agence France-Presse.

  In Britain, the press questioned whether military force should have been used, saying that negotiators had expressed anger at the raid because they were within days of securing the peaceful release of the journalists.

  “There were a lot of people trying to make contact and keep the discussions going,” said the source, adding: “We had contact with different parties, and were urging them to release the two journalists unconditionally.”

  Britain’s Times newspaper, quoting defense sources, said the raid was mounted after British forces feared Farrell could be moved, and there were no guarantees that the negotiations would have led to his and Munadi’s release.

  However, several other sources quoted by the newspaper said the kidnappers were, at worst, seeking a ransom.

  An unnamed Western official told the paper: “It was totally heavy-handed. If they’d showed a bit of patience and respect they could have got both of them out without firing a bullet.”

  A friend of Munadi’s family said the soldiers traced the house where the two journalists were held by tracking signals from Munadi’s mobile phone when he called his parents to say he was safe.

  Munadi’s parents had to collect his body themselves, with “no one to help them and take it back for burial,” the family friend said.

  “He was just left there, and the body was in a terrible state — shot in the front and in the back, so it is impossible to know if he was killed by the soldiers or by the Taliban,” the friend said.
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