- Title: VARIOUS: REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA WHO WAS KILLED IN IRAQ, IS BURIED IN HEBRON
- Date: 19th August 2003
- Summary: (W5) ALLENBY BRIDGE, ISRAELI- JORDANIAN BORDER (AUGUST 19, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV VEHICLE WITH BODY OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA CROSSING FROM JORDAN TO ISRAEL THROUGH ALLENBY BRIDGE 0.12 2. SLV BODY OF DANA INSIDE COFFIN BEING TAKEN OUT FROM AMBULANCE 0.18 3. VARIOUS, REUTERS CAMERAMAN NAEL AL-SHYOUKHI (WHO WAS WORKING WITH DANA WHEN
- Embargoed: 3rd September 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ALLENBY BRIDGE, ISRAELI- JORDANIAN BORDER AND HEBRON, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA6IOAHBCSL98YZTV2OTJOYWBGC
- Story Text: The funeral has taken place of a Reuters cameraman
killed by U.S. troops in Iraq.
Thousands of people attended the funeral on
Wednesday (August 20) for award-winning Reuters cameraman
Mazen Dana killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad Sunday
(August 17).
Dana was later buried in the West Bank town of Hebron
where he braved bullets to chronicle the tragedy of
Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
Mourners accompanied Dana's body through his home town
in a procession reminiscent of final honours accorded to
Palestinians killed by Israel in an uprising for statehood.
Dana was shot by a U.S. soldier on a tank as he filmed
near Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison on Sunday (August 17).
American troops in Iraq are on high alert. Guerrillas
have killed dozens of them in the past few months.
Dana was the 18th international journalist to die in
the conflict in Iraq and leaves a wife, Suzanne, and four
young children.
Colleagues from London, Israel and Jordan attended his
funeral in Hebron, a flashpoint city where some 500 Jewish
settlers live in secured enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians.
Dana was remembered by many in Hebron as a physically
towering figure who never shrank from covering a dangerous
story. He was shot and beaten several times.
"Two years ago in New York, Mazen Dana accepted one of
the most prestigious awards in journalism from the
Committee to Protect Journalists," Stephen Jukes, Reuters
global head of news, wrote in a message to staff.
"His speech was passionate and proud. And, sitting at
the Reuters table in that ballroom that evening, we were
proud too.
So proud of a journalist who risked his life every day in
his home town of Hebron because he believed in telling the
story. And he did it supremely well," Jukes added.
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
and Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) in Paris urged
Washington to investigate how, by the official U.S.
account, a soldier mistook Dana's camera for a grenade
launcher. Reuters also wants a probe into the second
killing of one of its cameramen by a U.S. tank crew. On
April 8, a shell killed Reuters' Taras Protsyuk at
Baghdad's media hotel. Troops said they thought a spotter
was directing enemy fire.
"Coming so soon after the death of Taras Protsyuk, also
killed by a U.S. tank, this latest death is hard to bear,"
Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer said in a statement.
"That's why I am personally calling upon the highest
levels of the U.S. government for a full and comprehensive
investigation into this terrible tragedy."
The CPJ, which honoured Dana with its International
Press Freedom Award in 2001, called for "a full
investigation into the shooting and a public accounting of
the circumstances".
Dana is the second Reuters cameraman to die in Iraq.
On April 8, shortly after U.S.-led forces arrived in
Baghdad, Ukrainian-born Taras Protsyuk died when a U.S
tank fired a shell at the 15th floor of the Palestine
Hotel, the base for many foreign media in Baghdad.
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