TURKEY: The colleague of a Japanese journalist shot dead in Syria, says he could do nothing to help her, as he shows her bullet-holed flak jacket. Kazutaka Sato says of Mika Yamamoto, 'she was my wife'

Record ID: 281349

  • Title: TURKEY: The colleague of a Japanese journalist shot dead in Syria, says he could do nothing to help her, as he shows her bullet-holed flak jacket. Kazutaka Sato says of Mika Yamamoto, 'she was my wife'
  • Date: 21st August 2012
  • Summary: KILIS, TURKEY (AUGUST 21, 2012) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS KAZUTAKA SATO IN HOTEL ROOM WITH MIKA YAMAMOTO'S FLAK JACKET FLAK JACKET WITH BULLET SCARRING (SOUNDBITE) (English) KAZUTAKA SATO SAYING: "So, she is a woman, so maybe they recognise she is a woman but they only shooted; killing. So I am very sad. I don't have any word for the Syrian government, Syrian army." KAZUTAK
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVACCOKKLU3RBXUDYCVNYJRXM3S7
  • Story Text: The working partner of a Japanese journalist shot dead in a gunfight between Syrian forces and rebels in Aleppo talked to Reuters Television on Tuesday (August 21) about how she died and their relationship.
    Mika Yamamoto, a 45-year-old award-winning journalist working for Tokyo-based independent news wire, Japan Press, was fatally wounded while travelling with the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo. She became the first Japanese national killed in the 17 month conflict.
    Her colleague Kazutaka Sato, who disclosed to Reuters that Yamamoto was his wife, said a group of Syrian soldiers, who started shooting in their direction, may have been able to see she was a woman.

    "I couldn't save her.. I couldn't. So, she is (on) my right side, two or three metres (away). I couldn't see. Immediately they (started) shooting -- (from) distances of 20 to 30 metres. I recognise their face and immediately they opened fire. How can I, how can I? Just ran away," Sato said, adding that in the confusion as he tried to escape the gunfire, he believed she was brought down.
    Speaking in a hotel room in Kalis, Turkey, after crossing the border, Sato showed Yamamoto's bullet-scarred flak jacket.
    He said a sense of needing to report the Syria story first-hand had taken them on their dangerous assignment.

    "We are journalists. So, we are trying to go the, not front-line, we try to go in first, it's our responsibility because we want to show whole world what is happening in Syria," Kato, who, like Yamamoto, worked for Japan Press, said.
    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clash occurred in the Suleimaniya district of Aleppo, the scene of heavy fighting between government and rebel forces.
    Japan Press, on its website, said Yamamoto reported from Afghanistan under the Taliban and covered the 2003 Iraq war from Baghdad.
    Yamamoto's Iraq reporting won a Vaughn-Ueda prize given by the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association and modelled after the U.S. Pulitzers media awards.
    In April 2003 she narrowly escaped a U.S. tank's attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Jiji news agency said, while news agency Kyodo described her as a "pioneer video journalist".
    Yamamoto is the first Japanese killed in the current armed conflict in Syria, a government official said.
    Syrian activists said that a Lebanese journalist, a Turkish journalist and an Arab journalist, whose nationality they did not identify, had also disappeared in Aleppo.
    Yamamoto's death underscores the hostile environment in which journalists operate to cover the Syrian conflict.
    According to the Reporters Without Borders organization, Syria and Somalia rank as the world's most dangerous countries for media this year, with five journalists and three media assistants killed in Syria by early August and eight journalists killed in Somalia.
    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, battling a 17-month-old uprising against his family's 42-year rule, has used fighter jets and helicopter gunships to pound rebel strongholds, often in cities. Insurgents in turn have stepped up their own attacks, hitting tanks, military convoys and security buildings.
    At least 18,000 people have now been killed in Syria since the anti-Assad revolt began. At least 170,000 have fled the country, according to the United Nations, and 2.5 million need aid inside Syria.
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