WEST BANK: JOURNALISTS MARCH THROUGHOUT WEST BANK TO MOURN DEATH OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA KILLED BY U.S. TROOPS IN BAGHDAD
Record ID:
566314
WEST BANK: JOURNALISTS MARCH THROUGHOUT WEST BANK TO MOURN DEATH OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA KILLED BY U.S. TROOPS IN BAGHDAD
- Title: WEST BANK: JOURNALISTS MARCH THROUGHOUT WEST BANK TO MOURN DEATH OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA KILLED BY U.S. TROOPS IN BAGHDAD
- Date: 18th August 2003
- Summary: (EU) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (AUGUST 18, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MV: JOURNALISTS MARCHING TO MOURN THE DEATH OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA IN BAGHDAD ON SUNDAY (AUGUST 17) 0.07 2. SV: JOURNALISTS MARCHING, HOLDING PICTURES OF DANA 0.11 3. SV: JOURNALISTS MARCHING HOLDING CAMERAS 0.16 4. SV: MORE JOURNALISTS MARCHING HOLDING DANA'S PICTURES 0.21 5. SV: MOURNER WAVING PALESTINIAN FLAGS 0.26 6. CLOSE UP OF DANA'S PICTURE 0.31 7. CLOSE UP OF MOURNER HOLDING PICTURE 0.36 8. CLOSE UP OF DANA'S PICTURE 0.44 9. MV: MOURNERS HOLDING PICTURES 0.51 10. WIDE VIEW OF MOURNERS 0.56 (W5) BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (AUGUST 18, 2003) (REUTERS) 11. SV: DOZENS OF JOURNALISTS MARCHING TO MOURN THE DEATH OF REUTERS CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA; JOURNALISTS CARRYING CAMERA ON STRETCHER 1.08 12. MV: MORE OF MOURNERS MARCHING 1.16 13. SV: MAN HOLDING BANNER READING 'TO KILL MAZEN DOES NOT KILL THE TRUTH' 1.26 14. SCU: JOURNALISTS AT GATHERING 1.33 15. TRAVELLING SHOT: CONVOY DRIVING THROUGH STREETS WITH BLACK FLAGS FLUTTERING FROM CARS 1.41 16. MV: MAN HANGING UP BLACK FLAG ON FLAG POLE 1.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: RAMALLAH AND BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVAE8ZJEBTOWKD2W97BYI694PNZE
- Story Text: Journalists in the West Bank march to mourn the death of
award-winning Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana who was
killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad.
Dozens of journalists marched throughout the West
Bank on Monday (August 18) in mourning of award-winning
Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, killed by U.S. troops.
Mazen Dana was shot dead while filming on Sunday
(August 17) near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of
Baghdad.
Journalists quietly walked through the streets of the
West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah on Monday
holding banners calling for a U.S. probe into the killing
and waving black flags to mark the death of Dana.
One journalist held a banner reading 'killing Mazen
will not kill the truth'.
A convoy of vehicles drove through the streets of
Bethlehem flashing their lights and stopping to hang up
black flags at street corners.
Eyewitnesses said soldiers on an American tank shot at
Mazen Dana, 43, as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in
western Baghdad which had come under a mortar attack on
Saturday (August 16) night.
Dana's last pictures show a U.S. tank driving towards
him outside the prison walls. Several shots ring out from
the tank, and Dana's camera falls to the ground.
The U.S. military acknowledged on Sunday that its
troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they had
thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
"Army soldiers engaged an individual they thought was
aiming an RPG at them. It turned out to be a Reuters
cameraman," Navy Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in
Washington.
Journalists had gone to the prison after the U.S.
military said a mortar bomb attack there a day before had
killed six Iraqis and wounded 59 others.
Recounting the moments before the shooting, Reuters
soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana, said
he had asked a U.S. soldier near the prison if they could
speak to an officer and was told they could not.
"They saw us and they knew about our identities and our
mission," Shyoukhi said. The incident happened in the
afternoon in daylight.
The soldier agreed to their request to film an overview
of the prison from a bridge nearby.
"After we filmed we went into the car and prepared to
go when a convoy led by a tank arrived and Mazen stepped
out of the car to film. I followed him and Mazen walked
three to four metres (yards). We were noted and seen
clearly," Shyoukhi said.
"A soldier on the tank shot at us. I lay on the ground.
I heard Mazen and I saw him scream and touching his chest".
"I cried at the soldier, telling him you killed a
journalist. They shouted at me and asked me to step back
and I said 'I will step back, but please help, please help
and stop the bleed'.
"They tried to help him but Mazen bled heavily. Mazen
took a last breath and died before my eyes."
Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or
their assistants who have died in Iraq since war began on
March 20. Two others have been missing since the first days
of the war.
Dana is the second Reuters cameraman to be killed since
the U.S.-led force invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.
On April 8, Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian based in Warsaw,
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.
"Mazen was one of Reuters finest cameramen and we are
devastated by his loss," said Stephen Jukes, Reuters global
head of news.
"He was a brave and award-winning journalist who had
worked in many of the world's hot spots," Jukes said.
"He was committed to covering the story wherever it was
and was an inspiration to friends and colleagues at Reuters
and throughout the industry. Our thoughts and deepest
sympathies are with his family."
Dana, a Palestinian, had worked for Reuters mostly in
the West Bank city of Hebron.
Paul Holmes, former Reuters bureau chief in Jerusalem,
recalled a towering, chain-smoking bear of a man with a
ruddy complexion and expansive heart.
"The amazing thing about him was he was like the king of
Hebron. Every journalist in the city looked up to him and
any journalist who covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
will know and love Mazen," he said.
Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer said he hoped there
would be "the fullest and most comprehensive investigation
into this terrible tragedy".
Married with four young children, Dana was one of the
company's most experienced conflict journalists and had
worked in Baghdad before, shortly after U.S. troops entered
the city. He was awarded an International Press Freedom
Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for
his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many
times.
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