Afghanistan: Feb ‘09

IWPR began its journalism training programme in Heart with a workshop for journalists from Herat and Badghis provinces. The event also attracted a journalist from Farah, a southern province, which is virtually unreported on due to an active insurgency there.

Herat, in the north-west, is one of the most developed of Afghanistan’s provinces, with a strong infrastructure. Schools are functioning, electricity is plentiful, and journalists have access to internet, computers, and other tools of the trade. There is also a university in Herat, and many of the trainees had completed a university degree.

This made the Herat workshop particularly exciting since the journalists were already highly skilled and so were able to pose more challenging questions.

All participated actively in the five-day training session, and several are working on stories.

One of them, whose name unfortunately has to be withheld, was writing a profile of a local warlord, known in the region as Siyawooshan, after his native village.

Just as the profile was ready for posting, the US-led Coalition forces announced that they had killed the commander and 15 of his militants in an air strike.

Our journalist was able to contact the commander, whose real name is Ghulam Yahya Akbari, and ascertain that he had been unhurt in the strike.

In fact, according to Yahya, local officials, and eyewitnesses, the strike hit a band of nomads, or Kuchis, who had been camped out near the commander’s base. Twelve Kuchis, including six women and two children, were killed, along with a mechanic who had come to fix Yahya’s car, he said.

Armed with this information, IWPR contacted the Coalition forces and asked for confirmation.

IWPR also published the story Herat Official Claims Civilians Killed in US Strike on its site on February 18.

Once the story was out, the Coalition began an investigation, which substantiated the claims that the Kuchis and a significant number of their livestock had been killed.

The Coalition apologised, and paid compensation to the relatives of those killed.