How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone Read online

  This book is for the parents – mine and yours – and for lovers left behind.

  To Mum and Dad for their sleepless nights and support for my act-first-think-later adventures.

  Contents/

  Foreword by Rageh Omaar

  Introduction

  Contributors

  1/ Planning, Preparing and Arriving

  2/ Avoiding Misunderstanding

  3/ Getting Around in a Dangerous Place

  4/ Coping with Gunfire, Bombings and Missiles

  5/ Keeping Safe in a Crowd, Protest or Riot

  6/ First Aid and Emergency Medicine

  7/ Feeding Yourself Under Fire

  8/ Avoiding Trouble in Sex, Love and War

  9/ Surviving Extremes

  10/ Staying Fit and Beating Stress

  11/ Surviving With and Without Weapons

  12/ Surviving Landmines, IEDs and Chemical Perils

  13/ Surviving a Kidnapping

  14/ Surviving in Potential Trouble Spots

  15/ Arming Yourself Against Trauma

  Postscript by Jon Swain

  Postscript By Wadah Khanfar

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword by Rageh Omaar/

  ‘How do you cope with it all? Weren’t you terrified? What’s the one thing you always pack? What do you do about food and electricity? Who or what protects you in a place like that?’ Confronted with questions like these after each assignment in a conflict zone or amidst a humanitarian crisis, journalists, diplomats and relief workers face the dilemma of glossing over the truth, or trying to tell it but failing to do it justice. The answers either take quite a bit of rehearsal, or you just admit that some things are very difficult to convey to those who haven’t experienced them.

  This book gives a vivid glimpse into the experiences and thought processes of war correspondents as they try to answer these questions, but it also goes much further. It punctures a number of myths that have existed around the work of war reporters; and for me, one of the most dangerous myths is that with each experience of working in a dangerous or even just plain difficult place, you somehow build up layers of immunity until, after many such experiences, you can consider yourself (I can’t stand the phrase) ‘an old hand’. If only it were true. The list of highly experienced, dedicated and professional reporters who have been killed on assignment is every bit as tragically long as the one of young, inexperienced and dedicated journalists who go to war zones in search of a break into foreign news reporting. For war correspondents, the next assignment is always the first assignment.

  Rosie’s book is a great collection of essays, reflections, memories, anecdotes and self-counselling confessionals by reporters, many of them friends and colleagues of both of us. They are at times funny and revealing, and at other times both sobering and refreshing. But above all else they are useful. It’s as though a bunch of war reporters, diplomats, travellers and aid workers have got together and collectively brewed their own extra-strength version of Schott’s Almanac.

  Most importantly, Rosie’s book punctures the myth that being a war reporter means you have to be more than a mere mortal to do it, and dispels the idea that you need a bewildering array of skills to deal with a million and one situations. The truth, of course, is that people who cover conflicts and upheaval are not only human, but often find themselves unprepared for the experience. From what to pack to how to deal with checkpoints, from what to wear in the midst of a dispute between rival religious groups to the best phone to take, this book has all the facts you need, and much, much more.

  It’s the kind of book that will inform, educate and entertain, and you will find yourself coming back to it again and again. Enjoy.

  /Introduction

  I do not agree with people who say that if God wanted you to die this day, you will, no matter what precautions you take. I believe God gave me a brain to do my best to avoid getting into such situations. Imad Shihab, Iraqi journalist

  Your loved one is heading off to a war zone and you are saying goodbye. You want to give them a last piece of advice. Something that will come to them when they most need it. A moment of clarity in all that mess.

  ‘Don’t be a hero,’ you say. Or, ‘Remember, nothing is worth your life.’

  Trite. Not very useful and trite.

  I want to say, ‘Put me in your hand luggage and I’ll protect you while you get on with whatever you need to do.’ But I don’t – either fit in their hand luggage or have the ability to fight off the enemy with one hand while holding onto them with the other.

  So I usually hand them my lucky bracelet, which is a string of Buddhist prayer beads from northern India, though it could be mistaken for Muslim or Catholic beads, depending on the religion of the person who taps on your car window with their gun at a checkpoint. ‘They’ve got me out of a couple of sticky situations before,’ I nod reassuringly, waving the loved one goodbye. What I don’t say is that I would be there with my pop-up emergency-room doctor and missile defence shield if I could.

  But that just ain’t enough.

  My friend Sherine Tadros was heading to Gaza. She’s a reporter for Al Jazeera English and had the hostile-environment training we all need in order for our insurance to work in conflict areas. But that was three years before.

  ‘I can’t remember how to do mouth-to-mouth, Rosie. Is it 30 breaths to two pumps?’

  ‘The other way round…I think.’ And she’s gone, to Jerusalem and then Gaza, before I can find anything more helpful to tell her.

  Her one-night visit to Gaza turns into a four-month stint and a 23-day war. She’s deep into her first war zone, while me and my few meagre tips for survival are a time zone away.

  There is a wealth of knowledge out there, but for some reason the vault of advice for people like Sherine and me was locked in other people’s memories and experience. This book aims to tap into that knowledge and bring it to a wider audience – to people who find themselves running towards bombs rather than away, to those surrounded by disaster rather than watching it on TV. This book is for doctors, charity volunteers, NGO workers, engineers, government contractors, journalists, human rights lawyers and so many more of the world’s curious and curiouser who find themselves drawn to these places.

  It’s not just visitors who have to adapt. There are millions of people living in the midst of what has become routine conflict – from Bogotá to the Baltimore backstreets, from downtown Mogadishu to uptown Johannesburg, the West Bank and Beirut. They have learnt to adapt.

  Over a shot of tequila you hear, ‘Of course everyone knows that’s a sure-fire way to get yourself killed.’

  The nervous laughs of others echo my thoughts – ‘I didn’t.’

  People who return to war zones again and again listen to a story about someone who didn’t survive, and their instincts tell them, ‘That would never have happened to me. I would never have done that.’ It’s what they tell their friends and family. A person would have to be suicidal to put themselves in a situation where they thought they might die every day. For people like them it’s a risk – but a calculated risk.

  Hostile-environment courses fit you with some armour to help you make that calculation. But they are textbook while war is messy. You can never be prepared. You don’t know how you will react until it happens, and then it might be too late.

  Courses are particularly bad at preparing you for the mundane issues that can be just as deadly as guns and bombs in a war zone – boredom, hunger, lack of sex, too much sex, alcohol, lack of alcohol, getting fat and unfit, adrenalin rushes with nowhere to go.

  What you can do is listen to as much advice as possible from people who have spen
t years dodging bullets and dancing through minefields.

  Here’s the disclaimer. You’ll find while reading this book that different people’s experiences can lead them to opposite conclusions. The tips are rarely what you might find in an average instruction booklet. They sometimes break rules and protocol, but they worked for the individuals in this book and they could work for you. Treat it as a guide to help you make the choices that are right for you.

  I have dipped my toe into a semi-war zone, spending around six months in Basra after the Iraq war in 2003. I was 22 years old and straight out of Oxford University, earning the local rate of $10 a day as a Reuters stringer. How did I survive? I poached a translator off the British Army. He was the size of a tank, a body builder. When I refused to let him bring a gun inside the bombed-out house where we lived, he brought life-size posters of Arnold Schwarzenegger to scare off potential intruders. Armed with my blonde hair and a practised smile, I tried to remember everything I had picked up during a year working as a British Army officer after leaving school.

  I learnt how to avoid getting killed by my mistakes. There were many. And some very narrow misses. If I’d had something like this book to flick through at night, it might have helped, just a little.

  And finally, because attitudes, cultural values and even national borders change with time – dangerous places become top holiday destinations, just look at Vietnam – do send your own experiences, ideas and suggestions to me at [email protected], or follow my Twitter feed, @Rosiepelican, for updates.

  Contributors/

  Without the help and advice of the people below and dozens of anonymous voices, this book would have been impossible. I have leaned heavily on these contributors in order to make this book stand up. Thank you, all of you, for being so generous and thoughtful with your experiences.

  Hoda Abdel-Hamid, correspondent for Al Jazeera English. A three-time Emmy Award winner, Hoda has covered stories from Saudi to Sarajevo, Morocco and Pakistan, and won an award from the Monte Carlo Film Festival for her documentary Koran and Kalashnikovs. She spent years making brave journalism with her team on the front line in Iraq, a month of it with me.

  Tim Albone, journalist, documentary-maker and author of Out of the Ashes (Virgin Books, 2011), his account of following the progress of the Afghan cricket team around the world for a year in the lead-up to the World Cup.

  Shadi Alkasim, my former colleague at the Baghdad Bulletin, worked with the United Nations Mission in Sudan and then Liberia as a radio producer and journalist until moving to China. He has also covered the war in Lebanon and has worked with www.aliveinbaghdad.org.

  Helen Asquith is a doctor who trained at Oxford University and University College London. Her particular interest is public health, and she has travelled widely in her study of it, including to southern Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

  Qais Azimy, Afghan journalist and Al Jazeera English producer in Kabul.

  Samantha Bolton, former world head of press and campaigns for Médecins Sans Frontières.

  James Brabazon, journalist and documentary film-maker, author of My Friend the Mercenary (Canongate Books, 2010).

  James Brandon, former colleague at the Baghdad Bulletin, now head of research at the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank.

  Julius Cavendish, Kabul correspondent for the Independent newspaper.

  Chris Cobb-Smith, former artillery commando officer in the British Army, now a media security expert, founder of Chiron Resources, which provides specialist security support to news and documentary teams reporting from war zones; also carries out investigations into the deaths of journalists in the field, as well as examining human rights abuses and war crimes allegations.

  Tom Coghlan, defence correspondent for The Times newspaper, formerly based in Kabul as a freelance reporter for various British newspapers, including The Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent.

  Stefanie Dekker, producer and reporter for Al Jazeera English.

  Marc DuBois, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières – UK.

  Jane Dutton, senior presenter for Al Jazeera English, formerly at CNN as a presenter and ‘Hotspots’ girl, and at the BBC and ETV.

  Alina Gracheva, camerawoman for Al Jazeera English, but she has been a television journalist since the collapse of the Soviet Union, covering the Chechen wars, the fall of Mabutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire and the funeral of Ahmad Shah Masoud in Afghanistan. She won an Emmy for her work as part of the team covering the fall of the Taliban in Kabul in 2001, and was nominated for an Emmy for ‘Aneta’s Choice’, a report about a Beslan mother.

  Carl Hallam, doctor, formerly in the British Royal Marines, now a volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières.

  Jonny Harris, captain, Light Dragoon Regiment, British Army.

  Sayed Hashim, captain, No. 1 Kandak S2, 3/205 Atal Brigade, Afghan National Army.

  Ralph Hassall, founder of the Baghdad Bulletin newspaper in Iraq. On its closure, he became involved in disaster management on an international scale, training governments and emergency services in key skills for post-conflict. His main area of expertise is landmines, and at the time of writing he was the manager for the UNDP Mine Action Capacity Development programme in southern Sudan.

  Caroline Hawley, formerly the main BBC correspondent in Iraq, was named Broadcaster of the Year by the London Press Club in 2006. She is now based in London as a special correspondent for the BBC.

  Patrick Hennessey, former British army officer and author of The Junior Officers’ Reading Club (Allen Lane, 2009).

  Chris Helgren, editor-in-charge at the Reuters UK pictures bureau; was formerly chief photographer for them in Baghdad and Rome.

  Mohammed Hersi, former pirate off the coast of Somalia, 2001–9.

  Tom Hudson, former lawyer and soldier, now legal counsel for a Middle East security company that provides services in ‘hostile’ environments.

  Kamal Hyder, journalist who has spent many years working in the tribal lands of Pakistan and Afghanistan with CNN and now Al Jazeera English.

  Sebastian Junger, journalist and author, most famously of The Perfect Storm (Norton, 1997) and most recently of War (Fourth Estate, 2010). In 2009 he made his first film, the award-winning feature Restrepo, based on one year working with a US platoon in Afghanistan’s ‘deadliest valley’.

  Wadah Khanfar has worked for Al Jazeera since its inception, progressing from cameraman, correspondent and Baghdad bureau chief to director-general, and seeing almost every war along the way. In 2009 Forbes magazine listed him as one of the most powerful people in the world.

  Zeina Khodr began her career with local radio in Beirut, working through the civil war there. She then moved to Dubai TV, Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera Arabic and now Al Jazeera English. In 1999 she won best feature of the year for CNN’s World Report.

  Donald Kirk, Korea correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, has also written a number of books on Southeast Asia and Korea, most recently Korea Betrayed (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

  Marc Laban, co-founder of AsiaWorks Television, an independent production company.

  Mohammad Tahir Luddin, Afghan freelance journalist.

  Ian Mackinnon, freelance journalist, now based in Bangkok, where he was formerly the Guardian newspaper’s Southeast Asia correspondent.

  Kathleen McCaul, journalist, formerly at the Baghdad Bulletin, now a freelance radio and TV producer, and author of Murder in the Ashram (Piatkus, 2011).

  Laura McNaught, freelance film-maker and founder of Sam’s College Fund for children in the developing world.

  Leith Mushtaq, senior Al Jazeera cameraman.

  Monique Nagelkerke has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières for 20 years and currently travels the world as a head of mission. Her last four posts were in Liberia, south and north Sudan, and Papua New Guinea.

  Rageh Omaar, news presenter for Al Jazeera English, has covered over 15 conflicts and 40 countries for the BBC and other broadcasters. He was nickname
d the ‘scud stud’ of the Iraq war in 2003.

  Mary O’Shea, former staff member with both the EU and UN, now working for them on a freelance basis as a governance and human rights specialist.

  Leigh Page, freelance documentary-maker and poker pro from Cape Town.

  Jacky Rowland, correspondent for Al Jazeera English. Her 16 years of covering conflicts in the Balkans and the Islamic world have won her several awards, including the Royal Television Society Award in 2001. She joined Al Jazeera from the BBC, where she held a number of high-profile foreign postings.

  Nazanin Sadri, producer for Al Jazeera English.

  Mike Sawatzky, Congo bush pilot and volunteer at the Goma-based charity Kivu Kids (www.kivukidsfoundation.org).

  Imad Shihab, Iraqi journalist, once driven underground because of his courageous reporting, is now out of hiding and working for the BBC Arabic channel as an occasional reporter.

  Subina Shrestha, journalist and film-maker based in Nepal; nominated for a Rory Peck Award for her work undercover in Myanmar after cyclone Nargis hit in 2008.

  John Simpson, world affairs editor and long-time senior correspondent at BBC News. He has reported from around 30 war zones, winning an International Emmy award for his work, and has written a number of books, most recently Unreliable Sources (Macmillan, 2010).

  Jon Snow, chief presenter, Channel 4 News in the UK.

  Peter Stevens, freelance newsman.

  Jon Swain, journalist, writer and one-time recruit to the French Foreign Legion, has worked as a correspondent for the Sunday Times for 35 years. His bestselling River of Time (Heinemann, 1995) was the book that made me want to be a journalist.

  Sherine Tadros, correspondent for Al Jazeera English, was one of only two international television journalists broadcasting from inside Gaza during the 2009 war.

  Shelley Thakral, senior news producer for BBC World, who has covered Iraq, the Indonesian tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and a dozen other disasters and war zones.