A week before he was killed during a commando raid that freed his colleague, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, from Taliban captors, the Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi wrote a post for the Times’s “At War” blog. His conclusion:
Being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate. That is the main problem facing many Afghans. I am really committed to come back and work for my country.
An article by David Rohde about Munadi—and his role in telling his country’s story, which was much more than “interpreter”—is here. Remembrances from other colleagues are here. Both are well worth a read.
As a very close friend and a former colleague, who worked jointly with Sultan Munadi for more than seven years (over 3 years for ICRC and more than 4 years for New York Times between 1998 - 2006), I would like to see a thorough investigation on Sultan's suspicious killing. There are so many questions that the British government has to answer regarding the raid that the British commandos launched for rescue of their countryman, which caused the death of Sultan Mohammad Mounadi, who left young widow with two children (one 3 years old and another only six months old) with no one to support the family in the war torn Afghanistan.
Posted by Gulbahari on Mon 28 Sep 2009 at 02:04 AM