1996: 27 Journalists Killed in Line of Duty
Deaths by Assassination: 26 Algeria: (7)
Mohamed Mekati, El Moudjahid
Date of Death: Jan. 10, 1996
Place of Death: Ain NaadjaMekati, a correspondent for the government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid, was shot near his home in Ain Naadja southwest of Algiers Jan. 9 and died Jan. 10. He was the first of seven journalists killed in Algeria in 1996 and the 53rd murdered since Islamic rebels began targeting journalists in 1993. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has claimed responsibility for the bulk of the murders. As of the end of 1996, 59 journalists had been killed in the civil strife that began after the Algerian government canceled a 1992 general election in which radical Islamists were leading.Abdallah Bouhachek, Révolution et Travail
Date of Death: Feb. 10, 1996
Place of Death: BlidaBouhachek was editor of the weekly Révolution et Travail, the publication of Algeria’s largest workers union. He was fatally shot Feb. 10 near the town of Blida, south of Algiers, on his way to work. Islamic militants are presumed responsible.Allaoua Ait M’barak, Le Soir d’Algérie
Mohamed Dorbane, Le Soir d’Algérie
Djamel Derraz, Le Soir d’Algérie
Date of Death: Feb. 11, 1996
Place of Death: AlgiersM’barak, Dorbane, and Derraz all were journalists with the independent evening daily Le Soir d’Algérie. They were killed Feb. 11 while at work in the Maison de la Presse in Algiers when a car bomb exploded outside the building. Three other daily newspapers whose offices are also in the building were damaged in the attack, and at least 15 other persons were killed. Islamic militants are presumed responsible.Djilali Arabidou, Algérie-Actualité
Date of Death: March 12, 1996
Place of Death: Ain NaadjaArabidou, the acknowledged dean of Algerian photojournalists, worked for the pro-government weekly Algérie-Actualité. He was fatally shot March 12 in a suburb of Algiers, Ain Naadja. Islamic militants are presumed responsible.Mohamed Guessab, Algerian Radio
Date of Death: Aug. 12, 1996
Place of Death: AlgiersGuessab was the host of “Radio Koran,” a religious program on state-run Algerian Radio. He was fatally shot Aug. 12 while driving with his two brothers, one of whom was killed and the other seriously wounded, in the Algiers suburb of Beau Fraisier. Islamic militants are presumed responsible.
Angola: (1)
Antonio Casemero, Televisao Popular de Angola
Date of Death: Oct. 30, 1996
Place of Death: CabindaCasemero was a correspondent in Cabinda for Televisao Popular de Angola, the state-owned television station. He was fatally shot Oct. 30 at his home in Cabinda, reportedly by police. Colleagues say he was harassed several weeks earlier by a regional official in Cabinda.
Bangladesh: (1) Mohammad Quamruzzaman, Neel Sagar
Date of Death: Feb. 19, 1996
Place of Death: Nilphamari
Quamruzzaman was a reporter for the weekly newspaper Neel Sagar. He was fatally shot Feb. 19 by police while covering their crackdown on a violent protest against election results in the northern town of Nilphamari.
Cambodia: (1) Thun Bun Ly, Odom K’tek Khmer
Date of Death: May 18, 1996
Place of Death: Phnom Penh
Bun Ly was a writer and former editor of the opposition newspaper Odom K’tek Khmer, ordered closed by the government. He was appealing two convictions carrying penalties of fines or imprisonment on charges of defamation and disinformation for criticizing the government in articles and cartoons. He was fatally shot May 18 while riding a motorcycle in central Phnom Penh.
Colombia: (1) Norvey D’az, Radio Colina
Date of Death: Oct. 18, 1996
Place of Death: Girardot
D’az was director and editor of “Rondando los Barrios” on Radio Colina. He was found murdered, a gunshot wound in his neck, Oct. 18 in the resort town of Girardot. He had received death threats because of his reporting on alleged police involvement in the murder of street people and on investments in local resorts by drug traffickers.
Cyprus: (1) Kutlu Adali, Yeni Duzen
Date of Death: July 6, 1996
Place of Death: Lefkosa
Adali was a political columnist with the leftist newspaper Yeni Duzen in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. He was fatally shot July 6 in front of his home. He had written critically about the Northern Cypriot government’s immigration policies enabling Turkish nationals to live and work in Cyprus. a little-known group called the Turkish Revenge Brigade claimed responsibility for his assassination, but he had also received threats for a recent investigative report on an antiquities heist said to involve a Turkish general.
< font size=+1>India: (2)Ghulam Rasool Sheikh, Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and Saffron Times
Date of Death: April 10, 1996
Place of Death: KashmirParag Kumar Das, Asomiya Pratidin
Sheikh was editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and English-language weekly Saffron Times. He was found dead April 10 floating in Kashmir’s Jhelum River. He had written about an increase in killings and arson incidents in the area of his hometown, Pampur. Family members say he was kidnapped in March by a militia group backed by Indian state security forces. He was the sixth journalist to be murdered in Kashmir since the onset of armed conflict between separatist militants and Indian government forces in late 1990.
Date of Death: May 17, 1996
Place of Death: AssamDas was editor in chief of the largest circulation daily in Assam, Asomiya Pratidin. He was fatally shot May17 in the state capital, Guwahati, as he was picking up his 7-year-old son from school. He was the leading journalistic voice for self-rule for Assam and had continued his coverage of separatist perspectives despite arrests in 1992 and 1993. A monitor of human rights, he also published a newsletter that reported on army and counter-insurgency abuses against the Assamese. His recent interview with the leader of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam is believed by colleagues to have triggered his assassination by a splinter group.
Indonesia: (1) Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, Bernas
Date of Death: Aug. 16, 1996
Place of Death: Yogyakarta
Syafruddin was a correspondent for the Yogyakarta daily Bernas. He was beaten into unconsciousness in his home Aug. 13 by two assailants and died Aug. 16. Colleagues believe his killing was in reprisal for reports on local land disputes.
Ireland: (1) Veronica Guerin, Sunday Independent
Date of Death: June 26, 1996
Place of Death: Dublin
Guerin was a crime reporter for the Sunday Independent. She was shot dead June 26 by assailants on motorcycle as she was stopped in her car at a traffic light in Dublin. She had been the target of repeated physical attacks, a shooting, and death threats for her incisive, continuing investigation into Ireland’s criminal underworld that had garnered CPJ’s 1995 International Press Freedom Award. A known Dublin drug trafficker has been charged with her murder.
Philippines: (1) Ferdinand Reyes, Press Freedom
Date of Death: Feb. 13, 1996
Place of Death: Dipolog
Reyes was editor in chief of the weekly newspaper Press Freedom. He was fatally shot Feb. 13 while at his desk in his office in Dipolog, some 400 miles south of Manila. He had received death threats in the past for his frequent writings about official corruption and human rights abuses and criticism of government policies.
Russia: (6) Felix Solovyov, Free-lancer
Date of Death: Feb. 26, 1996
Place of Death: MoscowViktor Pimenov, Vaynakh Television
Solovyov was a free-lance photojournalist and a contributor to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. He was fatally shot Feb. 26 in central Moscow. Two years earlier he had published a portfolio on Moscow mafia groups in three German newspapers. He was in Germany discussing story ideas two weeks before his death. Since 1994 at least 13 journalists have been assassinated in Russia, where probes into corrupt practices in government and business have resulted in mafia-style contract killings, and reports on atrocities in the armed rebellion in Chechnya have endangered journalists’ lives.
Date of Death: March 11, 1996
Place of Death: ChechnyaPimenov was a cameraman for Vaynakh, a Chechen television station supported by Moscow-backed forces. He was fatally shot in the back March 11 by a sniper positioned on the roof of a 16-story building in Grozny. Pimenov had been filming the devastation caused by the March 6-9 raid on the Chechen capital.Nadezhda Chaikova, Obshchaya Gazeta
Date of Death: March 30, 1996
Place of Death: ChechnyaChaikova was a correspondent for the Russian weekly Obshchaya Gazeta who was known for her exposés of Russian military atrocities and close contacts with the Chechen resistance. She was fatally shot, execution-style, and her body was discovered March 30 outside the Chechen village of Gehki. Chaikova was known to have filmed the destroyed village of Samashki, leveled in an attack by Russian federal troops. While Russian federal troops are suspected in her death, the killing may have been ordered by Chechen fighters acting on rumors spread by Russian secret police that she was a spy.Nina Yefimova, Vozrozhdeniye
Date of Death: May 9, 1996
Place of Death: ChechnyaYefimova was a reporter for Vozrozhdeniye, a local Russian-language newspaper in Grozny. She was abducted with her mother from their apartment May 8. Both were found dead from bullet wounds May 9 in different parts of the city. Yefimova had written stories about crime in Chechnya.Viktor Mikhailov, Zabaikalsky Rabochy
Date of Death: May 12, 1996
Place of Death: ChitaMikhailov was a crime reporter for the daily Zabaikalsky Rabochy in southeastern Siberia. He was beaten to death in broad daylight in the city center of Chita May 12. He had been working on a series of articles about crime and the work of law enforcement agencies.Ramzan Khadzhiev, Russian Public TV (ORT)
Date of Death: Aug. 11,1996
Place of Death: ChechnyaKhadzhiev was chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television (ORT). He was fatally shot Aug. 11 while attempting to leave Grozny by car with his wife and young son. ORT reported that Khadzhiev, an ethnic Chechen, was targeted by Chechen rebels because of his support of the Moscow-installed government. But an unidentified passenger in their car said on NTV, Russia’s only independent television station, that Russian armored vehicles had opened fire on them.
Tajikistan: (1) Viktor Nikulin, Russian Public TV (ORT)
Date of Death: March 28, 1996
Place of Death: DushanbeNikulin was a correspondent for Russian Public Television (ORT) in Dushanbe. He was fatally shot March 28 at the door to his office. He had received three threatening telephone calls a week before he was killed. Nikulin became the 29th journalist to be killed in Tajikistan since 1992 in a systematic suppression of press freedom that carries the signature of both government loyalists and armed opposition groups.
Turkey: (1) Metin Goktepe, Evrensel
Date of Death: Jan. 8, 1996
Place of Death: Istanbul
Goktepe was a columnist for the left-leaning daily Evrensel. He was beaten to death by police Jan. 8. He had been covering the funeral in Istanbul of two leftist inmates killed during a prison riot. His death prompted a public outcry among journalists. Eleven policemen have been charged with his murder and 37 other police with “dereliction of duty.” Their trial, which began in October in Istanbul, has been delayedÑsome say deliberatelyÑby repeated moves to outlying provinces “for security reasons.” The trial resumed Feb. 7.
Ukraine: (1)Igor Hrushetsky, Free-lancer
Date of Death: May 10, 1996
Place of Death: CherkassyHrushetsky was a free-lance journalist. He was found dead May 10 near his home in Cherkassy, killed by a blow to the head. He was known for his reports on political corruption published in Nezavisimost and Respublika and had testified recently in a criminal case involving the son of a high-ranking police official.
Deaths by Accident: 1 Croatia: (1) Nathaniel Nash, The New York Times
Date of Death: April 3, 1996
Place of Death: Dubrovnik
Nash was Frankfurt bureau chief for The New York Times. He was killed April 3 when a U.S. Air Force plane carrying a U.S. trade mission to the former Yugoslavia crashed into a mountain as it was attempting to land at the Dubrovnik airport. All 35 persons aboard were killed, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. The Air Force flight on a stormy, low-visibility night disregarded previous advice from the Air Force Air Mobility Command to U.S.-based pilots to avoid landing at Dubrovnik except in clear weather. An Air Force investigation concluded that the crash was due to “failure of command, aircrew error, and an improperly designed instrument approach procedure.”
Unconfirmed Cases: 8 Bangladesh: (1) S.M. Alauddin, Ogrodoot
Date of Death: June 19, 1996
Place of Death: Satkhira
Alauddin was editor of the weekly Ogrodoot and a former member of Parliament for the governing Awami League in Satkhira. He was fatally shot June 19 while in his office. Police attribute the murder to a political feud, but have failed to provide details.
Guatemala: (2) Juan José Yantuche, “TV Noticias”
Date of Death: April 11, 1996
Place of Death: MixcoIsrael Hernández Marroqu’n, Infopress Centroamericano
Yantuche was a reporter with the cable television news program “TV Noticias.” He lay in a coma for a week in a Mixco hospital with injuries inflicted by gunshots and died April 11. A week after his assassination the director of “TV Noticias,” Oscar Mazaya, reported receiving anonymous death threats.
Date of Death: Dec. 10, 1996
Place of Death: Guatemala CityHernández Marroqu’n was editor of the weekly newsletter Infopress Centroamericano. He was fatally shot Dec. 10 and found dead on the outskirts of Guatemala City.Nigeria: (2) Baguda Kaltho, TheNEWS
Date of Death: March 1996
Place of Death: NigeriaKaltho was the Kaduna-based senior correspondent for TheNEWS. He has been missing since early March and was last seen leaving the newspaper’s office alone one evening. TheNEWS’s management and his family have been unable to ascertain his whereabouts and he is presumed dead.< B>Chinedu Offoaro, The Guardian
Date of Death: May 1996
Place of Death: NigeriaOffoaro was a reporter for The Guardian. He has been missing since the third week in May. He failed to return to the newspaper’s offices on May 26 from a reporting assignment in Owerri, in Imo State. His family have been unsuccessful in their attempts to locate him and fear he is dead. State Security Service officials have refused to cooperate with the family or answer questions about whether they detained Offoaro.
Philippines: (1) Alberto Berbon, DZMM Radio
Date of Death: Dec. 15, 1996
Place of Death: Manila
Berbon was senior editor for the radio station DZMM, which is owned by the Philippines’ largest broadcast network, ABS-CBN. He was fatally shot Dec. 15 outside his home in the Manila suburb in an attack that also injured his wife. He headed a local journalists association and was a prominent anti-crime activist. As of February, a prosecutor had filed charges against four suspects.
Russia: (1) Oleg Slabynko, Russian Television Channel 2
Date of Death: Jan. 25, 1996
Place of Death: Moscow
Slabynko was producer of the news programs “Moment Istiny” (“Moment of Truth”) and “Zabytyye Imena” (“Forgotten Names”) on Russian Television Channel 2. He was also general manager of an advertising agency. He was fatally shot Jan. 25 in the doorway of his Moscow apartment.
Uzbekistan: (1) Sergei Grebenyuk, Interfax
Date of Death: Feb. 8, 1996
Place of Death: Tashkent
Grebenyuk was a reporter for the independent Russian news agency Interfax. He was found dead Feb. 8 in a canal in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, the cause of death unknown. He was last seen Jan. 27. Russian correspondents working in Tashkent have been the victims of anonymous threats, and Grebenyuk had received similar warnings and had previously been attacked.