We have been living through intense days of pain but you have been unable to rise to the occasion; what’s more, you have offended us by your behavior. Pardon me, Mr. Prime Minister, for beginning with such a stark phrase, for I feel it emerge from the very depths of my being. Since Tuesday, April 8, I have done nothing else than think of how to start this open letter without wounding your sentiments.
As you well know, the cruel actions of US troops assaulting Baghdad that day cost the lives of three journalists, among them the cameraman of Telecinco, José Couso. I am glad to write this after many hours and days of thought. In the heat of the moment, our words have a harsher impact than we would like.
You have seen the images just as everyone else in Spain has. They have been repeated umpteen times on TV. You have seen the path of the shell fired by a tank at the Hotel Palestine. You have seen the desperation on the faces of my colleagues while they tried to reanimate the journalists who were struck. But you did not see how several of José Couso’s colleagues risked their lives in a emergency search for blood at several blood banks in Baghdad.
Mr. Prime Minister, why have you been so cold towards the suffering that is affecting an entire profession? How could you wait 48 hours before building the narrowest of bridges to those in mourning? Why did that brief encounter seem more of a forced decision than the sincere recognition of a true need?
I would like to think that you were quite badly advised by your aides. That they made you think that the resentment would evaporate within a few hours and that things would return to normal. What a shame! You missed a superb opportunity to redeem yourself in the midst of your darkest hours.
You could have organized a meeting with a commission of journalists that cover the daily activities of your government. You could have promised to do everything in your power to determine what happened on that fateful eighth of April. It would have been well received, and it would also have bought you at least a few days or weeks.
Because the boycott by the entire Spanish media and many international media was a direct consequence of your disheartening rudeness. Your rudeness towards the pain and humiliation. Because it is humiliating that George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and his generals have not officially apologized to this country for the killing of José Couso.
Mr. Prime Minister, the writer of these lines is not a feared member of some dark conspiracy or a dishevelled opponent with a thirst for vengeance. He is simply an independent photojournalist who works regularly for the Heraldo de Aragon, who has specialized in covering armed conflicts for the last 20 years and who has seen the death of many of his colleagues in bombings or in terrible ambushes. One who has had to comfort widows, mothers, siblings and children of colleagues who have died working on that thin line between life and death. One who has had to support the recovery of colleagues distraught with pain, wounded in the depths of their souls, that place which weighs like the cold slab of a grave. One who has needed the support of those same colleagues when exhausted by despair and uncertainty.
What a strange view you have of professional journalists who decide to go to a war with the sole desire of bringing to light the barbarism and thus prevent horror holding sway without any witnesses. As if they were nothing more than adventurers who journey through valleys of tears out of boredom or because they are escaping from a life of dreariness or idle contemplation. I assure you that they are people like you, who leave at home men or women that worry and children that are anxious about their return.
All wars are horrendous, useless and some are illegal. But we will always have journalists, like José Couso, Julio A. Parrado, Julio Fuentes, Miguel Gil, Luis Valtueña, Jordi Pujol, or Juantxu Rodriquez who will decide to visit that daily hell and accept the risks required to become intermediaries between the victims and forgetfulness.
The invading troops fired intentionally at journalists with the sole objective of provoking fear and panic. They sought rid themselves of coverage that was exposing many of the daily lies fabricated by Anglo-American strategists.
What happened in Baghdad is typical of criminal or fascist armies, of death squads or paramilitary groups whose actions are driven by delirium and brutality, not respect for human rights. This should never be the modus operandi of a regular army, let alone the most powerful army in the world, obliged as it is to abide by international conventions in times of war.
You see, Mr. Prime Minister, I have seen killing in Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and scores of other forgotten wars. I have experienced situations that seem to have come from the most horrible dreams. Doris Lessing is right when she says “no writer can invent anything as cruel as what life itself invents every day.” I assure you that no horror tale could achieve the same drama as that found on the killing fields of these countries. But when I went back to the hotel after a terrifying day, I felt safe. Those murderous thugs had more respect for my work and that of my colleagues than Rumsfeld and his generals in Baghdad.
Nadine Gordimer has said that “true patriotism does not mean always cheering on the decisions of a government, but to point out mistakes and speak out about them.” You should have pointed out to the United States government their mistake, which is even more horrifying because no one doubts the premeditation of their army. You should have led the outrage against a government that committed a war crime against a citizen of your country instead of merely talking about the dangers of reporting from a city under siege, of which we are all aware. You should have used your energy, if it is true that you “understand and respect the reasons for journalists’ protests at what has happened,” to forthrightly condemn the killing of José Couso and his colleagues. Your spokesmen have behaved with obvious indifference towards the journalistic disaster of April 8 in Baghdad, Mr. Prime Minister. When the corpse of José Couso was still warm in the morgue, and his grief-stricken colleagues were forced to make drastic decisions to either stay on and keep working under harsh conditions or return home to their families, your Defense Minister started to pressure the media with requests that were unfair and impossible, and which also reflected a deep disrespect for the journalists’ work and an absurd ignorance of daily life in a besieged and bombed city.
When despair was ravaging my colleagues in Baghdad, and tears for Jose and Julio were being shed by all in Spain, your Foreign Minister could only strike out blindly and allow herself the luxury of reminding us that thousands of people are dying in Congo. Yes, of course, for decades now, and particularly since 1996.
You have decided, Mr. Prime Minister, to give credibility to the official version of your ally rather than defend the principles that protect the work of international media. You would prefer to spark the animosity of the Spanish people rather than draw a line for your friend Bush until he admits the error or clarifies the incident. You should have used the force of reason to unmask the possible perpetrators of a war crime.
I hope that a grand alliance between Spanish and international media will emerge to simultaneously demand explanations from the US government for the ruthless attack on the journalists covering the war in Baghdad and prevent these murders from being swept under the carpet by the momentum of new events.
While this occurs, Mr. Prime Minister, I am going to consider guilt before ending this letter. Can one be guilty if the decision to kill has been made by others? On the shifting sands of ambiguity, one can face different degrees of culpability. Guilt can be for action. Those who ordered the killings of April 8. Then there are those who have enabled, those who have silenced, those who have excused and those who forget the unjustly murdered. This, Mr. Prime Minister, is how guilt can spread.
Gervasio Sanchez is a photojournalist who specializes in armed conflicts.
