Reporting from conflict zones : moving, revealing, complleing funny

Ashok Ogra
For a foreign journalist assigned to report from the conflict-ridden Middle East is both challenging and fraught with danger with so many journalists having lost their life while reporting/photographing from ground zero.
The region has conflicting cultural, religious, political, and historical forces at work. And if we add the South Asia region then the job for such journalists become even more difficult.
The award-winning journalist, Shyam Bhatia, is one of the lucky ones to survive and recall and recount unique stories in his book ‘Bullets and Bylines: From the Frontlines of Kabul, Damascus, Delhi and Beyond’.
Shyam writes that “as a staff reporter at the Observer in the early 1980s, and when my stock started to rise, the news desk increasingly began sending me to cover international stories. …Wars, bombings, assassinations are typically the sorts of stories that require this service.”
The book is the author’s attempt to explain in great details how he covered some major world events – particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. There is also a chapter on the civil war in Sudan.
The book is revealing and heartwarming, and contains survival stories, including personal eyewitness account of mini massacre near Kandahar, Afghanistan, of innocent civilian bus passengers because they held red identity cards (red being synonymous with the Soviet communists).              While moving around the place, Shyam was spotted by Taliban – detained, tortured and served execution threat… “Why they didn’t kill me is still a mystery to me”.
They emptied the pockets of his blazer to see what money he was carrying. For two days he shared a room with his captors and was never left alone. That he managed to escape and survive is a miracle. “War reporters tend to have shorter life than many others in journalism,” Shyam writes. His feature containing graphic details of the massacre of unarmed civilians when first published in The Observer shocked the world community, evoking wide condemnation.
The book incorporates Shyam’s exploits – stories behind international exclusives – as lucky breaks. “One’s life is always in danger – witnessing the massacre of innocents, watching a fellow reporter lose his life in a landmine blow-up and crawling for six hours to safety ….” recalls Shyam.
A compelling narrative, the author is at his best when recalling the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1984 and subsequent massacre of Sikhs in Delhi. He refers to his meeting with the then President Zail Singh whom he found in sad mood: “President’s eyes were red with weeping”. ‘What have they done,’ President kept repeating as I conveyed my thoughts and observations of Delhi burning, the images of the dead bodies at Subzi Mandi,Delhi still flashing.”
Regarding Saddam Husain building a nuclear bomb, I am afraid Shyam does not offer enough evidence to support the argument one way or the other Incidentally, this is also the focus of his other book written jointly with Daniel Mcgrory titled ‘Saddam’s Bomb’ – a book that I have not read.
In the book Shyam refers to the many conversations he had with former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto with whom he shared close friendship and proximity – they got to know each other when studying at Oxford.
The author makes startling disclosures with regard to Pakistan nuclear programme based on his conversation with Benazir – she telling him that Pakistan will never nuke India.
In a two-page expose co-written with fellow colleague Colin Smith, entitled, ‘How Dr.Khan Stole the Bomb for Islam’, Shyam provides details of Pakistan scientist AQ Khan stealing nuclear secrets from Holland to then use them to build the bomb. This provoked Khan’s extraordinary tirade of abuse… and Khan dismissing the article as ‘bullshit, full of lies, insinuations and cheap journalism for money and cheap publicity…..’
Khan calls Shyam Bhatia a ‘Hindu bastard who is not expected to write anything objective about Pakistan.’
Most of his stories as told in the book are bizarre and horrifying, though there are occasions when an account amuses a reader like – like referring to Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan as ‘PINKI’.
During his entire career as a journalist lasting over 40 years Shyam has interviewed many world leaders including Yasser Arafat, Iran’s Hashmi Rafsanjani, Kuwait’s Sheikh Nasser, Sudan’s Omar Bashir, Israel’s Yitzhak Shamir, Simon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and virtually all top political leaders of the Indian sub-continent.
His perspective doesn’t always fit the Western media and one gets a glimpse of other angles in his dispatches. The book provides enough evidence of his investigative skills and penchant and patience to dig deeper to find the truth.
From the religious slaughters in Sudan to the Israeli-Palestine conflict over territory and identity, his insights are multi-layered and nuanced.
One of the ground breaking stories about the plight of the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq won him the International Reporter of the Year prize at the annual British Press awards.
Shyam has written many books including biography of Benazir Bhutto titled ‘Goodbye Shahzadi’, ‘Nuclear Rivals in the Middle East’, ‘Brighter than the Bhagdad Sun,’ ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb,’ and ‘Contemporary Afghanistan’ – last one published by Har Anand, Delhi.
In certain conflict zones, he attributes his easy access to ordinary people and escapes to his Indian-ness and his ability to hymn Raj Kapoor songs : ” Awaara Hoon”,” Mera Jota Hai Japani”…. much to the delight of the ordinary people and the militants alike.
In Iraq, Shyam discovered the magical appeal of Amitabh Bachchan. One armed insurgent welcoming him, ‘never mind if you are a journalist, you are Indian…. I love Indian films and Indian actors, especially Rajesh Khanna.’ Another asked, ‘Have you seen Amitabh Bachchan in Muqaddar Ka Sikander?’ He went on, ‘I think of myself as a friend of Amitabh, I need peace. But tell Amitabh all Iraqis love him.’
An exceptionally good read – compelling narrative – the book lives up to the reputation of journalism being the ‘first draft of history’ (Philip Graham, Washington Post, phrase).
Published by Speaking Tiger and priced Rs.599 (hardbound),
‘Bullets and Bylines: From the Frontlines of Kabul, Damascus, Delhi and Beyond’ is a must read for those interested in the region and want to know what happened behind the headlines.
It is also useful reading for those journalists willing to take up conflict/ war reporting- notwithstanding the grave dangers involved.
(The  Author is a noted management & media professional, and currently Director of Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication. He was formerly Vice Regional Director, Discovery Channel (South Asia).)

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