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Issue: July 27th 2003

NWI Insights - Journalist's diary of the Iraq war

Last week on NWI, Paul Workman, a Canadian journalist, presented a diary of some of his experiences from the Iraq war. He spoke firstly of the amazing military build up that took place in Kuwait in January 2003 transforming the barren desert into a vast coalition base. He said that thousands of US and British soldiers steadily infiltrated Kuwait, building military centres amassed with tanks and helicopters. Workman asserted that it was obvious a war was going to take place and that from this point no amount of diplomatic effort was going to change the fact.

Workman was not embedded with coalition troops and described his experiences as a journalist under these conditions. He explained that access to areas in southern Iraq was very difficult and that the US clearly did not want journalists to enter certain areas. US soldiers prevented Workman and his crew from entering areas that they described as 'unsafe'. However other British soldiers that they spoke to said that many of these same roads were accessible. Workman said that they had to try many different tactics and use great perseverance to gain access through the checkpoints in Southern Iraq.

Once Workman's team entered into Southern Iraq, they set up on a farm which had been rented by the NBC and provided a comfortable base to travel from.

Humanitarian aid

Workman described the first aid envoy into Iraq as a "disaster". He said that hundreds of people were pushing and shoving to reach the food which was arriving in trucks. An Iraqi organization had put together the aid but it was clearly not an effective method of distribution. He recalls seeing two boys fighting over the sacks and women who were not strong enough to reach the food. It was in his words, a "horrible" and "humiliating" scene for the Iraqi people. According to Workman, US soldiers watched on but whether unable or unwilling, did not intervene in the mayhem.

Workman spoke to an Iraqi man about the aid distribution and he contended that the Iraqi government could have a done a much better job. Workman described Iraqis scrambling on to trucks and throwing off the last boxes of aid as the trucks neared the Kuwaiti border. Seeing the chaos, the military on the border aimed initially in the air and then started firing their weapons at the people claiming the last of the aid.

Sending reports home

Workman talked about his experience of reporting back to Canada from Iraq, stating that the signal was generally very good and that he could effectively make a video connection with the TV station. However for the first two days Workman explained, there was no reception from Iraq which he thought was due to the US interfering with signals so that data was not transmitted.

Showing footage of the interaction between the coalition forces and the civilians, Workman notes that the Iraqis were quite amazing, walking casually around, whilst the tremendous thuds of artillery hitting Basra blasted in the background.

Most difficult moment

The most difficult moment in the whole assignment for Workman came just after the war had ended but when there were still fires and military presence in Basra.

He contends that he and his team were out filming in the city when they came across Iraqi people full of fresh hostility and anger towards their situation. Workman explains that his team suddenly became a target for the Iraqi people whose city had just been devastated and who were in the midst of chaotic change. He cites the simple example of his team having food and water, whereas the Iraqi people did not. In the heightened tensions he explained, this was enough to make his team the enemy.

Workman states that a large rock was thrown through the windscreen of their vehicle. As they rushed to get in and away from the scene, another rock came through a side window and shattered it spraying glass. Driving as fast as possible, the crew escaped from a potentially deadly situation. They ended up going to a British checkpoint where one of the team was examined for glass in his eye, remnants of the shattered windscreen. Workman highlights that it is impossible to know when without warning you can become caught in a dangerous situation. Once the major defeat was over, he expressed his and his teams desire to return home.

This extract forms part of just one of the many insightful news features presented on the 24 hour news network Newsworld International (NWI). If you would like further information or are interested in subscribing to NWI, visit their website at http://www.nwitv.com or telephone their subscription service on 1-800-280-4388.

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