`Great to see friends' faces' - Sudan releases Tribune reporter
`Great to see friends' faces' - Sudan releases Tribune reporter
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published September 10, 2006
EL FASHER, Sudan -- Chicago Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek was set free Saturday by Sudanese authorities and began his long flight home to the United States.
Salopek's release in El Fasher, capital of the war-racked state of North Darfur, came on the eve of a scheduled trial in which the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and his Chadian driver and translator were to face espionage charges.
After hours of bureaucratic delay, Salopek and the Chadians were freed at the end of a 13-minute court hearing. "We are stopping the case and we are releasing you right now. And that is all," Judge Hosham Mohammed Yousif told the three men, ending their 34 days in custody.
A relieved Salopek expressed gratitude for the efforts that led to their release. "We are very happy to be headed back to our families," he said. "The concern for a long prison sentence was very real . . . I can't tell you how great it is to see friends' faces again."
Salopek, 44, was on a scheduled leave of absence from the Tribune and was reporting a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine, his previous employer, when he and the Chadians were arrested Aug. 6 in Darfur by pro-government forces.
On Aug. 26 they were formally charged with espionage, passing information illegally, printing "false news" and entering the country without visas. Through their attorneys, they acknowledged the civil violation of entering the country illegally but denied the more serious criminal charges.
Their release followed weeks of quiet diplomatic efforts involving dozens of public and private figures. The decisive thrust came Friday, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum and secured a pledge to free Salopek along with driver Idriss Abdulraham Anu and interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa.
Richardson argued that the three should be released on humanitarian grounds and said Salopek, a resident of New Mexico, was not a spy but a reporter doing his job.
When Richardson arrived Saturday in El Fasher, he told the governor of North Darfur that he was there to take custody of all three men.
"I think this is a triumph of democracy," Richardson said. "We can make a difference even if we have wide differences, which we [the U.S. and Sudan] do."
Following the release, Salopek and the Chadians flew with Richardson and his traveling party to Khartoum, Sudan's capital.
The Richardson delegation, including Salopek's wife, Linda Lynch, and Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski, then left the country on an overnight flight en route to Albuquerque. The Chadians were expected to be returned home Sunday.
A grateful Lynch expressed her relief, describing the weeks of diplomatic efforts to free the men as "immeasurable and remarkable."
Lipinski said their release brought "an incredible amount of relief for everybody."
National Geographic Editor in Chief Chris Johns, who met Richardson in Khartoum and then flew with him to El Fasher on Saturday, noted that he has worked in Africa for 20 years "and never had a better day than this one."
Moussa, the interpreter, added: "Now we're free, and so happy."
Richardson, a former congressman, energy secretary and United Nations ambassador, had met al-Bashir 10 years ago when Richardson negotiated the release of Red Cross workers held by Marxist rebels in Sudan.
The Democratic governor agreed to help in Salopek's case at the request of Lynch and Lipinski, and on Aug. 30 had a dinner meeting in Washington with Sudanese Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, who had been Richardson's interpreter during his 1996 trip to the African nation.
Richardson subsequently received an invitation from the Sudanese government to meet with al-Bashir, and on Friday night the president agreed to arrange for the release of Salopek and the Chadians.
`Bureaucratic hiccups'
Everything did not go exactly as planned after the delegation flew from Khartoum to El Fasher on Saturday morning. "There were some bureaucratic hiccups. . . . You just sit and wait, be pleasant, be positive," Richardson said.
When Richardson arrived, he met with the governor of North Darfur, as scheduled. But the governor told Richardson he did not have the papers authorizing their release. The judge was out to lunch, they were told. There was talk that any release could be delayed until Sunday.
"Then we were told there was to be a trial," Lipinski said.
Late Saturday afternoon, the proceedings began in a hot courtroom, with ceiling fans humming above. Salopek and the Chadians sat on a bench to the right of the judge, who asked a few questions before telling the men they were free.
As they were leaving, the judge walked by and smiled at Salopek, shook his hand and said, "You will have a nice story to write about Sudan, especially El Fasher, now."
At the courthouse gate, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. David Pond, who had extended his duty with the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur to see Salopek's case resolved, put his hand on the reporter's shoulder and said, "Let's go home."
"I've been holding my breath all day," said Pond, who visited Salopek every day since Aug. 18, when the three men arrived in El Fasher.
Despite the last-minute bureaucratic delays, Richardson said there never was any question that the three would be released. It was only a matter of whether they would be freed Saturday or Sunday.
No deals made
Later, in a news conference in Khartoum, Richardson said there were "no deals" made to secure their freedom.
"It was a humanitarian gesture on the part of President al-Bashir, and I appreciate it," Richardson said. "We respected each other and were able to solve the problem."
Sudan has been beset by years of violence. Northern and southern Sudanese leaders signed a peace agreement in January 2005, but that has done nothing to end strife in the western region of Darfur.
The Darfur rebels, mostly black African farming tribes, have been fighting the country's Arab-dominated central government. The government has used an Arab militia called the janjaweed to attack both rebels and ordinary villagers in Darfur, causing 2 million people to flee and leading to the deaths of more than 180,000, many from disease and hunger.
Sudanese government troops have been pouring into Darfur in recent weeks, a buildup that critics fear is preparation for a new offensive that could lead to widespread death and destruction in the region.
Meanwhile, al-Bashir and his government have rejected a U.S. and British push to deploy a large UN peacekeeping force that would replace 7,000 African Union troops scheduled to leave at the end of September.
Those issues complicated diplomatic efforts to obtain the release of Salopek and the Chadians.
During his meeting with al-Bashir, Richardson promised to relay a message to the Bush administration from the Sudanese president, requesting the good treatment and release of Sudanese prisoners held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The two also discussed Sudan's resistance to U.S. and British efforts to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
Besides the State Department, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) worked behind the scenes to secure Salopek's release. So did U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who led a congressional delegation to Darfur that visited Salopek.
Others who wrote letters to al-Bashir or issued statements supporting Salopek's release included Jesse Jackson; U2 singer Bono, who has traveled extensively in Africa in support of debt relief and AIDS education; several prominent journalists; and journalism groups including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Reporters Without Borders, the Overseas Press Club and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"I think both sides handled this very well," said U.S. Charge d'Affaires Cameron Hume, the top American diplomat in Sudan.
There were hopeful signs last week, when a Slovenian activist who had been imprisoned in July on espionage charges was released.
"The situation in Sudan is very volatile right now," Salopek said. "We felt like very small players in a very large drama."
Salopek won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a Tribune series on the Human Genome Diversity Project, and the 2001 Pulitzer for international reporting for articles on political strife and disease in Africa.
He said during the Khartoum news conference that he had been treated well during captivity and that conditions steadily improved during the final weeks.
Asked whether he planned to report again from Sudan, Salopek replied: "Absolutely. If I were to be granted a visa, I would come back."
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published September 10, 2006
EL FASHER, Sudan -- Chicago Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek was set free Saturday by Sudanese authorities and began his long flight home to the United States.
Salopek's release in El Fasher, capital of the war-racked state of North Darfur, came on the eve of a scheduled trial in which the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and his Chadian driver and translator were to face espionage charges.
After hours of bureaucratic delay, Salopek and the Chadians were freed at the end of a 13-minute court hearing. "We are stopping the case and we are releasing you right now. And that is all," Judge Hosham Mohammed Yousif told the three men, ending their 34 days in custody.
A relieved Salopek expressed gratitude for the efforts that led to their release. "We are very happy to be headed back to our families," he said. "The concern for a long prison sentence was very real . . . I can't tell you how great it is to see friends' faces again."
Salopek, 44, was on a scheduled leave of absence from the Tribune and was reporting a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine, his previous employer, when he and the Chadians were arrested Aug. 6 in Darfur by pro-government forces.
On Aug. 26 they were formally charged with espionage, passing information illegally, printing "false news" and entering the country without visas. Through their attorneys, they acknowledged the civil violation of entering the country illegally but denied the more serious criminal charges.
Their release followed weeks of quiet diplomatic efforts involving dozens of public and private figures. The decisive thrust came Friday, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum and secured a pledge to free Salopek along with driver Idriss Abdulraham Anu and interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa.
Richardson argued that the three should be released on humanitarian grounds and said Salopek, a resident of New Mexico, was not a spy but a reporter doing his job.
When Richardson arrived Saturday in El Fasher, he told the governor of North Darfur that he was there to take custody of all three men.
"I think this is a triumph of democracy," Richardson said. "We can make a difference even if we have wide differences, which we [the U.S. and Sudan] do."
Following the release, Salopek and the Chadians flew with Richardson and his traveling party to Khartoum, Sudan's capital.
The Richardson delegation, including Salopek's wife, Linda Lynch, and Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski, then left the country on an overnight flight en route to Albuquerque. The Chadians were expected to be returned home Sunday.
A grateful Lynch expressed her relief, describing the weeks of diplomatic efforts to free the men as "immeasurable and remarkable."
Lipinski said their release brought "an incredible amount of relief for everybody."
National Geographic Editor in Chief Chris Johns, who met Richardson in Khartoum and then flew with him to El Fasher on Saturday, noted that he has worked in Africa for 20 years "and never had a better day than this one."
Moussa, the interpreter, added: "Now we're free, and so happy."
Richardson, a former congressman, energy secretary and United Nations ambassador, had met al-Bashir 10 years ago when Richardson negotiated the release of Red Cross workers held by Marxist rebels in Sudan.
The Democratic governor agreed to help in Salopek's case at the request of Lynch and Lipinski, and on Aug. 30 had a dinner meeting in Washington with Sudanese Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, who had been Richardson's interpreter during his 1996 trip to the African nation.
Richardson subsequently received an invitation from the Sudanese government to meet with al-Bashir, and on Friday night the president agreed to arrange for the release of Salopek and the Chadians.
`Bureaucratic hiccups'
Everything did not go exactly as planned after the delegation flew from Khartoum to El Fasher on Saturday morning. "There were some bureaucratic hiccups. . . . You just sit and wait, be pleasant, be positive," Richardson said.
When Richardson arrived, he met with the governor of North Darfur, as scheduled. But the governor told Richardson he did not have the papers authorizing their release. The judge was out to lunch, they were told. There was talk that any release could be delayed until Sunday.
"Then we were told there was to be a trial," Lipinski said.
Late Saturday afternoon, the proceedings began in a hot courtroom, with ceiling fans humming above. Salopek and the Chadians sat on a bench to the right of the judge, who asked a few questions before telling the men they were free.
As they were leaving, the judge walked by and smiled at Salopek, shook his hand and said, "You will have a nice story to write about Sudan, especially El Fasher, now."
At the courthouse gate, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. David Pond, who had extended his duty with the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur to see Salopek's case resolved, put his hand on the reporter's shoulder and said, "Let's go home."
"I've been holding my breath all day," said Pond, who visited Salopek every day since Aug. 18, when the three men arrived in El Fasher.
Despite the last-minute bureaucratic delays, Richardson said there never was any question that the three would be released. It was only a matter of whether they would be freed Saturday or Sunday.
No deals made
Later, in a news conference in Khartoum, Richardson said there were "no deals" made to secure their freedom.
"It was a humanitarian gesture on the part of President al-Bashir, and I appreciate it," Richardson said. "We respected each other and were able to solve the problem."
Sudan has been beset by years of violence. Northern and southern Sudanese leaders signed a peace agreement in January 2005, but that has done nothing to end strife in the western region of Darfur.
The Darfur rebels, mostly black African farming tribes, have been fighting the country's Arab-dominated central government. The government has used an Arab militia called the janjaweed to attack both rebels and ordinary villagers in Darfur, causing 2 million people to flee and leading to the deaths of more than 180,000, many from disease and hunger.
Sudanese government troops have been pouring into Darfur in recent weeks, a buildup that critics fear is preparation for a new offensive that could lead to widespread death and destruction in the region.
Meanwhile, al-Bashir and his government have rejected a U.S. and British push to deploy a large UN peacekeeping force that would replace 7,000 African Union troops scheduled to leave at the end of September.
Those issues complicated diplomatic efforts to obtain the release of Salopek and the Chadians.
During his meeting with al-Bashir, Richardson promised to relay a message to the Bush administration from the Sudanese president, requesting the good treatment and release of Sudanese prisoners held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The two also discussed Sudan's resistance to U.S. and British efforts to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
Besides the State Department, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) worked behind the scenes to secure Salopek's release. So did U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who led a congressional delegation to Darfur that visited Salopek.
Others who wrote letters to al-Bashir or issued statements supporting Salopek's release included Jesse Jackson; U2 singer Bono, who has traveled extensively in Africa in support of debt relief and AIDS education; several prominent journalists; and journalism groups including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Reporters Without Borders, the Overseas Press Club and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"I think both sides handled this very well," said U.S. Charge d'Affaires Cameron Hume, the top American diplomat in Sudan.
There were hopeful signs last week, when a Slovenian activist who had been imprisoned in July on espionage charges was released.
"The situation in Sudan is very volatile right now," Salopek said. "We felt like very small players in a very large drama."
Salopek won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a Tribune series on the Human Genome Diversity Project, and the 2001 Pulitzer for international reporting for articles on political strife and disease in Africa.
He said during the Khartoum news conference that he had been treated well during captivity and that conditions steadily improved during the final weeks.
Asked whether he planned to report again from Sudan, Salopek replied: "Absolutely. If I were to be granted a visa, I would come back."
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:53 AM
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