Sultan Munadi: A Gentle Stalwart
Skinny as a beanpole, generous to an extreme and with an easy laugh, Sultan M. Munadi was an Afghan striver.
He worked for The New York Times for four years before leaving to start his own public service radio station. He received top marks in a grueling, yearlong preparatory course for a public policy master’s degree program in Germany. During his spare time, he joined a social networking site for book lovers and chatted online with readers in Paraguay.
After this reporter escaped from Taliban captivity in June, Mr. Munadi sent a typically ebullient e-mail message.
“Oh my God!” he wrote. “I’m really really happy for this great news. I’ll thank billions of times the God for this freedom.”
Early Wednesday morning, Mr. Munadi died in a predawn raid by British commandos trying to rescue him and Stephen Farrell, a correspondent for The Times, from Taliban captivity. The two men had been kidnapped in northern Afghanistan on Saturday while reporting on a NATO bombing that killed scores of people, possibly including many civilians.
Mr. Munadi was killed as he tried to lead Mr. Farrell to safety.
Walking in front of Mr. Farrell as they tried to reach British forces, Mr. Munadi stepped out from behind a wall, raised his hands and identified himself as a journalist. A hail of bullets immediately felled him...
... Those who worked with him said his country’s turmoil did not dampen his spirit or limit his determination. During Taliban rule, he worked with the International Red Cross in his native Panjshir Valley, a mountainous area north of Kabul that was never ruled by the Taliban, even when they dominated the country from 1996 to 2001.
That year, he began working with the foreign journalists who flooded northern Afghanistan as American forces prepared to invade. He was impartial and showed a remarkable attention to detail.
“He would always pause for a second before starting to translate, as if thinking it over, making sure he had it right, then say, ‘O.K.,’ and launch in,” Amy Waldman, a former Times correspondent who worked with Mr. Munadi from 2002 to 2005, said. “If he’d realized he’d forgotten a detail, he’d call or e-mail to make sure you had it, a kind of meticulousness that comes not from rote compulsion, but from a profound need to do justice to whomever or whatever we were writing about.”...
... Before resuming his studies in Germany, Mr. Munadi agreed to work as a reporter for The Times for a month around the Aug. 20 elections.
Mr. Farrell expressed despair Wednesday at Mr. Munadi’s death, saying he was “three seconds away from safety” when he was shot.
Read entire article at NYT
He worked for The New York Times for four years before leaving to start his own public service radio station. He received top marks in a grueling, yearlong preparatory course for a public policy master’s degree program in Germany. During his spare time, he joined a social networking site for book lovers and chatted online with readers in Paraguay.
After this reporter escaped from Taliban captivity in June, Mr. Munadi sent a typically ebullient e-mail message.
“Oh my God!” he wrote. “I’m really really happy for this great news. I’ll thank billions of times the God for this freedom.”
Early Wednesday morning, Mr. Munadi died in a predawn raid by British commandos trying to rescue him and Stephen Farrell, a correspondent for The Times, from Taliban captivity. The two men had been kidnapped in northern Afghanistan on Saturday while reporting on a NATO bombing that killed scores of people, possibly including many civilians.
Mr. Munadi was killed as he tried to lead Mr. Farrell to safety.
Walking in front of Mr. Farrell as they tried to reach British forces, Mr. Munadi stepped out from behind a wall, raised his hands and identified himself as a journalist. A hail of bullets immediately felled him...
... Those who worked with him said his country’s turmoil did not dampen his spirit or limit his determination. During Taliban rule, he worked with the International Red Cross in his native Panjshir Valley, a mountainous area north of Kabul that was never ruled by the Taliban, even when they dominated the country from 1996 to 2001.
That year, he began working with the foreign journalists who flooded northern Afghanistan as American forces prepared to invade. He was impartial and showed a remarkable attention to detail.
“He would always pause for a second before starting to translate, as if thinking it over, making sure he had it right, then say, ‘O.K.,’ and launch in,” Amy Waldman, a former Times correspondent who worked with Mr. Munadi from 2002 to 2005, said. “If he’d realized he’d forgotten a detail, he’d call or e-mail to make sure you had it, a kind of meticulousness that comes not from rote compulsion, but from a profound need to do justice to whomever or whatever we were writing about.”...
... Before resuming his studies in Germany, Mr. Munadi agreed to work as a reporter for The Times for a month around the Aug. 20 elections.
Mr. Farrell expressed despair Wednesday at Mr. Munadi’s death, saying he was “three seconds away from safety” when he was shot.