We filmed our report and interviewed Zarqawi’s uncle, who could not hold back his tears. It is not easy for an Afghan man to cry in front of a female stranger. It was not one of the greatest reports I have produced in my career: it is agonising to ask someone how his relatives were killed and I was lost for words. Many questions about Zarqawi kept roaming inside my head: what his life would be like, what we could do for him, especially considering that the majority of the Afghan people, aside from the war lords, live in poverty.
As a human, before being journalist, I wondered whether we were feeding on other people’s tragedies and questioned whether it was a professional achievement to tell their stories in just a few minutes. No matter what the answers are, I am certain that it is a noble duty to at least be with those victims. A few days later, as Eid el-Fitr was around the corner, our team came back to visit Zarqawi. We felt a sort of moral obligation to see him happily dressed in the colourful new attire I had bought
246
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter