Posted on 06/30/2004 7:38:49 AM PDT by dead
An Australian filmmaker is missing in Afghanistan and it is feared that she may have been kidnapped by Taliban fighters, or bandits, after her four-wheel-drive was found abandoned on Tuesday.
On Monday, Carmela Baranowska, 35, left Kandahar for Zabul province, 100 kilometres north. Neither she, nor her Afghan fixer, Mohibullah, have been heard from since.
Tim McGirk, the regional correspondent for Time, said he was extremely concerned for both Ms Baranowska, and Mohibullah - an experienced and reliable fixer who worked for the magazine.
Mr McGirk said from Kabul there had been a battle between US forces and Taliban fighters in that area some weeks ago and the US claimed to have killed about 80 Taliban fighters. The pair were heading there to check things out.
Abduction appeared likely, Mr McGirk said. The region is mountainous and desolate and Mr McGirk said local officials had found Ms Baranowska's four-wheel-drive abandoned by the road in the mountains on Tuesday afternoon.
The Australian high commission in Pakistan confirmed the Melbourne woman was missing and said it was making urgent inquires, but could not confirm she had been kidnapped. It is working with the Canadian embassy in Kabul, which handles Australia's interests in Afghanistan.
Ms Baranowska had been in Afghanistan for several months making documentaries for SBS Television. Earlier this month she had been embedded with US forces in Uruzgan province near the town of Tarin Kot.
Two weeks ago she returned to Kabul and stayed for a week at the Mustafa Hotel and then left again last Friday. She left some of her belongings at the hotel and told staff she would be returning from Kandahar in two weeks.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist based in Peshawar, said he had contacted a Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan, who said he did not know of the kidnapping. Some of the area is controlled by a splinter group of the Taliban called Jaifh al-Muslimeen and it may have been responsible, he said.
Ms Baranowska was awarded the Rory Peck Award for her film, East Timor: The Law of Violence.
Its not the playground youd think it was.....
I be Michael Moore could make a darn good documentary out there. Lets send him to Waziristan.
They would never kidnap him. Per the Koran, Pigs are to be avoided at all costs......
These people know just how risky it is to be in some of these countries. Personally, I think they are stupid to go there for their art.
Well, I'm sorry she's dead (she is, you know). But, I'm just guessing that she was a fan of Noam Chomsky and that she thinks the US is the bad guy in Afghanistan. She probably thought that -- right up to the point where "the good guys" killed her in cold blood.
Any evidence for any of them?
You dont know anything about her and yet you assume the worst.
She probably thought she was dealing with rational human beings. Not.
1) She's missing in Afghanistan, but her car was found. I assume she has been kidnapped by the Taliban or by bandits. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Shot in the back of the head? Beheaded? Freed with their heartfelt apologies? I assume the worst.
2) She made a film about violence in Timor. This is one of Noam Chomsky's big bugaboos. An independent film-maker? Who won an award? For a movie about Noam Chomsky's favorite subject? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Pro-American? Anti-American? I assume the worst.
She made a film about violence in Timor. This is one of Noam Chomsky's big bugaboos.
You just posted something about violence in Timor.
Does that mean you also share Noam Chomsky’s views?
Lefties don't seem to be getting the message that just because the jihadis hate America they aren't likely to be sympathetic to the hate America left and in fact consider them to be just another infidel.
News reporters who allowed to travel "embedded" with our forces so as to report NEWS.
This person wants to make a documentry, possibly for profit, I don't admire her at all.
I also googled around a bit, and couldn't find a single indicator of her politics.
She may have been an old-school documentarian who records events independent of her own political biases. She was embedded with US troops in Afghanistan recently, but I don't know what sort of work came out of it.
Besides, the whole East Timor thing that made her famous, did not have much of a pro-American or anti-American angle to it. We pretty much stayed out of that one.
There really was no anti-American angle in the Timor troubles.
Either way, I wish her luck if she's still alive.
Could be. I know I'm cynical, but:
Michael Moore is an independent film-maker.
Michael Moore wins awards for his work.
Michael Moore's work has recently focused on US invovlement in the Middle East.
You could substitute this woman's name for Moore's and the statements would still be true. I admit I'm making assumptions, and maybe I shouldn't. But if a lisping man came up to you and said he was an Interior Decorator, what would you assume?
It's true that not every award-winning Independent film-maker is anti-American.
It's true that not every lisping Interior Decorator is homosexual.
But most of 'em are.
Ya haven't read Chomsky.
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