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.
There's an Australian journalist who's been on CNN for several days now. He's been following the insurgents in Iraq for over a year, and he's been reporting how they have gone from being a loosely organized bunch of rabblerousers to a highly organized group of jihadists. I wonder if these terrorists will off him just because, at some point. The stuff he's reporting could "make your blood run cold" according to CNN's talking heads.
Like I said, I don't know her politics, but she's likely a leftie. They seem to gravitate more towards filmmaking.
BTW, that award she won was for journalistic bravery. It was named after another journalist who was shot to death in Moscow covering a story. She apparently has a brass set of balls on her when she wants to make a film. Unfortunately for her, that's why she's nowhere to be found right now.
Frankly, I do think that the anti-America left doesn't understand that the Islamizakis aren't their friends and I think it is entirely possible that this lack of understanding might be a factor in explaining what has happened to her.
I decided to google her name after seeing your post to clearcaseguy to see for myself, so I didn't make any assumptions until I had done that search. Specualtion as to her motives may be distasteful or unseemly, but it did make me curious about her. In a few days we will probably learn more about her and I am willing to admit that I could be wrong about her, but I don't think my point about the left's "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" attitude is incorrect (whether or not it applies to her).
Your point number two,,East Timor may be Chomskys favorite subject but there are other points of view and we do not know hers. That is what I meant. And BTW so what is the point. No matter what her viewpoint, she doesn't deserve this.
There are smart ways to make money and I'm all for it. If you want to walk into a lion's den for money....I'll repeat what I said, I don't admire you.
Still no clue about her politics, but interesting information about her "fixer".
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