An Afghan reporter's untold story
The destroyed RTA building.
Uncertainty surrounds the death of a journalist with links to Australia who was killed during a Taliban attack, writes Tom Hyland.
ONE of Afghan journalist Ahmed Omed Khpulwak's last assignments was to report on whether Australian troops were winning the hearts and minds of his compatriots.
He died before he filed his report, killed in a savage battle where the press pass in his hands offered no protection. His brother believes the bullets that hit him were fired by an American soldier.
While he never completed his assignment - commissioned by the Lowy Institute - he did summarise his findings for a colleague.
Ahmed Omed Khpulwak. Photo: Pajhwok Afghan News
Afghans had conflicting views of the Australian troops: they liked the reconstruction and security they brought, but would like them even more if their special forces stopped killing people in night raids.
His death seems certain to compound the distrust of all foreign troops.
Until he was killed, on July 28, Khpulwak's name had never appeared in the Australian press. Yet he was a key source of information for anyone trying to report on Oruzgan province, where Australian troops are based. He was used as a reporter and ''fixer'' for correspondents writing for The Sunday Age and other Australian papers. He helped an ABC Four Corners team on a recent assignment.
Bullet fragments found near Khpulwak's body.
The Lowy project was a longer, more complicated project, in a job full of complications. These included his strained relationship with the strongmen who are Australia's partners in Oruzgan. In recent months he complained of growing pressure from warlord Matiullah Khan, a controversial ally of Australian special forces.
Khpulwak's death was initially blamed on the Taliban, who launched a spectacular series of attacks using tactics, including suicide bombings, that made civilian deaths inevitable.
But The Sunday Age has uncovered evidence suggesting Khpulwak's death may have been ''collateral damage'' - that he was killed as US and Afghan government forces repelled the insurgent assault in Tarin Kowt, near the Australian base.
The Taliban's targets on July 28 were the governor's compound and the headquarters of Matiullah Khan. To get to him, they hit the adjacent radio and television building, where Khpulwak, 25, was killed. He was one of at least 18 civilians killed, 12 of them children. Many died when a suicide bomb collapsed a wall at a hospital that had been rebuilt by Australian engineers two years ago.
Amid conflicting accounts of Khpulwak's death, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force, launched an inquiry after pressure from his main employers, the BBC and Pajhwok Afghan News.
But Khpulwak's brother, Jawid, dismissed the ISAF inquiry, saying that, three weeks after the event, investigators had not contacted him. ''I have heard nothing from them,'' he told The Sunday Age. ''Why is ISAF doing this inquiry? This belongs to Americans. They shot Omed.''
ISAF spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Kaye Sweetser, in an email to The Sunday Age, said Khpulwak's family would be briefed when the inquiry was finished. ''ISAF clearly understands that earning and keeping the Afghan people's faith and trust is paramount,'' she said.
The Australian Defence Force has stressed Australian troops were not involved in the fighting, even though it took place a short walk from a camp where about 1000 Australians are based.
What is clear is that Khpulwak was in the wrong place at the wrong time, on a day when his two main challenges converged - a lack of security and unreliable communications.
Pajhwok Afghan News director Danish Karokhel said Khpulwak went to the office of the national broadcaster, RTA, as it was one of few places with electricity to recharge his laptop and an internet connection, so he could file a story and pictures.
He was trapped when the Taliban struck with a suicide bombing. Khpulwak was wounded in the blast, and sheltered in a toilet at the rear of the building. He sent two SMSs to his brother, that ''confirmed he was in a very difficult condition and it was very difficult for him to survive'', Mr Karokhel said.
''I am hiding. Death has come,'' the first message said. The second said: ''Pray for me if I die.''
Jawid collected his brother's body later that day. He said his media pass was still in his hands.
He said Afghan police told him a US soldier found his brother in the toilet. ''My brother was alive. One wall of the toilet, it was damaged, but he was alive. My brother was shot from five metres. Police told me he showed the American soldier his ID card.''
Jawid Khpulwak collected bullet casings from the scene. A manufacturer's stamp shows they were made in the US. Pictures of the scene indicate the ferocity of the fighting, with what appear to be at least 18 bullet holes on the wall where the reporter's body was found.
While the ADF insisted no Australians were involved in the fighting, an ADF media release on July 29 said several US troops were wounded in the attack on Matiullah Khan's base. At the time the militia leader held no official post, but a week later he was appointed police chief.
A Taliban statement on July 28 offered ''condolences'' to Khpulwak who ''was martyred in the crossfire inside his office''.
While the Taliban may be ultimately responsible, given their attacks on civilian structures that day, many Afghans were willing to blame foreign forces, according to Susanne Schmeidl, a Kabul-based analyst and associate of the dead journalist.
This distrust raised questions about the foreign force's credibility among people they claim to protect, Dr Schmeidl said. She spoke to Khpulwak days before the attack to discuss his report for the Lowy Institute, on what local people thought of Australian troops, and whether they should leave.
He had found people were divided. They appreciated the work of soldiers in reconstruction and expanding security. But they disliked Australian special forces, ''because they do little to prevent people from getting killed while conducting night raids and capture-and-kill missions'', Dr Schmeidl said.
''Omed noted that Australian forces would overall be better liked if they started behaving better, which I took to mean to rein in their SOF [special operations forces].''
Khpulwak's brother now feels Tarin Kowt is too dangerous for him and his family, who include the dead reporter's wife and three-month-old daughter.
He said he had recently received an anonymous death threat from an Afghan, warning him to stop blaming the Americans. ''They warn me, 'maybe your home or you will be shot by an American helicopter'.''
While Jawid Khplwak would not speculate on the source of the threat, his journalist brother had complained of pressure from Matiullah Khan. Dr Schmeidl said Khpulwak felt it was getting harder for journalists in Oruzgan: ''He told me at one point it was because Matiullah Khan has been trying to control the media, local journalism, because he feels they are making him look bad.''
For Mr Karokhel, Khpulwak's death has left a gap in his reporting network. ''Omed was interested to report the people's problems, the people's needs, and that is why he was a journalist,'' he said. ''He was a person who we cannot replace in a place like Oruzgan. He was a very strong guy and now we've lost him.''
Journalist trainer Lisa Schnellinger, an adviser to the news agency, said Khpulwak's loss would be felt far beyond an isolated corner of a distant conflict.
''This was a reporter who could get information in a place like Oruzgan in a way foreigners never can,'' Ms Schnellinger said. ''Every death is a tragedy, every journalist's death is a tragedy, but sometimes the loss is so extreme - and that's the case here. It's literally a loss to the world.''
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