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June 23, 2006

Somalia: Swedish Journalist Killed At Islamist Rally

The picture at left was taken at a rally in Mogadishu, and the man second from left is shown just minutes before he was shot at close range in the chest, killing him almost instantly.

The man is renowned Swedish-born journalist Martin Adler (below, right), aged 47. He was shot shortly after he had snapped photographs of demonstrators. The news is carried by Agence Frence Presse via Turkish Press, the BBC, by Al Jazeera, the Local and Voice of America. Mr Adler is the second journalist to be killed recently. 39-year old British BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead in Mogadishu on February 9. Martin Adler is the 10th foreign journalist to be killed in Somalia since warlords brought down the government of Siad Barre in 1991. Reuters AlertNet has a list of the foreign individuals killed in Somalia since 2003.

Born in Stockholm from Anglo-English parents, Martin Adler was a freelance cameraman who worked in various war zones, including El Salvador, Peru, Rwanda, Congo, Angola, Sierra leone, Liberia, Chechnya, Abchazia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Burundi. Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Iraq.

For a story on kidnapping and sale of women in China, he won the 2001 Amnesty International Media award, and gained the Silver Prize for investigative journalism at the 2001 New York TV festival. He is suvived by his wife and two daughters who live in Vasteras, east of Stockholm, Sweden.

The rally which Mr Adler was documenting was held in Mogadishu by the Union of Islamic Courts, and was organised to show support for the recent brokering of a declaration of principles, signed between the Union of Islamic Courts and the transitional government of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf, which is based in Baidoa. The declarations, which were signed in Khartoum, Sudan, were brokered by the Arab League.

The rally was also held to protest any suggestion that foreign peacekeepers should be deployed in Somalia. It has been suggested that Ethiopian troops should hold the peace, but the Union of Islamic Courts oppose this, especially as President Yusuf is said to be close to Ethiopia.

Mr Adler was shot during the commotion which followed an incident in which an Ethiopian flag was set on fire. Shortly after Mr Adler was shot, a woman was seen to run away, and she has since been arrested. A speaker at the rally addressed the crowd of 4,000: "We are against the killing of a journalist who is a guest. This person deserves to be punished for killing somebody for no reason."

Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed, head of the Union of Islamic Courts, told AFP: "We will take serious action on this matter."

The chief editor of Aftonbladet, one of the newspapers for whom Mr Adler worked said: "Martin Adler was one of the most experienced war correspondents in Europe and the world."

The battle for the control of Somalia was effectively won on June 5 when the Union of Islamic Courts announced that it had taken control of Mogadishu, the capital. The fighting between an alliance of warlords and businessmen was formed in February, and between February 22 and June, about 360 people had been killed in fighting between the two sides.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 23, 2006 4:58 PM

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