Thursday, October 15, 2009

"In Harm's Way" by Martin Bell [8]

Moving right along, the next two chapters are interesting reading but not particularly related to the focus of this blog.

Chapter 6: One Day in August

A very colorful and drolly-told tale of when Bell took some shrapnel while in Bosnia. He was properly ashamed at the level of care he received versus the plight of Bosnian civilians trapped in Sarajevo. He also includes the story of Mark Cook, a member of the British military who led the effort to rebuild an orphanage completely destroyed by the war in Croatia; his connection with Bell (he was a witness to the shrapnel incident) gave him the opportunity to publicize the need for funds needed to completely rebuild the orphanage.

Chapter 7: Tuna

A tale of war reporting, the particular challenges and satisfactions it provides for its practitioners as well as the high price some pay. In this case, the highest price was paid by Tihomir Tunukovic or "Tuna", a young Croatian cameraman who provided invaluable service to Bell and his BBC crew throughout the war in Croatia. Later, Tuna would venture to Bosnia where his luck ran out. Bell was one of the speakers at Tuna's funeral, which was attended by 2000 or more mourners.

Both of these chapters are touching, humane, and well-written. I don't mean to give them short shrift, but I'm eager to move on to chapters more directly related to the subject matter of the blog.

1 comment:

Srebrenica Genocide said...

Kirk - breaking news. Milorad Trbic gets 30 years for Genocide.

http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please report it on your blog in a separate post. Genocide convictions don't come everyday. It's extremely hard to obtain a genocide judgement. And we got him!

Daniel