His Excellency Gulbuddin Hekmatyr
Prime Minister
Char Rahi Sedarat
Kabul
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Bucharest, 10 September 1994

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), on the occasion of the international conference on “Journalists in War Zones and Regions of Conflict” (Bucharest, 9-10 September 1994), bringing together senior correspondents and media experts from six Western nations as well as journalists from Central and Eastern Europe, strongly condemns the brutal murder of Mirwais Jalil, a reporter working for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Pashto-language service in Afghanistan.

Mr. Jalil was shot at least twenty times on 29 July 1994 by masked gunmen while returning from an interview with Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyr in Charasyab, inside Hezbde-controlled territory. We understand that the BBC in general and Mr. Jalil in particular had earned the displeasure of the various political and military leaders and had received numerous threats.

IPI, representing publishers, editors-in-chief and leading journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 80 countries, views the murder of Mr. Jalil as a flagrant violation of the journalists “right to seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We therefore strongly urge the leaders of the various factions to investigate the killing and bring those responsible to justice. We further urge that all possible steps are taken to protect the safety of journalists reporting on events in Afghanistan.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director