WASHINGTON: The International Women's Media Foundation is deeply saddened by the loss of Marie Colvin, a legendary veteran correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. Colvin, IWMF's 2000 Courage in Journalism Award winner, was killed in a mortar attack in Homs, Syria, on Wednesday as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad bombarded the area. Award-winning French photographer Remi Ochlik, who was traveling with Colvin, was also killed. “Marie Colvin knew the power of the media to show the horrors of war. Throughout her career she gave voice to the vulnerable and fearlessly covered conflicts around the world,” said IWMF Board co-chair Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. “Her courageous reporting inspired women journalists around the world,” added Board co-chair Katty Kay. IWMF Board member Christiane Amanpour said, “Marie Colvin was a great friend and generous colleague. We shared some of the same trenches for the past two decades. She seemed indestructible especially after surviving shrapnel in Sri Lanka that blinded her in one eye, but did not rob her spirit. She was back in the trenches, sporting a swashbuckling new look…the eye patch… Our last time together was in Tripoli last year, as the storm of revolution gathered around Ghadaffi. We shared our experience and our sources and nailed an exclusive interview with Ghadaffi. That was a great score, but Marie's strength lay in giving voice to the voiceless, giving them a face, and humanizing the crises she covered.” When CBS' Mike Wallace presented Colvin IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award, he wondered, “How many journalists, if we were honest with ourselves, would take the risks that she takes? For most of us one war, perhaps two, in a lifetime would be enough – but for Marie covering war is a lifestyle. She has pulled away from journalism's pack.” Colvin, 55, entered Homs on a secret smugglers' route in the dark, climbing over walls and slipping into muddy trenches. Earlier this week, in an interview with BBC from Syria, Colvin described the gruesome scene, “I watched a little baby die today,” she said. “Absolutely horrific, a 2-year-old child had been hit. They stripped it and found the shrapnel had gone into the left chest and the doctor said ‘I can't do anything.' “No one here can understand how the international community can let this happen, particularly when we have an example of Srebrenica – shelling of a city, lots of investigations by the United Nations after that massacre, lots of vows to never let it happen again,” said Colvin, a the Sunday Times correspondent since 1985. Colvin, a Yale University graduate from Oyster Bay, NY, covered the most dangerous corners of the world. She was repeatedly attacked by Russian jets in Chechnya, while reporting on rebels. She walked for days through desolate, ice-covered mountains fending off both Caucasian bandits and Russian paratroopers. Colvin traveled on patrol with the Kosovo Liberation Army in the Balkans as it engaged the Serb military, and fought to remain behind in an embattled UN refugee camp while covering the war in East Timor. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/gjTX0 Tags: IWMF, Journalist, Marie Colvin Section: Media, Syria, Women
