HEBRON, 21 August 2003 — Mazen Dana, the Reuters cameraman killed by US troops in Iraq, was buried yesterday in the West Bank city where he braved bullets to chronicle the tragedy of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
Mourning and militancy mixed yesterday as hundreds of Palestinians turned out for Dana’s funeral.
About 3,000 mourners, some chanting “Americans are dogs”, accompanied Dana’s body through his home town of Hebron in a procession reminiscent of final honors accorded to Palestinians killed by Israel in an uprising for statehood.
Dana, a 41-year-old Palestinian, was best known for award-winning reporting from Hebron, a main flash point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where he had been wounded and beaten numerous times by Israeli soldiers.
On Sunday, while on assignment in Iraq, he was shot dead by a US soldier on a tank as he filmed near Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Reuters has called on the US Army to investigate how, by the official US account, a soldier mistook Dana’s television camera for a grenade launcher.
Stephen Jukes, global head of news for Reuters, said that the British-based news agency would vigorously pursue a full and thorough investigation of the shooting.
A US spokesman in Baghdad called the killing a “terrible tragedy”.
The death of Dana has triggered calls for an inquiry from media rights groups around the world and stirred emotions among Palestinian journalists.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate also issued a statement demanding that Dana’s killer be brought to justice for the shooting, which occurred the day before the cameraman was due to go home.
Dana’s death brought to 18 the number of international journalists or their assistants to die in Iraq since the war began.
“We will not trust an American inquiry and we demand an international inquiry,” the statement, adding that the Americans “do not care about freedom or journalists.” Dana leaves a wife, Suzanne, and four young children.
Colleagues from Europe, Israel, Africa and the West Bank attended his funeral in Hebron, which was tense after a Palestinian bomber from the city killed 18 people in an attack on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday night.
Israeli forces reimposed a total military blockade on Hebron and other West Bank cities yesterday, which prevented some of Dana’s Palestinian colleagues from paying their last respects. His body, draped in a Palestinian flag, was carried aloft through the streets from a mosque to his burial at the city’s Martyrs’ Cemetery.
A smattering Iraqi and Hamas flags fluttered amid the procession for Dana, who had received numerous memorial tributes from groups ranging from international relief agencies to militant organizations.
“Mazen, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle,” mourners chanted as they marched.
As his body was lowered into the ground, relatives wept and one of his brothers collapsed in the arms of fellow mourners.
Dana was remembered by many in Hebron as a physically towering figure who never shrank from covering a dangerous story.
“Mazen was simply the best combat cameraman of his generation,” said Stephen Jukes, Reuters’ global head of news, who attended the funeral with a delegation of senior editors. “His bravery was legendary, his commitment total.”
