Determined to Get the Evidence   

Paul Watson was upset.

The Toronto Star journalist had just learned that the Pentagon said there was no factual basis for reports that bodies of U.S. troops killed in Mogadishu were being mutilated by Somalis.

Watson, who had been covering Somalia for more than 18 months, had seen people displaying charred flesh and teeth "like trophies" after a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing several soldiers in September. He was determined that the next time American troops were killed, he would get proof that their bodies were being desecrated.

He got his chance on October 3, when two more helicopters were shot down. Watson, traveling in the capital with a driver and two armed guards, saw the body of a U.S. soldier being pulled through the dusty streets. He climbed out of the vehicle and as his guards asked the angry crowd whether he could take pictures, Watson began clicking the shutter.

No American photographer was on hand to shoot the grisly scene. U.S. news organizations, perhaps haunted by the memory of Terry Anderson, the AP newsman held hostage in the Middle East for more than six years, had taken their American reporters and photographers out of Mogadishu weeks earlier, after Somalis killed several journalists and threatened to kill or kidnap others.

But Watson, who has worked in Africa for more than four years, decided to stay because he thought the Somalia crisis was a "crucially important" story, and because as "a fatalist," he believes, "If your time's up, it's up."

The 34-year-old Canadian has covered sub-Saharan Africa for the Star since the late 1980s. He previously worked two years as a teacher in Malawi, then earned a master's degree in international affairs, with a specialization in Africa, from Columbia University.

He believes his knowledge of African affairs gives him a "feel" for what is happening in Somalia, but no special protection. "You can get hit by a stray bullet, you can get hit by a sniper, you can be beaten to death by a mob," Watson says.

Any of those could have happened while he was photographing the crowd dragging the body of the U.S. soldier. People were tense and angry, and when he later wanted to take more pictures, Watson recalls that one of his guards said, "Absolutely not."

When the driver hesitated, Watson jumped out of the vehicle and began shooting photos again. "The crowd was extremely hostile at that point," he says, but he was determined to get evidence that would prove to the Pentagon that U.S. casualties were being mutilated.

Watson "didn't expect anyone would print these pictures" because they were "too graphic." He says he has been very upset about the angry response of many U.S. military personnel to the photographs.

"I can't tell you how many soldiers hate me for the picture I took of what was done to their comrades," Watson says. They seem to "assume I took that to make money or to sell newspapers, both of which are furthest from the truth.

"I can't tell you how risky it was to go up to a crowd that close when they were doing what they were doing and being the only white person after a 16-hour battle in which several hundred Somalis were killed and wounded. If they wanted revenge, I was it."

He says he took the photograph because "if they were my soldiers and I were back home, I'd sure as hell want to know about it so I could do something about it."

Ironically, U.S. soldiers had asked him to take pictures of their memorial services in Mogadishu if they died, because they didn't want their deaths "to be a secret." But Watson was unable to do so. The U.S. military has barred the media from covering these services.
--J.S