Romenesko Memos
AP West Africa correspondent Rukmini Callimachi documented at least 113 bodies held in four morgues, and there were likely many more in five other morgues that she was refused access to. “For persistence at her own peril in uncovering proof of post-election killings in Ivory Coast, Callimachi wins this week’s $500 [Beat of the Week] prize,” writes AP senior managing editor Mike Oreskes. Read his memo after the jump.
Colleagues,
Rukmini Callimachi was looking for proof of mass killings in Ivory Coast. The defeated president had been refusing to give way for almost three months and bodies of voters who supported his opponent kept showing up on the sides of highways.
She found the evidence practically in plain sight, in the public morgues of the palm-lined capital of Abidjan.
Callimachi, the AP’s West Africa correspondent, based in Dakar, documented at least 113 bodies held in four morgues, and there were likely many more in five other morgues that Callimachi was refused access to.
A list of the dead that the AP was allowed to see on the laptop of a company that manages three downtown morgues showed the bodies began arriving Dec. 1, the night the country’s electoral commission was due to announce that opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had defeated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.
Callimachi also saw legal documents instructing funeral homes to pick up bodies found on public roads, and the paperwork for families who were allowed only to identify the victims but not to take them for burial.
Getting that documentation took courage and tenacity.
Callimachi spent almost two weeks circling around the morgues. Government minders wouldn’t let her in, but she could tell bodies were there. “The entrance to the morgue is like a mouth through which comes an awful smell,” she wrote. “It hits you as far back as the parking lot and makes your eyes water. From a dozen yards away, it’s strong enough to make you throw up.”
But smelling was not seeing, and morgue photos of bullet-riddled bodies still weren’t enough to verify the scope of the killings.
Then Callimachi got a break. She learned that the owner of one of the largest morgues was a supporter of Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the Nov. 28 election. But he was holed up in the same hotel where Ouattara had taken refuge, and he agreed to talk only if Callimachi met him in person.
That was close to impossible. The hotel was blockaded by soldiers loyal to Gbagbo, the defeated president. The only way in was by U.N. helicopter _ and there were no seats available. Reporters who had tried to go in by car or foot had been arrested.
Finally, on the last of her 18 days in Ivory Coast, Callimachi found a car with diplomatic plates and an Ivorian willing to drive her in. The soldiers at the hotel assumed the car had been sent by Gbagbo; surely, no other diplomat would have been crazy enough to drive up to their checkpoint. The ruse worked and Callimachi was waved through.
Her reward was new evidence of dozens of killings, based on ethnicity and political leanings. She made a spreadsheet of the bodies, listing next to each one whether she had seen photos, entry documents or letters to the families. That confirmed the tally.
Callimachi’s AP IMPACT investigation has not been matched by any news outlet. It was singled out on Salon.com for “dogged reporting” and prompted more than 230 comments on Yahoo.
The former editor of Reuters Africa hailed “a terrific piece of reporting” and added: “It’s heartbreaking but might just be the sordid facts the world needs to act.” The Bloomberg correspondent in Ivory Coast called it “a fantastic and brave article.”
AP photographer Rebecca Blackwell shot haunting images of bodies lying in Abidjan’s streets. One showing a dead man’s hand sticking out from under a blanket was featured on Page 1 of the International Herald Tribune.
For persistence at her own peril in uncovering proof of post-election killings in Ivory Coast, Callimachi wins this week’s $500 prize.
Mike Oreskes
