14 Reporting Overseas I

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14 Reporting Overseas I

• A Glimpse of Life in Post-Coup Zaire
• By MORT ROSENBLUM
• AP Special Correspondent

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A Glimpse of Life in Post-Coup Zaire

• Euphoria is ebbing in Zairian rebel territory,
  born again as the Congo, and people desperate for
  a better life worry that Laurent Kabila,
  their liberator, may prove to be
  anything but their savior.
• After three decades in obscurity,
  the 57-year-old career rebel is revealing an
  autocratic streak.

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• "We want to eat, to find work, but first we need
  democracy," an unemployed schoolteacher says,
  pleading for anonymity on grounds that freedom of
  speech has yet to be demonstrated. "We're
  waiting.
• With rumors rife Tuesday that beleaguered
  President Mobutu Sese Seko might quit, Kabila's
  forces seemed poised to capture the remaining
  slice of Zaire.

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• "We are free of Mobutu, but there is still no
  work, no schools, no money," says Luc Namulolo,
  35, trying to sell a few quarts of palm oil in a
  dirty yellow jerrycan at Goma's main market.
• In Kisangani, the overwhelming mood is gratitude
  the hated tyrant is gone.

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• "A leopard, falling like that, it is
  unbelievable," says Bosco Zoinga, taking Mobutu's
  departure as foregone conclusion. "The change is
  night and day."
• Zaire's rich mineral deposits--and lucrative
  deals Kabila has struck with U.S. and European
  mining companies, giving the foreigners control
  of joint ventures--promise income for a new
  regime.

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• But the victors face the gargantuan job of
  repairing a country that has almost entirely
  collapsed.
• Kabila's spokesman, Raphael Ghenda, is vague
  about multiparty democracy. "We must first
  stabilize the situation, and that will take
  years," he says. When pressed, he suggests maybe
  four years.

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• Goma is getting to its feet. U.N. teams restored
  power and water. Fresh paint brightens such
  enterprises as the Chicago Bulls Hair Salon.
• Kisangani is the other extreme. Jungle has
  reclaimed its outskirts. The port is a tangle of
  rusty metal. Streets are pocked, and buildings,
  black with decay, are crumbling.

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• Almost any conversation reveals human wreckage
  just as profound.
• A strapping young man who calls himself Mr. John
  hounds foreigners for handouts. His last shirt is
  losing its left sleeve. His last straw is hope.
• Rebuffed, he thrusts out his hand again "Later?"

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Mort Rosenblum

• Where had Rosenblum worked before going to New
  Jersey?
• The Arizona Daily Star
• What did he want to be when he was growing up?
• He always wanted to be a foreign reporter.
• How long was he on the international desk?
• Six months

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• He was 23-years-old, sick and scared.
• His life was dedicated to covering foreign news.
• He spent time in Kinshasa, Lagos, Singapore,
  Paris, Vietnam and Argentina.
• What is the difference between covering U.S. news
  and foreign news?
• People in America will usually talk, but
  foreigners are many times in danger if they do.

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• What is the most difficult part of being a
  foreign correspondent?
• Crossing cultural bridges.
• What was the tip he got from a veteran newspaper
  foreign editor?
• Dont tell me what happened on a street in Chad.
  Tell me what the street looks like.
• Theres not much I can do in life, but one thing
  Ive got a pretty good eye for detail.

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• The New York desk wants to know what the noise is
  in the background.
• Gunfire.
• Isnt it dangerous?
• Not for you.

Joseph Kabila, Laurents son, is now the
countrys leader
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15 Reporting Overseas II

• Where the Dead Speak Loudly
• By LAURA KING
• Associated Press Writer

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• Kosovo is a land where the voices of the dead
  speak as loudly as those of the living -- perhaps
  even louder.

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• Everyone, it seems, is on intimate terms with
  those dead.
• Body parts clog family wells corpses still lie
  where people were cut down in the midst of
  ordinary tasks -- cooking watching TV.

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• a teddy bear, pink blouse, bedroom slipper.

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• Djakovica the city was dead.
• You have children who are like little zombies --
  not even sad, just empty, absent, gone to some
  other place.
• If only I could find something to cover the
  roof.
• I have enough company, he said.

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• Where did Laura King start her AP career?
• Montpelier, Vt.
• Where had she worked?
• The Washington Bureau.
• Washington work was insufferable.
• On which desk did she work?
• She worked on the international desk.
• What other posts did she cover?
• King served in Tokyo and Jerusalem.

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• The Balkan story was like no other.
• To whom did she credit the success of her story?
• One of the keys to her writing was her
  interpreter.
• How long did it take her to write the story?
• She wrote this story in an hour.
• Its easy to get information. It was hard to
  know what to do with it.