JoJo killed in Afghanistan

There are many nationals who work with the coalition forces, and JoJo was one of our own.

Afghan journalist killed

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

Last Updated: 10th March 2009, 1:45pm

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Javed Yazamy, an Afghan freelance cameraman, reporter and “fixer” for media outlets covering Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan, has been killed in a shooting in Kandahar city.

Yazamy — also known as Javed Ahmad but known to most by his nickname, Jojo — was in his vehicle today when another car pulled alongside and a gunman opened fire.

Yazamy worked primarily as a cameraman for CTV News, but was often hired on a day-to-day basis by other media organizations as well, including The Canadian Press.

Indeed, the 23-year-old routinely proved to be an asset to virtually every Canadian journalist who worked in the violence-racked country.

His extensive contacts and connections across Afghanistan, including with the Taliban, appeared to land him in trouble late in 2007 when he was abruptly detained by U.S. special forces.

Yazamy spent some 11 months in military custody and was publicly named as an “enemy combatant” by American forces before he was abruptly set free in September 2008....(source)

And there is this:

KABUL – Gunmen in southern Afghanistan killed an Afghan journalist once held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan as an enemy combatant, officials said Wednesday. Separately, the Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy.

Attackers killed Jawed Ahmad, 23, also known as Jojo, in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, said Zalmay Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar's provincial governor.

Ahmad worked for a number of Canadian media outlets in Kandahar, covering a war that pits the Taliban-led insurgents against Canadian and U.S. troops in the province.

It was not clear who was behind the killing, and authorities were investigating, Ayubi said.

In late 2007, Ahmad was detained and held for 11 months by the U.S. military, which accused him of having contact with Taliban leaders and possessing their phone numbers and video of them, according to a complaint filed by Ahmad's lawyers last year in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

Early in the Afghan conflict, Ahmad worked as a translator for U.S. Special Forces for 2 1/2 years. He quit after the second time he was wounded in a Taliban attack, Ahmad told The Associated Press last year, after his release from Bagram.

He acknowledged in that interview that he had contacts with Taliban fighters but said that was part of his job.

"As a journalist you have the right to talk to any organization," he said. "Yes, I talked to the Taliban like any other reporter."

The killing comes one month after Afghanistan's Supreme Court upheld the decision of lower courts to sentence another young Afghan journalist to 20 years in prison, though the court did not release the sentence publicly, Human Rights Watch said in a statement late Tuesday...(source)