Volker Handloik

Volker Handloik (July 19 1961 – November 11 2001) was a German freelance journalist and reporter. Born in Rostock, Germany, he worked for the Hamburg-based Stern for 10 years and also did some correspondence for newspapers, journals, and magazines such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, taz, Berliner Zeitung, National Geographic, Stern, Focus, mare, Geo, Merian, and the Spiegel Reporter. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDC1038F930A25752C1A9679C8B63 A NATION CHALLENGED: THE NEWS MEDIA; Two French Radio Journalists and a German Are Killed in Taliban Ambush of a Rebel Force] , "The New York Times", November 13, 2001] Handloik, who spoke Russian and Spanish fluently often traveled to the former Soviet republics and to South America and had been working in northern Afghanistan since October 2001.

Death

Handloik, along with French journalists Johanne Sutton and Pierre Billaud, was killed in an ambush in Dasht-e Qaleh, Takhar Province, Afghanistan on November 11 2001. The trio were travelling on a Northern Alliance armoured personnel carrier when they came under attack by Taliban troops with machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Australian journalist Paul McGeough and French journalist Véronique Reyberotte survived the attack. According to McGeough Handloik died instantly from a bullet womb to the head.

Reaction

After learning of Handloik's death, Stern's chief editor Thomas Osterkorn remarked

References