Conflicts and coverage: ‘The Great Game is not over’

French journalist discusses his experience of working in Afghanistan, Middle East.

KARACHI: The 'Great Game' is not over, we just have different actors now. We have to look at Russia, America is replacing the British and we also have China.

French journalist Jean-Pierre Perrin shared these views at an interactive session organised at Alliance Francaise de Karachi with Pakistani journalists on Tuesday. As a journalist, Perrin has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and other conflict zones.

Perrin felt that it was easier travelling with the mujahideen back in the 1980s. "You were part of their group," he said. "You were embedded in them. So they [mujahideen] protected you. It was a question of pride for them that you come back safe."



He recalled meeting several important leaders. "I went in 1982 to Panjshir to see [Ahmad Shah] Massoud and then did some travelling with Abdul Haq," he said. "Once, I even met [Jalaluddin] Haqqani. The only problem you face is the risks of the war. You can be killed in the shelling or by a plane or helicopter." However, it is no longer possible to travel with the Taliban, he admitted. "[The Taliban] will not accept you. The situation has totally been radicalised so the way of travelling has changed."

Earlier, everyone had a common enemy — the Soviet Union, he pointed out, explaining that it made it easier for the militants to trust journalists.

Talking about the recent war in Afghanistan against terror, Perrin was of the view that 'not only America, but Nato lost the war'. "They [Americans] have made all the big mistakes on Afghan grounds," he said. "They have not taken into account the lessons from the past." Perrin felt the US should have read British historians who wrote about the ‘Great Game’. "They came to the country after September 2001 with no idea of what they would face and that was their first big mistake."

Perrin recalled the time when Nato forces came to Afghanistan and people welcomed them. "The Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara and even some Pashtuns in Kabul welcomed them," he said. "Then the situation changed quickly because they [Americans] were inexperienced with that kind of situation. They did not understand the complexity of the Afghan situation."

The French journalist also talked about his experiences in Israel and Palestine and claimed that it was 'very easy to cover the Israel-Palestine conflict'. "First of all, it's a very small territory," he explained. "It is so little that in the morning you can be in the north [of the region] and meet the Israeli army and you can be with the Palestinians by afternoon."

He pointed out one exception with this particular conflict. "When the Israelis launched the offensive against Gaza and surrounded it in 2008, they prevented journalists from coming to Gaza for some three weeks or one month," he said. "We were not able to reach Gaza. It was such a dramatic mistake for the Israelis because if you prevent journalists from going into Gaza to see the shelling, the bombing, they write from outside. They automatically write very negatively against the Israeli army because when they cannot see, they become much more aggressive."

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2015.