Q&A; WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR : On Life Near Death: In Bosnia for CNN

CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour has been covering the brutal war in Bosnia-Herzegovina for most of the past year. Her straightforward reports, filed almost daily, have covered the many sides of the war, from the politicians to the soldiers--but most of all, the civilians caught in the cross-fire.

The daughter of an Iranian father and an English mother, Amanpour came to the United States from Iran after the 1979 revolution there. After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, she went to work as an assistant on the foreign desk at CNN in Atlanta. She became a correspondent in the network’s Frankfurt bureau and rose to prominence for her coverage of the Persian Gulf War.

During a recent visit to New York to accept the Livingston Award for journalists, Amanpour, 35, talked about the Bosnian war and why she intends to keep covering it.

Question: Why did you want to cover the war in Bosnia?

Answer: I was reading stories in newspapers and on the wire services about the war, and seeing local TV reports from Bosnia via satellite. I wanted to be in the middle of the action, and I couldn’t believe that the war wasn’t being covered more by TV correspondents for American networks.

Q: What is the worst thing about covering the war in Bosnia?

A: It’s hard to say what’s the worst. Bosnia is the most emotionally wrenching and physically arduous story I’ve ever covered or been through in my life. You just see terrible stuff all the time. If it’s not bodies, it’s children bloodied and battered, old men and women injured. In central Bosnia, we saw houses burned and people inside, charred like barbecue, and mosques and churches dynamited.

The war in Bosnia is a war that is being fought against civilians, in the cities, people’s homes, not on the battlefield. The United Nations has said that there has never been a war in modern times that has affected so many children. It’s horrifying, and savage. . . . I keep going back there because I cannot believe this is being allowed to happen.

Q: Are you trying to mobilize public opinion with your reporting?

A: No. When I go out and do a story, I do not change it or manipulate it in order to have an impact on somebody else. I believe that equal time should be given to all sides in a story. But I do believe that news organizations have a responsibility to cover the important stories.

Q: Among the American networks, CNN and ABC have given the war the most consistent coverage, both in terms of having correspondents stationed there and in terms of the number of stories from there. Do you believe the broadcast networks’ not being there more throughout the war--and earlier--has had an impact on American foreign policy?

A: I do. ABC has made a very strong effort to cover the story, from having reporters there to Peter Jennings reporting from there and doing an hourlong documentary on the war. The other networks come in and out in spurts.

If you start with the premise that TV affects public opinion, then I believe that had more of my colleagues from the broadcast networks been there on a consistent level, the story would have had a bigger impact on American public opinion and American public policy. The broadcast networks are the networks with the greatest reach in terms of viewers for their nightly newscasts. I think the politicians have been able to retreat by saying, “It’s not in our national interest--CBS isn’t there.”

Q: What do you think the world community should do in Bosnia?

A: I believe what the world community should have done is act on its own principles. The Berlin Wall falls, the Soviet Union collapses, and nobody knows what to do anymore. The Europeans couldn’t get their act together if you paid them. The Americans have relinquished their leadership role. You’ve got borders being changed by force, which is against international law.

All I can say from my vantage point is that I was reporting on the Bosnian Serb side of the war while there was talk of American intervention, and they were quaking. As soon as the threat was lifted, the shelling started again.

Q: Have you been in danger?

A: Yes, plenty of times. Just walking from the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, where journalists stay, is dangerous. . . . I was asleep one night last fall when I heard this awful whistling noise near my room at the hotel. It was a 105-millimeter mortar shell from a howitzer, apparently mis-aimed. It landed in a room two doors down from mine--but it didn’t explode, although it demolished the room from the sheer impact. If it had exploded, it would’ve been over for me.

Q: Were you afraid to go back to Bosnia after leaving it (for time off)?

A: The second time I went in (to cover the war), I went in because I was afraid that if I didn’t go in again, I’d never go back. Margaret Moth (a CNN camerawoman who worked with Amanpour) was shot in the face shortly after I began working in Bosnia. (Moth was severely injured by the sniper’s fire in Sarajevo and underwent numerous operations. She recently returned to work for CNN as a camerawoman based in Paris.)

I went to see Margaret in the hospital at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. It just terrified me to see her, looking at her. She has such courage and spirit. She said to me, “Thank God, it wasn’t my arm (that was wounded)--I wouldn’t be able to shoot (with a camera).”

Right after I’d seen Margaret, CNN asked me if I wanted to go back to Bosnia. I figured I’d better go then, or I might never go back, out of fear. This was before we (Amanpour and her small CNN crew) traveled in an armored Land-Rover, which is what we do now. For a time after I got back, I realized, I was unconsciously covering my face with my hand--as if that would help if I were shot at.

Q: What is the appeal in being a war correspondent?

A: I’d wanted to be a foreign correspondent when I got out of college and went to work for CNN as a foreign-desk assistant. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t want to sound like a drug addict about it because that’s not the way I feel about it at all. But you know how fighter pilots say that they can only talk to each other because nobody else understands their experience? Well, without comparing war correspondents to that, there is an intensity of experience that the people who have chosen to be war correspondents experience. You confront yourself, your fears. And war, I think, brings out the best and worst in people--the participants, the politicians, even the people covering the war. It’s fascinating to see that.

Q: What was your reaction to the news this week that journalists were killed by an angry mob in Somalia?

A: I just went cold inside. The danger we face (in Bosnia) is the depersonalized danger of snipers. I dread the day, if it comes, when an angry mob turns against us. We’re not planning to take any additional precautions because of it. I’ve been working mostly on the Muslim side, and the situation here is different from anarchy in Somalia. But in the last couple of weeks, I’ve sensed a shift among some Muslims here. They are feeling betrayed by the West, and we’re the most perceptible representation of that.

Q: Do you plan to keep covering the war?

A: Yes, for the indefinite future. I want to see this thing out.