Reporters on the Job
from the October 17, 2007 edition
• Rebel Hunting: Staff writer Matthew Clark found that meeting Darfur rebel leaders in eastern Chad had to be done with care. There are Sudanese intelligence and informers around, so the rebel leaders want to make sure they aren't being followed (see story).
"To meet one of the top Sudanese Liberation Army military commanders, I had to go through a series of interlocutors," he says. "We waited in a market stall for someone to call my interpreter's cellphone. Then, a man arrived to take us down sandy paths between the stalls to a motorcycle repair shop. We waited there for about half an hour as Chadian military sauntered by. Then, the next guy came to take us on a 15-minute walk to a hut. It was only after chatting with a few men there that they agreed to bring in the commander."
• Online in Africa: Staff writer Scott Baldauf says that Rwanda's effort to build a national fiber-optic network makes it unique in Africa. "Nobody else is trying to do this - and its attracting investment. Foreigners say that this is a good place to be based because the electricity is relatively constant, and the government is stable and heading in the right direction," he says. Of course, it's not there yet. Scott found himself tapping his fingers impatiently as he waited for websites to load. He went on the Internet at a local newspaper office. It was linked to the outside world via satellite. "Local sites loaded faster, but otherwise it was very slow," he says (see story).
• Quoting a Marine: In the Oct. 16 story, "In Iraq, a veteran Marine gunner sees a war to be won," part of the quote by Marine Gunner Terry Walker was incorrect. He actually said that if he thought the Marines was going to be a "part-time job," he never would have joined.
– David Clark Scott
World editor
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