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PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAURA RAUCH / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The setting sun is seen through a man's turban Nov. 8 just east of Chaman, Pakistan, near the Afghan border. More than 130,000 Afghans had crossed into Pakistan by that time since the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
An Afghan widow, who chose to lift her burqa, smiles while at the United Nations World Food Program bakery Nov. 21 in Kabul, Afghanistan. About 350 widows, identified as the most vulnerable group in the city, received two cans of oil and two sacks of wheat from the United States Agency for International Development.
Maqsod, 8, leans on a window near his bed at the Kabul Orphanage on Nov. 29. The orphanage had no means of support after the fall of the Taliban and was left with only a two-week supply of food for the 450 children living there.
Northern Alliance soldier Hashoq lies in a bed with a broken leg Nov. 23 at Emergency Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Emergency is an Italian philanthropic group that provides hospitals in war-torn countries.
An Afghan boy is comforted by Pakistani police as he cries while waiting for his father Oct. 20 just inside the border of Chaman, Pakistan. The boy was allowed to cross, but his father was not.
Mohammed Essa, who lost his arm during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, prepares to light a hit of heroin Nov. 7 with his friend Salay Mohammed, left, in Quetta, Pakistan.
Boys eat from bowls of rice Nov. 28 at the Kabul Orphanage in Afghanistan.
A young girl peeks out a window to watch as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers visits Qadriabad, Pakistan, on Oct. 27. About 50 families had come to the Afghan village since the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan according to UNHCR.
A boy covers his eyes as he looks toward the setting sun in the Afghan enclave of Katchi Abadi near Islamabad, Pakistan, on Nov. 14. The area was established as a refugee camp more than 20 years ago. Afghans who live there say they would like to go home, but not until they can count on a lasting peace.
People look through the windows of a mosque just before afternoon prayers Nov. 2 in Quetta, Pakistan. Pro-Taliban demonstrators gathered in the streets following the prayers and were allowed to march to a nearby stadium.
Photographer Laura Rauch is surrounded by Afghans while covering the war on terror for The Associated Press.
Photo courtesy of Gary Knight.
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Sunday, January 20, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
'THE BIGGEST STORY IN THE WORLD'
Associated Press photographer Laura Rauch, a Las Vegas resident, spent almost two months last year covering refugee camps in Pakistan and the war against terror in Afghanistan. She said she pushed for the assignment because she understood the story, having spent six weeks in Pakistan on vacation a few years ago and having covered the end of the Bosnian war for AP.
By JOELLE BABULA
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Men will assault you. Armed guards won't hustle to protect you. Officials can be bribed for less than $50. And that bulletproof vest you strapped on that morning -- that's just in case there's AK-47 fire.
These are just a few of the lessons Las Vegas photographer Laura Rauch learned during her recent stint shooting photos for The Associated Press in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Rauch, 36, returned to Las Vegas last month after nearly eight weeks covering anti-war demonstrations, refugee camps, wounded hospital patients, destitute children and newly liberated Muslim women.
"This is the biggest story in the world," Rauch said from her Las Vegas home last week. "And as a journalist, you want to be in the middle of the biggest story. I just knew the pictures were going to be amazing."
Rauch was sent to Pakistan in October after asking to cover the refugee camps. She had prior experience covering the end of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and also had spent six weeks trekking through Pakistan on vacation in 1995.
"I knew the country and was familiar with the culture," Rauch said. "I really wanted to go because I felt like I understood the story over there."
Her wish was granted. But the first stop was Washington, D.C., for a weeklong survival course taught by British marine commandos. There, the 5-foot-7-inch Rauch learned how to take care of herself or a colleague in case of a bullet wound. She learned how to carry a wounded person to safety and how to identify different illnesses. And, she learned which bulletproof vest, helmet or covering would protect her best from the various types of weapons used in the region.
"You need to know what those bullets can go through so that you know where to take cover safely," she said.
Rauch never had to dodge bullets. But she was shoved, hollered at, hit with sticks, pelted with rocks and whacked with a donkey switch. Sometimes it was because she was a foreigner or a journalist, or both. Other times it was simply because she was a woman.
"Even covered from head to toe, they can tell you are a foreign woman. I'm a foot taller than the other women and I also don't walk timidly," Rauch said. "Your stature and body language is much different."
Rauch said she wore traditional Pakistani clothing while in the country. She covered her long blonde hair, draped herself in pajamalike pants and a matching tunic, and carried 25 pounds of camera equipment wherever she traveled. She also had the services of both a driver and a translator.
"I was always covered in Pakistan, and my head was always wrapped up," she said. "It tells the people you respect their culture and it makes it much easier to work."
Once Rauch made her way into Afghanistan -- her party of journalists was allowed across the border with help from a $50 bribe -- she was able to abandon the traditional garb and wear pants.
"Other journalists weren't covered in liberated Afghanistan," she said. "Women were assimilating to their new rights and taking their burqas off."
Rauch said she never had to wear the burqa, the religious head-to-toe covering mandated by the Taliban for Afghan women, but she did try one on.
"The burqas are just awful," she said of the heavy cloak. "You can't breathe or see. It's even hard to walk in. You have to hold it away from your body to see and breathe properly."
Despite her efforts to blend into Muslim culture, Rauch still needed an armed guard to follow and protect her throughout her five-week stint in Pakistan. The guard was mandated by the Pakistan government but would only come to her aid after she would scream for help.
"I was a little worried at times when the crowds got really hostile," she said. "During a demonstration one time, this guy kept pushing me and getting in my face. I finally screamed at my guard that it was his job to get this guy off me."
Rauch said she's glad to be home and sleeping in her own bed and taking hot showers. Her nights in Pakistan were spent in a hotel, but during the three weeks she worked in Afghanistan she stayed in The Associated Press bureau house, where the windows had been blown out by a nearby bomb blast.
"It was cold. But you wrapped up in your sleeping bag and sort of camped."
Although Rauch is now enjoying the comforts of home, she can't help but think about the subjects of her most tear-jerking coverage in Afghanistan: 450 orphaned children surviving on tea and meager bowls of rice.
"They had nothing," she said of the orphans in Kabul. "The Taliban had been supporting them and they only had a couple weeks of food supply left."
After spending a day photographing children at the orphanage, Rauch said she was heartbroken to find that she didn't get all the pictures she needed. She didn't want to go back and face the orphans again.
"I didn't sleep the night before," she said. "It was the hardest thing to know I had to go back the next day."
But Rauch said she's gratified the effects of the war on the Afghan children have not gone unnoticed.
"There's an outpouring of people who want to know how to help those kids and how to adopt them."
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