Lessons in Terror

I am in a Land Rover with three workers from Amnesty International when I hear the crack of gunfire and see rebel soldiers storming from the bushes. They are dressed in camouflage with balaclavas pulled over their faces and guns in their hands. I watch in horror as my colleague is pulled from the seat next to me. I feel hands forcing me out of the car, shoving me onto the ground. The barrel of a pistol digs into the back of my neck. A burlap sack is pulled over my head and tightened by a cord. The world has gone dark, and I hear nothing but footsteps on snapping twigs and my own rapid breathing under the heavy cloth. I am terrified — and this isn’t even for real.

Instead of being taken hostage by terrorists, I am at the mercy of the instructors at Centurion Risk Assessment Services, a British company that offers "hostile environment courses" for journalists and aid workers headed for politically unstable regions. Conducted by former British marine and army officers at a training camp an hour from London, the one-day course teaches me to identify mines hidden in fields, explosives rigged in packages and booby traps disguised as everyday objects. I have learned to drag an injured colleague to safety before starting first aid, and I discovered that by counting the seconds between the thud of a mortar being fired and the whistle that follows, I can determine its distance and whether I need to seek cover. I know the difference now between an AK-47 and an M-16, and that hiding behind a wall offers little protection from their bullets.

According to the press-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, 32 journalists died in the line of work last year. Now, with hundreds of print and television reporters being deployed to cover the war against terrorism, employers are eager to prepare them properly. "To send a journalist who has not been trained in how to behave in these very dangerous parts of the world is complete folly," says Chris Cramer, president of cnn International, whose organization uses AKE, a U.K. company that offers courses similar to Centurion’s. Cramer should know. While working for the BBC in 1980, he was taken hostage at the Iranian embassy in London. "I can tell you that the real thing is not unlike the hostage simulation these courses offer. They help prepare you for the worst."

The BBC uses Britain’s Pilgrims Group, as well as Bruhn NewTech, which teaches its students how to recognize and protect themselves in chemical and biological attacks. Ian Day, the firm’s training manager, says 27 BBC journalists attended his two-day course in London in the first week of October alone, while another 17 took a course at the BBC offices in Jerusalem. Reuters has sent 368 journalists to Centurion’s five-day course, which incorporates two hours of chemical warfare training. Paul Rees, director of Centurion, says clients pay around $1,900 each for the residential course. Says Reuters video news editor Rodney Pinder: "It is worth it to Reuters if it saves even one life."

It already has. Mark Chisholm, a Reuters cameraman, was ambushed last year by rebel soldiers while covering the civil war in Sierra Leone. Two fellow journalists were killed instantly, but he and a Reuters photographer escaped. "Nothing could have prevented the ambush from happening," says Chisholm. "But afterwards, I wrapped my shot hand with my shirt so as not to leave a blood trail for the rebels. I ran away in a zigzag, I hid behind a log and then when help came, I emerged slowly, so as not to unnecessarily startle the government soldiers who could have mistaken me for a rebel. The course saved our lives."

When the sack is finally pulled off my head, 20 minutes after the attack began, I am a different person. I know what it feels like to have my wedding ring yanked from my finger, to anticipate the feel of bullets piercing my skin as my captor forced me to a kneeling position and then put a second, even darker, sack over the first. When it is finally over, I look at my fellow course members from Amnesty International with heightened concern. They will be leaving in a few days for Pakistan and may even go to Afghanistan. When we part, all I can do is wish them luck.