Body of French reporter flown home after war-games accident

By The Associated Press

12.23.02

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KUWAIT CITY — The body of a French television reporter who died after he was hit by a tank during U.S. military exercises in the Kuwaiti desert was flown home today.

Patrick Bourrat, who traveled the world on assignment for France's TF1 television station, was hit by a U.S. tank at the Udairi training area on Dec. 21. He died yesterday in a Kuwaiti military hospital.

It was first believed that Bourrat had suffered only four broken ribs. But further tests at the hospital showed his spleen was badly ruptured and one of his kidneys was damaged. He was operated on but he died of complications early yesterday, according to the French Embassy.

U.S. battalion commander Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz said on Dec. 21 that the reporter was hit after leaning "out into the path of incoming tanks to take a personal picture" and was unable to move back because of barbed wire. He was thrown 15 feet by the impact of the tank.

But TF1's Internet site quoted news director Robert Namias as saying Bourrat, 48, was hit as he approached to tell a cameraman to move out of harm's way.

TF1's star anchor, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, said on television that he considers it "very possible" that Bourrat tried to protect his cameraman. "He had immense generosity, Patrick, so he always thought of others and this seems to me completely plausible."

Bourrat was eulogized by French government officials.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin saluted him as "an example of professionalism at the service of information." Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said he was "shattered" by the death. Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie expressed sadness "felt by all, notably in the armed forces, who had the occasion to work with Patrick Bourrat."

More than 12,000 U.S. military personnel are now in Kuwait under a defense pact signed with Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated the country from a seven-month Iraqi occupation. Kuwait could become a staging area for a war against Iraq.

Scores of journalists have been covering the war games.

U.S. soldiers offered prayers yesterday for Bourrat. Troops from the U.S. Army's 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Unit, expressed sorrow at the accident.

"Everybody feels terrible about this," said Chaplain Ron Cooper, 35, of Saginaw, Mich. "It's been a real shock, especially when we had heard that he had just broken a couple of ribs and had been talking to his family."

About a dozen soldiers of Charlie Company, to which Bourrat and his crew had been attached, offered prayers for him during Advent services preceding Christmas.

"I want to pray for Patrick the reporter and his family," Cooper said. "We are again reminded through this tragedy that the world is a dangerous place."

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