How To Write On War? 'Empathise, Don't Sensationalise'

바카라�How do you write about war?바카라� Janine di Giovanni repeats the question, pausing for a second. She is speaking over the phone from Paris where she lives with her young son, Luca Girodon. In a few days, she is scheduled for surgery. There is no trace of self-pity in her voice when she brings it up. It바카라�s a fact, not a tragedy. 바카라�The most effective way to write about war is to tell the human story,바카라� says the veteran journalist. 바카라�You try to find out how people survive; how families forage for food and keep kids warm. How they deal with unimaginable loss. War robs people of everything: homes and jobs, water, food, electricity. It brings disease and starvation and rips apart society, but in the midst of all that suffering, you also see tremendous stories of human strength.바카라� Her mission has been to share these stories so people everywhere could put themselves in the shoes of those who live in war zones. Whether reporting from Syria or Lebanon, Sarajevo or Rwanda, she has always focused on sharing the human cost of war. The aim is to empathise, not sensationalise. To spend time with people whose lives are ruptured by violence, to write about the 바카라�small voices바카라� that are often neglected.

바카라�Articles, books바카라�everything I바카라�ve written바카라�is meant to help my readers experience what it actually feels like to be in a war zone, what life is like there,바카라� she says. She is a staunch believer in the power of human rights reporting. This keeps her going in a world that is perpetually at war.

The war in Gaza leaves her distraught. 바카라�So many Palestinians have become homeless,바카라� she says. 바카라�People are starving; they don바카라�t have blankets to shield themselves from the cold. Preg­nant women give birth without anaesthetics because of a shortage.바카라� Women, she points out, are the first casualty of any war. They are at 바카라�the frontline of suffering바카라� and sexual violence and rape are used as weapons against them. In 2023, the proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled compared to 2022. Four out of every ten people who died due to conflict in 2023 were women. United Nations-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent. 바카라�All wars are alike,바카라� Giovanni says. 바카라�It all comes down to power and the need to control territory.바카라�

Did she always want to be a war correspondent? Born into a large Italian-American family in New Jersey, she had dreams of being a writer from the start. Reading was an addiction; poetry and fiction a true joy. So, after completing her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine, she joined the Iowa Writers Workshop to pursue a degree in Creative Writing (in fiction, not non-fiction). Post graduation, she moved to London where she got a degree in Comparative Literature because at that point, academia seemed like an option. But the road not taken beckoned when she met Jewish Israeli lawyer Felicia Langer, who defended Palestinians. Langer took her to the West Bank. That journey with the crusading advocate was life-changing. Shaken and deeply moved by the stories she heard from the people in the refugee camps, Giovanni wrote an article, which caught a London literary agent바카라�s eye. At 26, she was offered a book deal to write about the occupied territories. She said yes, packed her bags, headed to the West Bank. And that was the start of her trail-blazing journalistic career.

A lifetime of war reporting has taught Giovanni many lessons. She has seen human nature at its best. And its depraved worst. As a journalist and academic, she spent years documenting human rights abuses in Syria and the horrific violations committed by the Assads. Reporting from Taliban-controlled territory in Afghanistan in 2001, she wrote in a Vanity Fair piece, 바카라�I have never been in a place so stained with its own blood. And all we are doing, all we can do, is stop the bleeding.바카라�

She has borne witness to unimaginable human suffering as well as everyday acts of kindness. People risking their own lives to rescue the wounded in war time, neighbours looking out for each other when bombs come raining down, the displaced sheltering under bridges and leaky tents, sharing food and water without hesitation. In Rwanda, she has seen bodies pile up on the streets. Stumbled on mass graves in Bosnia and Africa. She바카라�s dodged bullets and bombs, had many hairbreadth escapes. In her memoir, Ghosts by Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love, she writes candidly about the struggle to lead an ordinary, civilian life with her husband Bruno after all this. The two first met바카라�and fell in love바카라�as young reporters when they were both covering the siege of Sarajevo. After many years, and many wars, they decided to settle down in Paris as a couple. But marriage and parenthood didn바카라�t run a smooth course as they grappled with PTSD and Bruno바카라�s alcohol addiction. Eventually, the realisation dawned: they love each other, but they can바카라�t live together. War had left deep imprints on them. The scars were practically impossible to shed.

Has experience hardened her? Turned her into a cynic who thinks a peaceful world is impossible? 바카라�I don바카라�t see an end to war in my lifetime,바카라� she says, dreading the prospect that in the time of climate change, more wars will be fought over water, resources, turf. The rise of undemocratic leaders in many places across the globe also alarms her. 바카라�People who suffer wartime atrocities deserve to get justice,바카라� she stresses. 바카라�Someone needs to recognise what happened to them and make sure the world doesn바카라�t forget.바카라� The Reckoning Project, which she directs, gathers legally admissible testimonies documenting war crimes in Ukraine, to ensure that perpetrators are held to account, which rarely happens. The Project바카라�s team documents the testimonies of the affected so that no one can deny later that these crimes happened. It lets people tell their stories in their own voices, giving them a measure of agency when war leaves them helpless.

Conflict has become a constant. The world seems to be on fire all the time. Are we destined to live with never-ending wars? 바카라�This is happening because fundamental issues are not addressed,바카라� Giovanni says. 바카라�For example, Palestine is occupied by Israel and there is no semblance of equal rights바카라�We live in the grimmest of times I바카라�ve ever seen,바카라� she sighs, but is quick to add, 바카라�Despite all the wars, I am optimistic. I believe in working for restorative justice and healing. There is still beauty left in the world and I look for it.바카라�

(This appeared in the print as 'The Place At The End Of The World')