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THIS INFORMATION IS EMBARGOED FROM REPRODUCTION UNTIL TUESDAY 17 MAY 2011.
Last August British doctor Karen Woo was shot dead on an aid mission in Afghanistan. This new documentary follows her fiancé Paddy Smith as he retraces her steps and visits some of the places that she went to before her death. Interwoven with footage that Karen shot herself, the film sees Paddy try to uncover more about her murder and includes interviews with people involved in her life and work, including her parents and the first interview with the one person to survive the shooting. Karen’s footage includes some of her final days before her murder and a poignant phone call to Paddy.
Karen arrived in Afghanistan in October 2009 and last December, four months after Karen died, her fiancé Paddy returned to Kabul where he works as a security analyst for a US sponsored aid organisation. Paddy explains: “As well as being a doctor Karen was trying to make a film that highlighted the medical needs of ordinary Afghans. She wanted to try and do something for the greater good.”
She met Paddy four months after she arrived in Afghanistan and they moved in together shortly afterwards.
Karen had grown up in Stevenage and, aged 16, decided to move to London to pursue a career as a contemporary dancer before deciding to become a doctor. Speaking in an interview that was filmed as part of the footage she was recording while in Afghanistan she says: “I thought people would laugh. How many people who have no A levels and have been dancers suddenly go off to medical school?”
Paddy visits the International Red Cross Orthopaedic Centre, where Karen had filmed. Dr Alberto Cairo, Head of Orthopaedic Programmes, remembers her visit and says: “She wanted to talk to people, and I had the impression that she wanted to know what Afghanistan is really. What you can see around here, is really part of the sad life of Afghanistan.”
Paddy then meets Kate Rowlands, a British nurse who is the director of The Children’s House, a charity for kids awaiting medical treatment where Karen visited and filmed. Kate says of Karen: “She felt what need there was in the rural areas. Karen’s desire was to get out and try and reach those areas. She couldn’t wait to go.”
Last spring, Karen was invited to join a medical expedition with Christian medical charity IAM. The group was made up of six Americans, one German and three Afghans. Karen was the only Brit. They were going to Nuristan, a remote mountainous area of Eastern Afghanistan, one of the most remote places on Earth. Karen says: “Do I think that there’s absolutely no risk whatsoever? No, I think it would be stupid if I thought that. But I don’t have any other way of knowing how to take this thing forward. We could stay at home [but] it doesn’t seem like an option to me.”
After flying to Faisabad the group met up with the three Land Rovers that were going to take them as far south as they could on the roads that existed. David Brooks from IAM says: “People come in carrying people for two or three days on their backs… if we’re not willing to try to help these people, no-one will.”
Paddy says: “I’ve thought about this quite a lot. She always thought that she needed to do that little bit extra, go that extra mile, hoping to affect a change. She doesn’t know whether she’ll come home in a blaze of glory, or whether she’ll come home with her tail between her legs.”
The day Karen died the group did a clinic in a village and began to head home. It was in a valley beyond this village that they got attacked and were killed. Paddy goes to meet Safiullah, who’s the only survivor of the attack. He went on the trek as a driver and, having escaped, now fears for his life. Safiullah tells Paddy the details of the attack and explains: “Karen, she was standing by a Land Rover. She was holding her hands up. But as she saw what was happening they fell to her side. And they shot her at close range. She fell against the car and then to the ground. And she lay on her side. It took five to seven minutes to kill everybody.”
Paddy then speaks to Sunday Times journalist Miles Amoore who has been to the area where Karen was murdered. He explains that the area is largely under the control of a local police commander who allowed the Taliban to transit through there. Miles says: “Whether he tipped the Taliban off about the movement, or whether it was just because he turned a blind eye to their transit to protect his own racket, I don’t know. I think in Afghanistan, in general, it’s so difficult once you get down to that kind of microscopic level.”
Paddy is also able to view footage of the crime scene given to him by a German journalist. Watching it he says: “The brutality, the speed, the manner in which they were killed, I have an inkling they knew what they were doing…They’ve actually brought food with them, you can see their food wrappers. It just shows that they’ve, planned ahead and they’ve brought some rations with them.”
“But to be honest, none of it brings Karen back. Finding who did it, retribution, justice, it’s not going to solve anything. It’s not going to bring her back.”
Speaking about her daughter Lynn Woo says: “You’ve got to just try and make some sense as you go along, and you’ve got to live life, and I think that’s what my daughter was doing. She lived life to the full and she made the most of her moments.”
Paddy says: “I’m grieving my lost future, I’m grieving my lost family, and I’m grieving my lost experiences that I was going to have with Karen. Trying to piece together a future after this is difficult. I do feel angry, yeah, at that lost future. I try to avoid the anger though, because it just leads to an incredibly dark place.”
The FBI is currently investigating the murder of Karen and her colleagues.
Last edited: Thursday, 12 May 2011
