Dutch Journalist Killed in Russian Bombing of Gori

TBILISI, Georgia — A Dutch television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori.

The television news station RTL reported on its Web site that its cameraman Stan Storimans, 39, was killed and correspondent Jeroen Akkermans was wounded in the leg in the attack. RTL said at least five people died in the Gori bombing.

At least two other journalists have been reported killed previously in the fighting between Georgian and Russian troops, now in its fifth day.

Gori was bombed overnight by Russian forces who have occupied the nearby Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia and on Monday advanced into Georgia proper. Gori was all but deserted late Monday after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers fled.

Dutch Ambassador Onno Van Elderenbosch said Storimans was working in a media center that had been set up on the top floor of Gori’s three-story television and radio center. It was not clear whether the building itself had been hit.

However, Georgian officials say Russian forces have been targeting administrative buildings. The television center is located 200 meters (yards) from Gori’s central administrative building.

Gori’s university and its post office were on fire Tuesday after the bombings, Georgian officials said.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, who knew Storimans, summoned the Russian ambassador to his office in The Hague on Tuesday for an explanation of what happened.

“My thoughts go out to Mr. Storimans’ family, especially his wife and two children,” Verhagen said in a statement, calling him a “hardworking professional and an exceptionally sympathetic man.”

Storimans had planned to publish a book this year describing his 20 years of reporting from hotspots like Sri Lanka, Congo, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, among others.

RTL Nieuws, based in Hilversum, Netherlands, is controlled by Luxembourg-based RTL Group SA, Europe’s largest private broadcasting company, which in turn is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG.

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