Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Fri, 10 Jan 1997 11:46:24 -0800 (PST)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 01:04:17 +0300
>From: Catherine Fitzpatrick <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Internews Director Found Murdered in Kazakhstan
ALMATY, Jan. 9 (UPI) - A 28-year-old American has been found dead
Thursday in his apartment in the Kazakh capital Almaty, his throat
slit in what co-workers say may have been a robbery-related murder.
Arkansas native Christopher Joseph Gehring worked for the U.S.-based
non-profit media development company Internews, and had lived in
Kazakhstan for a year and a half.
Police are investigating the motive in the slaying, but a colleague
says it is possible Gehring had been targeted for a robbery because as
a foreigner, he was likely to be considered well-off.
Persephone Miel, the Internews director of training in the
Commonwealth of Independent states, says Gehring "was energetic and
interested in what he did."
Miel said in a telephone interview in Moscow that Gehring was a
dedicated professional who "turned down better paying positions to
keep working in Central Asia" for Internews.
Despite strong tension between the Kazakh government and the
country's independent media, Miel says there is no evidence that the
killing was related to Gehring's work.
Based in Arcata, Calif., Internews supports non-governmental
broadcast media in eight former Soviet republics. Most of its work in
Central Asia is funded by the U.S. Agency for International
Development.
Gehring previously worked for Cable Network News in Atlanta and for
the American Broadcasting Co. in Moscow. He was a graduate of
Northwestern University.
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