 The funeral of Northern Ireland photojournalist Richard Mills will take place tomorrow — with his grieving family refusing to accept he committed suicide.
Mr Mills (42) was on an undercover assignment for The Times newspaper in Zimbabwe when the tragedy occurred two weeks ago. The Zimbabwean authorities said the renowned lensman, brother of local BBC television news reporter Tara Mills, died of asphyxiation by hanging. But the exact circumstances surrounding the July 14 fatality are still unclear, making it even more difficult for his family to come to terms with their dreadful loss. And his heartbroken father, Richard Snr, said he was finding it almost impossible to accept that his only son died by suicide. “The official line is that he took his own life,” said Mr Mills. “But we’re getting conflicting stories. That’s probably the most difficult thing. The death certificate says he died from asphyxiation due to hanging. We find that incomprehensible. It’s totally out of character for him.” The award-winning frontline photojournalist, who had worked on assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, had been due to leave Zimbabwe the day after he died.“We have evidence from emails he sent to his wife Zoe (41) that he was looking forward to moving into their new house in Scotland and he was looking forward to coming home to see his son Finn (5),” added Mr Mills. “Also, the morning before he died he signed a guardianship for a young Zimbabwean boy — the son of friends — who was going to school in Edinburgh. “These are not the actions of someone contemplating taking their own life. You can see where questions arise for us.” In fact, when the devastating call came, 69-year-old Mr Mills thought something had happened to his daughter-in-law, an RAF squadron leader stationed in Basra. “When the phone rang at 5.30am it was the padre from Basra. I automatically assumed he had bad news about Zoe . . . then he told me Richard had been killed. We might ask for an inquest here,” he added. Richard was working on a particular assignment when he died. “That morning, Richard had interviewed a white farmer who was almost beaten to death after speaking out against Mugabe because land and property was being illegally usurped. He felt he was doing a very important job,” he said. A funeral service for Richard is due to take place at Roselawn Cemetery tomorrow at 3pm.
‘He often took great personal risks for sake of his craft’
As the Mills family attempts to get to grips with the shocking news of Richard’s death, tributes have been pouring in from friends and colleagues across the world.
Among them Martin Fletcher, former foreign editor of The Times. He sent a poignant letter to the award-winning photojournalist’s wife Zoe, describing his colleague as a “wonderful, warm, funny, big-hearted man”. “Richard was like no other photographer I have ever worked with,” he said. “He would not rest until he got the perfect shot. I remember him making me drive up and down a back road in Zimbabwe umpteen times until he secured precisely the right picture of a man selling a pitiful bunch of carrots on the verge. Often he took great personal risks for the sake of his craft.” Mr Fletcher also spoke of their adventures together: “He was brave. There was nowhere he would not go. But he was also soft-hearted and was very moved by the plight of Sarudzai Gumbo, the eight-year-old Aids victim whom we found in Zimbabwe and whose life he tried to save. He did so much for her — getting her into a private hospital, arranging for a specialist to see her, visiting her whenever he went to Harare.” Richard’s 69-year-old father, also called Richard, meanwhile, is trying to come to terms with his heartache. “His son Finn had been staying with us and I talked to Richard a number of times the week before he died,” he said. “He called every day. He told me he was hoping to get back to London on Monday, July 14, and he hoped to be in Belfast on Wednesday. That’s another mystery. He was due to come home the day after he died.” He added: “Richard was always upbeat and positive. His mother and I worried about him. I asked him if his work had a profound effect on him and he said: ‘You get used to it’. “He tried to protect us to a certain extent. He did a piece on the most dangerous road in the world, between Kuwait and Baghdad, for example, and we only saw it after it happened.” The editor of The Times, James Harding, said Richard’s death had come as a great shock. “Richard was an outstanding photographer. We are deeply shocked and saddened by his death,” he said. - Belfast Telegraph
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