1. Olivier Weber was born on 1958 and is a French writer, novelist and reporter at large, known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
25 Facts About Olivier Weber
1. 2.
Olivier Weber has been a war correspondent for twenty-five years, especially in Central Asia, Africa, Middle-East and Iraq.
3.
Olivier Weber is an assistant professor at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris, president of the Prize Joseph Kessel and today ambassador of France at large.
4.
Olivier Weber, born in 1958 in Montlucon, studied economics and anthropology at the University of San Francisco, University of Paris Sorbonne, University of Nice and at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations.
5.
Olivier Weber won the Albert Londres Prize and Joseph Kessel Prize for his reports on wars and books.
6.
Olivier Weber joined the French weekly Le Point as a journalist and later was appointed foreign correspondent.
7.
Olivier Weber has covered around twenty wars and conflicts, including wars and armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Kurdistan, Chechnya, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Chad, Pakistan, Kashmir, Algeria, Iran, Armenia, Russia, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Western Sahara, East Timor, and Eritrea.
8.
Olivier Weber has interviewed among others the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Indian President Rajiv Gandhi, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, Iraki President Jalal Talabani, Philippines President Corazon Aquino, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Massud Barzani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
9.
Olivier Weber has traveled the world, from the United States to China and from Africa to the East, which became his passion.
10.
Olivier Weber brought from these trips and stays several stories, surveys and novels, including Dragon Hunters: Opiomistan trip, and The White Death on the world of drug dealers.
11.
Olivier Weber has defended in particular the resistance of South Sudan and has denounced the slavery of Sudanese children.
12.
Olivier Weber participated at the operations of saving the boat people, in the China Sea, with volunteers of the international NGO Doctors of the World.
13.
Olivier Weber has defended the Afghan mujahideen during the war against the Soviet army and then against the pro-communist regime of Najibullah and had traveled several times with the rebels and Commander Massoud.
14.
Olivier Weber was to attend his funeral, when the Taliban launched a major offensive.
15.
Olivier Weber has published several books on Central Asia and the Silk Road: The Great Feast of the East, The Afghan Hawk: a journey to the land of the Taliban, Memory Murdered, Road of Drugs, The White Death.
16.
Olivier Weber has denounced the impunity of the Khmer Rouge in the mountains of western Cambodia, after meeting the underground movement leaders Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan, both former deputies of Pol Pot.
17.
Olivier Weber has written the biographies of Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Ella Maillart.
18.
Olivier Weber is a member of the Albert Londres Award's jury.
19.
Olivier Weber was nominated in 2008 to be ambassador of France at large, in charge of human trafficking and human rights.
20.
Olivier Weber has done several dozens of missions for this task in Asia, Africa, Central America, Middle East, and advocates at the tribune of the United Nations mainly on human trafficking, child soldiers, fight against drugs, civil society and human rights.
21.
Olivier Weber is a lecturer at the Institute of Political Studies of Paris, where he teaches the guerrilla warfare.
22.
Olivier Weber has completed from 1983 to 2011 more than 20 terrain-researches as a war observer in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Syria, Erytrea, Sudan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan.
23.
Olivier Weber has received several awards and prizes of literature and journalism, among them the prestigious Albert Londres Prize, considered the French Pulitzer prize, for his articles and reports.
24.
Olivier Weber is a selection committee member for literature awards and member of the Societe des Explorateurs Francais.
25.
Olivier Weber is the author, director and screenwriter of several films for television and theater, in particular on travels and on writers.