On 26 September 2002 Scott was killed in the Russian republic of
Ingushetia. Russian soldiers found his body in Ingushetia's
Galashki region, near the border with the war-torn republic of
Chechnya, following a fierce battle between Russian forces and a group of Chechen rebel fighters in which at least 17 were killed and a Russian
helicopter was shot down. Scott had accompanied the Chechens from
Ruslan Gelayev's unit as they crossed from
Georgia into Russia and was apparently killed by a bullet in the viewfinder of his camera while filming the firefight,
United Press International reported. At first,
the Kremlin officials said Scott might still be alive. Scott was instrumental in updating
Robert Young Pelton's
The World's Most Dangerous Places' fourth edition and his primary source of income came from assisting Pelton in covering areas such as
Kurdistan and
Albania. Pelton investigated the circumstances of his friend's death and determined that Scott indeed tried to surrender but was shot in the face by a Russian sniper while waving an improvised
white flag borrowed from a local. According to Pelton, the Russian government later tried to extort Scott's family, branding him as a "
terrorist" and refusing to return the body or issue a death certificate unless money was paid. Pelton arranged with
CNN's Moscow bureau Jill Dougherty to run a lengthy profile on Scott's career as a journalist to counter the Russian
propaganda. Meanwhile, Scott's family solved the body extortion by simply demanding that in the British tradition, he should be buried where he fell. Scott's father, Robin, writing to
The Times, said his son had chosen to travel with the Chechens in order to remedy the sparse media reporting of a conflict: "Whether it was
Kurds,
Chechens,
Afghans or
Palestinians, he was committed to ensuring that issues were not sidelined and received the international attention that they deserved." The Roddy Scott Foundation was named after him. ==References==