Dutch Middle East reporter Conny Mus dies on leave from his 28-year posting in Jerusalem

Veteran Dutch Mideast reporter Conny Mus dies

AMSTERDAM — Conny Mus, a veteran Dutch correspondent in the Middle East who covered conflicts from Romania’s revolution to the wars in Iraq, died Friday while on vacation in his home country, the RTL broadcasting company said. He was 59.

RTL said he died of a heart attack in his sleep.

Mus was one of the Netherlands’ best-known broadcast and television reporters. He began reporting from Jerusalem as a freelance journalist in 1982 and joined RTL at its inception in 1989. He appeared on air more than 1,300 times for the broadcaster. He also was a columnist for several magazines.

RTL’s news director Harm Taselaar called him an “icon” of the news department, and “an exceptionally good and passionate journalist.”

In addition to covering to covering Mideast conflicts since Israel’s 1982 war in Lebanon, Mus reported on the 1989 fall of Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu, wars in Kosovo and Iraq, the 1999 earthquake in Turkey and elections in Cambodia.

Mus was the current chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Israel, a position he had held off-and-on since 1990.