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Congress of terrorist victims meets in Bogota

Victims of terrorist acts from all over the world met in Bogota to share their stories and ease their heartache. The group hopes to deter terrorist attacks by showing its unbroken spirits.

By ANDREW SELSKY
The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 24 -- From Oklahoma City and New York to Beslan, Russia, men and women who were wounded or lost loved ones in terrorist attacks met Thursday at a victims' congress, where they mourned their losses but vowed to defeat terrorism and not be passive victims.

"I think if we join together and say 'We are still here. You may have taken our loved ones, but you can't break our spirit,' that the terrorists will know they can't win," said Ken Thompson, whose mother was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Hundreds of people, some in wheelchairs after being paralyzed in terrorist attacks, packed a large meeting room in a downtown Bogota hotel for the two-day International Congress on Victims of Terrorism that began Wednesday.

To speak at the conference, Robert McIlvaine stepped onto a plane for the first time since his 26-year-old son Bobby was killed in one of the World Trade Center towers that was hit by a hijacked airliner in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I'm petrified of flying. I think about death all the time," McIlvaine said. But he came to Bogota to describe the unceasing pain he and his wife suffer from losing their son.

"Why was that beautiful human being snuffed out like that?" he asked, his voice cracking. Members of the audience dabbed at their eyes with handkerchiefs as he spoke.

Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Tony Rose told how one of the hijacked planes plowed into the Pentagon, hitting just 30 feet from where he was standing. A fireball incinerated troops near him.

"The only way we knew a pile of ash was one of my soldiers was from a watch or ring in the ash," he said. He told of retrieving body parts from water and jet fuel that was flowing into a drain. Rose's hands were full when the severed hand of a child appeared, but he managed to grab it and put it in his pocket.

"We can allow ourselves to continue to be victims, but we can rise one step higher and take charge, and kick butt if we need to," Rose told the audience.

Juan Pablo Letelier, whose father, former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, was killed by Chile's military dictatorship with a bomb in Washington in 1976, said all terrorism must be condemned, no matter who is carrying it out.

"We must be consistent in the battle against terrorism," Letelier said Thursday, adding that he believes the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, also amounts to terrorism.

The first International Congress on Victims of Terrorism was held near Madrid, Spain, last year, barely six weeks before the March 11 train bombings in the Spanish capital killed 190 people.

Azamat Tarkanovich, whose father was killed in the takeover of a school in Beslan, Russia, last September by Chechen-led terrorists, noted that a third congress might not have to be held if terrorists stop attacks across the globe.

But few held such illusions. Those whose loved ones have been killed in previous attacks said they are prepared to help relatives of future victims.

"The grieving process is the same regardless of race, religion or country," Thompson said. "We all feel the pain."

Terrorism waged by governments was also examined at the gathering. A former Argentine army chief on Thursday repudiated the dirty war waged against leftists during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Retired Lt. Gen. Martin Antonio Balza, chief of the Argentine army from 1991-1999, said his country's dark past in which thousands died must be fully explored.

"The military commanders of that time need to recognize not just the errors of the past, but the horrors of the past," said Balza, who is currently Argentina's ambassador to Colombia.

Story Produced by: Jimmy Kunkel

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