Victims Of Terror Are Now Speaking Out

Victims Of Terrorism Share Stories At The U.N. -- L.A. Times

Forum is a cathartic starting point of an effort to coordinate a global effort that would assist those wounded, disabled, emotionally scarred, impoverished or bereft of loved ones in the wake of terror.

UNITED NATIONS -- Naomi Kerongo choked with emotion in a U.N. conference hall Tuesday as she recounted her country's version of Sept. 11.

It was 10 years ago. Twin bombs, for which Al Qaeda claimed responsibility, destroyed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Kerongo, a Kenyan trade development officer at the time, was among the thousands wounded in the attacks. More than 200 died.

Survivors of similar traumas, summoned from around the world to the first U.N. symposium on the plight of terrorism victims, listened in silence as a tearful Kerongo described how her life fell apart after that.

She spent two years in a mental hospital, lost her job and her home, and now lives in a Nairobi slum -- a state of destitution she said is shared by many survivors of the attack in Kenya, which has no state-sponsored medical insurance.

"Nothing can take us back to the day before the bomb blast," she said. "But something can and must be done to answer our call for help."

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My Comment: This forum is long overdue .... and not publicized enough.