Omagh husband joins gathering of world terror victims
The husband of a woman killed in the Omagh bombing joined fellow victims of world terror attacks at a conference in Colombia.
Those who lost their loved ones or were themselves wounded in attacks in the North, the United States, Russia and elsewhere spoke yesterday during the opening day of the second International Congress on Victims of Terrorism.
Hundreds of people, some in wheelchairs after being wounded in attacks, packed a large meeting room in a Bogotá hotel, where speakers and listeners alike wept freely at the tales of loss. But there was also a steely resolve to speak out against terrorism and not be passive victims.
Stanley McCombe, whose wife was killed in the 1998 bombing of Omagh – the North’s deadliest terrorist attack – said he had no patience for governments lax on terrorism.
“I have anger at the people who perpetrated this, and anger at governments who do not stand up to terrorists,” McCombe said.
Ken Thompson, whose mother was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, said: “I think that 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.
“The terrorists may even take us, but there will still be people behind us, fighting for what is just and right.”
To speak at the congress, Robert McIlvaine stepped on to a plane for the first time since his son Bobby was killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida on New York and Washington.
Bobby McIlvaine, 26, perished in one of the World Trade Centre towers that was hit by a hijacked airliner.
“I’m petrified of flying. I think about death all the time,” McIlvaine said. But still, he came to Bogotá, where he tearfully described the unceasing pain he and his wife suffered from losing their son.
“Why was that beautiful human being snuffed out like that?” he asked.
Azamat Tarkanovich, whose father was among more than 330 hostages killed in the takeover of a school in Beslan, Russia, last September by Chechen-led terrorists, said Russia was not doing enough to fight terrorism, and should join with other governments in the struggle.
The first International Congress on Victims of Terrorism was held near Madrid last year, barely six weeks before the March 11 train bombings in the Spanish capital killed 190 people.
Tarkanovich noted that if terrorist attacks across the globe stopped, a third congress might not have to be held.
But no one in Bogotá held such illusions. Those whose loved ones had been killed in previous attacks said they could help relatives of future victims.
“The grieving process is the same regardless of race, religion or country,” Thompson said. “We all feel the pain.”
