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Albright offers sympathy to Kenya, Tanzania
August 18, 1998Web posted at: 3:42 p.m. EDT (1942 GMT)
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pledged Tuesday that the United States will find and punish the terrorists who bombed two U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania.
"It's a war," said Albright, as she toured the rubble that had been the Nairobi embassy. "As somebody who actually saw bombs in London during the war, that's what it looked like." Albright's family fled Czechoslovakia and lived in London during World War II.
The two bombings on August 7 killed 257 people, including 12 Americans in Nairobi, and injured more than 5,500.
After touring both sites and speaking to Tanzanians and Kenyans, Albright, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell and Kenyan Foreign Minister Bonaya Godana laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial made of piled rubble at the Ufundi building, also destroyed in the Nairobi blast.
One sign said, "Kenyans want peace not bombs."
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| The Tanzania blast left this crater. Click image for closer view. | |
Albright repeatedly said to Kenyans, "Pole sana," Swahili for "deepest sympathy." In a speech, she noted that almost every Kenyan's life was touched by the tragedy, saying, "So many, so loved, have been lost."
Albright rebuffed criticism of U.S. Marines, who some witnesses said prevented volunteer rescue workers from reaching trapped victims in their zealous attempts to secure the embassy.
"I cannot say we acted perfectly and there were misunderstandings ... but I believe the allegations of callousness are wrong," she said.
Albright said the Marines had been fearful that the building would collapse or that there might be a second terrorist attack.
She said the U.S. administration would seek "substantial" funds from Congress to help the recovery of Kenya and Tanzania.
During her visit to Dar es Salaam, Albright visited Tanzanians still recovering at the Muhimbili Medical Center.
She announced a gift of 500 pounds of medical supplies to Tanzania and Kenya from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center near Washington.
Albright laid a wreath at the blackened remains of the front part of the embassy in Tanzania, where a crater marks the spot where the front gate used to be.
She also presented to Marine guards the tattered U.S. flag that had flown over the embassy and helped place a poster offering $2 million for information leading to conviction of the bomber.
At a joint news conference later, Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete said Albright's visit comforted the Tanzanian people, and he promised continued close cooperation with American law enforcement in the investigation.
