UN Baghdad hotel bombing survivors: Elpida Rouka
Introduction:
I’m Yasmina Guerda at the United Nations in New York.
It has been 15 years since the terrorist attack on the UN compound at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad: In the words of the Secretary-General at the time, Kofi Annan, this was “the darkest day in our lives at the United Nations”. The truck bomb killed 22 international and local staff, including the top UN representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
This was the first time the UN was deliberately targeted on a massive scale.
Current and former staff who survived the blast on 19 August 2003 have been reflecting on the tragedy.
Elpida Rouka has a blurred photo of the UN flag flying over the Canal Hotel, one of two items that survived her mission with the Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq.
It was taken as she entered the UN compound on the day of the attack for final meetings with Mr. Vieira de Mello and others as the programme was concluding its activities.
Ms. Rouka has limited recollection of the immediate aftermath of the attack, but she will never forget the colleagues whose lives were cut short in the blast.
She believes that remembering their service, rather than the horror of that day, is the most potent reminder of the ideals embodied by the UN flag.
It has been 15 years since the terrorist attack on the UN compound at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad: “the darkest day in our lives at the United Nations”, in the words of the Secretary-General at the time, Kofi Annan.
The truck bomb killed 22 international and local staff, including the top UN representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Current and former staff who survived the blast on 19 August 2003 have been reflecting on the tragedy, which marked the first time the UN was deliberately targeted on a massive scale.
Elpida Rouka has a blurred photo of the UN flag flying over the Canal Hotel, one of two items that survived her mission with the Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq.
It was taken as she entered the UN compound on 19 August 2003 for final meetings with Mr. Vieira de Mello and others as the programme was concluding its activities.
While Ms. Rouka has limited recollection of the immediate aftermath of the attack, she will never forget the colleagues whose lives were cut short in the blast.
She believes that remembering their service, rather than the horror of that day, is the most potent reminder of the ideals embodied by the UN flag.