STATEMENT FROM MRS. RULA ALFARA TALKING
ON BEHALF THE VICTIMS
Five years ago, in a summer nightmare, terror knocked on our door. Our feelings of joy, trust and comfort took a one way flight to the unknown. We lost our beloved ones cruelly, and unexpectedly, and ever since, our lives have never been the same.
On that horrible day of August 19th our innocence was taken away...Wearing a blue helmet or hoisting a UN flag, did not place the servers of humanity above the fray, and our pain is still too much to bear.
Five years have not eased our suffering, nor healed our wounds for the loss of a father, or a mother, a husband, or a wife, a sister, or a brother, a son, or a daughter, all of whom where exceptional people on an exceptional mission...a mission of peace and prosperity for fellow humans in Iraq...a mission that was never accomplished.
Justice was not served, and those who plotted and implemented that in – excusable attack, and who killed our sense of life itself on that unforgivable day are still anonymous and probably plotting more horrors.
The situation in Iraq is not better than it was five years ago. Actually, it has gotten much worse since that horrible bombing of the Canal Hotel, as if the gates of hell were opened, and Iraqis were caught in terrible circles of violence, insecurity, lack of basic social services, and infra structure; thus, causing even more vicious circles of increased death tolls and amplified poverty and unemployment rates, and growing numbers of refugees that are burdening the conscious of humanity, and placing challenges to our whole moral system.
Five years from that dark day, the United Nations is still wounded as we are, but with no more illusions of being untouchable.
Did the United Nations abandon hope in Iraq? Surely not. Did we abandon belief in the value of our fallen heroes’ sacrifice? Not a bit.
Five years ago, in the peak of our pain, we, the families of the victims had overcome our personal feelings of loss, and pleaded to the UN not to abandon Iraq, and not to leave the Iraqis face the chaos caused by war miseries alone, so that the sacrifice done by our beloved ones may not go in vain.
As you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon put it: the UN looks at Iraq with hope, and so do we, the families of the victims, in spite of all the mischiefs, and all the dreams that were stolen, and all the ones that have never come true.
And allow me to quote you again Mr. Ban, Ki-moon when you said: “The bombers shook us to the core, yet they could not shake our ideals, our values, our commitment, our resolve; these are all unchanged”.
Yet, if Sergio Vieira de Mello, and all his fallen colleagues could come alive and look back to Iraq now, their message to the UN would be: “This is not what we were hoping for. There is still a long path to be walked. Human rights in Iraq are still being violated on a daily basis, and Iraqis are still far away from achieving their sovereignty and development.”
Our fallen heroes would want to work even harder to improve peoples’ lives, for this was their ultimate goal, and that’s why we urge the United Nations organizations to be fully engaged in Iraq to help improve the situation there.
Beside the UN duties in Iraq, there is one more duty that has not been fulfilled yet.
For the last five years, we the families of the twenty-two victims and the hundreds of survivors of that terrorist attack have been waiting for the investigation report and for our right to truth and justice to be fulfilled.
Today, all those families have gathered here again to find answers. Who did it, why, and how? Was this incident avoidable? Could our beloved ones still be here with us if certain measures had been taken? Were criminals brought to justice? Will this happen again? Will more extraordinary people, the best in their field, face this same fate on other missions in Iraq and around the hot spots in the world?
Mattia – Selim, the five year old son of Jean Selim Kanaan, has been asking his mother those hard questions for the last two years: why was my father killed? How was he killed? Why isn’t he here with us? Laura could not give answers for she did not have them, and she did not want to poison his innocent world with unpleasant explanations. The child could not understand, and neither could we.
The same tough questions echoed every day over the past five years in every house of the twenty-two victims. Sons and daughters and nephews wanted to know the truth, but the truth is not yet revealed.
The world has not yet become a better place, and our fallen heroes, if brought again to life will not be satisfied, but they will keep trying to change it, and so should we.
When we look back, we remember our beloved ones’ qualities, and we feel that those traits should be assembled once more to continue their mission: Sergio’s diplomacy skills and courage; Nadia’s perseverance; Reda’s wisdom; Jean Salim’s intelligence and enthusiasm; Reham’s youth and endless digging for truth; Fiona’s humanity and kindness; Gillian’s principles and values; Rick’s strength; Leen’s accuracy, Omar’s quest for tomorrow; Saad’s dreams of a better future; Raed’s will for change; Alia’s hard work; Arthur’s vision, and all the others who strived for a better life in a troubled world.
To all of you who left us on August 19th to join other incredible humanity fighters around the world who daily sacrifice their lives on other noble missions to sustain other peoples’ lives, we tell you...You will always be in our hearts and souls, and you will always be our role models, our candles that light the way on the darkest nights and days.
People die every day for no cause, they go unremembered and unheard, but you, our heroes, died for what you believed in and stood for, and you will always be remembered and heard. In fact, as long as we listen to your voices, and remember your message, your souls shall never leave us, and we shall not walk our journey alone.
