KENYA: Search continues at the site of the Paradise Hotel car bombing in Mombasa as it affects those who worked in and around the hotel

Record ID: 362690

  • Title: KENYA: Search continues at the site of the Paradise Hotel car bombing in Mombasa as it affects those who worked in and around the hotel
  • Date: 1st December 2002
  • Summary: (L!1)MOMBASA, KENYA (DECEMBER 1, 2002) (REUTERS) WS: BURNT CAR IN FRONT OF THE PARADISE HOTEL. SLV/PULL BACK/WS: KENYAN SOLDIERS INVESTIGATING/POOL TO VIEW OF THE HOTEL SLV: ISRAELI AND KENYAN INVESTIGATORS IN PLANE CLOTHES WALKING TO THE HOTEL ENTRANCE, WHICH IS A MODEL OF A LION'S MOUTH MV: ISRAELI AND KENYAN INVESTIGATOR TALKING. LAS/GV: BURNT GATE OF THE PARADISE HOTE
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOMBASA, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVAB2DPBYYD93ZXUKG0VZGHZFXWR
  • Story Text: The blast at the Paradise hotel in Mombasa, not only killed and wounded scores of Kenyans and Israelis, it also gave a serious blow to the income of those who lived next door to the hotel and made their living off its visitors and staff.
    Kenyan and Israeli investigators continued working at the site where three suicide bombers blew themselves up last week, killing another 13 people, at the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel.
    On Sunday (December 1), Kenyan soldiers and plain-clothes investigators were searching the site, collecting any evidence which could lead them to those behind the attack. They walked around the police-cordoned area, marked with Israeli police red and yellow tapes.
    And, next door, Kenyan resident Nyala Charo tried to collect what was left from his home which was almost completely destroyed by the blast and the fire that followed.
    Charo, a father of seven, was away from his home when three suicide bombers slammed their Pajero jeep into the Paradise hotel lobby, packed with Israeli tourists who just arrived and local dancers who came to welcome them.
    Three days after the blast, Charo walked through the burnt rooms, looking around in despair. The house was a home and a source of income for him and his seven children, after he transferred part of the house into a restaurant. He mainly lived off the Paradise hotel workers, who used to dine and rest at his place.
    "This continued burning, until there was nothing left to burn," he said, pointing at the debris. "Everything had caught fire," he added, looking at the broken glass. bottles and the skyline which is left after his thatch roof was completely burnt.
    "Honestly, this action is like animals. It is one that will not satisfy anyone. To human beings, this is not impressive," Charo said.
    Israel said on Monday (December 2) that Kenya lacked the facilities and expertise to investigate the twin attacks there on the Israeli hotel and airliner. Police in the east African country said they had disagreed with Israel over control of key evidence.
    But both countries played down tensions over the investigation into Thursday's attacks -- the suicide bombing and a failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger plane.
    The tensions surfaced as the leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia prepared for security talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington this week after the United States warned of more attacks in the Horn of Africa.
    Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, has ordered the Mossad spy agency to hunt down those responsible for the attack, which killed three Israelis, and sent investigators to look for clues at the bombed-out hotel.
    U.S. officials suspect Thursday's (November 28) attacks were the work of the Somali-based al-Itihad al-Islamiya group, which they say has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Israel has named al Qaeda the prime suspect in the attacks. Al Qaeda has been the target of Washington's "war on terrorism" since last year's September 11 attacks on the United States.
    But, for Charo, the results of the investigation were irrelevant as he tried to calculate his losses. After the blast, Charo sent most of his children away from the house, until a more permanent solution is found. Meanwhile, he and his wife were looking through the burnt remains of their house, trying to salvage anything that would remind them of the life they had before Thursday's blast.
    "Honestly, life on my side has become hard. I don't know where I will start from, I don't know how I will go on," Charo said, swallowing his tears.
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