The terrorist bomb attack on the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania killed at least 10 people and left scores more injured, including several Americans. I reported from the Tanzanian capital on Aug. 12, 1998 on the experiences of one of those American survivors.Elizabeth Slater can barely contain her emotions as she recalls what can only be regarded as an unfortunate case of bad timing, marring what should have been a triumphant moment in her life.
A 42-year-old veteran State Department secretary with experience at embassies around Africa, she had arrived in Dar es Salaam only a few days ago to launch what she calls a "new career" -- this one as a communications officer.
“(I was) very, very excited. Hit the ground running, actually, on Wednesday afternoon -- airport, straight to the office. It was great.”
But less than 48 hours later, on Friday morning, the new arrival was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I was scheduled to have my briefings -- my welcome-to-post briefings. And one of the first meetings we have is with our community liaison officer.”
That officer was located on the second floor of the embassy building -- on the side overlooking the main gate to the compound's parking lot. It was at that gate last Friday morning that a massive bomb -- possibly planted in an embassy-owned vehicle -- went off, apparently as Tanzanian security guards at the gate were inspecting it.
The huge blast tore open the side of the embassy directly in front of the gate -- blowing in the wall of the office where Ms. Slater was getting her welcome briefing. The room was suddenly plunged into a dust and smoke filled darkness.
“The first thing for me was the blackness. It was completely black. I could not see a single thing. I couldn't see a thing. Then there was this feeling of, just kind of, I don't know, oily, smoky, whatever. I couldn't see and my colleague that I was meeting with was screaming ..I had no idea what had happened ... That's when things started to fall.”
Among the things that fell was the outside wall, which pinned Ms. Slater to her seat. A security officer rushed in and first helped the community liaison officer out of the room. He then came back in to help Ms. Slater but needed assistance from others to actually pull her free.
Initially she thought her legs might be broken. But, to her surprise, she discovered she was fine. Once she was released from the debris, she managed to walk out of the building and only then -- as she looked at what was left of the guard post next to the main gate -- did she realize what happened.
“What I saw immediately (once outdoors) was the guard post, which was completely contorted, twisted metal. That's when I realized this was a bomb.”
Ms. Slater stopped to help a Tanzanian employee of the embassy who was bleeding profusely and stumbling. Together they made their way to a pre-arranged meeting point elsewhere in the compound.
“At that point I realized that I must really not look very nice because when people came up to me they were going 'ohh, ohh' and running away, walking backwards away from me and that was when I realized I got like 10 different lacerations on my head, and you can see my nose.”
Her nose is a maze of stitches and scars. She says it actually looks much better now.
“My nose was actually hanging off and I have all these other wounds, just a lot of blood. I really wasn't hurt. I can't believe I didn't break any bones.”
Elizabeth Slater, born in Zimbabwe, says she loves Africa. And despite the incident, she says she is determined to press ahead with her new assignment.
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