Foreigners ask if it’s time to say goodbye

[Naveed Yaseen]

* German woman says life steadily worsened for foreigners over past two months
* Marriott blast could mark final straw for some foreign residents

ISLAMABAD: When the place you go to eat, meet, do business, attend conferences and receptions gets blown up, it’s natural to ask whether it’s time to leave.

The sheer sound of the massive explosion from a suicide truck bomb at the Marriott Hotel left foreigners living in Islamabad shaken to their core - and for some of them, it could be a tipping point. At least 60 people were killed in Saturday’s attack, which intelligence officials suspect could have been the work of Al Qaeda. Two Americans, one Vietnamese and the Czech ambassador were among the dead.

Ina Pietchmann, a German woman working for the United Nations, said her ‘heart beat like a rabbit’s’ when she heard the blast and saw the night sky go red and smoke rise up. “Our lives have got steadily worse over the past two months. We’ve been advised not to go to outside restaurants,” she said.

Two months ago, there was a security scare after Pakistani police seized two four-wheel-drive vehicles stacked with explosives in Rawalpindi and hunted for another they feared was being sneaked into the capital. “There’s always some stress lying on you,” said Pietchmann. Nuthit Phukkanasut, the general manager of the Thai Airways office in Islamabad, said he was restricting his movements. “I don’t go to places where many people go. I only go out to my friends’ houses. I don’t go to the main shopping areas or any such high-risk place,” he said.

Many foreigners left Islamabad after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, but later returned as investment poured into the oil, gas and telecom sectors. It remained a non-family posting for US diplomats, however.

Aside from the Marriott, the Serena, Islamabad’s only other five-star hotel, and the social clubs attached to embassies in the highly protected diplomatic enclave were among the few places deemed safe by security advisers.

Six months ago, a bomb attack in the garden area of an Italian restaurant that was another favourite among expatriates unnerved some, until it was learnt that the target had probably been a table full of agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Final straw: Saturday’s blast was on a completely different scale, and could mark the final straw for some foreign residents.

Steve, a British man in his fifties who has spent much of each working day in the Marriott over the past few years, said he and his wife were discussing whether to tell his Pakistani employer goodbye.

They’ve watched militancy spreading down from NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. “We said we’d give it another 24 hours before deciding, but this is getting too close to home,” said Steve, who did not want to give his full name.

Rumana Brown, a Bangladeshi woman, arrived in Islamabad 17 months ago to join her British husband. The Marriott blast had jangled her nerves. “I think this bombing will be very bad for Pakistan,” she said. reuters

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg1_10