April 2004 update: Read
a story by Gil Loescher in the magazine's spring 2004 issue.
Emeritus Professor of Political Science Gilburt Loescher, who
was nearly killed in the bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad
in August 2003, continues to recuperate in England.
He lost both of his legs above the knee, his right hand was
badly damaged, and he spent weeks unconscious after the terrorist
blast. But as of early December he was learning to walk on prosthetic
legs and had even taken his first drive in a car equipped with
hand controls. He and his family are keeping an online journal
of his progress at www.caringbridge.org/pa/gilloescher.
Loescher and his research partner, Arthur Helter, had just arrived
at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad to meet with U.N. Special
Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello when the bomb exploded. Helton and
Vieira de Mello were both killed, although Loescher later learned
that the U.N. envoy survived long enough to call rescuers on a
cell phone and give their location.
Loescher remembers the attack and vows to carry on with his
work for peace in an article ("I was not going to die in the rubble")
written for the group Open Democracy. Read the account at www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-2-1624.jsp.
(Winter 2003-04)
