U.S. Unveils Tanzania Embassy Site

U.S. and Tanzanian officials broke ground Saturday for a new American Embassy, a year to the day after a powerful explosion ripped through the previous building, killing 11 people and injuring dozens.

Investigators believe that the explosion was caused by a bomb planted by Islamic militants inside a refrigeration truck. The truck was parked outside the embassy compound in a residential neighborhood in the capital, Dar es Salaam.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patsy Thomasson, Ambassador Charles Stith and Elly Mtango, permanent secretary of Tanzania’s Foreign Ministry, turned the earth at Dar es Salaam’s only drive-in movie theater, the 20-acre site of the new embassy.

Stith, who took up his post after the Aug. 7, 1998, blast, said the new mission will be “a testament to our tenacity in the face of terrorism, a symbol of our resolve to stand up for democratic values and a statement of our commitment to our relationship with the people of Tanzania.”

Those killed in the bombing and the majority of the injured were Africans.

An almost simultaneous bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya, killed 213 people, including 12 Americans, and injured 5,000.

“By this time next year you will see bulldozers and construction work going on,” Thomasson said. “With a site this big, we are going to meet embassy security requirements.”

Neither the embassy in Dar es Salaam nor the one in Nairobi met newer security standards that require set-back areas to separate the compounds from streets and roads.

The groundbreaking was preceded by the unveiling at the National Museum of a sculpture by Swedish artist Clara Sornas of an armless human torso made of red concrete studded with debris from the bombing.

In contrast to Nairobi, where a memorial service was held on the site where the embassy had stood, there was no ceremony at the bombed-out building in Dar es Salaam.

“There is nothing at the old embassy. We are beyond that. We are moving towards hope, we are moving towards healing,” said U.S. Embassy spokesman Dudley Simms, who was in Dar es Salaam at the time of the bombing.