| Posts: US
Embassy Islamabad |
Author:
Marcia Gauge |
Source:
Source: Time Magazine December 3, 1979
Copy of Article submitted by Steve Garrison /
MSG-Islamabad |
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Flames Engulf the U.S.
Embassy in Pakistan
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After the U.S. embassy in Tehran was seized, Washington
ordered its
embassies throughout the world to review their security. The mission in
the Pakistani capital of Islamabad finished its review with the
observation that, in the words of an Administration official, "the
embassy was totally dependent on the Pakistani government for
protection." The very next day. that proved to be dangerously
true.
. .
Angered by false radio reports that -Americans were
responsible for
the seizure of the Sacred Mosque at Mecca, some 10,000. Pakistanis
attacked the U.S. headquarters, throwing bricks and setting cars afire.
It was 1 p.m., and not until about an hour later did police appear;
they found themselves outnumbered, and left. .The rioters, many of them
students, crashed into the embassy, trapped some 90 employees in a
vault room and set the building afire. There were cries of "Kill the
American dogs".
Not until 4 p.m. did Pakistani army troops arrive, and
they stayed to one side.
Hearing of the violence, President Carter got on the
telephone to
President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and told him that Pakistan was
responsible for the Americans' safety. Zia, who seized power in a coup
2'A years ago and whose regime has been facing stiff resistance, said
he had been doing what he could, but he proved reluctant to use
real force against the crowd.
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Only at night, with the embassy in flames, did I he mob disperse, its
passion spent. The toll of dead in the seven-hour rampage: one American
Marine and an Army warrant officer, two Pakistani embassy clerks and
two rioters.
There were also large demonstrations in Karachi, and the American
cultural centers in Lahore and Rawalpindi were burned and gutted. The
next day Washington ordered all "nonessential embassy personnel" and
dependents evacuated from Pakistan. Thereupon some 400 Americans,
mostly wives and children of U.S. personnel, flew home. |
"You Could Die Here"
By Marcia Ganger
There was one journalist among the
Americans trapped in the embassy —TIME'S New Delhi Bureau Chief
Marcia Ganger. Below is her dramatic account of the extraordinary
and terrifying . koto's inside the besieged embassy.
It started
as if it were nothing. Just two red buses; maybe ? 50" i people. They
goi out and started milling around the big iron.) gates,. They chanted
anti-Carter slogans,' threw a few rocks! over the red brick wall, got
back in the buses and drove away. ( End of demo. I was headed for the
cafeteria, and Embassy Political Officer Herb Hageny called out, "Save
me a seat, I'll be> right there." He never made it. It was a few
minutes later; about 1 p.m., that the buses returned, this time six of
them, They were crammed with people, both inside and clinging to ,
thereof. And now all hell broke loose. The Marines slammed
shut the gates as some of the mobs began setting cars in the parking
lot afire. Others bashed at ths brick wall, using a heavy pole. There
was constant yelling outside. Embassy staffers began locking their
files. Dave FietdsJ the administrative counselor, watched the rioters
srnashing ad the walls. lplf the- wall goes,, we're in for it," he
said. Moments^ later it did. "Everybody upstairs,'' Fields shouted. We
climbed a curved staircase to the embassy's third-floor vault, a
specially designed, windowless steel-walled room -about 20
ft. by 30 ft. It contained communications equipment,'! coding devices,
and an enormous safe. It had its own back-up* power generator and
battery-powered radios. "They're shooting," someone shouted. "They shot
a Marine." "Where was he?" "On the roof." "Is he O.K.?" 'T don't
know."
.? Cpl. Steve Crow ley, 1 9, a Long Islander who served in Pakistan
about three months, had been assigned to roof duty, and; 1 a rioter had
shot him in the side of the head. They got him down and brought
him to an another room of the vault. A nurse hovered over him,
fitting an oxygen mask. He lay in a pool of; blood. I hadn't been
scared at first, but now I was as I stood;' there looking at this young
dying Marine. "Everybody into the vault," somebody
ordered. Marines.' were throwing tear gas as we retreated. Some
90 of us were herded into the vault, arranging ourselves on chairs,
desks, the lights went out, then on again. A phone rang and we were
told that police were on their way. Six minutes later, another
phone call said General Zia was sending reinforcements,
Just before 2 o'clock, one hour after the siege began, word from
the British embassy, which could observe the outside of our building,
that ''they" were moving demonstrators off the compound. But
"they" were not. We began to smell, smoke. There was fire somewhere. At
2:23, the attackers smashed their way into the embassy itself.
The Marines—there were seven of them—moved up to. the
third floor, covering their retreat with tear gas.
Radio contact was established with other areas of the embassy
comrnunity, were Dixie 14, Dixie 20 was Ambassador Arthur
Hummel, who was at home. "I know you're uncomfortable in ; there, but
just hold on and take it easy," Hummel said. He " told us the Pakistani
army was just a few minutes away.
At 2:40, we learned that the warehouse near the embassy was on
fire. We began to wonder how long we could hold out. There were fresh
attempts to reach the ambassador and a report that helicopters were on
the way to rescue us from the roof. I was trying to listen for the
helicopters when Public Affairs Officer James Thurber reached for my
notebook and pen. When he handed it back, it contained this note:
"Marine died." Tears started to my eyes. Thurber had his fingers. to
his lips. ''Nobody knows," he whispered. It was an emotional piece of
information the room did not need.
, we heard new sounds. "They're on the roof," somebody yelled. Dixie
17, the American school, told us there were three truckloads of
Pakistani troops on a side road "waiting to move." An embassy officer
grabbed the mike. "This is the third floor of the American embassy," he
yelled. "You have our permission to move those troops."
At 4:08, a voice in the back of the room asked: "You got a fire
extinguisher in here?" The carpet was gelling quite hot .
At 4:11, Dixie 53 (i don't know where it was) came on the air; "The
embassy is on fire—the theater building and the entrance and
there is also smoke pouring out of the motor pool.
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we had no
way- of knowing what it was- Our room was now mostly quiet.
It was getting warmer and wanner; the first real thoughts began to
enter your mind that you could die here, that somebody was trying to
cook- us to deaih—quite literally. The link to reality was
Dixie. "This is Dixie 14. Tell Zia to get the troops here and get
the people offthe roof." .Dixie 20: "More troops have arrived. The
military are on the scene and
have taken command. They understand the urgency of clearing the
building."- -" '
Dixie 14; "'Someone is banging on the roof. Mr Ambassador, they are
shooting down the air-condi-tioniiig vents." Dixie 20:
--'You are right There are still dissidents on the-roof.
You should not open. the hatch."" Dixie 14: "Now they're beating
on the vault door.^ We don't have much time." There was a -14:'
'There's' lots of smoke, gas, and they're using some heavy object
to batter the doors. Do you have any hope for us?" .
There was- more-heavy.banging, and then someone unlocked the- door and
our Marines crowded in;, more tear gas came in-with them.
The radio now turned bad.
Dixie-14:'"The floor in the vault is getting warm.'are fires
underneath us. We need to evacuate to the roof Can you till
us, is the roof clear? No answer,
At 5:30 came a frightening call from the back of the room "Fire
in the vault!" Amazingly, no one panicked. One official :.turned the*
fire extinguisher over to where the carpet begun to burn: Two
blasts put out the fiames..The steel shell of the vault was now
so hot from the fires.
below that the tiles- laid over it were beginning to-crack and
buckle. We were all drenched in sweat. We were breathing through wet
paper towels, very slowly and shallowly, trying to save oxygen. The
smoke was getting heavy, making it hard to breathe. It was doubtful we
could have lasted another 30 minutes in the vault;' Dave Fields asked:
"Are-there some senior Pakistanis who would like to establish contact
with the dissidents on the roof?" There were a number of volunteers.
"We will see if it's clear on the roof and we will go out very slowly,
very orderly," said Fields. "I will say who goes." Finally it was
the Marines who led the .way up the stairs to the hatch, The
first Marine opened the hatch and stuck his head out into the
darkness. He had no way of knowing what might be waiting for him out
there on the roof. It had gotten quiet; the shooting had stopped, the
hammering and pounding had i stopped. But it could well have-been
a trap. We didn't know. The only thing we had going for us was the
darkness itself, and I guess the fires too. That must have been what
drove the rioters away.
With the Marines standing guard over the hatch, two groups
of women went out onto the roof, then some men, then some more women. A
burst of fresh air sud--denly hit rne; very cold, very fresh. There was
a strange glow around • the edges of the roof from the fire-t that
was consuming the buildings beneath us. The Marines warned J us in
whispers: "Stay down! Stay P down!" They could not be sure i there were
not still rioters some where on the roof, As more people
came up from the vault, we gathered in knots for the move
across the roof to a second ladder that
went to the ground. The Marines led us
over the side. "I'm sorry we have to take you through a little
smoke in here," one of them said to me. This part of the building was
blazing-
from both sides, and smoke hung over everything. I kept thinking
that the roof had to collapse soon — any minute. .; if When, we
came down the last ladder, we looked across to the embassy gates. The
Pakistani army that had been comings to our rescue since the
assault began at 1 p.m. finally opened the gate; and some
soldiers ceremoniously marched over to the ladder and welcomed us
to the ground. When we finally reached safety. Ambassador Hummel
praised us for "having done more for ourselves than I
could 'get the government of Pakistan to do. He was
absolutely right. I don't care what President Carter says. I don't care
what Secretary Vance says. We came out all by ourselves. It.was our
Marine guards who saved us. Nobody else. |
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