|
|
July 16, 2004/Tamuz 27 5764, Vol. 56, No. 43
Questions remain from bombing
BRIAN HARRIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PANAMA CITY - Ten years after a bomber blew up a short-haul flight here, killing all 21 people on the commuter plane, including a dozen local Jews, authorities still have no idea who was behind the attack.
On the afternoon of July 19, 1994, the Alas Chiricanas flight departed from the Caribbean port of Colon for Panama City, a trip of about 20 minutes. It was a familiar commute for most of those on board, passengers who worked at Colon's tax-free wholesale market for Asian goods.
Instead, the flight turned into a disturbing and enduring mystery.
Because the bombing occurred during the deadliest week ever for Jews in Latin America - the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires had been bombed a day earlier, killing 85 people and wounding 300 - some Jews are convinced the Panama bombing was the work of Arab terrorists.
Hezbollah terrorists are suspected in the AMIA bombing, which is believed to have been sponsored by Iran.
But other evidence in the airline attack points to drug cartels in neigh-boring Colombia, who had used a similar modus operandi to eli-minate rivals and debtors in the past.
Panamanian authorities say they're not cer-tain about either theory. So far, they say, they are treating the bombing as a case of murder with possible terrorist over-tones.
A decade later and without a single arrest to show for their efforts, authorities concede they may never find out who was behind the attack unless someone comes forward with a credible claim of responsibility. That hasn't happened.
All the speculations "are indicators, nothing more, for forming a theory. But to present charges in front of a judge, we have to have much more evidence," the lead judicial investigator in the case, Maritza Royo, told JTA.
Asked whether it was an anti-Semitic attack, she said, "the pieces never fully fit in place." But she admits that the same holds true for the theory about a drug-related revenge bombing.
Royo's efforts are centered on determining the bomber's identity. The man who blew up the plane checked in for the flight using the phony name Lya Jamal; his true identity never has been ascertained.
|
|
