She said President Bill Clinton remained “very concerned” about the people of Omagh and people throughout the world had expressed their sympathy. “I hope the people have felt themselves the tremendous concern there is,” she added.. But by killing and injuring so many innocent people from a town largely untouched by the Troubles, the 500lb home-made bomb also robbed Omagh of its self-confidence. Repairing those shattered business premises will be the easiest part.There were more VIP visits to the town. The Defence Secretary, George Robertson, paid a private visit and laid flowers and said he had heard tales of great tragedy and bravery during his visit.The outgoing US Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy-Smith, travelled from Dublin to the Omagh council office to sign the book of condolence.She said she believed the Omagh bomb would be the last atrocity in Ireland because of the reaction to it. Members of the Chamber of Commerce from Portadown, Co Armagh, and Banbridge, Co Down – a target of Real IRA bomb explosions earlier this year – were also present at the meeting with council officials to offer support.Mr Sandford said after the meeting: “I put some practical suggestions that may not have come from elsewhere as to how businesses can be helped, how you need to republicise your town, businesses that are still there and businesses that have relocated and reopened in the future.”That process will take a long time.

We feel that maybe we shouldn’t be open, but at the same time the general idea round the town is that everybody wants us to be open.”We’re there to give a service to our customers and that service we will continue to give, second to none.”Mr Allen yesterday met Arthur Sandford, the chief executive of Manchester City Council, to share his experiences of restoring Manchester after an IRA bomb explosion. Many of the premises in the High Street – part of which is still sealed off to the public with a high corrugated metal fence – were severely damaged. The conversations – quite predictably – were about one topic only, but many believe it essential Omagh struggles to find some sense of normality.Roy Allen, chairman of the Omagh Chamber of Commerce said: “The main problem is obviously guilt. It said simply: “Things will never be the same.”

The flowers, piled up with hundreds of others outside Watterson’s drapers in Omagh, had been left in memory of three members of staff from the shop who died 10 days ago. Geraldine Breslin, 43, Veda Short, 56, and Ann McCombe, 49, were all killed after being evacuated from the shop in the centre of the High Street.
Yesterday morning Watterson’s was one of many shops in Omagh that reopened their doors for the first time since the bomb blast, which killed 28 and injured 220.”We have had busloads of people coming in here to sympathise and to talk about what happened,” said Neville Hagan, 30, one of the members of staff “There have been lots of hugs and people have been great. They are still coming and placing flowers – it’s amazing to see the grief shared by so many people.”Mr Hagan had been in work when the bomb exploded, killing his colleagues, and he realised that returning to work would be difficult. But he said most people felt that life, somehow, had to go on – a view shared by the town’s Chamber of Commerce, which had urged retailers to reopen yesterday.He added: “It won’t be easy but having the support of all these people will help.”In a show of that support, hundreds of people went into Omagh yesterday morning, milling around in sombre mood.

And the African Renaissance, punted with such passion by Mr Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki, will find itself on hold, perhaps indefinitely.. THE ANONYMOUS message attached to the flowers outside the green- painted shop-front summed up the feelings of so many. The contest between the two men reflects the choices facing Africa.Mr Mandela preaches the negotiating table and talks. Mr Mugabe still goes for good old-fashioned African brute force.If, as it looks at the moment, the gun wins, the region is facing a disaster in which many will die and many many more will suffer. For months the MPLA government and UNITA rebels have been inching back towards civil war. Just a year ago it, and its leader Jonas Savimbi, were written off when the ousting of Mobutu cut off its arms supply routes.There are reports that UNITA has found a new role – and new allies – fighting on the side of the Rwandan-backed rebels.

Yesterday UNITA announced it was cutting ties with peace observers, Portugal, the United States and Russia, effectively abandoning the peace accord between itself and the Angolan government.The Congolese war has breathed new life into the Angolan rebel force. Analysts are now waiting for Uganda – which already has troops in eastern Congo – to send in soldiers to support its ally Rwanda on the western front.Though Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni attended the SADC peace talks and, like Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu and the Congolese delegation sent in place of a “sick” Mr Kabila, gave public backing to a ceasefire call, he also said that Uganda would protect its interests with force if Zimbabwe and Angola did not withdraw their troops.Congo’s rebellion is already affecting events in its many neighbouring countries Yesterday Angola was the first to feel the backdraft. Mr Mugabe’s premature military intervention exposed deep divisions within the organisation. The saddest part is that the free-for-all promises to bring more havoc to countries whose prospects were just beginning to look brighter.President Mandela had to scramble to convince SADC members to push for a negotiated settlement in Congo. More crucial perhaps is the fact that involvement in Congo has weakened the Angolan government’s military position at home, and UNITA may have grabbed a chance to take advantage.The autocratic Mr Mugabe its said is supporting Mr Kabila to stop his own disgruntled population entertaining notions of rebellion.

Mr Kabila not only failed to honour the bargain; he even got cosy with his former sponsors’ enemies.Foreign policy in Rwanda, where the minority Tutsis now govern the Hutu majority, is entirely centred on the security question. Rwanda’s second invasion of Congo, like the first, is regarded pure and simple as a battle for ethnic survival. Angolan and Zimbabwean planes, it said, were attacking the western rebel units from both sides. In rebel-held territory in eastern Congo, rebel spokesman Arthur Ngoma admitted his troops had been forced to make a “strategic pull-back” on the western front.The horrific reality is that the Rwandan forces backing the rebellion will not just give up and go home. It was Rwanda and Uganda who ironically put Mr Kabila in power more than a year ago when they helped him oust Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo’s (then Zaire) long-term dictator.The deal was that Mr Kabila would secure Uganda’s borders from anti-government forces and prevent Hutu extremists, responsible for the genocide of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis in 1994, from using eastern Congo as a base from which to continue attacks into Rwanda. SADC was formed first of all as a group for economic co-operation among countries bordering South Africa, and then brought in South Africa once apartheid was overthrown.