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CNN Live Saturday
Woman Fights for Afghan Victims of Collateral Damage
Aired February 02, 2002 - 12:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A New York woman who lost her brother in the World Trade Center attack has returned home from Afghanistan. While there, she says she found common ground in her grief with the people in Afghanistan.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So many of us were moved by the incredible story of Abraham Zelmanowitz.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend.
HINOJOSA: The man at the World Trade Center who didn't have to die. And this is Abraham's 70-year-old sister Rita, who now has a moving story of her own, about how the pain of losing her hero brother took her to Afghanistan to meet with people she says are just like her: the victims of the so-called collateral damage of war and terrorism.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can this happen?
HINOJOSA: A boy in shock, who now acts like a baby since the bombs fell.
A woman who lost eight members of her family. Rita, now strong enough to give comfort herself.
RITA LASAR: We have to go home kicking and screaming, really, and just shouting from every rooftop that we can.
HINOJOSA: She returned to New York and immediately began demanding Americans aid these other victims the same way they helped her.
LASAR: I'm going to focus on how I was treated after my brother died, as opposed to how the people in Afghanistan are treated.
HINOJOSA: Her Afghan memories push her forward on this quests.
(on camera): This man looks profoundly sad. LASAR: Yeah. Well, not only did he lose a leg, but he lost several members of his family in the U.S. bombing.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): There's a sadness in their eyes she says she will never forget.
The size of a bomb crater stuck in her psyche forever.
LASAR: I saw two bomb craters. The one would have been big enough to shock anybody next to one that was four times its size.
HINOJOSA: Months ago, burqas made Rita -- a lifelong feminist -- angry. Now she has one of her own.
(on camera): And when you put this on for the first time, what went on?
LASAR: I understood immediately why they wear it.
HINOJOSA: Because?
LASAR: You feel safe.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): Nor could she believe that a country so distant could offer such solace.
LASAR: Abe's death and their deaths are parallel and related, so that they are more family to me than people here, because we share this thing.
HINOJOSA: But first, there is money to raise for the Afghan victims.
LASAR: I'm 70 years old...
HINOJOSA: Her new calling, from mourning to movement.
(on camera): Is there a part of you that feels more confused by your trip to Afghanistan? More kind of, "Whoa?"
LASAR: No, I'm more focused. I found the answer to what a country looks like when it's been at war for 23 years, and the last part of the war is done in my brother's name. And I found a mission. So that's not confused, that's focused.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): Focused on the sadness that draws us all together.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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