RIYADH/DAMMAM, 14 June 2004 — “He was a wonderful, loving husband. Our relationship was near perfect. I’ll treasure the memories of our time together.”
Estela Menor Scroggs is the Filipino wife of American Kenneth Scroggs, who was gunned down in Riyadh on Saturday. Al-Qaeda lost no time claiming responsibility for the shooting, the third such attack on Westerners in a week.
When contacted by Arab News yesterday, Estela sounded as if the news had yet to sink in and confused from an apparent lack of sleep.
“I’m sorry if I can’t go on any further. I’m in no mood to talk,” said Estela, a dentist and native of Pangasinan native back in the Philippines. She and Scroggs, who worked with Advanced Electronics Company, had no children.
Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla told Arab News he was able to get in touch with the grieving Estela Sunday and conveyed the condolences and sympathies of the Philippine government.
“I told her the Philippine Embassy will always be there should she need any assistance,” said Guinomla.
For the third time now, Filipinos have become indirect or direct victims of terror in the Kingdom. On May 22, a German married to a Filipino was killed in Riyadh, while three Filipinos died and three were wounded in the Alkhobar shooting spree and hostage drama on May 29.
In the Eastern Province, meanwhile, some Western expatriates have moved their families to neighboring Bahrain as part of security measures against terrorists. Others are thinking of sending their families home.
The Alkhobar attacks and the subsequent killings in Riyadh have created fear among the expatriates in general and Western ones in particular.
The repeated US advisory to Americans to leave Saudi Arabia has also added to the fear. “Until now I was determined to live with my wife and kids in Alkhobar but the recent chain of events has forced me to reconsider my decision,” said an American working as an analyst in Dammam Industrial City II.
“Initially I am moving my wife and children to Manama. All visa formalities have been completed. After a few weeks I will also move there and then come here for work every day. It is only a 40-minute drive,” he told Arab News.
Samuel from Florida, an engineer, prefers to send his family home. “This system of living in Bahrain and working in Dammam is not workable. I have already given notice to my company and next week my wife and my three-year-old son will fly out. I plan to follow them in a month,” he said.
In the midst of fear, there are hundreds of Saudis who are trying to reassure their Western and Asian neighbors about their safety. In some apartments, to ensure safety and prevent strangers from entering the building, Saudi tenants have convinced landlords to put locks on the main door and distribute keys to all residents of the building.
But such gestures can do little to dispel a climate of increasing insecurity among Westerners in the Kingdom.
