It was just a few minutes past 9:00 Tuesday when Katureebe Tayebwa heard the horrifying news. The driver at the Ugandan embassy in Washington, D.C., where Tayebwa works as the second secretary, told him there were attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Over the next six and a half hours -- as the tragic events that killed thousands in New York and Washington and destroyed the Trade Center and a section of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia unfolded -- Tayebwa stayed in the embassy, which is located on NW 16^th Street a couple of miles from downtown. He made a flurry of phone calls to his colleagues in Washington to monitor the situation. He also tried to finish up some work despite the police warnings in the area and the sounds of policemen outside the embassy. "They told us they were there to protect us," he said.

Still, he could not feel safe. "You can't hear people dying in masses and in a string of seconds, and not be scared," Tayebwa said. "It was a nasty experience."

Almost immediately after the first attack -- the crash of a Boeing 767 into Tower 1 of the Trade Center at 8:48 a.m. yesterday -- officials evacuated the United Nations headquarters in New York and all adjacent buildings, including the Ugandan mission to the UN. So Tayebwa’s calls to the mission throughout the day went unanswered. He also was unable to reach the mission personnel at their residences. He was grateful when he finally reached someone who had spoken to them and confirmed they were safe.

At 11 this morning, The Monitor reached someone at the New York mission who confirmed that all mission employees were safe. He said the mission was closed but would reopen Thursday.

Tayebwa has not yet been able to reach all of his friends in New York and Washington to confirm their safety, but he said he has spoken to most and they are, like him, shocked but otherwise unharmed. He also called Uganda to reassure his family of his safety. "They were very worried, because many people in Uganda think of Kampala when something happens in Washington," Tayebwa said. "They know many people have died in the crossfire in wars in Uganda, and they think the situation is the same in Washington."

At 15:30, Tayebwa left the office for his residence in Maryland, just north of Washington. Earlier he was effectively trapped in the embassy as traffic snarled on the street outside, much of it headed towards Maryland.

At 10 this morning, Tayebwa was one of only two people in the embassy. "It's not a busy day," Tayebwa said. "Most offices are closed. But after getting some assurances that the security is OK, I decided to come into the office because even when the day is not very busy, communication keeps coming."

Tayebwa feared the possibility that a Ugandan citizen was on one of the four planes which were hijacked and used as guided missiles yesterday. All four planes departed from New York, Boston, or Washington and were en route to California, with a total of 266 passengers, flight attendants, and pilots on board. Those points of departure and destinations are all centers of Ugandan life in the U.S.

People are supposed to register with the nearest embassy when living in a foreign country, but Tayebwa said few Ugandans in the U.S. have done so, and the embassy has "meager resources" to track them down.

When asked if he ever thought something like yesterday’s attacks could happen, Tayebwa let out a long, macabre laugh and then replied, "Since some time back, I learned there is nothing impossible in this country, though I never expected this to happen." He has lived in the United States for two years.

Tayebwa did not expect the Ugandan government to issue a warning to its citizens about travel to the U.S. "There is no place that you can say, it's 100 percent safe, now that terrorist acts have come here," he said. "If we advise them not to come to America, where do we advise them to go? It seems every part of the world is susceptible to terrorism. I don't think that kind of advice is relevant any more."

(On Monday, just a day before the attacks shocked this nation, the U.S. State Department renewed its advisory to its citizens to avoid travel to Mgahinga and Bwindi National Parks in Uganda due to rebel attacks amid regional unrest.)

About yesterday’s attacks, Tayebwa added, "This was an act of destruction and I don't think Uganda accepts this kind of destruction.... We are sorry about the incident. We sympathize and pray for the dead, and we pray for the grieved families. I personally think the culprits should be brought to books and justice should be done. And it’s not that this thing has happened in the U.S. There is no alternative for the human being, no substitute. Whether in Palestine, Cuba, Brazil or the Congo, human life is human life."

Tayebwa’s mention of the Congo is apropos, as approximately 2.5 million people have died in the war there over the last three years. The news program "Nightline," on the U.S. television network ABC, had been airing a series on the Congo war, starting last Friday, which called the U.S. media to task for largely ignoring the story. The second part of the five-part series was scheduled to run last night at 23:35, but the ongoing coverage of yesterday’s tragic deaths closer to home preempted that broadcast indefinitely.