Mourning father's quest for peace

Of all the hideous moments Michael Berg has endured in the seven weeks since his son's beheading became public, one stands out in his memory.

He was waiting to be interviewed by a US network when it began playing the video of Korean captive Kim Sun-il pleading for his life.

"I couldn't turn it off. I could not pull the earplug out. I had to listen to his pleas," Berg said yesterday, the day when thousands of South Koreans turned out in Pusan for the emotional funeral of the interpreter beheaded in Iraq last week.

On May 11, a group linked to al Qaeda released a video of Nick Berg, 26, a telecommunications engineer, being decapitated in what they said was revenge for the abuse of prisoners by US troops at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Since then, Michael Berg has crossed the US and the world to call for peace.

Today he will address a Stop the War Coalition rally in Parliament Square, London.

The 59-year-old from West Chester, Pennsylvania, has come to terms with the fact that pictures of his son's death will forever be symbolic of the brutality of this war.

He understands that images of him collapsing after learning of the video sent a strong message to a US public that until then had seen what he calls a "candy-coated war".

Describing the moment a reporter broke the news to him, Berg said: "I don't remember hitting the ground. As hard as it was dealing with that intrusion, I know it needs to be done ... I remember the pictures of Vietnam and how they stopped that war."

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq