WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- Mariane Pearl, wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, said Monday the terrorists who killed her husband failed to achieve their objective, which she said included making people hate each other.
Describing her husband's killers as "the shame of the world," she said they had not achieved their goal to "perpetuate fear, paralyze people ... it did not work on me and I hope it will not work on the people who are watching us tonight."
In her interview with CNN's Larry King, the widow showed love and understanding for all, even those living in the city where her husband was killed.
"Even these terrorists have not made me hate Pakistan or the Muslims. I will go back to Karachi. I am keen to see the people who helped me (during this ordeal)," she said.
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped from the southern Pakistan city of Karachi while trying to interview a radical Muslim leader. A month later, kidnappers sent a videotape to Pakistani and U.S. authorities showing Pearl's decapitated body.
Mariane said she would like those responsible for her husband's death to be arrested and brought to justice but she is not thinking about revenge. "I want justice to be done but beyond that ... revenge is going to bring us to a dead end."
"For me, the ordeal is not over yet. There is just one person in jail. I need other people to be arrested. I need justice to be done. It is difficult to explain to a child that your father has been killed and those responsible just disappeared. I want justice to be done."
Mariane said the kidnappers used her husband to express their hatred against the United States and to try to persuade Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to quit the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
The culprits were "launching some kind of campaign. (They) wanted to put an obstacle in Musharraf's alliance with the West. (They) wanted to send a message to the West that we can do anything to make you leave our country," Mariane said. "They wanted to scare the people, to stop them from visiting (Muslim countries)."
While her husband's death was very painful for her, Mariane said she is also aware that during the period her husband was missing, more than 10 Pakistani citizens were also kidnapped and killed in Karachi. "Many doctors have been killed (in Pakistan) because the same people (who killed Pearl) have been trying to destroy the civil society."
She said her hopes of finding her husband alive were high when police arrested chief suspect Shaikh Omar. But on Feb. 12, a crying Pakistani police officer told her police had received a video, which convinced them that Pearl was dead.
"It was unbelievable, because people who knew Danny thought that no way anybody is going to have the guts to kill such a gentle person," Marianne said.
She and Pearl usually worked together but he went alone to do the story that got him kidnapped because she was pregnant, Mariane said. Their first son is expected to be born in May. While working separately, the couple was in the habit of calling each other every two hours or so.
"I tried calling him, but his phone was off. I knew something was wrong," Mariane said. "I waited for some time, but around 2 a.m. I called the U.S. Consulate in Karachi."
Her husband was not "a cowboy type." He was "a very gentle soul, not the foreign correspondent type," Mariane said. "But he was also a genuine journalist, so we had to go to Pakistan to cover the war because it was such an important hub of terrorists."
The couple decided against going to Afghanistan because of the dangers involved, however, she added.
Mariane, who is a French national, said she would like to move to the United States to work as a journalist.
