I just told them to talk, talk, and talk."I won't pretend it's going to be easy for them, you can rebuild the body, but you can't do that so easily to the mind. At Enniskillen we were told that if we just forgive the bombers, that will somehow help."But forgiveness is a gift you cannot give to someone who does not have repentance, and I don't think it does make it better."David Bolton, who worked with victims at Enniskillen, is part of a community trauma team set up for Omagh. The work they have started will, he says, have to continue for a long time. "The dying and the bereaved have been deeply distressed by what they have seen and heard. The scale of human destruction is considerably greater, 28 killed and over 200 injured, and many of the injured are young people who will continue to be a reminder of what happened."Eleven years on, Enniskillen is a very different place. As well as the medical, psychological and spiritual help, determined efforts were made to ensure the event was not exploited for religious strife, and in fact to make it a basis for breaking down barriers.Two men who had lost members of their family through terrorism played a instrumental role in this: Gordon Wilson, whose 20-year-old daughter Marie died, and John Maxwell, whose teenage son Paul was killed by the bomb used to assassinate Lord Mountbatten in 1979."I'm sure the people of Omagh will go through a similar kind of experience to the people of Enniskillen," Mr Maxwell said yesterday.The IRA bomber who murdered his son was freed from jail in the Republic earlier this month.

At the time Mr Maxwell said that he was prepared to accept the situation if the man had served his time, was no longer a threat and the move helped the peace process. He said: "At the time it was said I had forgiven him, but that was not a word I used."As well as working to build bridges between the two communities, Mr Wilson and Mr Maxwell helped to establish the town's first integrated schools, one for primary school children and Erne College, which now has no difficulty in attracting pupils and exists alongside two Catholic and two Protestant grammar schools.Those involved in the process of reconciliation acknowledge it was not easy. After that, leading politicians will be on the road until election day on 27 September. Chancellor Helmut Kohl has five weeks to overturn the feeling that his 16-year reign has been long enough.In the dog days of the summer months, the Christian Democrats have clawed their way back from an eight-point deficit, now lying no more than perhaps three points in the polls behind the Social Democrats. Germany's election campaign enters the "hot phase" today with a Woodstock-style happening organised by the Social Democrats in Bonn, followed by a Christian Democrat rally at a Dortmund arena tomorrow. THE PHONEY war is over. When their cages were first undraped, 40 monkeys blinked and glanced around. Too wary to explore the new forest in the dark, they slept behind bars by choice.

But within 36 hours, they were scampering in the trees.While some monkey troops take up to four days to adjust to a new habitat, these clearly felt at home by mid- morning. Dr Malik drove home with a grin.On Tuesday, she received a telephone call saying monkeys were running amok in a school cafeteria, and a call from a pensioner who wanted to evict a fierce monkey from his bathroom "I tell people never to look monkeys in the eye It's hostile Avoid leaving food out. If ignoring them won't make the monkeys leave, hit the ground with a stick, set off a firecracker or get a fake snake to frighten them."On Thursday, Dr Malik phoned the constipated pensioners and found him triumphant He got rid of the monkey in his bathroom at last.Jan McGirk. "Darkness calms them and the monkeys hug each other for comfort," Dr Malik explained.They arrived at the forest at dusk, when they were most likely to settle The primates soon learnt to forage in this green cover.