SITREPS
Rizla Ranger (Revivin') UK
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
July 31, 2001
Twenty-two people were killed in an attack by the Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) in Henekuma, a village in northern Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL reported
villagers as saying.
"However, only nine bodies of adults and children were visible," UNAMSIL (UN
Mission in Sierra Leone) said on Saturday, after its officials inspected the
site, located in the district of Koinadugu. The RUF fighters, under the
command of Demba Marrah, burnt down 25 dwellings in the 19 July attack.
UNAMSIL Force Commander Lt-Gen Daniel Opande and his deputy, Maj-Gen Martin
Agwai, visited the area and appealed to the pro-government Civil Defence
Forces (CDF) fighters defending the village to refrain from retaliating.
Opande said the UN force would "have the culprits hunted down and brought to
book". He then flew to Yiraia, another northern location, where Henekuma
residents had told him Marrah might be found. However, CDF fighters were
holding the village, having captured it from the RUF on Thursday, UNAMSIL
reported.
Agwai visited the CDF-held village of Masundu and Njaima-Minkor, controlled
by
the RUF, where he witnessed the disarmament of 128 CDF and 82 RUF fighters.
The disarmament of thousands of ex-fighters has unfolded slowly in Kono
District. Its completion was first set for 28 July and then rescheduled to
31
July, but is unlikely to meet that target date, Opande said on radio. Since
2
July, 304 RUF and 454 CDF have turned in their guns.
A UNAMSIL official told IRIN that on Saturday more CDF fighters handed in
their weapons in the districts of Kambia and Port Loko, north of Freetown,
where disarmament officially ended on 28 May.
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A Bosnian Serb ex-police chief who pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity
has been sentenced by the UN war crimes tribunal to 10 years in prison.
Stevan Todorovic, 43, admits murdering, torturing and sexually assaulting
Muslims and Croats in 1992-93 while chief of police in the Bosnian town of
Bosanski Samac.
Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson said Todorovic's crimes were "very grave"
and
the sentence would have been much longer if he had not co-operated with
prosecutors.
He originally pleaded not guilty in 1998, but reversed the plea last
December
in a deal with prosecutors.
At the same time he agreed to supply information in other cases before the
tribunal, and withdrew claims that his arrest had occurred as an illegal
operation involving Nato-led troops.
"By pleading guilty to this charge, Stevan Todorovic also admitted that he
had
committed one murder, acts of torture, a large number of beatings, and had
forced several men to commit sexual acts with each other," prosecutors wrote
in a sentencing recommendation filed in April.
"Many of Todorovic's victims endured great physical and mental suffering at
his hands, and several continue to suffer the consequences of those actions
nine years later."
Todorovic originally alleged that he was kidnapped from his central Serbia
holiday home by mercenaries who drove him to the Bosnian border, where he
was
handed over to troops of the Nato-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR).
He said the operation was unlawful, and that he should be released.
Prosecutors asked for a 12-year term, but the sentence could in theory have
been life imprisonment.
The court, which cannot impose the death penalty, has no maximum sentence
for
crimes against humanity.
Todorovic was initially indicted together with five other men accused of
orchestrating a campaign to ethnically purge Bosanski Samac during the
1992-5
Bosnian war.
His case was spun off after he changed his plea.
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Thousands of former fighters in Congo-Brazzaville's brutal civil have begun
handing over their guns nearly four years after a peace accord was signed.
The war had pitted militia groups known as the Cobras of President Denis
Sassou Nguesso against the Ninjas of former premier Bernard Kolelas and the
Cocoyes of former president Pascal Lissouba.
Fighter turned disco owner
Communities in the conflict had been pitted against each other, with the
north
and south of the country divided as have been residents in the north and
south
of the capital.
Militiamen had been largely afraid to give away their weapons afraid of
another round of murders, looting and rape.
But since last December a programme to disarm the 15,000 or so militiamen
has
been surprisingly successful.
Dreadlocked fighters
The United Nations Development Programme and the International Organisation
for Migration which are carrying out the nationwide project have so far
disarmed more than 6,000.
President Sassou returned to power with the help of the Cobra militia
This figure is far ahead of estimates and now, it seems, they cannot meet
the
demand.
Dreadlocked fighters walking into Brazzaville carrying guns in plastic bags
are now being told to wait while the UNDP raises more money from its donors.
And it is easy to see why they might be prepared to do so.
The guns are not bought off the militiamen as they are elsewhere - rather
they
are exchanged for several hundred dollars and advice on how to set up small
businesses.
Militiamen are now importing fish from Senegal, operating river taxis with
and
running traditional medicine clinics.
The war pitted the north against south
In the north Brazzaville district of Ouenze, one has even set up a disco.
Jean Baptist, used to fight with the Cobras, but he is now the proprietor of
the Eze Eze disco.
Its silver walls and ceilings were decorated thanks to the money, and Jean
Baptist was able to buy chairs and the sound system.
Even though he was on the winning side of the war, Jean Baptist explained he
was too scared to hand over his guns. But now he says the war is well and
truly over.
"I'm now a businessman. I have a business, a family, a house, a wife, the
children. Why should I want war? I prefer business to war - its now over,"
he
told me.
Just along the road is Marcellin Okanzi. He comes from the same village as
President Sassou and became a general in the Cobras, with 50 men fighting
for
him.
But at the end of the war he was left unemployed, and kept hold of his
weapons. Now he is building a hotel.
"Its great. I've got seven people working for me. If they hadn't financed
the
hotel, I'd never be able to finish the building work."
He too says the days of war are over.
"I wouldn't accept war if it came again, I wouldn't take part, because if
the
war came back it would destroy my hotel."
This is the intention of the programme organisers. Not to reward the people
responsible for terrible atrocities, but to give them a reason to live in
peace with each other.
Even the several thousand Ninja militias of evangelical preacher Reverend
Ntumi, the last to stay out of government control, say they too want to take
part in the programme.
But others are more sceptical.
It is not hard to find people in Brazzaville who think the next war is just
around the corner, and that there will be plenty of young men willing to
fight
on behalf of the country's still powerful warlords.
+ + + +
BOGOTA,
Colombia
(AP)
A fleet of planes and helicopters took off from a southwestern airfield
Tuesday to resume aerial spraying of drug crops, part of U.S.-backed
eradication efforts.
Bogota Judge Gilberto Reyes had on Friday ordered the fumigations
temporarily
suspended until the Colombian government responds to health and
environmental
concerns. Reyes' office on Tuesday clarified that the suspension applies
only
to Indian lands in the Amazon rainforest.
Anti-narcotics chief Gen. Gustavo Socha said he ordered the fumigation to
continue in accordance with the judge's decision.
Even though their areas were excluded by the judge, Indians in southwestern
Cauca state blocked the Pan-American Highway to protest the spraying, saying
it poisons the rivers and harms farmers' health.
Thousands of other farmers also blocked highways across the country to press
for debt forgiveness, price supports and fewer food imports.
Protesters, some using tractors to block roads, said they were prepared to
block the roads indefinitely.
"We are trying to restore the rights of all the farmers and Indians to a
viable farming sector," said Angel Maria Caballero, one of the leaders of
the
strike.
The three crop dusters that took off from the airfield in Popayan, in Cauca
state, were escorted by six helicopters, a Colombian counternarcotics
official
said on condition of anonymity.
The spraying initiative is meant to reduce the flow of drugs to the United
States and deprive Colombian rebels and paramilitaries of a fortune in
proceeds from the illicit trade. The killing of poppy and coca fields which
produce heroin and cocaine is funded by a $1.3 billion aid package from
Washington.
Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez said the government would contest the
judge's
order against spraying Indian areas.
"It contravenes Colombian law which orders the destruction of all illegal
crops and for growers of drug crops to be punished," Gonzalez said in
Bogota,
the capital.
There are currently 11 U.S.-supplied spray planes in Colombia. Fourteen more
planes are due to arrive in Colombia by next March. The planes are flown by
Colombian pilots and by U.S. and other foreign pilots contracted by DynCorp,
a
U.S. firm retained by the State Department.
In fighting in Colombia Tuesday, two soldiers and three rebels of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, died when the army repelled
a
guerrilla attack on the town of Belen de Andaquies, 250 miles south of
Bogota,
the army said in a statement.
Rebels and army troops also battled near the village of Finca la Fe, in the
northern state of Magdalena. The army said one rebel was killed in that
fighting.
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Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
it usually does with bbc
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BBC
Liberian rebels have attacked a logging company just 100 kilometres (62
miles) from the capital, Monrovia.
Correspondents say this is the closest the rebels have been to Monrovia in
more than a year of fighting, which has mostly been in the northern Lofa
county.
A senior defence ministry official told the BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh that
4 soldiers had been killed, along with between 20 and 25 rebels during
fighting in Gbopolu.
But a rebel spokesman denied these casualty figures.
Joe Wylie from the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, LURD,
told the BBC's Focus on Africa that they had gone to Gbopolu to "pay a
visit" to government soldiers who, he said, were harassing civilians.
Forcibly recruited
Mr Wylie also claimed that residents of Gbopolu were being forcibly
recruited into the Liberian army.
A government source told Reuters news agency that the rebels wanted to
abduct staff from the logging company but they were repelled after eight
hours of fighting.
Mr Wylie said that LURD forces had targeted the company because, "logging is
next to the diamond trade."
The United Nations has imposed sanctions on the Liberian government for
allegedly trading diamonds on behalf of Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary
United Front.
President Taylor is seen by some as the cause of the region's problems
Logging is one of Liberia's most important industries and Mr Wylie said: "It
is logging which keeps the Charles Taylor war machinery going. So we have to
discourage them from doing business with Mr Taylor."
The defence ministry source said that a group of unarmed people had
accompanied the rebel attackers and these had looted and set buildings on
fire.
The war which has returned to Liberia has also spread to Sierra Leone and
Guinea, creating thousands of refugees.
The three countries have each accused the other of allowing rebels to
operate from their territories.
The foreign ministers of the three countries under the Mano River Union a
sub - regionally grouping, agreed last week to hand over rebels to the
respective governments.
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BBC
The current fighting in Guinea is not a stand-alone war - it is part of the
messy and complicated regional conflict which started in Liberia more than
10 years ago.
Although the violence has only recently moved to Guinean soil, the country
has been affected by, and involved in, the conflict from the very start.
When Charles Taylor - now Liberian president, but then an obscure rebel
leader - launched his rebellion at Christmas 1989, he did so very close to
the Guinean border, in the mineral-rich area where Liberia, Guinea, Sierra
Leone and the Ivory Coast all meet.
One of the first things that happened was that local people ran away, across
the border into Guinea. They were the first of an eventual 500,000 refugees.
When the other countries of West Africa first formed an intervention force
to try to restore order in Liberia - and stop Charles Taylor - Guinea was a
founder member.
It allowed some of the politically active Liberian refugees to organise and
recruit, and became the rear base for one of the armed movements known as
Ulimo-K.
So Charles Taylor and Guinean President Lansana Conte have always been on
opposite sides.
Spreading conflict
Fighting began to spread to Guinea itself last year, already having engulfed
its other neighbour, Sierra Leone.
There was trouble on the Sierra Leone border around Forecariah and Kindia,
not far from the capital, and also hundreds of kilometres to the east, where
Guinea borders Liberia.
At first these were hit-and-run raids, with the attackers coming across,
killing civilians and burning villages, and then retreating back across the
border, taking with them whatever they could loot. They showed no sign of
taking and holding ground.
But the attacks did have one major effect - they turned the local Guinean
population against the refugees living among them.
Refugees were harrassed by police and soldiers, and attacked by local
youths. The authorities accused them of collaborating with the attackers,
and confined them to their camps, which were often dangerously close to the
fighting.
Alliance
President Conte's first reaction was to blame his old adversary, Charles
Taylor. The Guinean Government declared that it was the victim of a Liberian
invasion, by people greedy to get their hands on Guinea's wealth.
Meanwhile a group calling itself the "Rassemblement des Forces Democratiques
de Guinee" had been phoning international radio stations, and a hitherto
unknown spokesman, Mohamed Lamine Fofana, had been claiming the attacks were
the work of the Guinean opposition.
In fact both things seem to be going on at the same time.
In the attacks near the Sierra Leone border, the ones closest to Conakry,
some Guineans do seem to have been involved.
There have been persistant reports of a Guinean rebel group training inside
Liberia, with, at its core, Gbago Zoumanigui and the army mutineers who fled
after narrowly failing to overthrow the government in 1996.
After training, the rebels are reported to have moved across the border to
Sierra Leone, and linked up with the Liberian-backed rebel movement there,
the RUF.
This alliance of Guineans and Sierra Leoneans, with a few Liberians thrown
in, seems to be responsible for the attacks near Kinda and Forecariah.
Most of the initial Guinean military effort was in this area, perhaps
because it is relatively close to the capital, and this group has now been
pushed well back across the border, with most of the fighting now taking
place around Kambia, an RUF-held area inside Sierra Leone.
But in the forest region, along the border with Liberia, the initial attacks
were an all-Liberian affair, the result of President Taylor's forces
mounting cross-border raids against Liberian rebel bases around Macenta.
The presence of these Liberians - still known as Ulimo-K - is an open secret
in Guinea. As soon as the attacks started, they were out in Macenta for all
to see, manning road blacks and taking an active part in the defence of the
city.
The battles in this area are now becoming very serious, with aircraft and
helicopter gunships, as well as heavy artillery being used in the border
area.
The attackers are no longer just raiding villages, they have attacked the
two main towns in the region, Macenta and Gueckedou, occupying parts of them
for a time, driving out the population and leaving buildings in ruins.
The Guinean army is clearly struggling, and this may be in part because the
Liberian dissidents, whom they had armed and relied on to help them, have
proved unreliable allies. Some at least are reported to have changed sides,
and joined the attacking Liberians.
Regional alarm
The spread of the war to Guinea has caused ripples of alarm around the
region. Neighbouring countries first of all concentrated on trying to get
President Taylor and President Conte to resolve their differences and to
stop harbouring and encouraging each other's dissidents. This had little
success.
Guinea has never been very high on the international agenda, but the spread
of the conflict has rung a lot of alarm bells around the world
But since both Guinea and Liberia were claiming to be the innocent parties,
both said they would be very happy if the border between them could be
sealed, to prevent attacks from the other side.
So the West African Economic Community, Ecowas, has begun work on a border
monitoring force, to secure the border. Both sides agreed to this, even
President Taylor, despite the fact that similar Ecowas forces have always
been against him in the past.
Preliminary reconaissance was done and a force commander - a Nigerian -
appointed, but the deployment of the monitoring force has been delayed by an
upsurge in fighting.
There seems no chance of its going ahead as long as pitched battles are
raging around the border.
International fears
Guinea has never been very high on the international agenda, but the spread
of the conflict has rung a lot of alarm bells, in West Africa and around the
world.
The conspiracy theorists are talking once again in terms of a West African
domino theory, of a master plan fronted by Charles Taylor, but involving
Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast, backed by Libya and approved by France.
This aims - they say - to reduce American influence, and break the power of
the too-dominant English speaking countries in the region.
The Liberian and Gambian dominos have already fallen, Sierra Leone, Guinea
and Guinea-Bissau are teetering, and after that Senegal and ultimately
Nigeria are threatened.
But you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see a more immediate
threat.
The international community has invested heavily in supporting the elected
government in Sierra Leone - there is a regional force there, and also a big
United Nations peacekeeping operation. Britain has sent troops as well.
But despite this, President Kabbah's government is still fragile. Sierra
Leone already has a hostile border with Liberia to the east, across which
the rebels move freely.
If Guinea falls into the hands of President Taylor and his friends - perhaps
as the result of a coup d'etat precipitated by the fighting - it would be a
disaster for President Kabbah and all his backers.
+ + + +
Lucy Jones in Zongo,
Democratic Republic of Congo
In ironed suits chattering into mobile telephones, the elite of the Central
African Republic can barely bring themselves to glance at their new twig and
straw dwellings in the rebel-held town of Zongo in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
"It's a complete nightmare. We have swapped a villa with air conditioning
for the bush. But if we go home we'll be killed," said Henry Ballot, a
magistrate from Bangui.
The owner of a bus company now shares a shack with 15 others
Following a failed coup attempt in May against President Ange-Felix Patasse,
tens of thousands of Central Africans fled the capital, many crossing the
Obangui river into the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most were from the Yakoma tribe, the same ethnic group as the former
military ruler and opposition leader, André Kolingba, who admitted he was
behind the insurgency.
Last minute escape
"The presidential guard started killing the Yakoma, whether they were
involved in the coup or not," said Sebastian Djengbo, 36, the proprietor of
a bus company in Bangui.
"My buses were taken. I was detained by the police and told to face a wall.
At the last minute, the soldier who was suppose to kill me let me escape
over a fence," he added, speaking from a makeshift shelter in Zongo.
The southern Yakoma people have traditionally dominated the country's
government, army and civil service.
When Patasse became the first northerner to take power in 1993, he was
unable to replace them with members from his own Sara tribe because of their
technical expertise.
As a result, the loyalty of the country's ruling elite has always been
questionable.
During May's coup attempt, there were summary executions and harassment of
the Yakoma.
Suffering services
Few have returned to work despite threats of disciplinary action and
dismissal.
But while the country's scant public services suffer in their absence, the
settlements housing the Yakoma are struggling to cope.
The population of Zongo - previously 15,000 - has almost doubled.
Families are living in tents along the town's main streets and next to the
river. Every empty house has been rented out and the inns and hotels are
full.
"There has been a suspected outbreak of meningitis in the town. Scabies,
malaria and diarrhoea are rampant and we are running out of medicines," said
Dr Paulin Lisimo, head of sanitation for the Zongo region.
'Intellectuals'
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, plans to build a refugee camp at
Molé, 44 km inland from Zongo, but the organisation admits few of the
refugees want to move.
"They're intellectual urban people. They don't want to live in a refugee
camp," said a representative from the UNHCR's Zongo office, opened in June.
In Zongo, the refugees can easily receive money, news and visitors from the
capital, despite the CAR closing its frontier with DR Congo in July to stop
the cross-border flow of arms and rebels.
President Patasse is accused of victimising ethnic Yakomas
Yakoma women, who seem to be less at risk than Yakoma men, cross the river
daily to sell fish in Bangui, returning to Zongo in the evening to sleep.
But the local representatives of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Congolese guerrilla
leader who controls DR Congo's northern Equateur province, want the refugees
to leave.
Stray bullets fired from Bangui into Zongo have injured Congolese civilians.
The Congolese also fear an attack by the Central African army to target key
Yakoma people.
Zongo's Mayor, Hubert Levi, said: "These refugees are political people.
We've got enough problems of our own. Refugees are sleeping in the schools
which are due to open soon."
The UN office in Bangui is desperately trying to reintegrate the Yakoma back
into society before tribal divisions become heightened.
But General Lamine Cisse, the UN secretary general's new representative in
Bangui, admits "It's going to take a long time".
Coopi, an Italian charity, which is providing assistance to the displaced
people, is giving additional help to those returning home.
Claudio Tarchi a spokesman said: "Some of these people's houses have been
destroyed. Others have been looted."
"We are providing them with cement and wood to fix their houses, as well as
cooking utensils, mosquito nets, blankets and food," he added.
The Central African government has said it will guarantee the safety of the
Yakoma people but human rights activists say words are not enough.
"They are still scared. Yakoma people are being threatened on a daily
basis," said Theophile Sonny of the Human Rights Observatory in Bangui.
"I won't be returning until Patasse loses power. If I have to help in that
process, I will. Returning home means death at the moment," says Joseph
Mozara, a law student from Bangui University.
+ + + +
A military court in Gambia has sentenced a former head of the presidential
guard to 16 years in prison with hard labour for conspiracy to mutiny.
Lieutenant Landing Sanneh was initially arrested in January last year over
an alleged plot to oust President Yahya Jammeh, but was freed by a civilian
court after his case was dismissed.
Sanneh was re arrested immediately to face a military trial.
+ + + +
VOA News
3 Sep 2001 21:27 UTC
Colombian police say two officers are dead following a rebel assault on a
remote village in the southwestern part of the country. Two other officers
have been injured and another two kidnapped.
Authorities say the trouble started Sunday when rebels of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, began attacking the village of San Adolfo
with guns and explosives. There was no word on rebel casualties.
The village is located near the main rebel stronghold where government
troops launched a recent offensive. Rebels have been staging attacks from
the stronghold in a bid that officials say is aimed at expanding their
influence in the area.
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Rizla Ranger UK
BOGOTA,
Colombia
(AP)
Colombia's biggest rebel army used gas during an attack on a village police
station, killing four policemen who died slow, agonizing deaths, a police
commander said Tuesday.
Biopsies were taken from the four policemen to determine what agent was used,
said police Col. Francisco Henry Caicedo. He described the gas as ``toxic,'' but
acknowledged it could have been tear gas, which can be lethal in enclosed
spaces.
Results of the biopsies were not expected for several days. If poisonous gas
and not tear gas — were used, it would be the first such known case in
Colombia's 37-year civil war.
Caicedo said that according to officers who survived the attack Sunday in San
Adolfo, in Huila province 230 miles south of Bogota, rebels of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia tossed bombs into their compound that sent dark gray
smoke into their bunker and tunnels.
``They were suffocating — they couldn't breathe and felt their lungs were going
to explode. They were immediately blinded by the gas,'' Caicedo told The
Associated Press.
One officer died in a hospital in Pitalito, near San Adolfo; another died in the
provincial capital of Neiva; a third was airlifted to a Bogota hospital and
died; and the fourth was kidnapped by the rebels but collapsed and died in a
village near the scene of the attack, Caicedo said.
``They didn't die right away. They died slowly,'' said Caicedo, who commands the
police forces in Huila province.
Caicedo ruled out the possibility that rebel missiles had cause toxic material
to accidentally leak during the attack, saying no such materials were stored at
the police station.
National police chief Gen. Ernesto Gilibert said he could not confirm what
devices were used and that authorities were investigating. He said it would be
``very worrisome'' if the rebels were using poisonous gas.
The FARC had no immediate reply to the accusations.
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BOGOTA,
Colombia
(AP)
-- The director of the foreign branch of Colombia's secret police is missing
following a weekend abduction at his farm outside Bogota, the police agency said
Tuesday.
Ramiro Carranza, of the Department of Administrative Security, or DAS, was
abducted by three gunmen wearing camouflage fatigues on Sunday morning near
Quetame, 25 miles southeast of Bogota. Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, known as the FARC, operate in the area.
Army and government anti-kidnapping units were attempting to trace Carranza's
whereabouts.
Last year, some 3,700 people were abducted in Colombia. Most of the captives are
held for ransom.
The Colombian navy, meanwhile, reported that three tons of cocaine were seized
in two separate maritime operations Monday off the northern coast of Colombia.
Three suspects were arrested during the raids.
Colombia produces most of the world's cocaine. The FARC and a rival right-wing
paramilitary group earn huge profits by protecting and taxing Colombia's
narcotics industry.
+ + + +
Recent fighting between Colombian leftist guerrillas and right-wing
paramilitaries has left at least 23 dead, including five civilians.
In a rural area near the village of Ituango, 205 miles northwest of Bogota,
officials found the bodies of 18 combatants, apparently killed in fighting last
week.
Guerrillas from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are
fighting with the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, for
control of the region.
In Oru, 280 miles northeast of Bogota, five civilians have been killed in
fighting between paramilitaries and guerrillas over the weekend, according to a
press release from the Army news service.
+ + + +
Concord Times (Freetown)
OPINION
September 4, 2001
Mohamed S. Adams
Freetown
Few day ago, I was in the town of Lunsar located along the Freetown- Makeni
highway. When I arrived in the town, my initial feeling was that I had either
lost my way or that I was only having a bad dream. "Is this the Lunsar that I
used to know," I wondered as I walked along the bushy streets of the devastated
town. Looking at the skeletal buildings on entering the township from the
Freetown highway will give you a moment of grief. Most of the buildings had
either been raised to the ground or are in a dilapidated state. This is because
the town had experienced heavy fighting between the RUF and the SLA and CDF to
gain grounds.
Going further into the township though, I observed that not much destruction was
done to the houses although most of them are in need of repairs.
In terms of sanitation, it is poor to say the least.
Most people are yet to return to their houses and as such most houses are
surrounded by high weeds. During my visit, I could not help but notice that
people are mostly staying around the surrounding hamlets of Gbomlimba, Masethleh
and Rogbesseh either to undertake agricultural activities or perhaps out of fear
of what can sustain them if they went back to Lunsar. Although disarmament has
been completed, another problem in Lunsar is the lack of food.
Lunsar itself is relatively safe, but hunger is now the new threat especially at
this time of the year, the raining season otherwise known as the hunger season .
The disarmed combatants themselves need food and in this case, you can guess how
they survive. The DDR programme is yet to be in full swing. The indigenous youth
have formed an action group to improve the environment. They are at present
engaged in cleaning the main streets of Lunsar. Three local non-governmental
organizations have already set up skeletal offices such as "Save the Children of
Sierra Leone, Community Mobilization for Poverty Alleviation and Social Services
(COMPASS) and CARITAS which gives food assistance to locals. The school
structures of Guadalupe and Muraldo are in fairly good condition but apparently
they need some rehabilitation. As for medical care, the community health centre
is in a moribund state.
However, there is a free UNAMSIL Clinic for the poor and destitute. The police
are deployed in Lunsar and from what I saw, although they are making frantic
effort to provide peace and security, rampart petty thieving and night raids are
yet to be put under control.
One thing that is absent from Lunsar is social activities. At night after the
day's struggle to get a livelihood, most people especially husbands and wives go
inside their rooms to wait for the next day. These days, life in Lunsar is
pretty difficult, and from my observation, it would take a long time for that
once bubbling town to regain its past glory.
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Concord Times (Freetown)
September 4, 2001
Sulaiman Momodu
Freetown
Army Director of Training, Col. Gabriel Mani has broken silence. "I am still
hunted," he told Concord Times Monday on a telephone line.
Mani who is still appearing in court following the discovery of some arms and
ammunition in his compound some weeks ago said that people were still after him.
The Army Director of Training said several restrictions have been placed on him
and noted he wanted to remain silent but people won't leave him alone. "Now I am
ready to talk," he said.
Mani said the Head of Administration at Army Headquarters, Lt. Sylvanus Turay
drove to his residence yesterday in a military Landover and started asking him
questions about the mining of sand in his area. " I was shocked when Lt. Turay
told me that he was sent to check on me," Mani said and then wondered why he was
hunted. Admitting that sand mining is going on in his Segbendeh area residence
around Juba, Mani denied that he was involved. " I met people carrying out sand
mining in this area.
But since I was released from prison, I have even stopped the practice. "There
are about 20 piles of sand belong to M.S.
Dumbuya," he revealed.
Dumbuya is one of the leaders of the CDF. "Why am I hunted all the time in my
own country?" he asked.
+ + + +
Justin Pearce in Angola
"Mais ou menos" is the Portuguese for "more or less". It's what you say when you
don't want to commit yourself to an answer - like "so-so" in English, or "comme
ci, comme ça" in French.
In Angola, though, the Portuguese phrase has resonances all of its own.
I asked if she had enough to eat? "Enough," she said, adding as if it were an
afterthought, "I have to make sacrifices so my children don't go hungry."
You're living in the ruins of a bombed out building, the nearest water source is
a river a kilometre away, food is expensive, and you've seen half your family
killed as battles raged through your town. How's life then? Mais ou menos.
I heard that phrase over and over again as I walked along the main street in the
Angolan town of Kuito - a street which in 1993 was the front-line in a stand-off
between government forces and the rebel movement Unita.
The woman who used the term most emphatically stood outside a precarious pile of
tilted concrete slabs and beams. Once it had been the state security
headquarters, until someone decided to dynamite it. Now it was her home.
Journalists thrive on pathos, and there seemed to be plenty of it here. But no
one in Kuito is in the business of exaggerating their woes.
"It's better now there's no shooting," the woman said. So I tried another track.
"I've heard food here is very expensive," I said. "Expensive yes, but not very
expensive," she replied.
I asked if she had enough to eat? "Enough," she said, adding as if it were an
afterthought, "I have to make sacrifices so my children don't go hungry."
Here, that all adds up to "mais ou menos".
Ruined buildings
Two types of building dominate central Kuito. Firstly, there are the concrete
construction-kits of the 1960s, which the Portuguese were fond of decorating
with tiles, or painting in pastel pink and blue.
The people of Angola have learned to make the best of their situation
Some of these have whole sections of the exterior walls blown away, so that from
the street you look straight into someone's home, six storeys up in the air.
The other style of architecture features grand 19th century façades, designed to
give this small country town a central square worthy of a capital city.
Those façades are all that are left now, showing sky through their windows and
rafters like a crumbling movie set.
Some buildings have been repaired - the ones that house the aid agencies which
fly flags as if they were embassies.
The aid agency cars, big comfortable four-wheel-drive vehicles that account for
most of the traffic on the streets, also fly flags, like a presidential
motorcade.
Maybe it's only natural that aid agencies around here should start taking on the
external trappings of little states - after all, they do perform most of the
functions of government.
The million people of Bie, the province of which Kuito is the capital, enjoy the
services of a single Angolan doctor. Humanitarian organisations do the rest -
the government just tells them where they can and can't go.
And recently, after years when foreigners were forbidden from straying much
beyond Kuito, the authorities opened up access to the town of Camacupa, about
80km (50 miles) away.
Camacupa
The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Camacupa were the children shrieking
with delight.
20,000 people, uprooted by the war, live in displaced people's camps outside
Camacupa. But there's still time to paint the trees in the town.
A man was grunting and chanting as he stumbled around the main street with a
broad blade in his hand and the skeleton of an automatic rife slung over his
shoulder - he was a man for whom the war had just got too much.
Beside him, a civil servant rode a new bicycle and smiled that life was good.
As in Kuito, half of Camacupa's buildings are ruined. But the ruins are on a
less grand scale than Kuito, and the first thing you notice here is the trees -
neatly-spaced avenues with the branches pruned back for the winter, so as to
make a nice shape when they come into leaf. And the trunks had all recently been
whitewashed.
Twenty thousand people, uprooted by the war, live in displaced people's camps
outside Camacupa. But there's still time to paint the trees in the town.
I rode back from Camacupa in a car with three Angolan aid workers who had seen
the worst.
Landmarks became an illustrated history as my travelling companions compared
notes. That bomb-shattered school? 1998. That burnt-out tank? 1993.
Kuito
As we approached Kuito, the conversation became more animated - Unita was on
this hill in '98 - the government was on the other one over there.
20,000 people live in the camps outside Camacupa
I started asking them about the siege - How did they get by? They said they
stayed indoors during the day, only going out after the roadblocks had gone to
bed. What did you eat? Cats, rats. They laughed and joked as they recalled.
We were now on the outskirts of the city. My companions compared notes - "Unita
got as far as this bridge in 1998", "No, not to this one," "Yes they did, and
they made a lot of confusion in front of the police station."
In Angola, confusion is usually a code word for extreme violence. Understatement
once more - like mais ou menos, it's a way of coping.
It doesn't do to dwell too much on the past here. So you laugh as best you can.
Or else you end up like the mad man of Camacupa, with the kids laughing at you.
+ + + +
The man who led last year's attempted coup in Fiji, George Speight, has been
elected to parliament in the country's general election.
Mr Speight, who ran his campaign from an island prison where he is awaiting
trial for treason, won in Tailevu North, a stronghold of his support during the
rebellion.
+ + + +
Reports from north-eastern Algeria say suspected Islamist militants have
attacked a large group of young people who were camping on a beach.
Local authorities say that seven people were killed in what is being described
as a brutal attack, and several more were wounded.
They say that Islamic militants are responsible for the murders.
The incident comes amid a wave of recent reports of attacks on young couples by
religious conservatives in different parts of the country.
Tales of horror
According to survivors, about 30 young people were camped on the beach at
Saraida, just to the west of the town of Annaba.
Five of them who had made their way to their vehicle in a nearby car park were
confronted by men wearing police uniforms.
The five became suspicious and began running away, then the armed men opened
fire.
The attackers shot three of them dead and wounded the other two.
They then turned their attention onto a young couple, including a 16-year-old
girl, who tried to get away in their car.
17 died in a suspected Islamist attack in August
They were caught and their throats slit.
Then the armed men headed towards the tents on the beach. They began firing,
shooting dead a beach guard and one of the campers.
The remaining young people ran off into the darkness and hid in the sand dunes
until help arrived several hours later.
Brutal violence
These latest killings, one of a series blamed on the Islamist groups, coincide
with a number of attacks on young couples.
An attempt to burn a man and woman alive near Annaba on Saturday only failed
because local people heard their cries for help.
The couple are in hospital with serious burns.
Another attack at Tiaret, in the north-west, was more deadly, killing eight
people.
The government says those who died were four couples, and their murders the
apparent work of religious conservatives.
+ + + +
Andrew Harding in Rwanda
"It's perfectly safe," said the man with the gun. "One hundred percent - we
guarantee it."
I looked around me. If it was so perfectly safe, why were there another 15 men
with guns staring rather hard into the surrounding jungle?
We were half way up a Rwandan volcano at the time - walled in by a thick curtain
made of nettles and bamboo.
Somewhere in the distance, a local guide with a machete was busily chopping a
path for us up a 45 degree slope.
"They didn't tell me about the fighting," said Stephan - the lone tourist in our
party.
Stephan was a Swedish designer who had taken a year off to drive round Africa on
his own. He had stopped off in this lush corner of north western Rwanda to see
the famous gorillas - the ones in the mist.
A decade ago, he would have had to queue for the privilege - and pay a small
fortune. Something like 60,000 tourists trekked up the volcanoes every year.
Today, well, business isn't exactly booming. It's the artillery that's doing
that.
The fighting that Stephan hadn't heard about was the clashes between the Rwandan
army and several thousand fanatical rebels, attacking the country from their
bases in neighbouring Congo.
The rebels are what is left of the force that led the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
They were subsequently driven out of Rwanda, but have fought on ever since in
the jungles. It is a guerrilla war in gorilla territory.
Jungle visitor
Suddenly we heard a sharp crack about a hundred yards ahead. Then lots of
smaller cracks.
I've never been very good at spelling guerrillas and gorillas. Now I was
wondering which version was about to come charging through the bamboo.
"Gorilla," whispered the guide. And sure enough, a giant black ball of fur and
muscle swung round the corner with a smaller black ball clinging onto it's leg.
We stared at each other.
I'd been invited up to see the gorillas by the Rwandan wildlife service. They
were keen to show the lengths they were going to protect one of the world's
rarest and most endangered species.
When there are only 359 of your species left in the entire world, losing two is
a heavy blow
Those lengths now include posting an entire battalion of army troops up in the
volcanoes to act as bodyguards for 140 rather shy animals, and for any tourists
or scientists who want to visit them.
But the best bodyguards in the world can never guarantee 100% security. Last
month, two gorillas stumbled into a rebel camp. One, a 14-year-old male was shot
and eaten. The other, his 15-year-old friend, was also killed.
When there are only 359 of your species left in the entire world, losing two is
a heavy blow.
News of the deaths came from an unusual source. One of the rebels in the group
was apparently so upset by what his colleagues had done that he surrendered to
the government forces and confessed.
He told his interrogators that if his comrades were prepared to eat such a
precious animal, they might turn on him next.
After an hour with the gorillas, we slithered back down the volcano and were
about to drive into the local town of Ruhengiri when we heard shooting down the
valley.
Due to some deep psychological flaw, we journalists tend to run towards gunfire
instead of away from it.
The next three hours passed in a blur of adrenaline and exhaustion. We found a
large group of Rwandan army troops chasing about 60 rebels they had just
intercepted.
A young general with a straight back, a mobile phone and a walkie talkie was
busy barking orders.
We ran, through fields of maize, banana groves, and deserted villages. The
rebels had split up and were trying to hide in small groups.
We were clambering over some rocks when the general called out: "Watch where you
step."
I looked down - a broken red line snaked through the green grass. Fresh blood.
We followed it for about five metres until we came to the body.
He was lying on his side, wearing dirty civilian clothes. His feet were bare. I
couldn't see where he'd been shot. To be honest I didn't look very hard.
There were two more bodies nearby. The general came over and pronounced himself
satisfied.
"They come down from the volcanoes to search for food," he said. "They're
starving up there. So they dig up people's crops. But every time they come down,
we catch a few of them. We've killed 2,000 since the beginning of May."
I imagined the gorillas, somewhere up on the volcano, looking down on the drama
with their quiet, quizzical eyes.
+ + + +
Concord Times (Freetown)
INTERVIEW
September 4, 2001
Freetown
Brigadier General Tom Carew, like most military officers, has a taciturn mien.
His actions especially at the war front speak louder than his voice. For
God-knows-what reason, Carew's credo before now was simply not to grant pressmen
interviews. "I had to change my mind after so many people told me you are a very
credible newspaper," he told Concord Times crew of Kingsley Lington and Sulaiman
Momodu. This interview (excerpts) for the first time reveals the inner workings
of the mind of the Chief of Defence Staff in whose hands our security is
entrusted. Read on.
CT -What work have you done since your appointment as Chief of Defence Staff?
CDS. - Since I was appointed, there has been a very great improvement.
Discipline in the Army has improved immensely. There is also a great improvement
in the welfare of our troops. For example, the soldiers get their salaries on
the 27th of every month and they get their normal ration. So there has been very
great improvement.
CT - What can you say about the restructuring of the Army since you have had a
very bad image?
CDS - The restructuring and training as a whole has made a very great impact.
Over the years there has been a lot of problems with soldiers, but since they
started undergoing training at the Benguema Training Centre, their appearance,
the way they handle their guns and even the way they interact with the civilians
has improved.
CT - So the Army is better equipped? CDS - When you think of equipment, we now
talk of so many vehicles, radio communications sets and other logistics. And
also we have a stock of weaponry.
CT - How many soldiers do you have?
CDS - I cannot give you that figure because of security reasons.
CT - What about this issue of RUF joining the Army?
CDS - I know this is an issue some people will have reservation about. But we
see the RUF joining the Army as one way of reconciliation. We think we should
have calm and peace. I think this is one way the British felt that we can play
our own part. That is why we have introduced the Military Reintegration
Programme (MRP) which is presently in progress in Lungi. By bringing all there
factions together, you will realise that for now there is calm.
CT- Do you trust them?
CDS- That is why we are training them so that we can all think together.
CT- Have you started enrolling them into the force?
CDS- We have started taking some of them. For now we have about 310. This batch
is presently undergoing the STT training in BTC.
CT- Does this figure include all the ex-combatants?
CDS- Yes. CT-How do you recruit ex-combatants? CDS- After they have disarmed, we
bring them to our centre where we have a team to do the screening. That team
comprises of personnel from Unamsil, RUF, CDF and of course the SLA.
CT- Precisely how many RUF do you have in training?
CDS- I cannot tell now.
CT- What is SLA deployment like in the country?
CDS- For now, we have deployed in all the areas where disarmament has been
completed. For example, we have deployed in Kambia, and we are also talking with
Unamsil so that we can deploy fully in areas that have disarmed in Port Loko
district. We are also planning to seal the northern border.
CT: We understand you are a robot in the hands of the British. They are actually
in charge of the army.
CDS: No, no, I am in charge. The British troops are assisting in the training.
CT: You must be under pressure from politicians who would like to have their
people in the army or seek contracts.
CSD: No, there has been no political interference. The new system does not allow
for that. Of course we interract but they don't influence matters in the
military.
CT- What will you say about Colonel Mani, the Army Director of Training who was
recently taken to court for having arms in his house ?
CDS- Colonel Mani is my colleague. We are friends. We were in Daru together. In
the first place, we are trying to reconcile by bringing people together so that
we can forget about the past. But if you go against the military rules, then
that is where the law speaks.
CT- What do you mean by reconcile? You mean you want to settle the case against
Colonel Mani out of court?
CDS- No. What I am saying is that, when you are talking about reconciliation, we
are talking about those people who have been engaged in combat like the
West-side, RUF and CDF. We try to talk to them to forget about the past and work
as a team.
CT- You have done so much in the past, what do you intend to do in the future?
CDS- In the future, I am trying to see that we have a very professional army. An
army that is free of disunity, politics and political influence and an army that
all Sierra Leoneans will be proud to see.
CT- What has been your journey like from the bottom of your profession to the
top?
CDS- In the first place I started from the lower ranks. Formerly, when you
entered the army with all your O' levels or certificates you come in as an
ordinary soldier. That was what they used to do in the 60s. But after the
general training you can now sit to your cadet exams. If you go through that
one, you will be sent to one of the cadet schools. For example, I was sent to
Tanzania Military Academy. After I finished my cadet there, I came back as an
ordinary platoon commander and was sent to Daru Training School as an Adjutant
for about seven years, working with LMS Turay who was a colonel. From Daru I was
sent to Lungi Garrison as an Adjutant for years and was later sent to USA at the
Infantry School. For over a year.
When I came back home, I was made a company commander and sent to the Bo
Waterside. From there, I was appointed battalion commander for Potoru and
Koribondo taking care of the Southern flank. From there, I was sent back to do
my senior staff course in France. When I came back after a year, I was appointed
battalion commander. In the following year, I was promoted to the rank of
Colonel and sent to Bo as Brigade Commander. I was there for about two years. I
was recalled to Freetown and made Director of Operations when the AFRC took over
government and I had to leave Freetown for Conakry.
CT- So you went with President Kabbah?
CDS- No, I didn't go with him. It was after the announcement that I decided to
go. I was there until he returned. I was again sent to China at the National
Defence University. I came back after seven months and started work with General
Khobe until his death when I was appointed Acting CDS. Finally in December last
year I was appointed CDS.
CT- Did you have people who were competing with you for the position?
CDS- We don't compete. It is by merit.
CT- We understand you are a tribalist. CDS- That is not correct. In the Army, we
work by merit. For example almost all my personal assistants are not from my
tribe. Even my PRO is not from my tribe. You cannot be a tribalist in the army
because you will risk failure. CT-What has been your worst moment at the battle
front?
CDS- It was the battle to capture Sierra Rutile; we fought for five days with
the help of the Kamajors and of course the battalion commanders. It came to a
time when we were sending to the battalion to send in people to come and assist
us in that area, they sent funny boys. So I ordered that all battalion
commanders should come in with their own people and we fought. I think I lost
five men in that battle.
CT- How would you like to be remembered when you leave the Army?
CDS- I want to be remembered as one who worked to make a better army that all
Sierra Leoneans will be proud of.
CT- Are you going into politics when you leave the Army?
CDS-No! No! No! I am going back to my village to live a quiet life.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
+ + + +
Chechen Field Commander Detained
RIA Novosti
04-09-2001
Magomed Timirgiriyev, who is suspected of carrying out a terrorist act in
Gudermes on 25 August, has been detained in Chechnya.
RIA news agency was told on Monday [3 September] at the public relations group
of the Russian Federal Security Service directorate of the Chechen republic.
Magomed Timirgiriyev was detained during a detective operation in the village of
Beltoy-Yurt to investigate the terrorist act in Gudermes. Documents in the name
of Adam Itiyev were discovered during a search of the suspect's home.
According to the information that the detectives have, the low-ranking field
commander, Timirgiriyev, was a member of Salman Raduyev's gang and was involved
in kidnapping.
Besides this, the detectives detained a local resident in the village of
Voskresenovskoye in Shekovsky District, from whom they confiscated an assault
rifle, approximately 200 7.62-millimetre-calibre cartridges, as well as three
stretchers, on one of which traces of blood were found. The suspect is being
checked for involvement in illegal armed formations.
+ + + +
War News
Kavkaz&Chechen.Org
04-09-2001
The Chechen mojahedin command headquarters reports on new military operations on
the occupied territory of the country. The commander of one of the mojahedin
subunits, Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiyev, has told a Kavkaz-Tsentre correspondent that
an infantry fighting vehicle and two vehicles carrying fuel were blown up on the
road between Shali and the village of Agishty. The vehicles were going to the
Russians' temporary base near the former tank training area. Five Russians were
killed and at least seven wounded in the operation, Abdulkhadzhiyev said. A
Chechen sabotage group killed two Chechen officers from the [Russian] Federal
Security Service in Shali district center and then attacked the building where
the Russian Federal Security Service has its headquarters in Shali. According to
the Chechen side, at least three Russians were killed during the shelling.
The mojahedin command has reported on clashes with the Russians in Shelkovskoy,
Gudermesskiy and Urus-Martanovskiy Districts of Chechnya. Chechen mobile
subunits opened fire on Russian positions there using grenade throwers,
automatic heavy grenade throwers and light mortars. At least seven Russians were
killed near Gekhi and five on the road to Roshni-Chu. An infantry fighting
vehicle was blown up in Gudermes. A GAZ-66 vehicle was burnt out on the
outskirts of Kargalinovskaya village and four OMON soldiers were killed in the
ensuing skirmish.
Meanwhile, the situation in Vedensky District remains unchanged on the whole.
The Russians are digging themselves in the former fortress of Imam Shamil.
Chechen mobile subunits are bombing them, using mortars, including heavy ones.
The Chechen side reports that six Russians were killed and about 15 wounded
during bombing on Sunday [2 September]
2 helicopters downed in Sharoy and Itum-Kale districts
On Sunday, in the Sharoy region of Chechnya near to the settlement of Hindi
(Sharoy gorge) the units of V. Arsanov have downed a Russian helicopter. The
pilots and 12 military on board died. Among dead there were 2 majors, a captain,
a lieutenant and 10 others, most likely mercenaries (kontraktniki). Those have
looted not one house in Chechnya, as their dresses and female jewelry found on
them indicate.
Meanwhile, Dokku Umarov has reported that on September 02 another Russian
helicopter had to make an emergency landing in the Itum-Kala region after being
shot at by Chechens.
Thus, yesterday Russian forces lost two helicopters.
It is interesting, what the Russian propaganda will tell this time?
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
The Perspective (Smyrna, Georgia)
September 5, 2001
The long-running battle between dissident forces of Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) appears to have intensified once again.
According to recent reports, dissidents fighting the Liberian government forces
in Lofa County raided a logging company in Gbopolu, a commercial town located 62
miles north of Monrovia. The latest attack is the closest LURD has come near
Monrovia - outside the confines of the Lofa war corridor since the war began
over a year ago.
The Liberian Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Daniel Chea, confirmed the attack,
saying that it caused "some trouble," but said the attackers were now trapped
between two government battalions in the jungle.
According to the Associated Press, an unnamed government official said "four
Liberian soldiers were killed, one missing, and between 20 and 25 rebel fighters
killed in an ambush by the government as the rebels were retreating from Antel."
In a BBC interview , however, Gen. Joe Wylie, LURD military advisor denied that
the government forces have killed and captured several of LURD fighters.
"At no point in this war, during the entire length of this war have we lost five
men in a battle. Can [Mr. Taylor] put those bodies on display in Monrovia? No,
he cannot do that," Mr. Wylie said.
The claims and counterclaims from both sides continue in the absence of an
independent verification mechanism. The Liberian government has banned
independent coverage of the war, and LURD has not allowed local and
international press to visit the area it occupies.
+ + + +
Colombian police say a suspected gas attack on a police station by Marxist
guerrillas could be the result of training by the IRA.
Three suspected IRA men are being held in prison in the capital Bogota charged
with training guerrillas in explosives and urban warfare.
General Fernando Tapias, head of the armed forces, said groups including the IRA
could be connected to the attack by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), in which four policemen died.
Only one policeman in San Adolfo municipality in Huila province was killed by
bullet wounds, and six wounded officers all have lung problems.
A senior police officer said the FARC had used improvised mortars loaded with
poisonous gas.
General Tapias said: "I do not rule out that the use of chemicals in the
guerrilla incursion into San Adolfo was the result of the assimilation of
terrorist technologies of movements such as the IRA".
But some experts say the FARC does not have the knowledge or the need to use
chemical weapons and there has never been any evidence of poison gas attacks by
the IRA.
Tests
Col Francisco Javier Caicedo, commander of the Huila police, said tests were
being made in Bogota to establish the chemical that was used.
Gina Leon, wife of Jairo Morales Bernales, one of the dead policemen, told radio
stations that her husband's lungs "exploded".
She said residents of San Adolfo told her that the guerrillas had used domestic
cooking gas cylinders filled with a chemical substance.
Meanwhile, Colombian President Andres Pastrana defended the widely criticised
safe haven ceded to the rebels more than two years ago. He warned that "if there
is no demilitarised zone there will be war".
The enclave in the underdeveloped south was granted to the FARC to launch peace
talks, but the agreement expires on 7 October.
The president did not commit himself to renewing the enclave deal, but said most
Colombians would prefer peace to an escalation of the 37-year-old conflict.
A high-level US delegation last week expressed support for Mr Pastrana's peace
efforts, saying negotiations were the only way to achieve peace.
Washington has given about $1bn in mainly military aid for Mr Pastrana's
anti-drugs offensive.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Colombia on 11 September.
+ + + +
The Brazilian company Avibras Industria Aeroespacial has said it will build
South America's first locally-made cruise missile.
Avibras produced the Astros II multiple launchers rockets system (MLRS), used
with devastating impact by the United States and its allies against Iraqi troops
during the Gulf war.
The arms-maker hopes to offer its cruise missile for sale internationally as a
simpler and cheaper option to the US-made Tomahawk. which has a price tag of
$500,000.
Brazil's arms manufacturers have become increasingly successful in winning
overseas contracts.
In August, plane-maker Embraer won its first export orders for the Super Tucano
turbo-prop fighter and might sell another 22 to its Canadian rival Bombardier
for use in a Nato flying school.
The Brazilian cruise missile - the AV/MT 300 - will be able to deliver 200kg of
explosives to a target up to 300km away, the company said in a statement.
The world's leading cruise missile, Tomahawk, built by Raytheon has a range of
1,500km and can carry a warhead up to 500kg.
Avibras did not say how much its missile will cost.
The firm, which also builds communications antennae and rockets for scientific
use, has made a strong recovery in recent years, paying off most of its debts
after filing for bankruptcy in the early 1990s.
The company continues to sell the Astros II (Artillery Saturation Rocket System)
which is considered as one of the most lethal in the world.
The US Army used the Astros II to drop thousands of bomblets known as "steel
rain" on Iraqi troops during Operation Desert Storm before the main ground
offensives.
Avibras is also a joint investor with European defence company EADS in Freewing
Aerial Robotics, which is developing the Scorpion UAV (unmanned air vehicle),
but is currently in some financial difficulties.
+ + + +
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1525000/1525364.stm
+ + + +
The Basque separatist group ETA has pre-empted Spain's changeover from the
peseta to the euro - by demanding that its "revolutionary tax" be paid in the
new currency.
The Spanish Interior Ministry confirmed that ETA's latest batch of extortion
letters asked businesses in the Basque region to pay between 30,000 and 60,000
euros ($27,000 to $55,000).
Euro notes and coins will not officially be available until 1 January 2001, but
cheques made out in euros are already accepted in the 12 EU member states which
are joining the single currency.
ETA threatened reprisals against family members in cases of non-payment.
Reprisals
About 10% of Basque businesses pay what ETA calls a tax to support "the struggle
of the Basque people".
Jose Maria Korta, who had called on local businesses not to submit to the
separatists demands, was killed in a car bomb last year.
ETA is reported to have this year widened its extortion campaign to include part
of south-western France which it claims as Basque territory.
This summer ETA, which is blamed for about 800 deaths in its 33-year campaign
for an independent Basque state, has targeted several popular tourist resorts in
a bombing campaign.
+ + + +
War News
MARSHO&Interfax&ITAR&RBC
05-09-2001
Russian helicopter downed, over 10 killed
MARSHO
Another Russian helicopter was shot down today in Chechnya's Cheberloyevsky
District. Our correspondent reports that an MI-24 helicopter was shot down by
the mojahedin from the Sayfulla subunit with a Russian-made anti-aircraft Strela
missile launcher. All on board were killed. The report says that more than 10
invaders were on board along with the crewmembers.
BMP and group of sappers blown up in Johar
the mujahideen from "Sayfulla" subunit have carried out an operation during
which on a radio-guided mine were blown up BMP and group of sappers going in
support in the capital of the Chechen Republic, on Staropromyslovsky highway.
After the destruction of the armored car, automatic fire was opened upon
occupiers. As our correspondent informs, as a result of explosion, and the
followed fire 4 occupiers were killed at least, 3 were wounded. the BMP was put
out of action.
Aggressors throw armies into Vedensky district
According to our correspondent, high activity of the Chechen divisions was
noticed in Vedensky district yesterday. According to Radio Liberty, additional
army divisions of occupiers were thrown into Vedensky district. On a mountain
road between Shali and Vedeno aggressors exposed three mobile blockhouses.
Checks of the documents and examinations of a motor transport following from
Vedeno and in the opposite direction are toughened. The Russian artillery
periodically fired at the mountain - woody districts to the southeast of Vedeno,
and also to the south of the villages Dargo and Harachoi.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chechnya police HQ attacked with grenade launchers
Interfax
Three people, two builders and a policeman, were hurt when rebels attacked the
Russian police HQ in Grozny with grenade launchers on Tuesday, Russian news
agency Interfax reported.
All three are in hospital and have had operations to remove shrapnel. One of the
two builders is in a serious condition.
One person suspected of involvement in the attack has been arrested.
The building is regularly fired on from the surrounding ruined buildings at
night, but the agency quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying that this
was only the second time it had been attacked during the day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Russian troops kill 30 rebels in Chechnya over past two days
ITAR-TASS
About 30 rebels were killed in Chechnya on Monday [3 September].
A rebel was killed in Gekhi, Urus-Martan District, sources in the Russian
Interior Ministry told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.
Six rebels from a 30-strong group died in a clash with an interior unit on the
outskirts of Starye Atagi, Shali District. Five Russian servicemen were wounded.
A Mi-24 destroyed a group of up to six gunmen in Vedeno District, sources in the
federal forces staff told ITAR-TASS. Up to four rebels were killed by Mi-24 in
the Naursky District.
Federal artillery shelled a rebel base on the bank of the Gums River in the
Vedeno district. The base was spotted by a reconnaissance unit. Intelligence
reports indicated that up to ten rebels stayed at the base.
Sixteen rebels were detained by the Chechen police on Monday, sources in the
provisional press center of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Northern
Caucasus told ITAR-TASS. The police are checking their possible involvement in
sabotage and terrorist acts.
Seventeen hideouts with firearms were destroyed throughout the republic.
Terrorists staged two explosions and carried out 16 attacks on policemen and
interior troops on the republic on Monday.
A helicopter of the Itum-Kale unit of the Russian Federal Border Service's North
Caucasian Department came under fire on Monday night. The missile shot was
abortive, and the helicopter landed in the destination point.
Six land mines were rendered harmless in Chechen railways over the day. Two
rebels were killed on the track between Chiri-Yurt and Argun while trying to
plant a land mine. Two rebels were detained.
A bomb was found at the TV and radio center in Grozny on Tuesday, sources in the
Chechen administration's press service told ITAR-TASS.
On Tuesday morning, members of the company staff noticed a wire leading to the
basement. Sappers were called in to remove the bomb. The type and the size of
the bomb have not yet been identified.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Militants fire on office of Chechnya's police department
RosBusinessConsulting
Militants fired on the office of the Police Department of Chechnya with
submachine-guns and under-barrel grenade launchers today, a representative of
this republic's administration told RBC. The representative pointed out that two
workers and a police officer were injured by the fire. According to the official
"this is not the first time when militants fire on the office of the Police
Department of Chechnya recently."
+ + + +
Islamic militants in Algeria have raided the seaside resort of Zeralda, 20km
west of the capital, Algiers, killing seven civilians and injuring another 11,
security forces said.
The incident was another attack in a current wave of attacks on civilians.
The attackers first killed a couple on the beach, before raiding a nearby
restaurant where a further five people died, the security officials said.
Zeralda is a popular resort, frequented at this time of year by people on
holiday.
It is so close to the capital that it recently hosted some of the hundreds of
young people from abroad who attended a International Youth Festival.
The Algerians used the festival as a showpiece to indicate that the security
situation was returning to normal after nine years of Islamist insurgency.
Clearly, however, this is not the case.
At the weekend, seven young people who were camping on a beach near Annaba east
of Algiers were killed in an attack.
And last Wednesday, a bomb exploded in central Algiers, injuring 34 people.
+ + + +
anyone got any other news?
any other news sources?
for that real low down intel
;)
Spunkmunky
What BB are you using for this? Can ya get the info?
"Rizla Ranger UK" <LAWsL...@RidgelineWesleys.edu> wrote in message
news:h7Hl7.6216$4z.2...@www.newsranger.com...
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
publications from around the world :(
I miss the sitreps Keeni Meeni used to post,
they had some great snippets of great info
"Spunkmunky" wrote
Spunkmunky
I miss something??
"Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK" <Eat...@TheGatesOfHeavenlyPussy.Com> wrote
in message news:3b97b740$0$8514$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
hehehe
;)
Like I always try and say - these SITREPS
are only as good as the info in 'em .......
I'm just barely keeping the pulse
going with the stuff I post :(
R!
R :)
"Swarvegorilla" wrote
I think we all miss them...... he had an eye for what i wanted to
know...........
Swarvegorilla
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK <Eat...@TheGatesOfHeavenlyPussy.Com> wrote in
message news:3b97b740$0$8514$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
Rizla Ranger UK
Reuters
BOGOTÁ,
Colombia
--
Unidentified gunmen killed a leader of a congressional peace commission,
shooting him at point-blank range in his garage after chasing him through the
nation's capital, police said Thursday.
Jairo Rojas, 37, who set up the first meeting between President Andres Pastrana
and the leader of Colombia's largest guerrilla force, the FARC, in 1998, was
killed just two hours after sending his police bodyguards home Wednesday
evening.
According to police, Rojas was driving home alone from downtown Bogotá when two
gunmen began following him. Rojas raced to his apartment building and,
panicking, rammed his sport utility vehicle through locked garage doors.
The gunmen followed Rojas into the building's parking lot and shot him seven
times, with a final bullet to the head fired execution-style.
"From the information I have, it appears that he realized they (the gunmen) were
following him. He drove through the (closed) gates of (his garage) with his
vehicle, and they killed him," said Bogotá police chief Gen. Jorge Linares.
An assistant to Rojas, a member of Pastrana's Conservative Party, said the
lawmaker had received multiple death threats.
"He had been the object of threats, as a matter of fact authorities had
conducted a review of his security," said Rojas' assistant, Alberto Almonacid.
Public officials are often the targets of violence in Colombia, and police said
there were no shortage of suspects in Rojas' death -- from gangs to ultra-right
militias and rebels fighting in Colombia's 37-year-old war.
Family and fellow lawmakers held a wake in Congress late Thursday, with dozens
huddling around Rojas' coffin.
Rojas had taken over the peace commission following the December assassination
of its president, Diego Turbay. Turbay's assassination was blamed on the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Turbay, his mother, a friend, and four police officers and bodyguards were
killed as they were traveling in Colombia's southern jungle, near a
demilitarized enclave granted to the FARC in 1999 as a concession to lure rebels
to the negotiating table.
It was not immediately known what effect Rojas' death would have on the flagging
peace process, which is already at one of its lowest moments in years. Turbay's
assassination sparked widespread controversy over the FARC's Switzerland-sized
enclave, which the military is barred from entering.
Pastrana extended the rebel enclave just one month after Turbay's slaying, and
he seems poised to do the same when his agreement with the FARC expires again
Oct. 7. The president said this week that the enclave was needed to prevent an
escalation in Colombia's guerrilla war, which has claimed 40,000 lives in the
past decade.
Pastrana told foreign correspondents Thursday that Rojas' killing "should be
condemned from every point of view."
+ + + +
TAME,
Colombia
After years as a distant rumor, war has reached this lonely city on Colombia's
eastern plains. Leftist guerrillas have taken to assassinating strangers in the
streets. Roadblocks have gone up on the edge of town where rightist militiamen
inspect cars and take names. The police have sandbagged their headquarters.
Rizla Ranger UK
War News
Chechen.Org&Interfax
06-09-2001
An operation to check the coordination and interaction between separate groups
and detachments of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has been
carried out by the command of the ChRI Armed Forces under the control of the
Supreme Commander-in-chief, A. Maskhadov. In particular, simultaneous combat
operations to destroy enemy objects and personnel were carried out in different
towns and regions of Chechnya. The basic purpose was to check the
interconnection and mobile communication between the military subdivisions of
the ChRI Armed Forces, as well as to check the action in separate sectors and in
the whole of the republic, with large-scale troop operations.
The separate elements of this operation were cities and villages of the ChRI.
E.g. the attack on the UVD in Chechnya (Republican Authority of Internal
Affairs) in the capital of the ChRI Johar City, which was admitted by the
military since it couldn't be hidden because of the power of the fact. But of
course they interpreted all this in their coverage, e.g. the electronic
publication polit.ru writes:
"In Chechnya the building of the republican UVD was fired on. According to
"Interfax", they were shooting from attached grenade dischargers and small arms.
As a result, three people were injured - two construction workers and one
militiaman. One worker is in serious condition."
The beginning is correct - the building of the republican UVD was fired at, and
it is correct that attached grenade dischargers and small arms were used, but we
would like to add that these weapons were used additionally besides manual
grenade discharges and flamethrowers, but that would only be half that bad, it
is more interesting that 3 people were injured in the attack, one of them a
militiaman!!!
An interesting comparison! At this moment, let us state that we agreed with this
treatment of the event and let us carry out a little analysis. The main
department of the militia was attacked, but it were mainly construction workers
who suffered, i.e. civilians (this is a ticket for the future in order to, when
it is necessary, ascribe to the Resistance forces the execution of construction
workers!) and among the wounded there was only one militiaman, about whom it is
unknown what he was doing on a civilian construction site like the UVD, they
recalled casually...
But now as everything really happened. As said above, in the plan for the
preparation of large-scale operations it was decided to conduct simultaneous
attacks in different parts of the republic. In the city of Grozny, the building
of the UVD was selected as an attack target. A mobile detachement of the ChRI
Armed Forces, using small arms, manual grenade dischargers and flamethrowers,
attacked the militia complex. The enemy was shocked by the rapidity and force of
the fire. It would never have come into their mind that they would be attacked
in broad daylight in the center of their city. Because of this there was no
organized defense. Making use of the element of surprise, the Resistance
soldiers inflicted losses on the enemy in the first minutes of the attack. A
"Ural" vehicle was burnt, two "UAZ" automobiles had their tanks blown up. The
personnel losses were 4 killed Russian militiamen and more than 7 injured.
Having used up their ammunition, the soldiers from the ChRI Armed Forces moved
back to their bases with minimal loses - two injured.
But this was only one "link of the chain". The same operations were carried out
in the towns of Argun, Gudermes, Urus-Martan, Shali and other populated areas.
In Argun a truck column moving on the Argun-Shali road was attacked. The
Resistance soldiers used the already classical pattern of mining the column,
i.e. the head APC was blown up and fire was opened immediately from automatic
arms and grenade dischargers. As a result of the following skirmish a GAZ-66
automobile was disabled. All in all the following were destroyed in the
operation: 1 APC, 1 GAZ-66 automobile, 3 enemy soldiers were killed and 5
injured. There were no victims on the attacking side.
In the town of Gudermes a roadblock located in the outskirts was attacked. A
small detachment of the Resistance forces carried out an audacious assault on
the roadblock. Using small arms, attached and manual grenade dischargers plus
the element of surprise, they attacked the enemy with "storm fire". The battle
was brief and lasted less than 30 minutes. But even this short time was enough
to show the enemy who and what is in control!
There was complete chaos in the enemy's radio communication, but through the
continuous cursing one could nevertheless hear aid, "roadblock", inquire,
confirm, require helicopters, shouts that they had little time left!
Since the soldiers of the ChRI Armed Forces didn't have the task to seize and
keep this object, they moved back to their temporary bases without losses. The
enemy sustained losses (according to radio interception) of 2 killed and 3
injured Russian soldiers.
In the town Urus-Martan the district headquarters (located in the former
boarding school building) was selected as an attack target, because it is
located in the center of the town. In order to avoid victims among the civilian
population it was decided not to develop a major engagement and not to use the
light mortars available at the bases. Another tactics was used here.
The soldiers of the ChRI Armed Forces surrounded the headquarters on its entire
perimeters and fired only from small arms. Holding the encirclement of the enemy
for more than 50 minutes (it must be noted that this was precisely the aim of
the operation) and inflicting losses on the hardware of the enemy (from the side
of the Martanka river), two ZIL-131 and UAZ vehicles were burnt by precise shots
from grenade dischargers. According to unconfirmed data, 3 enemy soldiers were
killed and more than 4 injured.
In the town Shali, more accurately the suburb Shali on the connecting
"Shali-Avtury" road, a mobile group of Resistance soldiers attacked a vehicle
column of the Russian troops. The head APC was blown up with a radio-controlled
contact mine, followed by the thunder of a second explosion that "removed from
duty" an enemy BMP. The soldiers of the ChRI Armed Forces were using light
mortars, AGS [?] and "Shmel" flamethrowers. With a precise shot from the
flamethrower it was possible to set a ZIL-131 tractor with an air-defense
installation on fire. Since the attacking side used mortars, there was no
contact battle, but the mortars created panic among the enemies, which in turn
increased the number of victims.
As a result of this operation, 1 APC, 1 BMP, 1 Zil-131 vehicle, 1
air-defense-installation were destroyed.
7 Russian soldiers were killed and more than 12 injured.
Summing up the results it was noted that the operation showed the high degree of
interconnection and mobility of the detachments of the ChRI Armed Forces, the
readiness for decisive actions, the high fighting spirit and the readiness for
further resistance against the invader, to complete victory. The Supreme
Commander-in-chief of the ChRI Armed Forces, Aslan Maskhadov, noted the high
organization and effectiveness of the soldiers and commanders.
And we note in turn that except the reports about the attack on the UVD in the
city of Grozny, with the injury of 1 militiaman and 2 construction workers, no
other military clashes were mentioned in the Russian mass media and other
military reports.
Two Chechen rebels reportedly arrested
Interfax
Active members of illegal armed formations have been detained in Chechnya.
Security services detained Said-Magomed Tuzurkayev, who had been on wanted list
and is referred to as the so-called "emir", and Ilyas Musayev, a fervent
advocate of Wahhabism, the public relations office of the Russian Federal
Security Service's (FSB) department for Chechnya told Interfax on Wednesday [5
September].
The bandits offered armed resistance during their detention and wounded two FSB
officers. A third bandit was also wounded by return fire, but managed to escape.
The law enforcers seized a pistol, Wahhabite literature, stamps, and documents
confirming ownership of real estate earlier belonging to ethnic Russian
residents of Gudermes, the Interfax sources said.
Intelligence information was later received that the bandit, who escaped from
detention, died of his wounds. He has been identified as Ayan Khazhiyev, an
active member of guerilla formations involved in a series of terrorist and
sabotage attacks.
An investigation in relation to the detainees is under way, the office said.
+ + + +
PRIMA
06-09-2001
83-year-old Abbaz Suleimanov was shot dead in Grozny on September 3. According
to reports received by PRIMA, a group of Russia's federals raided Suleimanov's
house, located near Minutka Square, in search of vodka. After the Suleimanovs
told them they had none, Russian servicemen began searching the house. Failing
to find any vodka, the military killed the owner of the house and seriously
wounded his wife.
+ + + +
Gazeta.Ru
06-09-2001
Regardless of the extra-tight security measures taken after the Monday explosion
in the office building of the Chechen government in Grozny, on Tuesday rebels
launched two more attacks against the federals in the city.
The unknown militants planted a bomb in the basement of the state-controlled
TV/radio broadcasting company, the chief mouthpiece of the pro-Moscow republican
authorities, and attacked the city police headquarters with grenade launchers.
Starting from early morning on Tuesday the federals reinforced security measures
in the capital of Chechnya. Armed policemen guarded each and every checkpoint
and would not allow any vehicle driven by a civilian into the city. Only the
military and the city officials were allowed into the city, after they produced
necessary papers.
Inside the city, police guarded every intersection and checked every Passerby's
identification papers. No person carrying any sort of bag or parcel was left out
of sight of policemen. In other words, the security measures taken by the
federals proved so tough, it seemed even a bird would not fly by unnoticed. And
still, the rebels attacked again.
Around 10:00 am on Tuesday a security guard on duty in front of the building of
the republican TV and radio broadcasting company found a piece of wire hidden in
the grass. The wire led to the small window in the basement. The guard called
for the police. All employees were asked to leave the building, while the field
engineers defused the bomb.
In the afternoon the rebels delivered the second blow. This time they attacked
the local police department building with grenade launchers. As a result, three
people and two construction workers and a policeman were injured. All three were
taken to the hospital. One person suspected of involvement in the attack has
been arrested.
The building is regularly fired upon from the surrounding ruined buildings at
night, but this was only the second time it had been attacked in the daytime,
Interfax quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying.
After a failed attack against the governmental residence the bandits have
decided to commit new crimes, this time against the journalists and the
policemen, a city official told the Kommersant daily.
Authorities tend to link the Grozny events of the past two days with the
forthcoming Independence Day of Ichkeria, September 6, the date marked by
separatists.
In the meantime, law enforcers, who continue the investigation into the blast
that shook the premises of the governmental residence in Grozny on Monday, have
arrived to conclusion that most likely the explosive device was brought into the
building by a 27-year-old janitor Khizhan Orziyeva.
The employees say that she evidently looked nervous that day. The investigators
think that she may have carried the explosive device into the building inside a
vacuum-cleaner. They believe that the organizers of the blast planned to
eliminate her as an unwanted witness.
So far she is considered to be the only suspect, and since she died in the blast
the criminal case will most likely be closed.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
After years as a distant rumor, war has reached this lonely city on
Colombia's eastern plains. Leftist guerrillas have taken to assassinating
strangers in the streets. Roadblocks have gone up on the edge of town where
rightist militiamen inspect cars and take names. The police have sandbagged
their headquarters.
The two guerrilla armies that have enjoyed uncontested control of this
region for years have weathered a two-month campaign by the military. Now
paramilitary forces that work hand in hand with the army have moved in,
bringing what Tame's residents fear are the tactics of a dirty war that is
spreading across once-stable areas of Colombia.
"The people want to be left in peace," said Tame's mayor, Jorge Antonio
Bernal, who no longer keeps his office in town because of guerrilla death
threats. "But that is not going to happen anytime soon."
By almost any measure, more people are fighting more frequently in more
parts of Colombia than at any point in the four-decade conflict. Once
confined to a cluster of central provinces sliced by guerrilla
transportation routes, intense fighting now touches remote southwestern and
eastern provinces and has become a permanent feature of the southern jungles
where army and paramilitary forces are contesting rebel control for the
first time.
The forecast from army generals and guerrilla commanders is for more
fighting. The escalation is taking place despite President Andres Pastrana's
controversial peace negotiations with the rebels, including a vast
demilitarized zone in the south, and a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package
designed to combat the flourishing drug trade that helps finance leftist
rebels and rightist paramilitary fighters alike.
"We are going to have a period of two or three years in which the situation
is going to become more acute before we find a way to peace," said General
Fernando Tapias, Colombian armed forces chief. "The state and society must
be prepared for this."
In Colombia's four-sided war, the main actors are two Marxist-oriented rebel
armies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the
National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, pitted against the army and a
pro-government paramilitary force, the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia. Their clashes have occurred sporadically, often under cover of
darkness, through quick strikes against civilians, sabotage and bombings, or
in accidental meetings in the jungle.
But several factors are conspiring to change that. They include the enhanced
capability of the Colombian armed forces, the result, in part of U.S.
training and military aid. Added to that, a fading economy has contributed
recruits to the growing guerrilla and paramilitary armies. And the
U.S.-backed anti-drug effort has produced a balloon effect, in which
squeezing the war in one part of Colombia has sent it bulging into other
parts.
To the north of Tame, for example, sit fresh coca fields controlled by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces, the country's largest left-wing guerrilla force.
Coca cultivation has doubled here in the past year as the rebels find new
places to plant cocaine's key ingredient, far from an aerial spraying
campaign in the south.
The Bush administration has undertaken a review of the U.S. policy here. A
high-ranking delegation of U.S. officials came to Colombia last week for
talks to guide the reassessment. Secretary of State Colin Powell is
scheduled to visit Sept. 11 and 12.
The U.S. aid, mostly devoted to military transport helicopters and training,
was designed to help Mr. Pastrana's peace efforts by depriving the rebel
army of its slice of Colombia's $6 billion-a-year drug industry. The peace
talks have been fruitless so far, however, creating public disenchantment
with the effort. But Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for
political affairs who led the U.S. delegation, has restated support for Mr.
Pastrana, adding that Plan Colombia, the president's program of negotiations
combined with military pressure and social development, "remains the only
way to peace."
The training and new equipment have turned the Colombian military into a
more mobile and capable offensive force, encouraging predictions that
fighting will intensify before it can diminish. The improvement was
particularly visible last month in southern Colombia, where a rapid
deployment unit killed 50 guerrillas in a sustained air and ground attack
lasting two weeks. But both the guerrillas and the paramilitaries are also
improving, and they are reaching into new parts of the country. So far, the
overtaxed military has shown an inability to stop the spread. A senior U.S.
official said the military was not ready to take on the armed groups
nationwide.
RECENTLY, members of the paramilitary army's governing body said the force
had grown by 5,000 members over the past year, a figure that if true would
mean the pro-government paramilitary force now numbers 13,000 troops. The
18,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces, a mostly rural insurgency that has
fought the government since 1964, is also expanding at a rate its leaders
say is outpacing their ability to finance it.
"The reason is the crisis that this country is in - the shortage of schools,
of spaces in universities, of employment," said Raul Reyes, a leading rebel
commander. "Everyone is asking to join us: journalists, economists,
politicians. One of the problems is that we are short of money to buy arms,
so we have told people they have to wait. If not for this, we would be much
bigger."
Sitting on a treeless plain that runs north to the Venezuelan border, this
town of 40,000 people is on the leading edge of the war's expansion. Until
recently, violence had rarely reached this place, 320 kilometers (200 miles)
northeast of Bogota.
But last spring the main paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, announced that
his troops would control Arauca Province, where Tame is situated, by the end
of the year. Since then, killings in the province have doubled.
The killings have included about 25 itinerant salesmen shot in Arauca city,
the provincial capital; officials suspect they constituted an advance guard
of paramilitary organizers and were killed by guerrillas. Last month in the
town of Saravena, a door-to-door salesman was attacked by rebels and shot 15
times.
"This town's opinions are very divided," said Mr. Bernal, Tame's mayor.
"Some are afraid of the arrogance and death these paramilitary groups bring,
but others are sympathetic because of the destruction and unemployment
caused by the guerrillas."
-----
ok! ok! http://www.iht.com/articles/31726.html
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
Nigerian authorities have imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the central town
of Jos after religious violence left many dead.
Fighting between Christians and Muslims broke out near a mosque before
Friday night prayers and quickly spread through the town, witnesses said.
No official death toll was available, but several witnesses reported seeing
dead bodies left on the street.
There were also reports of victims having their eyes gouged out and of
Christian vigilante groups armed with axes patrolling the town.
Jos has largely been spared the religious violence which has rocked
neighbouring cities such as Kaduna, where hundreds of people were killed in
fighting last year over the introduction of Sharia, or Islamic, law.
The latest trouble appears to have been triggered when a Christian woman
crossed a traffic barricade near the central mosque area on Friday.
Reports said tension in the city had risen since a Muslim was appointed
chairman of a state poverty reduction programme.
President Olusegun Obasanjo said he had ordered troops to the city where the
clashes erupted Friday.
"As human beings we will always have friction when we live together but it
should not lead to violence or the urge to take life," he said.
Mary Dung, a Christian living in southern Jos, told the Associated Press
that smoke was rising from burning homes around the city and bands of
Christian and Muslim men were exchanging gunfire on her street.
"One of my neighbours was shot in front of my face," she said.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 8, 2001
Rebels of the Forces nationales pour la liberation (FNL) said that they have
killed at least 11 soldiers in the last five days during fighting around
Bujumbura, the Associated Press reported. Two of their own have been killed
in the battle, AP quoted FNL spokesman Anicet Ntawuhiganayo as saying on
Wednesday.
According to him, there was fighting in nine districts north and west of
Bujumbura. The rebels captured eight assault rifles, a heavy machine gun and
a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. "At least 11 soldiers were killed as
each weapon was carried by a soldier," he said.
AP quoted army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema as saying that the army
was conducting "routine military operations" around Bujumbura adding that
the situation was "quite good". It also quoted residents as saying that
mortar and gunfire reverberated in the hills around Bujumbura on Wednesday
and that thousands had been forced to flee their homes.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 8, 2001
Three people were injured in Mutanga district in Bujumbura, western Burundi,
after a grenade was lobbed at the house of an officer of the national army
on Wednesday night, Net Press reported.
Those injured were identified as a child and two house helps. Sources said
that a suspect had been arrested and was taken straight to the special
research bureau where he was being interrogated.
+ + + +
Fabio Ochoa (Lt of Pablo) arrives in the Estados Unidos
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 8, 2001
Security authorities in Burundi have said that the current insecurity
reported in the country is "not worse than other times". "It is the usual
attacks that the rebels launch from time to time," army spokesman Colonel
Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN on Thursday. He said that the army was doing
its best to flash out the rebels from their "strongholds", the latest
operations being in Gatarara, Isale commune and the Bujumbura-Rural, western
Burundi as a whole. The independent Radio Publique Africaine reported on
Wednesday that fighting between the rebels and the army was continuing in
Kanyosha and Isale communes in Bujumbura-Rural. It said that the provisional
death toll was nine. Two soldiers and two women were among the dead. It said
that the fighting had led to thousands of people being displaced at the
Muyira headquarters. It described the fighting as "intense" and involved use
of artillery by both sides. Last week, 57 people were injured and four
killed after a grenade exploded at a crowded market in Kinama, northeast of
Bujumbura. Three people were also injured in another grenade attack in
Rohero II near the University of Burundi after assailants threw a grenade at
the home of an Asian businessman. Government officials contacted by IRIN
also said that there was an increase in the rate of armed robberies in the
country. "The targets are not only organisations or office premises, but
civilians too," he noted.
Meanwhile, four people died and several other injured on Tuesday night near
Nyengwe on the border between Bururi, southwestern Burundi and Makamba,
southern Burundi on Lake Tanganyika after rebels fired from anti-tank
rockets at a Tanzanian boat, the Muongozo, local Bonesha radio quoted
sources as saying. The boat which had left Bujumbura port for Kigoma,
Tanzania, sails between Bujumbura, Kigoma, Karagwe [the two places in
Tanzania] and Mpulungu [Zambia]. It was transporting goods and passengers.
The attack was attributed to rebels from Ubwari island in the DRC. Rebels of
the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), those of the Forces
nationales pour la liberation (FNL) and the Congolese Mayi Mayi tribal
warriors reside in this area.
+ + + +
No news on the fighting in Liberia. It's
under lock down ... anyone heard any
thing about what's happenin'?
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 8, 2001
A new camp site capable of hosting 10,000 people has been identified in
Jimmy Bargbo, Bo District, for Liberian refugees, UNHCR reported in its
update for 3-9 September.
The agency's implementing partners, the National Commission for
Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation; and Peace Winds of Japan
are responsible for developing the site. Presently, UNHCR is caring for at
least 3,000 Liberian refugees who arrived since May in Sierra Leone.
Liberian refugees are housed in other temporary settlements, in the southern
district of Bo, which they share with returning Sierra Leonean refugees. A
UNHCR official told IRIN on Friday that with the new site the Liberians
would be hosted together.
Meanwhile, UNHCR reported that two boatloads of Sierra Leonean refugees had
returned home from Conakry, Guinea. The MV Oberbeck arrived on 24 August
with 208 passengers, 161 of whom were helped by UNHCR. The agency assisted
the entire 174 passengers on the second voyage which ended in Freetown on 31
August.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 8, 2001
The commander of British forces in Sierra Leone, Brigadier Nick Parker, said
on Thursday that there was no reason for Sierra Leoneans to be worried by
the imminent withdrawal of British troops.
Britain announced last week it would cut its military training force by
nearly half from 600 in September.
"I think there is absolutely no justification for anybody to feel nervous
because of any action that the British are taking," he said in a BBC
interview. The situation in Sierra Leone had changed over the last few
months, he added, with the strengthening and deployment of UN peacekeeping
troops across the country and the ongoing disarmament by former rebels and
government troops.
+ + + +
anyone know whatthe current price of ColTan is?
+ + + +
(AP)
-
The State Department warned Americans in Colombia to take extra security
precautions following the extradition of Fabio Ochoa, the former head of the
Medellin drug cartel.
In a statement Friday night, the department noted ``the past history of
narcotics traffickers conducting bombings in public areas as a reprisal for
or deterrent to extradition.''
``Any suspicious activity should be reported immediately to the appropriate
Colombian authorities and to the U.S. Embassy,'' the statement said.
+ + + +
Tajikistan's Culture Minister, Abdurakhim Rakhimov, was shot dead by unknown
gunmen early on Saturday morning in the capital, Dushanbe.
Interior Ministry officials said Mr Rakhimov was attacked near his home in
the western suburbs of the capital. Five shots were reportedly fired.
There are few details available, and no indication of who was responsible
for the attack.
Two other senior officials have been assassinated this year.
The deputy interior minister was killed in April, and one of the president's
closest advisors died in July.
+ + + +
Wraith
assassination. That's what's so horrid about the Colombian civil war. Ya
got people on both sides that LOVE the war and are profiting from it in big
ways. Peace would disrupt their lifestyle so they kill the mediators. What
they need in Colombia are peacemakers with teeth... as in neautral Merc or
U.N. teeth with no ties to the drug industry. That's too bad about Mr.
Rojas. He was a true Colombian patriot... but now sadly a dead one.
Wraith
"Rizla Ranger UK" <LAWsL...@RidgelineWesleys.edu> wrote in message
news:SX%l7.7680$4z.3...@www.newsranger.com...
Rizla Ranger UK
The Colombian authorities say they have foiled a plot by left-wing rebels to
assassinate the senior opposition politician and presidential candidate, Alvaro
Uribe.
Officials said the plot was uncovered by the secret police during a raid on a
suspected guerrilla safe house in the capital, Bogota.
They said arms, explosives and documents detailing the plot were seized during
the raid, and four suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia or FARC were arrested.
Mr Uribe said the alleged plot would not deter him from his campaign to win the
presidency in next years' elections. Correspondents say Alvaro Uribe is amongst
the harshest critics of president Andres Pastrana's efforts to negotiate with
the FARC.
+ + + +
The Post (Lusaka)
September 7, 2001
Joe Kaunda
Lusaka
There is no hope for the future with this continued violence, reacted former
Zambian president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda to the attempted assassination of his son,
opposition UNIP president Tilyenji on Monday morning.
Tilyenji on early Monday morning survived an attempt on his life after unknown
people unscrewed the bolts on the wheels of his vehicle, a Nissan Safari 4x4, as
he was returning from political campaigns in the just held Isoka East
by-elections.
UNIP youth chairman Frank Musonda who travelled with Tilyenji said it was a
clear case of an attempted assassination. According to Musonda, after what he
termed a successful campaign for UNIP's Isoka East candidate Mike Kaira,
Tilyenji's team announced that they were leaving for Lusaka on Monday. "In the
evening our security men even checked the vehicle late in the night and
everything was alright," Musonda said.
"But when we started off, and after travelling for close to two hours the tyre
just came off and we are lucky because we had greatly reduced our speed as we
were going through Chiru Game Reserve."
Musonda said what saved Tilyenji's life is the decision not to use the
mountainous route from Muyombe in preference for a more smoother route through
Eastern Province's Chama district.
"It is very clear that this was professionally done because whoever did it
wanted us to first travel for some time and after reaching the mountainous area
in Muyombe the wheel would have come off and a nasty accident would have
happened," Musonda said.
"We would have perished because there would have been no hope of surviving in
the mountains. What saved us was the decision to use the other smoother route."
Musonda said a check on the vehicle after revealed that even other wheels had
been tampered with.
Dr. Kaunda yesterday expressed disgust at what he termed the unbecoming trends
of violence not only on political leaders in the country but his family. "I have
kept quiet but I will not remain quiet for long," a seemingly annoyed Dr. Kaunda
said.
"I will not talk about Major Wezi's death because the matter is in court but the
attempt on TJ's life is evil and has really pained me. I condemn it in the
strongest possible terms." Dr. Kaunda said his sons, like any other citizen, had
the right to participate in the active politics of their country.
"The young man did not even tell me what happened. I am flabbergasted. I urge
all those involved to stop the nonsense," Dr. Kaunda said. "It gives us no hope
for the future."
+ + + +
War News
CP&MARSHO&Kavkaz&Allnews.Ru&Interfax
07-09-2001
Fighting in capital reported
Chechenpress
Despite the fact that the Chechen capital Dzhokhar [Grozny] has been blockaded,
clashes are going on. A remote-controlled landmine was blown up immediately
under a moving Russian armored personnel carrier in Leninsky district on the
night of 4-5 September. Seven soldiers were killed and four were wounded.
An exchange of fire took place between mobile detachments of the Chechen armed
forces and Russian special subunits. Three Russian soldiers were wounded as a
result of a short clash.
Detachments of the Chechen armed forces attacked the place of deployment of
Russian Interior Ministry troops using small arms, grenade launchers and
flame-throwers. An Ural and two UAZ vehicles were burnt out and a tanker
carrying lubricants was blown up as a result of the attack. The men on board
were also blown up - four were killed and more than seven Russian police
officers were wounded. Fighters of the Chechen armed forces withdrew to their
bases with only small losses - two fighters were wounded.
Mass punitive actions are being carried out in the city. Documents and vehicles
are being checked at checkpoints. There have been many cases of soldiers at
checkpoints seizing vehicles they like. Citizens who are not registered in the
city are being detained and subjected to "filtration".
Chechenpress correspondents report that special mopping-up operations are being
carried out in the Oktyabrsky district of Dzhokhar. A teenager was detained in
section 30, three people were detained on 8 March Street and four on Dyakov
Street.
A tragic incident took place in the so-called Benoy-Yuk district of Urus-Martan.
The brutal Russian military shot a young man at point-blank range. A driver of a
Zhiguli-07 vehicle was first tied to his vehicle and then burnt in his own
vehicle before many eyewitnesses.
Russian soldiers killed a local shepherd and took four cows away in
Tsotsan-Yurt. Artillery strikes were carried out on the outskirts of the village
on the night of 4-5 September. Damage was caused and people were injured.
The drunken Russian military fired on children returning from school, using
assault rifles, in the village of Suvorovka. Two schoolchildren died immediately
as a result of bullet wounds.
Mass artillery shoot-outs and missile strikes were carried out on villages in
Vedensky District on the night of 4-5 September. Residents of this district in
the foothills save themselves by sitting in cellars. According to incomplete
reports from the district, there are casualties among civilians and destruction.
Two Russian aircraft shot down
MARSHO
Two Russian aircraft were shot down in Chechnya over the past days. Both
aircraft were brought down by portable Strela surface-to-air missiles. Our
correspondent reports that one of the aircraft was shot down by the mojahedin of
Sayfulla subunit. Pilots of both aircraft were killed.
Fights in Gehi
Kavkaz Center
Commander of Islamic regiment of special task force, Movsar Barayev informed
about severe fights between one of mobile divisions and Russian aggressors.
According to Chechen commander, group of mujahideen stayed at night in
settlement Gehi. However, someone from among local informers informed about
their presence to invaders. The village included group of aggressors and tried
to surround the house, where fighters were staying. Commander of division, Amir
Islam made the decision to enter in fight with the opponent. Mujahideen were the
first to open fire and attacked on aggressors. It is necessary to note, that
Chechen fighters were short of ammunition. Despite repeated superiority in
strength of the opponent, and in spite of their many arms, mujahideen could
break through the circle of encirclement, having destroyed 9 invaders. Among
Chechen fighters, there are victims. Two fighters became shaheed.
As was informed in staff of command of mujahideen, at entrance in Argunsky
gorge, nearby to settlement Chishki, mobile group of Chechen fighters attacked
armored group of aggressors. Mujahideen applied grenade-guns and machine guns.
During course of fight, the armored troop-carrier and motor vehicle GAZ 66 were
destroyed. At least six invaders were killed. At withdrawal from site of fight,
the mobile group of Chechen fighters has come across so-called reconnaissance-
search grouping of the opponent. According to Chechen side during course of
heavy contact fight, were destroyed 6 aggressors and were wounded not less than
10. From Chechen side, two mujahideen were lost and three received wounds.
After retreat of grouping of Russian aggressors, which was deployed near
villages of Tsatsan-yurt, on base of invaders was relocated one of divisions of
so-called pro-Moscow militias from among Chechen national-traitors and Russian
mercenaries. During first night, mujahideen attacked this grouping, having
destroyed not less than 6 traitors. On Tuesday in the morning, the assault group
from among Islamic brigade of Rizvan Ahmadov arrested two national-traitors.
Chechen sources report on successful subversive actions in Johar city, Argun,
Gudermes and Shali. According to command of mujahideen in a course of
realization of subversive actions, were destroyed 9 units of various military
vehicles of the opponent and were killed not less than 17 invaders. From Chechen
side, some fighters received wounds. There were no other losses. The most
intensive firing was in capitals. The mobile group of mujahideen attacked in
broad daylight places of disposition of invaders in a building of former school
of militia. According to Chechen side, during firing were killed 4 and 7
aggressors were wounded.
Chechnya's chronicle
Allnews.Ru
An armored troop-carrier hit a land mine planted by rebels near the village of
Alkhan-Kala in Chechnya's Urus Martan district, Interfax news agency reported.
The vehicle carried ammunition that detonate killing two servicemen.
Chechen rebels murdered a local resident of the village Germenchuk punishing him
for being loyal to the federal authorities, Interfax news agency reported. Umar
Ibragimov was a personal driver of a local prosecutor. The masked men broke into
Ibragimov's house and shot him dead. An investigation is under way.
Five militiamen were badly wounded by a land mine in Chechnya's capital Grozny
on Thursday, the Izvestia newspaper reported. The victims are in hospital now.
Doctors say they are in critical condition. A terrorism case has been launch by
local prosecutors.
Two terrorists were arrested in Chechnya, RIA Novosti news agency reported. One
of them is accused of killing Sernovodsk administration head Umayev in 1995.
According to police, the second criminal took part in several attacks against
Russian troops.
Russia withdrew its troops from Chechnya in 1996, but the army returned in
September 1999, after incursions by Chechen rebels into neighboring Dagestan and
the deaths of some 300 people in apartment bombings that Russian officials
blamed on rebels.
Almost two years into so-called "anti terrorist" campaign, Moscow has
established nominal control over the republic, but its troops come under regular
attack from Chechen rebels who have split up into small groups hiding in
mountains.
Two servicemen killed in explosion in Chechnya
Interfax
Two servicemen were killed outside the village of Alkhan-Kala in Chechnya's Urus
Martan district when their armored vehicle hit a mine planted by rebels, the
Urus-Martan district military commandant's office told Interfax on Thursday.
The entire supply of ammunition loaded on the armored vehicle exploded.
+ + + +
allaAfrica.com (Washington, D.C.)
September 9, 2001
Charles Cobb Jr.
Washington, D.C.
[Tuesday through Friday the ABC television news program "Nightline", hosted by
Ted Koppel, will continue with the final four parts of a 5-part series on Congo
that began airing Friday. The series digs into the roots and cost of Congo's
devastating three-year-war that has cost an estimated two-and-a-half million
lives, and involved seven nations. The decision by a mainstream network
television program to tackle the complex Congo story has caught many observers
by surprise. AllAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke with Nightline Executive
Producer Tom Bettag about the series]
Q: Why did you decide to do this particular series? I was struck by Ted Koppel's
apologetic tone introducing the first program. Television should have been in
Congo sooner, he said. "We have let you down," were his words.
A: Ted and I have talked for an incredibly long time about the terrible job that
television news in general is doing covering Africa. And the assumption that
people don't care is probably our fault. It is our job to help people care.
People ask the question, 'Why should I care?' and we should be able to answer
that. So, we started off saying, 'How can we approach Africa in a way that makes
people care?' and in looking [at Africa] we started seeing some general things.
One of them: States that have more wealth have had more problems because of
outside interference because of all the money that's at stake. And the second we
started going down that road, we...your eye goes immediately to the Congo. About
the time that we were looking really closely at that, the IRC came out with its
report [International Rescue Committee report on death as a result of conflict
in the Eastern Congo, released in May 2001] and on the day that a story about it
appeared in the Washington Post both of us called each other at the crack of
dawn saying, 'God, did you see that!' and 'Why haven't we heard about this?'
[Editor note: The report found a disproportionate number of women and children
killed in the conflict.] and 'If this is true - if it's even half true, it's
absolutely outrageous that nobody's taken a look at it. This is what we've gotta
do!' Congo's story became one of the obvious choices. This story is of such
magnitude and the coverage has been so minimal that it became a very easy call.
And then the question became one of danger. The word had come through the
journalistic community that Congo was about as dangerous as you can get. So,
could you do it safely and the logistics of pulling that off were time
consuming.
Q: You are all news people. Congo has been in the news for three or four years.
I'm wondering if anything you encountered doing this series surprised you?
A: I think there were surprises at every turn. Its been in the news but I think
that for the mainstream American press it hasn't been in our consciousness. The
magnitude was surprising, not having a very good sense of how large a population
is affected by this conflict. Neither Ted nor I had ever been to Congo and were
blown away by the country and the people - by the beauty, the wealth - the
country has so many resources, fertile land and whatever, and to see such
poverty and starvation just kind of knocked our heads back. The other part of
this is that for the Congolese people who had been through so much to be so warm
and hospitable was an absolute surprise and delight.
Q: What are you trying to get across to your audience here, an audience which
doesn't know very much about Congo?
A: First, people simply need to know that this is happening. Secondly, to try
and take what is a very complicated story and turn it into something that is
more coherent, break through the complexity. An awful lot of people say, 'This
war with its various factions and nations involved is just too complicated for
people to be able to understand. It is our job to make complicated things clear
but to not run away from the background of the thing. That was one of the big
challenges. I am sure legitimate criticism can be leveled that we've
over-simplified but getting it [Congo's conflict] to the level of complexity
that is there would be very tough [for television to do].
Q: There has already been some criticism of the name, 'Heart of Darkness.' How
and why did you come to use that name for the series?
A: Ted uses the line that this is at times still 'the heart of darkness.' And we
do a lot of linking to the idea that for a hundred years this is a country that
has been in torment largely because of its riches, linking a lot to its colonial
history. So we hope that the title is one thing that people know about Congo and
they have a little bit of sense of the Congo in Belgium days and can see that
the agony still goes on. We're hoping that we can make that connection. We are
saying that this is a country in agony and that the people of Congo are
suffering enormously. It seems to us that Conrad is at least a point of
reference. Clearly, the Conrad book is a huge point of controversy but it is at
least a known point. We've run into people who are very concerned that this is
one more 'tragedy' story of Africa that gives the sense that Africa is nothing
but a set of tragedies. But to report what's going on in Congo right now is a
huge tragedy; you just can't mask that. That's what's there.
+ + + +
The Post (Lusaka)
September 7, 2001
Joe Kaunda
Lusaka
MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa's daughter, Mirriam, has survived a
suicide attempt after the expose by The Post of her rowdy behaviour at Lusaka's
O'Hagan's Irish Pub last week.
Mirriam was only discharged from Lusaka's former ZCCM Mine Hospital yesterday
where she was being treated since Tuesday night for an over dose of unspecified
medical tablets.
Family members who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that Mirriam,
fearing repercussions from her father over the incident at O'Hagan's tried to
take her life by swallowing several medical tablets. In a short note to her
father, Mirriam apologised for disappointing him by The Post story.
"I know I have disappointed you. I am not like Castro (President Chiluba's
wayward son). Those were just lies fabricated by The Post and the Zambian
people," read in her note to her father in part. After the story appeared in The
Post on Tuesday morning, Secretary to the Cabinet Leslie Mbula called Mirriam to
counsel her over her expected behaviour now that her father had been picked as
the republican presidential candidate for the ruling MMD. "After the meeting
with Mr. Mbula, Mirriam was very disturbed and she rushed to her mother's
(Mwanawasa's former wife) place in Thorn Park where she explained what had
transpired," the family member disclosed. "She then went to her boyfriend's
place in Northmead where she was until 23:00 hours when she took the tablets."
The boyfriend after noticing her frothing, rushed her to her mother's home who
immediately arranged transport to rush her to the ZCCM Hospital.
"The family decided to take her to the ZCCM Hospital to avoid the press knowing
about the incident," the source said. A check at the hospital found that Mirriam
had been discharged yesterday morning fully recovered. Hospital sources said her
condition was serious when she was admitted to the hospital.
Arrangements were being made for Mirriam to move into her father's home in a bid
to stop the media having access to her. Mirriam, while having a drink at
O'Hagans Pub last week, insulted patrons accusing everyone present of being a
thieve after she claimed she had lost her mobile phone. "I don't care who you
are.
You are thieves. You are calling Chiluba a thief but its you who are thieves,"
she said. And when a patron asked her why she was making noise at a public
place, Mirriam said she didn't care. "We are going to rule you," Mirriam said.
"You are calling my father a cabbage, it's you who are cabbages."
Mirriam was taken away by security men at the pub but she later came back and
hurled other unprintables at the patrons.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
UK
Armed police stormed a squat in a bid to avert expected violent demonstrations
against an arms fair in Docklands tomorrow.
During the raids in Borough, south London, four people were arrested on
suspicion of conspiracy to cause violent disorder. They were later released on
bail.
The protesters claim that police destroyed props which were to have been used in
the demonstration, which they say is legitimate.
Missiles, heavy weaponry and even ships for sale will be displayed at the
Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair, with almost all
the major arms companies being represented.
Organised by a private company-in association with the Government, it is
believed to be the biggest event of its kind in Europe and is staged every two
years.
Amnesty International and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade have condemned the
decision to invite countries with poor human rights records such as Saudi
Arabia, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
But police fear that the protests could be hijacked by militant anti-capitalist
groups that wrought havoc at international summits in Genoa and Gothenburg this
year.
The focus for the protest is expected to come from an umbrella group calling
itself Disarm DSEI, which is organising a "fiesta for life against death".
Its website threatens an " audacious intervention against the arms trade" and
urges: "Come in costumes. Think pink and silver. Bring drums, instruments, food
and water to share, props, puppets, banners, circus skills, your blue suede
shoes, and your love of life."
Another group expected to be represented is Reclaim the Streets, the notorious "
environmentalists" thought to have been instrumental in the City of London riots
two years ago. It numbers up to 5,000 activists and is experienced in
orchestrating "direct action" protests. Extra policing is understood to have
been put in place for the event, although Scotland Yard refuses to discuss
arrangements.
Delegates at the four-day fair will attend lectures on subjects such as global
security, defence technologies and modern defence strategies. The industry is
one of the biggest in the world, with governments around the world spending $719
billion on arms in 1999.
The Ministry of Defence said the Government supported the export of defence
products, on which 100,000 jobs depend.
A spokesman said the fair promoted only "legitimate defence exports", and
invited countries would not necessarily be given licences in order to import
arms on sale.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
posting for my blue beret Gurkha idea
;)
"Wraith" wrote
Wraith
and it probably will have to happen eventually just as in Israel, a BIG U.N.
operation is needed to keep the warring factions apart and keep the thugs
off the streets.
Gurkha's would be ideal for hunting down troublesome paramilitaries and
guerillas.
Wraith
"Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK" <Eat...@TheGatesOfHeavenlyPussy.Com> wrote
in message news:3b9d0b33$0$236$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
Rizla Ranger UK
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 11, 2001
About 24 people were reportedly killed in a suspected UNITA attack on 5
September on the town of Bongo, about 43 km west of the city of Huambo in the
Angolan central highlands.
The state-controlled Angop news agency quoted a police source as saying that
rebels had set two houses alight and plundered residents' properties before
fleeing.
Meanwhile, at least six people were killed in a separate attack launched by
suspected UNITA rebels on Canjala village, 182 km from the city of Benguela on
31 August. ] A police source told Angop the attack was launched at dawn and that
the dead included two women who were fleeing with their children. According to
the report this was the second suspected UNITA attack on Canjala in a month.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 10, 2001
Rebels in Burundi killed a man, abducted a woman and her baby and cut off power
lines in two main towns in that same area, leaving tens of thousands of
residents without electricity, AFP quoted official sources as saying at the
weekend.
Some 50 rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) reportedly
attacked Gatete in southwestern Rumonge region on Thursday, AFP said. "One man
was killed and a woman was kidnapped. The woman had a baby on her back and he
was taken with her," the official said. "A lot of gunfire was exchanged with
civilian militia and six grenades were launched. It was really powerful," the
sources said, adding that rebels looted 25 homes and stole livestock and food
supplies.
Meanwhile, in Nyanza-lac and Rumonge proper, residents were plunged into
darkness the same night after FDD rebels knocked down power pylons in mountains
overlooking the area, AFP quoted an official from the state-run power company as
saying. "Two pylons were knocked down in a mountainous region between Rumonge
and Nyemanga," the official said. He noted that the repairs on the lines would
take at least two weeks.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 11, 2001
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters prevented government troops taking
supplies to their forces in the town of Bumbuna from passing through Makeni, 140
km northeast of Freetown, military sources in Freetown told IRIN on Monday. The
troops turned back.
The RUF gave no reason for its action, but analysts in Freetown said it could
have been in protest at what the movement sees as the government's unilateral
actions on issues of national interest. The RUF wants the government to lift the
state of emergency and release all its members, including its leader, Foday
Sankoh. It also complained that its members were being harassed, which the
government denies.
The RUF reacted to the government's refusal to bow to its demands by boycotting
a meeting in Makeni on Thursday of the Joint Committee on Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration. The committee comprises the government, the UN
Mission in Sierra Leone and the RUF.
On 16 August, the RUF had allowed an army supply convoy to drive through Makeni
unhindered to the town of Kabala. That was the first time in over three and a
half years that the security situation had improved enough for government forces
to move through RUF territory by road.
+ + + +
The Post (Lusaka)
September 10, 2001
A group of seven criminals led by a senior officer at the Zambia Intelligence
Security Service (ZISS) has been constituted to kill opposition FDD head of
secretariat Edith Nawakwi, the party's vice-chairman Lieutenant General Christon
Tembo (in picture) has disclosed.
And Lt. Gen. Tembo has challenged President Chiluba to state what he meant when,
at a campaign rally in Chawama, he warned Nawakwi he was capable of "hitting
back and hitting hard".
Lt. Gen. Tembo yesterday disclosed that he had learnt that the group, who have
even been given four cars to carry out the operation, had been mandated to
eliminate Nawakwi.
"On Tuesday last week we got information that Honourable Nawakwi was being
followed by a group of seven, most of them criminals but working with a senior
ZISS operative," Lt. Gen. Tembo said.
"The information at our disposal is that the mission of this group of seven is
to eliminate Hon. Nawakwi and possibly other opposition political leaders." Lt.
Gen. Tembo said he had also learnt that among the tactics seriously being
considered was a possible road traffic accident.
He regretted the recent trend of violence affecting the political leaders and
urged the government to immediately stop what he termed an evil and callous
campaign.
Lt. Gen. Tembo has since called on all political leaders to be cautious and step
up their personal security. "We also call on the international community to
exert their influence to stop this campaign," Lt. Gen. Tembo said. "Zambians are
very peaceful by nature and I am confident that any problem can be resolved
through dialogue."
Lt. Gen. Tembo further warned government leaders against the violence that was
being perpetrated because "the country knows which leaders will be held
responsible should anything happen to the opposition political leaders".
Lt. Gen. Tembo said he viewed this development as a very bad indictment on the
political scene which would affect not only the targeted leaders but the entire
nation.
He expressed worry at the MMD government's desperate effort to silence the
opposition. Lt. Gen. Tembo said it was no coincidence that a live bullet was
left at the FDD lawyers' office.
"Barely three days ago there was a threat on our lawyers. Ordinarily we know
that such threats are used by assassins and the message is very clear they also
want to silence our lawyers," Lt. Gen. Tembo said.
"These developments should cause concern not only to us but the entire nation."
Lt. Gen. Tembo said it was equally a matter of concern that President Chiluba
had recently made a disturbing statement addressed at Nawakwi. "He had said 'who
does she think she is, we are capable of hitting back and hitting hard'," Lt.
Gen. Tembo said. "We want to know the meaning of that statement.
Was it that they would start to attack her and other political leaders? We
seriously want a clarification because the statement has serious connotations."
Lt. Gen. Tembo further regretted that threats on lives of political leaders were
increasing, especially in the recent few months.
He cited the assassination of former MMD deputy national secretary Paul Tembo
and what he termed a known attempt to cover up the incident through an attack on
MMD member Derrick Chitala.
"We know that Derrick was an unfortunate victim aimed to ease pressure after the
death of Paul Tembo," said Lt. Gen. Tembo.
+ + + +
Reports from the central Nigerian city of Jos says more than 160 people have
been killed in three days of violence between Muslims and Christians.
Terrified residents described how armed gangs of youths were roaming the
streets, attacking members of other communities.
Thousands have sought refuge with police, and medical services have battled to
cope with the numbers of dead and wounded.
The northern city of Kano has also been hit by an outbreak of communal clashes,
with a church set on fire.
An official of the International Red Cross, Phillip Macham, said: "Our records,
at this afternoon, show that 165 bodies have been deposited at various hospitals
in Jos", but he warned that the final death toll may be even higher.
He said that, in addition, more than 900 had been injured as rival gangs
rampaged through the city of four million people.
James Alalade, a pastor of the burnt church in Kano, told Reuters news agency:
"They (youths) just came in with their weapons and petrol in cans and asked
everybody out before setting the church ablaze. Nobody could stop them, they
were heavily armed."
Kano has been the scene of more than a dozen violent religious clashes in the
past 20 years but police said there was no link to the violence in Jos.
"What happened here (Kano) has nothing to do with the clashes in Jos," said Uba
Bello, Kano state police commissioner.
Earlier on Monday, the authorities gave far lower casualty figures for the
fighting in Jos, but also acknowledged they were not "final".
An official spokesman put the number of dead at 51 with more than 500 injured
since the outbreak of fighting on Friday.
Correspondents say the figure could have been played down for fear of igniting
fresh clashes.
Churches, mosques, cars and houses were burned down, as the authorities extended
a curfew to try to calm the situation.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the military into the city at the
weekend, and they appear to have gradually restored order, although small-scale
skirmishes have continued.
Thousands of people fled their homes in Jos and sought refuge in military and
police compounds when the fighting erupted.
A journalist in Jos, Shehu Sawlawa, told the BBC's Network Africa that, although
the presence of the security forces had given some people the confidence to
begin returning to their homes, others have been leaving on buses and open top
lorries.
"I wonder what sort of Muslims and Christians start burning churches and mosques
- places where God is worshipped?" he asked.
The population of Jos is overwhelmingly Christian, but there is a sizeable
Muslim community.
The unrest was sparked on Friday by an argument outside a mosque, after which
vigilante groups went on the rampage following a false rumour that a Christian
church had been burnt down.
There is also an ethnic dimension to the conflict, as many of the fighters on
the Christian side are members of the Berom tribe, a group native to Jos.
Fulanis and Hausas - two of Nigeria's largest ethnic groups - make up a large
proportion of the Muslims.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria have been tense
since the introduction of the Sharia Islamic law in 12 states.
In February 2000, more than 2,000 people were killed in religious unrest in
Kaduna, and some 450 more Nigerians died in reprisals in the south-east of the
country.
+ + + +
Mali helicopter crash kills eight
The authorities in Mali say a military helicopter has crashed, killing all eight
people on board.
Officials said the helicopter was carrying a team on a mission to combat a
locust infestation when it went down in the central region of Mopti.
The victims included two government officials and a camera crew from state
television, as well as four members of the armed forces.
It's not clear what caused the crash.
+ + + +
UN 'will boost Sierra Leone presence'
The United Nations has indicated that it may have to despatch more peacekeepers
to Sierra Leone early next year to help prepare for an election which is set for
May.
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, warned that the months leading up to the election
could be fraught with difficulties, which could adversely affect the ongoing
peace process.
Correspondents say the UN mission may well have to be temporarily reinforced to
deal with any tensions.
The UN mission in Sierra Leone, which is known as UNAMSIL, is already the
organisation's biggest peacekeeping force.
Mr Annan has recommended that the mission's mandate, which expires at the end of
this month, be extended until 31 March next year.
+ + + +
Three alleged IRA members being held in Colombia have been moved from the main
prison in the capital Bogota for their own safety, prison officials said.
Lawyers for the three men say they have been moved to another jail run by the
local police, because of threats against their lives by right-wing paramilitary
suspects, also held in La Modelo prison.
The three Irishmen, Niall Terence Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan,
are accused of being senior IRA members and of training FARC guerrillas in
tactics and the use of explosives. They were arrested on 11 August.
They were transferred to a cell in Colombia's judicial police headquarters early
on Sunday, a prison official said.
The move comes days after a right-wing paramilitary prisoner was killed in La
Picota federal prison, also located in Bogota.
The infamous La Modelo prison is one of Colombia's most dangerous jails. In July
it was the scene of a full-scale battle between guerrillas and right-wing
paramilitaries allied with drug traffickers.
Ten inmates died and 22 others were injured as the two sides battled it out with
grenades and automatic weapons.
The men deny training FARC rebels
"The three Irishmen were transferred as a precaution. Their cell in La Modelo is
next to a wing where there are right-wing paramilitary inmates," a prison
spokesman said.
The trio had complained about the conditions in their bare windowless cell.
One of their lawyers had been urging the authorities to move them, saying an
explosive had been tossed into their cell and that there was a paramilitary plot
to kill them.
Prison officials have denied that the men were attacked or that there is a plot
against them.
The prison spokesman said the three men would be held at the police headquarters
for "a month or two, until we complete some renovations at La Modelo to improve
security".
On Friday, Angel Gaitan Mahecha, a suspected leader of the outlawed United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, was killed in a top security cell in La Picota
prison.
It is believed that the murder was the work of a rebel inmate.
+ + + +
There are reports of a new armed attack by suspected Islamists in Algeria, near
the country's second city Oran.
At least 10 people are reported to have been killed and nine injured when they
were attacked after attending a funeral ceremony.
The victims of these latest killings in Algeria had just taken part in an
evening funeral ceremony in the town of Arzew, east of Oran.
Security forces say the attackers sprayed the procession of mourners with
automatic weapons fire.
Ten people were killed and another nine wounded, four of them seriously.
This is the first Islamist attack in the Oran region of this magnitude in
several years.
Till now, this area has been spared the worst of the unrest.
But the attack seems to be part of a change in tactics by the militants, who in
the past three weeks have targeted beach resorts and for the first time in two
years, the city centre of Algiers, where a bomb injured more than 30 people.
More particularly, the attack was close to the sea terminal of some of Algeria's
main gas pipelines, a strategically vital area for the country's economy.
So far, there has been no attempt by the Islamists to sabotage the pipelines
themselves.
But this latest attack may well be intended as a political message for President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika as he wrestles with a series of problems, including whether
to offer concessions to the ethnic Berber community.
The Islamists and the Berbers are political enemies, and any concessions given
to one is regarded by the other as a cause for protest.
+ + + +
There are growing indications that Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Masood
was killed in an attack on Sunday.
Mr Masood was the victim of a bomb explosion near his home in the north of the
country.
A US expert on Afghanistan, Barnet Rubin, said that people close to Mr Masood
and the American Central Intelligence Agency had confirmed his death, and the
BBC's Afghan analyst, Baqer Moin, said "reliable sources" told him that Mr
Masood had died in the explosion.
A Reuters news agency report also quoted unnamed US officials as saying that Mr
Masood had not survived the assassination attempt.
"We believe he's dead," one official is reported as saying, although the US
State Department has yet to release an official statement.
But Mr Masood's supporters insisted that he was injured but "100% alive".
Ahmed Wali Masood, Mr Masood's brother and spokesman in London, told CNN
television that his brother sustained serious injury to his right leg and burns
to his face, that two pieces of shrapnel were lodged in his head, and his
fingers were injured.
He said that his brother had been unconscious for 10 to 15 hours, fuelling
speculation about his death.
"Now he can communicate, but of course not frequently... he's in a much, much
better situation right now," he told CNN.
But while he said his brother was taken to a hospital in Tajikistan, the number
two at the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe, Mahayuddin Mehdi, said Mr Masood was
still in northern Afghanistan.
The BBC's Baqer Moin said that reports of Mr Masood's death were backed up by
the preparations for a major meeting in Tajikistan of Afghanistan's neighbours.
He also said that the Northern Alliance had continued to insist that Mr Masood
was alive to buy them time to put in place a successor - General Fahim, the head
of intelligence for Mr Masood.
Mr Masood was giving an interview to two Arab journalists in Afghanistan's
northern Takhar province when a bomb went off. It had been concealed in a video
camera.
Mr Moin said he had been told that the blast killed Mr Masood, the Afghan
ambassador to India, and one of the reporters.
The Taleban has denied involvement in the attack.
"We are not involved in the incident. If we were, we would have proudly said
that because he is our enemy," said Taleban chief spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen.
Opposition official Sayed Najibullah Hashimi told Reuters news agency that the
attack had been masterminded by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
'Lion of Panjshir'
Mr Masood, known as the "Lion of the Panjshir" is a veteran commander of the
opposition Northern Alliance. His forces remain loyal to the ousted government
of Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The 49-year-old ethnic Tajik commander is widely regarded as the last bulwark
against the ruling Taleban.
In the past year, Taleban forces have pushed north and now control some 90% of
Afghanistan. Both sides are trying to gain and secure ground before the winter
sets in.
Heavy fighting has taken place recently in Takhar and in areas close to the
Tajik border.
Mr Masood played a major role in the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation in
1979-1989.
The ruling Taleban appeared to be capitalising on the attack on Mr Masood,
launching a major offensive north of the capital, Kabul, on Monday night.
Opposition sources with Mr Masood's forces said the Taleban offensive was
concentrating on two fronts leading to his stronghold and birthplace in the
Panjsher valley, 120 km (80 miles) north of Kabul.
+ + + +
An Indian soldier in Indian-administered Kashmir has killed five colleagues
before shooting himself.
The constable, Sanjeev Kumar, opened fire late on Sunday in a guardroom at the
army's Northern Command Headquarters in Udhampur, 65km (40 miles) north of the
winter capital, Jammu.
He then turned his gun on himself.
There has been an increase in such incidents in recent years, most of which are
attributed to battle fatigue and home-sickness.
Reports say psychological trauma is rife among Indian security forces in
Kashmir, who have been battling separatist militants for more than a decade.
The constant attacks take their toll
About 60 army and paramilitary soldiers, including a dozen officers, have died
in similar shooting sprees.
In several cases, soldiers have gone berserk after being turned down for leave.
Earlier this year, an army court martial sentenced a soldier to death for
killing an officer who had stopped him and other soldiers from torching a
village to avenge a militant suicide attack.
In a separate incident, a defence spokesman said one Indian soldier was killed
and another five wounded in a landmine explosion in the frontier district of
Kupwara on Monday morning.
A militant group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen has said it carried out the attack.
Authorities say more than 500 people have been killed in violence in
Indian-administered Kashmir since the India-Pakistan summit at Agra failed to
resolve the Kashmir issue.
The dead include more than 300 militants and at least 100 Indian soldiers.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
As the news of the death of Ahmad Shah Masood Spreads, emotions run high, the
latest victory for the Taliban, and the latest deadiest blow to the Kaffars.
Subha'nallah by the will of Allah swt a mujahid carried out a shaheed operation,
in which his main target was none other than Masood himself, as the Mujahid
approached he flipped the trigger thus killing many of Ahmad Shah Masoods men
and himself attaing the Ultimate Reward, while Masood was dispatched to "HELL".
The remaining land that was under his control which was about 3%, will now
inshallah fall into the hands of the Taliban and inshallah the Flag of Allah swt
will placed in every corner. This long Jihaad finally looks like the victory
will be for the Muajhideen!! The kaffar world tried there best to deafeat the
Taliban, but at the end of the day, they were the weakest link, and their
efforst ammounted to nothing, all the did was gain the Taliban more and more
support from the new generation of Muajhideen!
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
At least 14 people have been killed in Somalia after an abandoned Soviet
anti-aircraft missile exploded near a market in the capital, Mogadishu.
The missile, which was found at a military garrison, went off while a man was
trying to extract some copper from the old weapon.
Their bodies were beyond recognition, just flesh and bones
Several people were injured in the blast and taken to hospital.
The explosion was caused when at about 8am local time (0500GMT), Saeed Malin
Farah took his hammer and started hitting the missile in an attempt to extract
the copper from inside the missile. He was also trying to peel off its aluminum
cover.
Mr Farah has been living in the camp ever since the Mohammed Said Barre regime
was toppled more than ten years ago.
Among the first victims of this explosion were Mr Farah's wife and three of his
children, an 18-year old boy and two girls.
When I visited the site of the explosion, I met Osman Saeed Yussuf who lost two
of his daughters - his house had also been destroyed by the missile.
Somalia has been flooded with weapons since the civil war began in 1991
The missile explosion has destroyed over 20 buildings including a Koranic
school.
Fortunately none of the children at the school were killed.
By the time I reached the area, women and youngsters were collecting the remains
of those who had died.
The bodies were beyond recognition, just flesh, blood and bones.
The transitional government reacted immediately by deploying hundreds of its
police around the camp.
President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan was among the key government officials who
visited the area.
Public Works Minister Saeed Jeer told me the government is now planning to
remove all the people from such dangerous areas.
Inside this camp, there are known to have been 10 more such SAM-2 missiles lying
about - a danger in the middle of residential houses and children who play with
them.
+ + + +
Fighting between Muslims and Christians has once more broken out in the central
Nigerian city of Jos after a day of calm.
Nigeria's Red Cross reported that on Wednesday, the dead and wounded were being
taken to hospitals suffering from gunshot and machete wounds.
Casualty figures were not available but the state-run Daily Times reported that
the death toll of the previous four days of clashes was at least 500.
Reuters news agency said that Muslim celebrations at the attacks on the US may
have sparked the renewed fighting.
Reuters quoted a resident of Nasarawa district on the outskirts of Jos as
saying: "Some (Muslim) people have been jubilating because of what happened in
the US, and I believe that must have encouraged them."
"It's a real war front. The sound of gunshots from the area is deafening. I saw
at least one dead body," said the resident.
The BBC's Nora Amaka Dike in Jos says that she saw two people being slaughtered
with machetes by a group shouting, "Allahu Akbar (God is great)".
"I was afraid for my life," but then soldiers arrived and dispersed the crowd
with gunshots, she said.
The Daily Times says that three trucks took at least 500 bodies to a mass burial
under the cover of darkness on Monday night.
The French news agency, AFP reports that violence had again spread to the
northern city of Kano, where a church was burnt on Monday.
AFP says hundreds of Muslim youths attacked two churches in the Shagari Quarters
district of the city.
Catholic catechist Casmir Ogunma said the Holy Trinity church had been razed to
the ground and the priest's residence set on fire by youths angered by events in
Jos.
A Christian, James Enoch, said that he was leaving Kano.
"I can't live here any more. These youths are dangerous. They promised to come
back and said when they come back nobody will be spared," he said.
People are also fleeing Jos. Reuters says that tens of thousands have left since
the fighting broke out after Muslim prayers last Friday.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has condemned the violence.
"I wonder what sort of Muslims and Christians start burning churches and mosques
- places where God is worshipped?" he asked.
"True believers in God cannot start killing other human beings."
The population of Jos is overwhelmingly Christian, but there is a sizeable
Muslim community.
Some (Muslim) people have been jubilating because of what happened in the US,
and I believe that must have encouraged them
There is also an ethnic dimension to the conflict, as many of the fighters on
the Christian side are members of the Berom tribe, a group native to Jos.
Fulanis and Hausas - two of Nigeria's largest ethnic groups - make up a large
proportion of the Muslims.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria have been tense
since the introduction of the Sharia Islamic law in 12 states.
In February 2000, more than 2,000 people were killed in religious unrest in
Kaduna, and some 450 more Nigerians died in reprisals in the south-east of the
country.
+ + + +
Standard Times (Freetown)
September 12, 2001
Mohamed Kakay
Reports reaching Standard Times from the northern town of Bumbuna say the
Revolutionary United Front rebels have deliberately refused entry into Bumbuna a
convoy of trucks loaded with food and assorted items meant for the Sierra Leone
army presently stationed in that town.
Report say the food items were supposed to have arrived in Bumbuna over the
weekend but few miles to Bumbuna they were confronted by armed RUF fighters and
asked to return as ordered by the rebel high command.
Military sources in Bumbuna say the monthly ration of the soldiers has almost
exhausted and if immediate food supply was not received within the next few
days, the situation will degenerate.
The source also disclosed that with this latest development, the SLAs are
partially trapped as the entire Bumbuna has become no-go area for government
forces, adding that without the immediate intervention of UNMSIL the entrapped
soldiers will be left with no option but to bulldoze their way out.
There is however free movement of civilian vehicles in and out of Bumbuna.
This press has gathered that the recent uncompromising attitude of the RUF has
not gone down well with both the international community and the people of
Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, another 2 battalion of British trained soldiers passed out over the
weekend after completing a six week training at Newton.
It is understood that the six-week intensive training focused on leadership,
command and control, civil/military relationship, peace building, conflict
resolution, among others.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier General Tom Carew has said in Freetown
that Sierra Leoneans including the Sierra Leone Army should be patriotic and
focus on how to rebuild their nation and also urged them to put the past behind
them as what has been done cannot be undone.
+ + + +
BOGOTA,
Colombia
(AP)
- Colombia's outlawed right-wing paramilitary militias, responsible for some of
the worst atrocities in this country's decades-old civil war, say they hope one
day to be considered a legitimate political force.
Their quest for respectability took a blow Monday when the State Department
labeled the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, a terrorist group -
making financial support for the group illegal and requiring U.S. financial
institutions to block its assets.
The AUC joins 30 other groups on the U.S. list, including the two leftist
Colombian guerrilla armies the paramilitaries are dedicated to destroying.
The announcement from Washington, ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell (news
- web sites)'s visit to Colombia on Tuesday and Wednesday, reflects growing U.S.
concern about the 8,000-strong militias, which have grown into a major force and
a thorn in Colombian government-rebel peace negotiations.
While few Colombians say they support the AUC, the group's rise is coinciding
with growing anti-guerrilla sentiment across the country. Leading candidates in
next May's presidential elections are echoing the AUC's call for a harder
government line in peace talks with the rebels.
In some rural areas, landowners and businessmen fed up with rebel kidnappings
and extortion see the AUC as the lesser of two evils. The paramilitaries arose
in the 1980s as a vigilante force formed by drug traffickers and ranchers trying
to defend themselves against rebel kidnappers.
The AUC has pushed the rebels out of several of their traditional strongholds.
But its methods are often brutal.
Paramilitary fighters have repeatedly dragged unarmed villagers from their
homes, accused them of supporting the guerrillas, and publicly executed them. In
one massacre this year, officials said the AUC used chain saws on its victims.
Furthermore, some AUC members retain clandestine ties to members of Colombia's
U.S.-backed military. Powell is expected to stress in his meetings with
President Andres Pastrana and other officials that those links must be severed
if they want to be assured of continued U.S. military aid.
The Pastrana government notes it has arrested dozens of AUC members, killed some
in combat, and dismissed several generals with alleged paramilitary connections.
However, Human Rights Watch said Monday it is still finding ``abundant, detailed
and compelling evidence'' of army-paramilitary collaboration. Rogue military
units are providing the AUC with equipment, men and intelligence and often
standing idly during paramilitary massacres of suspected guerrilla sympathizers,
the U.S.-based monitoring group said.
Two leading Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and
Barbara Boxer of California, wrote to Powell last week to say they ``remain
deeply troubled by the ... close links between members of the Colombian military
and illegal paramilitary groups.''
Underscoring Washington's concern, one senior U.S. official said recently that
the paramilitaries pose an even greater threat to the stability of Colombia than
either of the two leftist rebel armies.
The AUC, which last week announced it was forming a political movement to
accompany its military struggle, remains unrepentant about its tactics.
In an interview published this week in Cambio news magazine, Salvatore Mancuso,
the group's newly appointed leader, said the AUC does not kill innocent people.
``Our policy has always been to identify and separate out guerrillas disguised
as civilians from the honest and hardworking people,'' he said.
Mancuso said his fighters were poised, if necessary, to attack a large guerrilla
safe haven ceded by Pastrana to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC. Mancuso said his decision would depend on whether peace talks
with the 16,000-strong guerrilla faction continue to stumble and more evidence
emerges that the group is using the sanctuary for drug operations.
+ + + +
"Brutal America, suffering from illusions of grandeur, has inflicted
humiliation, famine and terrorism on all of the world's countries and today it
reaps the fruits of its arrogant and stupid policy," said an official Iraqi
statement.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 11, 2001
The security situation is satisfactory in half of the northern part of Burundi,
army spokesman Col Augustin Nzabampema said on Wednesday, but warned that in
Bujumbura and Bujumbura-Rural province of western Burundi, armed robberies
continue, especially on the periphery of the capital, with Buterere, Kinama and
Kamenge zones currently the most insecure places, Burundi news agency ABP
reported.
In Cibitoke province of northwestern Burundi, Nzabampema spoke of "frank
cooperation" among the administration, population and security forces, noting
last week's "neutralisation" of 200 assailants who attempted to infiltrate the
province from the DRC.
In Bubanza province of northwestern Burundi, Nzabampema spoke of infiltration
attempts by armed groups in communes bordering Kibira and Rukoko in the communes
of Musigati and Gihanga, while in provinces of the central and eastern parts of
the country, he reported a situation of prevailing security but emphasised that
armed thefts continued near the Kibira forest, notably in the provinces of
Muramvya in west-central Burundi and Kayanza in northern Burundi. As for Lake
Tanganyika, Nzabampema reported that on 4 September a Tanzanian ship called
"Muongozi" was shot at by armed groups but was able to continue its journey to
Kigoma.
+ + + +
London's reputation as a haven for Islamic extremists has been a source of
embarrassment to successive British governments as Western countries, Russia and
numerous Arab states have accused Britain of turning a blind eye to terrorism.
The Government moved earlier this year to tighten up controls, banning 21
groups, mostly Islamic, under a new law to outlaw organisations targeting
foreign states.
But while the new Terrorism Act is designed to halt the activities of groups
which promote or encourage terrorism or actively prepare for terrorism, MI5,
Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch and the Home Office still have concerns
about the activities of a number of fundamentalist groups or individuals who use
London as a base for fundraising, dissident propaganda or the active recruitment
of foot soldiers for their holy wars.
At least six suspected international terrorists are being held in Brixton jail
awaiting extradition for acts of terrorism around the globe.
They include KHALID AL FAWWAZ, who is wanted by America for the bombing of its
embassies in Africa three years ago.
Al Fawwaz, a Saudi dissident who has been in London since 1994, is the alleged
leader of Osama bin Laden's London group. US intelligence agents intercepted
calls from his home in Dollis Hill which strongly suggest he played a key role
in helping organise the bombs which killed 224 people in Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam.
According to the US government, bin Laden's Al-Qaida terror network has links in
at least two dozen countries. And court papers in the US show that a satellite
phone used by bin Laden to organise the 1998 bombings was obtained for him by Al
Fawwaz.
Al Fawwaz has been in the south London jail for almost 12 months and is still
challenging his extradition on charges of conspiring to murder American citizens
abroad.
It is claimed that his Advice and Reformation Committee was a front for bin
Laden and acted as a mouthpiece for the elusive Saudi dissident. It is said Al
Fawwaz, operating from his home, passed on orders for fatwas, including one
declaring a holy war against American citizens. Police sources say he
transmitted the statement through a network of contacts to the eventual
publisher of bin Laden's chilling call to supporters to increase efforts to kill
Americans.
Al-Qaida is one of the 21 groups outlawed under the new Terrorism Act. It is
suggested that some of its funding comes from a network of charities and
religious foundations and Al Fawwaz is alleged to have used London as a
financial base.
But while there are suspicions that Islamic centres and non-descript offices are
used to recruit members, raise funds and spread propaganda, it is legally
difficult to show that vocal opponents of regimes around the world who may have
sought refuge in Britain, are actively engaged in promoting terrorism.
The Home Office said that there have been a number of arrests since the new law
came into force in March. "The idea is to make it a lot more difficult for
organisations to operate in the UK and to deter them from coming here in the
first place. We believe it is having a deterrent effect," a spokesman said.
Another man said to have links with bin Laden is SHEIKH ABU HAMZA, head of the
Islamic group Supporters of Shariah, based at Finsbury Park mosque. He refused
to condemn the attack on America, saying: "Many people will be happy, jumping up
and down at this moment."
The cleric, who lost an eye and both arms to a landmine fighting with the
Mujahedin in Afghanistan, routinely uses his sermons to denounce the Government,
the police and the media as "agents of Satan".
He is accused of recruiting and training young British Muslims to destabilise
Yemen and is facing possible extradition over bomb attacks in the country.
Britain was asked to extradite him in return for five British prisoners jailed
there after being accused last year of planning bombings - Yemen believes Abu
Hamza, who lives in a council house in Shepherd's Bush, is the power behind a
number of attacks. Another controversial figure is SHEIKH OMAR BAKRI MOHAMMED,
leader of a religious group calling itself Al-Muhajiroun, which produced
inflammatory leaflets and posters attacking Jews. Born in Syria, he has lived in
Britain since 1986, when he was deported from Saudi Arabia. He claims to have
recruited between 600 and 700 British volunteers to fight in Chechnya,
Afghanistan and Kashmir. He preaches holy war and has advocatedchemical warfare
against America and its allies. His group has not been banned, although many of
its activities could arguably make it eligible for a place on the list of terror
groups proscribed by then Home Secretary Jack Straw in March.
A security source told the Evening Standard: "This is a group which is
organising meetings on at least a weekly basis on university campuses up and
down the country. They may represent a tiny proportion of the Muslim population,
but they have a significant number of sympathisers. Bakri may not personally
represent a threat, but he creates a climate where it legitimises very hardline
attitudes, so you get demonstrations in Westminster with people shouting, 'Death
to Tony Blair, death to America' and everyone just shrugs their shoulders."
The source said that groups have reined themselves in since the Terrorism Act
became law. "It's worked in terms of keeping them underground, but it's probably
made law enforcement and monitoring harder."
In addition to the "homegrown" groups there are propaganda arms of groups like
Hamas and Hezbollah, although they have had to adopt a low profile since the
organisations were banned. Other groups with supporters here include: Islamic
Jihad, the extremist Palestinian group opposed to Israel; the Armed Islamic
Group, which led a bloody campaign against the Algerian authorities, and Sri
Lankan separatist group the Tamil Tigers.
Other groups may be seen as dissidents by regimes around the world, but have the
backing of the West, such as the Iraqi National Congress, a US-backed umbrella
group opposed to Saddam Hussein.
Abrahim Khayat, of the Al-Hayat newspaper, said he did not believe terrorism was
being financed or organised from London. And while the capital may have been
home to a number of vocal dissidents, he said: "All of them are very aware they
will be targeted if they make a mistake.
"Britain has always looked favourably on different ethnic groups. I don't think
anyone would risk losing that."
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said
there was no evidence of any British-based group having a real link to
international terrorism. "People like Bakri are paper tigers. They issue idiotic
press releases to get attention, but that is all."
+ + + +
http://safe.millennium.berkeley.edu/
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
CIA comes under fire for lapses
America's security and intelligence services are reaping a whirlwind of
blame today as mounting evidence points to a colossal breakdown in efforts
to provide a defence against terrorist attack.
Details are beginning to emerge of bungled counterterrorism measures,
complacency, and failures to tackle known threats, including those emanating
from the prime suspect, Osama bin Laden.
Security experts and former intelligence operatives alike denounced the FBI
and CIA for allowing America to be taken by surprise.
The CIA, the high-spending, much-vaunted mainstay of American intelligence
efforts, is being portrayed as a pampered monolith, rendered ineffective
against international terrorism because of a reluctance on the part of its
agents to penetrate activists' organisations.
In a gritty indictment of America's security operations, former CIA
operative Reuel Marc Gerecht accused the agency of ignoring the basic
counter-terrorism measure of infiltration. Writing in the Atlantic Monthly -
before Tuesday's suicide attacks - he revealed that no attempt had been made
to put undercover agents into Islamic fundamentalist organisations.
The use of these "non-official cover" officers - NOCs - had been overlooked
by the CIA, he said, quoting one who had served in the Middle East.
Gerecht wrote: "He told me recently: 'We're still a group of fake
businessmen who live in big houses overseas. We don't go to mosques and
pray'."
The agency considers "behind-the-lines counterterrorism" to be too
dangerous, he stated, and mocks its operatives' preference for a cosy life
in the suburbs of Langley, Virginia, where the CIA has its headquarters.
He quotes a former operative from the "Near East Division" saying: "The CIA
probably doesn't have a single truly qualified Arabic-speaking officer of
Middle-Eastern background who can play a believable Muslim fundamentalist
who would volunteer to spend years of his life with shitty food and no
women, in the mountains of Afghanistan.
"Operations that include diarrhoea as a way of life don't happen."
Failure to make a determined attempt to neutralise Bin Laden seems
especially baffling given the amount of evidence collected against him.
Earlier this year four Bin Laden volunteers went on trial in Manhattan, a
stone's throw from the scene of Tuesday's carnage, for complicity in bomb
attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Incredibly, the CIA and FBI took backseat roles in the trial. The FBI, CIA
and the lavishlyfunded Joint Terrorist Task Force also knew that Bin Laden
had set his sights on destroying the World Trade Center.
One of his followers, Ramzi Yousef, is now in jail in the US for trying to
blow up the building in 1993. He openly admitted the aim had been to destroy
the twin towers and background inquiries showed he also had plans for
hijacking American passenger planes and kamikaze attacks.
Despite this the intelligence services appeared to have ignored the
warnings. There have been other missed opportunities to spot what was
coming, other intelligence services believe. Talk of a spectacular attack by
Bin Laden's men had been coursing through Arab circles in recent weeks, even
reaching the ears of Arab-language newspaper journalists.
In France the counter-espionage agency, the DST, appears to have had reports
that an attack on American interests in France was being planned by the Bin
Laden network. The French identified a man arrested by the FBI as an Islamic
activist involved in the Pakistan-Afghan orbit and were astonished to hear
nothing back.
Whatever the reason for what is being perceived as tragic failure, the
American intelligencecommunity cannot plead lack of resources.
In his retirement speech last May, outgoing FBI director Louis J Freeh
congratulated himself on presiding over the organisation's biggest pay rise
in history.
Congress increased the FBI's budget to $3.44 billion (about £ 2 billion) for
2001, a 58per cent increase during his eight-year tenure.
The CIA, too, consumes billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money, but
the perception of an elite group which has lost its way since the Cold War
has grown in the public mind with news of successive failures.
These include lamentable incidents like the sale of two dozen computers to
the public in 1999 before top-secret information on the hard drive had been
removed.
"What we have witnessed is an extraordinary failure on the part of the
security and intelligence services," Mike Yardley, a former army officer and
security expert said of the suicide attacks. "Heads should roll."
Some say the criticism is unfair. The FBI has recently directed its efforts
towards stopping computer crime and the CIA has been preoccupied with its
failure to dent Saddam Hussein's position in Iraq.
But there is a growing sense of a job done badly, probably because the
people at the top simply could not conceive of something as audacious and
simple as the suicide attacks.
+ + + +
Extremists who make Britain their home
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
Israel has launched its biggest attack on the West Bank in a year, knowing
it will not be condemned by the international community in the aftermath of
the terrorist strikes on the US.
A 12-tank armoured column and three bulldozers went into Jericho and attacks
were launched on other West Bank towns and villages. The move last night
came as America called for a truce between the two sides and struggled to
put together a global coalition against terrorism.
Seven Palestinians were killed, one of them a suicide bomber, during heavy
fighting in Jenin which Israel regards as a " terrorist nest".
Nine people had died there the day before as Israel went on the offensive
against the northern town which they say is a haven for suicide bombers.
The villages of Hares and Salfit, both in an area which Israel wants to
annex, also came under attack after an Israeli woman settler was shot dead
in nearby Qalkilya.
The assault on Jericho, which has been one of the quieter West Bank towns
since the Palestinian uprising began a year ago, involved an attack on a
police training centre, possibly in revenge for the killing of two Israelis
driving up the Jordan valley last Sunday.
"There is fierce resistance to the Israelis, the tanks are moving toward
Palestinian headquarters, where all the Palestinian security offices are
located," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told reporters today.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is today reported to have
compared Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Osama bin Laden. Israel radio
quoted Mr Sharon as saying: "Everyone has his own Bin Laden. Arafat is our
Bin Laden."
Mr Sharon made the remark in a conversation with US Secretary of State Colin
Powell, the radio said.
Mr Sharon told Mr Powell that Arafat has followed the "ideology" of Bin
Laden - a leading suspect in organising the attacks on the United States.
According to Mr Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, the prime minister said
Arafat was responsible for terror strikes against Israel during the past
year of fighting.
"Unfortunately Arafat has adhered to that philosophy for the past year since
he launched these attacks," Mr Gissin said.
Palestinians claim Mr Sharon's comments were intended to give Israel an
excuse to escalate military action against the Palestinians.
Those who make such a connection only want to have an excuse "to exert their
aggression and continue the killing of the Palestinian people," said Sakher
Habash, a leader in Arafat's Fatah movement.
+ + + +
Max Camirand
> blockheads and mercenaries who are running his operations in the Caucasus,
> and his refusal to countenance negotiations.
Merc? Did I hear merc? Any good work there, or did it all go sour?
-max
Rizla Ranger UK
Bamako, Mali
On a Sunday morning in the Malian capital, Bamako, while the tiny Christian
minority attend church services, aboout 40,000 Muslims gather for a revivial
meeting.
Devout Muslims from all over the country - the women veiled and the men in long
flowing gowns or boubous normally worn for Friday prayers - crammed into the
vast auditorium of the Culture Palace on the banks of the River Niger.
They were meeting for the first ever national conference of the collective of 20
Islamic associations.
One after another, the Imams took to the podium to warn their followers of what
they see as the danger of foreign interference in their political affairs.
They also warned of foreign influence in the social field, which they said, was
eroding morality and the family in Mali.
They said the Muslim majority, 95% of the population in Mali, had sat quietly
for too long while the government of President Alpha Oumar Konare allowed the
secular state to become, they alleged, "anti-religious".
The immans charged that, "foreign ideas were being imposed on them" by donor
countries. It was time, they added, for Mali's Muslims to get involved in and
take control of politics.
"You are the king-makers!" shouted Alhaji Ousmane Samake to thunderous applause.
"The presidential elections in 2002 are in your hands. Wait for word from your
Islamic leaders on candidates who espouse Islamic values."
This was the third mass Muslim rally this year in the Malian capital.
But unlike the first two, this one was attended by leaders of a dozen of the
country's most powerful political parties.
Some politicians admit that they have been taken by surprise by the sudden rise
in Islamic fervour in their country.
For the past thousand years, moderate and tolerant Islam has been deeply rooted
in Mali.
But opposition leader Mountaga Tall says it is natural for Muslims to react to a
"government that seems unaware of local, cultural and religious realities."
He added that "Alpha Oumar Konare governs the country only to please the outside
world."
Imam Mamoud Dicko, who heads the umbrella group of Islamic associations that
called the meeting, says the Islamic renewal is a natural reaction to what he
sees as meddling in Mali's affairs by particularly, the United States.
The outside world, he fears, has tended to take Mali for granted as a bastion of
tolerant Islam and stability in a region plagued by wars.
Dicko says there is no intention to dispense with the secular state but, he
admits that he, as a devout Muslim, cannot deny that his ultimate wish would be
the imposition of Sharia law.
He sees nothing dangerous in the newfound Muslim interest in swaying political
opinion in Mali.
According to Mr Dicko, the only way to prevent extremism that leads to terrorism
is to ensure "justice and equity" in the world.
He deplores the devastating loss of life in the terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington.
But he cautions that if the US opts for retaliatory strikes or "increased
oppression of Muslims" anywhere in the world, the catastrophic attack in the
United States "may just be the beginning".
It would seem that to keep Malian Muslims as tolerant and as moderate as they
have been for centuries, the govermentment may need to choose its foreign
friends carefully.
+ + + +
Kenema, SL
There has been further progress in the disarmament process in Sierra Leone.
Troops from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL, have been
deployed for the first time in the diamond-rich town of Tongo in the Kenema
district.
Tongo had been under the control of the rebel Revolutionary United Front and a
few weeks ago the RUF also gave up Kono, another diamond-rich area.
Analysts say that the existence of so-called "blood diamonds" largely explain
why it has proved so difficult to end Sierra Leone's long-running civil war.
The UN has imposed sanctions on the government of neighbouring Liberia, accusing
it of selling diamonds for the RUF and supplying it with weapons.
Last week, the Sierra Leone Government released 11 RUF detainees.
On Friday a convoy of vehicles and 12 armoured personnel carriers left Kenema
with heavily-armed Zambian UNAMSIL peacekeepers heading for Tongo, 27 kilometres
(17 miles) away.
The commander of the troops Lieutenant Colonel James Chikumbi told the BBC that
he will deploy nearly 500 men in the town with more to follow in the coming
days.
Civilians lined the main streets of Kenema, cheering the soldiers.
When I visited the main lorry park, I saw nine vehicles loaded with goods and
passengers queuing to go to Tongo.
Few drivers have made the journey in the last few weeks.
A 50 year-old woman told me: "This is what I've been waiting for - I'm going
home tomorrow."
This is the second major deployment undertaken by the Zambian troops out of
Kenema town since they arrived here five months ago.
They were first deployed at the strategic Mano junction 12 kilometres from
Kenema.
Pro-government Kamajor militiamen and RUF rebels have clashed several times for
control of Tongo.
A UN official told me that much-need humanitarian aid will soon reach the people
of the town.
+ + + +
Military officials in Colombia say the army has killed a senior commander of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
They said the guerrilla leader, Jose Gilberto Lopez Vallejo, was killed in
combat in Dagua, in the Valle region, about 500km south west of the capital,
Bogota.
Colombian officials said Mr Lopez was close to the leader of the FARC, Manuel
Marulanda, better known as Tirofijo, and had led several attacks on towns in the
south west. Military sources also said five other FARC rebels had died in
clashes with the army elsewhere in Meta and Cundinamarca provinces.
+ + + +
Russian troops in the Chechen capital Grozny have gone on high alert following
reports of a rebel attack on the second city of Gudermes.
The Russian news agency RIA quoted police as saying that about 400 rebels had
been involved in the attack and that they were very well equipped and organised.
"The rebels display good knowledge of the area and the location of police units.
This possibly means that some of them are local residents," the agency added.
RIA quoted eyewitnesses as saying trenches were being dug on the outskirts of
the city, which is to the east of Grozny.
But Russia's defence ministry could not confirm the report, and the Kremlin's
leading spokesman on Chechnya promptly denied it, according to agency reports.
+ + + +
Large crowds have attended the funeral of the main leader of the anti-Taleban
forces in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Masood.
Weeping mourners carried pictures of the veteran commander, as he was buried
near his home village in the heart of the Panjshir Valley in northern
Afghanistan.
The BBC Central Asia correspondent says there was a clear sense of personal
grief among those present, to whom Mr Masood was much more than a military
leader.
The commander died after a suicide bomb attack a week ago by two men disguised
as Arab journalists.
The leader of the ousted Afghan government, President Burhanuddin Rabbani, said
that Mr Masood would not be forgotten.
He said the Taleban and their supporters in Pakistan were responsible for the
commander's death.
"The Taleban are under the control of Osama Bin Laden and Pakistan. Such people
will be eradicated at once if God is willing," he said.
Mr Masood's son, also called Ahmed, addressed the mourners.
"I want to follow the path of my father and to pursue the independence of my
country," he told them.
Mr Masood's body was brought by helicopter to the scene and loaded onto a gun
carriage.
As the mourners moved towards the venue for the funeral service, a voice called
out through a loudspeaker:
"Death to Pakistan. Death to the Taleban. Death to Osama. We will fight for our
freedom to the very end."
Ahmed Shah Masood's death was announced on Saturday following days of
conflicting reports.
The 49-year-old commander had been giving an interview to two Arabs posing as
journalists when a bomb went off. It had been concealed in a video camera.
He was not in fact the official leader of the opposition to the Taleban, but he
was widely seen as the real obstacle to their conquest of the remaining enclaves
of Afghanistan.
His troops hold the strategic Panjshir valley north of Kabul and mountainous
country even further north.
Masood gained the name "Lion of Panjshir" for his resistance to the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan from 1979, and went on to become defence minister after
Kabul was recaptured in 1992.
But warring factions within the government brought new conflict to Kabul. Then a
new force backed by Pakistan, the Taleban, swept through the country and took
the capital for themselves in 1996.
+ + + +
At least 11 Sri Lankan sailors and 15 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a
pre-dawn sea battle on Sunday, defence authorities said.
The casualties came as the navy fought off a Tamil Tiger suicide attack on a
troop carrier transporting 1,200 soldiers from eastern Sri Lanka to the Jaffna
peninsula, they said.
Rebels and government forces fought a two-hour battle after rebels attacked the
ship with 20 boats, at least one of which was packed with explosives.
Three rebel boats were destroyed and a Sri Lankan navy gunboat and 12 sailors
were missing, defence ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said.
Naval reinforcements were sent in and air force fighter jets bombed targets both
at sea and on the shore.
The Sri Lankan military also reported an incident at sea on Saturday, near the
eastern port of Trincomalee.
An Israeli-built gunboat went to the aid of a wooden fishing boat flying a white
flag, with an old man, a teenager and a child allegedly on board.
Fighting between troops and rebels has claimed more than 64,000 lives
The military said the fishing boat moved towards the gunboat and exploded just
80 feet (25 metres) away, in what it said was a suicide attack.
Meanwhile, a notice issued by one of the Tamil Tiger operational headquarters in
the east of Sri Lanka has warned civilians to move away from the security force
camps in Batticaloa town, in advance of what it says will be an imminent attack
using continuous mortar fire.
The BBC Colombo correspondent says it is possible this is an attempt to get the
security forces to concentrate troops in Batticaloa so the rebels can then
attack elsewhere.
But our correspondent says the incidents point to an increase in confrontations
between the two sides, which had abated in preceding weeks.
+ + + +
Eight policemen have been killed and 11 others injured after suspected Islamic
militants attacked a police camp in the northern region of Indian-administered
Kashmir.
A two-member militant suicide squad attacked the camp at Handwara township, 85
km (53 miles) north of Srinagar, a senior police source told the AFP news
agency.
One militant died in an exchange of fire with the police, while another managed
to escape, said police sources.
A hardline Kashmir separatist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed
responsibility, and warned that such attacks will continue.
Injured policemen have been taken by air to Srinagar's main army hospital, with
the condition of four said to be serious.
Militant groups in Kashmir have generally been maintaining a low profile since
Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States.
The attack spread panic in Handwara township, which lies in Kupwara district,
bordering Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Senior police officers have rushed to Handwara to assess the the situation and
coordinate a search. Indian army and paramilitary forces have sealed off the
area.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 13, 2001
An auction of the luxury Swiss villa of former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko
was called off on Thursday because no one wanted to buy it, even at just over
half its market value, AFP reported.
The six-hectare estate with a distant view of Lake Geneva was expected to sell
for more than US $2.56 million, but the auctioneer suspended the sale when no
one offered the starting price of US $1.5 million. Local authorities in the
nearby town of Lavaux said they would decide next week on whether to try another
auction with a lower reserve price, or to put the "Domaine de Miguettes" up for
sale through a sealed bidding process.
The 30-room mansion and its land in a village near Lausanne were meant to be
sold off to repay creditors and unpaid local taxes. The villa was seized along
with all Mobutu's other assets in Switzerland in 1997, including US $3.6 million
in bank accounts, after the ex-dictator's death.
Former political opponents and successive DRC governments have claimed that
Mobutu hoarded hundreds of millions of dollars abroad. Last month, demonstrators
briefly occupied the property and called for 10 percent of the sale proceeds to
be used for social initiatives in the DRC (formerly Zaire), which has been torn
apart by civil war over the past three years.
+ + + +
This Day (Lagos)
September 14, 2001
Ahamefula Ogbu And Lillian Okenwa
Abuja
Komo ordered Saro-Wiwa's execution - witness
The Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission Commission sitting in Abuja yesterday
was told that softwares allegedly used by the "killer squad" of the Directorate
of Military Intelligence (DMI) for making bombs which rocked different parts of
the country during the Abacha administration were left-over of materials used in
the ECOMOG operations in Sierra Leone.
Between 1995 and 1997, there were series of bomb blasts in Lagos, Kaduna and
Ilorin. Government officials at the time accused the National Demo-cratic
Coalition (NADECO) of throwing the bombs. Although some NADECO chieftains like
Chief Olu Falae were arrested and detained, nobody was tried and convicted.
Similarly, the commission was told that it was the Military Administrator of
Rivers State, Colonel Dauda Komo (rtd), who delivered the execution warrant of
slain President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ken
Saro Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen.
At the resumed hearing of the petition of Chief Chuma Nzeribe on alleged
planting of bombs at Ihiala, Anambra State, yesterday, former Acting Director of
DMI, Colonel Steve Idehenre said that most of the materials recovered from bomb
explosion scenes were traced to the residence of Colonel Olanipekun Majoyegbe
who he had earlier accused of embarking on illegal duties that led to his
compulsory retirement from the army.
Under cross examination by counsel to the Commission, Mr. Emmanuel Akaka, the
former DMI boss said that since materials used in such operations were not
returned to the store of the DMI, they were converted to unauthorised use.
"Ammunitions given to Majoyegbe for an operation in Sierra Leone but not
returned to Nigerian army was used to get the explosions. Everything that was
used in the operations was ... from the residence of Majoyegbe", Idehenre said.
While responding to questions from counsel to General Ishaya Bamaiyi, Mr. Yakubu
Maikyau, Idehenre said that he smelt rat on the issue of bombings when he
realised that every move he made in the course of investigation was being
fraustrated.
"When I really became apprehensive was when one private Moroof Sokunbi at Ikeja
Cantonment was wounded in the hand by a bomb and I set up an investigation team
but Colonel Frank Omenka scuttled the work of the team. I then became suspicious
as I did not understand why until when I realised that the killer group was
behind the bombings", he said.
He also told the panel that a sum of N5.9 million was handed over to former DMI
boss, Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd) by him, when the former left for the
National War College on a course. This was in addition to all the sums of money
collected quarterly from the same account while he was in the college.
Asked if he remembered that Sabo had written different reports against Bamaiyi
to the late Head of state where he was tagged a "NADECO man" with plot to
destabilise the army, Idehenre said that Sabo was in the habit of writing false
reports accusing people of planning coups in order to estrange them from the
Head of state.
Explaining the reason for the hard stance Sabo allegedly took on the former
Chief of Army Staff, Idehenre said that Bamaiyi organised programmes which
others were not bold enough to organise.
"He took training into consideration which is what professionalism is all about.
Despite skepticism on field exercise as those who suggested it were accused of
plotting a coup, General Bamaiyi organised these exercises such as operation
Eagle Rape and Kontagora.
"Take the case of security group, while other people were afraid to go there,
General Bamaiyi went there and released detainees and checkmated Sabo. That is
the reason Sabo has not forgiven him till today. That is why I said that there
are a lot of things Bamaiyi did which other officers were afraid to do, he is in
fact the most misunderstood General of the Nigerian army", he said.
Earlier, counsel to Sabo, Oumar Shinttia had asked Idehenre if he had any
problem with AVM Idi Musa and he answered in the negative and when asked why the
same man wrote a report against him, he retorted, "It was not Idi Musa that
wrote the report. When Colonel Akintonde and two other officers were asked to
investigate his allegation, he told them that he did not read the report which
was written by Sabo before he signed it. They said I have no case to answer and
returned the matter to DMI".
Asked if he was present when Chief Victor Okafor (a.k.a. Ezego) met with Sabo or
gave him an alleged car gift, he replied in the negative but said that he used
his sources as an intelligence officer to get his facts. He refused to reveal
the source.
On the value of the Jeep gift to Sabo which he had put at $100m, he clarified
that it was valued at $100,000 while the date he gave Majoyegbe pass to travel
was 27 and not 24 as he stated earlier. He denied knowledge of specific cases
referred to DMI by Bamaiyi but agreed that times were when the Presidency
referred cases to them.
Asked the source of the money he gave to Sabo's wife, especially the $2,000, he
said that it was part of the security funds of the DMI but refused to go into
specifics especially on the issue of how he got the dollars.
On whether part of the documents he tendered before the Commission were not
security documents, he said they were classified but not secret, insisting that
Sabo breached security information rules by the materials he had tendered on
Abubakar.
Also yesterday, Majoyegbe denied Idehenre's earlier allegation that he wrote the
NWC project for Sabo, arguing that he was shuttling that period between Nigeria
and Sierra Leone on assignments. He also denied receiving a car gift from
Ezegoas alleged by Nzeribe.
Testifying before the Commission, the former prison boss who was in charge of
Port Harcourt Prison, Mr. Essien Essien Nkang said that Saro Wiwa was never
detained at the prison but was brought from another location on November 10,
1995, the day they were executed.
"On the 9th of November 1995 at about 10pm the state Comptroller of Prisons and
myself were summoned before then Military Administrator of Rivers state, Lt.
Col. Dauda Komo. He handed over an execution order and a list of nine Ogonis
confirming their execution and ordered that the exercise must be concluded the
next day. With the execution Order, the date and time fixed the necessary
machinery for execution was put in place", he narrated.
He denied that acid was poured on the corpses of late Wiwa and eight other Ogoni
activists sentenced to death by hanging by the Justice Ibrahim Auta led civil
disturbances Tribunal.
The nine Ogonis who were earlier condemned by the Ogoni Civil Disturbances
Tribunal on October 31, were: Kenule Beeson Saro Wiwa; Dr. B. N. Kiobel; John
Kpuinen; Baribo Bera; Saturday Dobee; Nordu Rawo; Felix Nwate; Paul Levura and
David Obokoo.
Asked if he witnessed the execution, he answered in the affirmative but said
that it was not true that acid was poured on their remains to ensure that they
were dead, adding "it was a doctor that was brought in after he execution that
certified them dead and their corpses were handed over to the council officials
who provided coffins and vehicle for their burial. It is not true that acid was
poured on their bodies".
Under cross examination by counsel to Ken Saro Wiwa Jnr., Mr. Anthony Idigbe
(SAN) Nkang admitted that he did not know the burial place as he was not present
at the cemetery since it was soldiers who took the bodies away for burial.
Also briefing newsmen on the outcome of the peace parley between Ogonis and
Shell, Oputa said they made progress yesterday before adjourning for September
26, 2001 when it is hoped that the final details would have been ready. He also
said the issue of who represents the general interest of Ogonis has been
resolved.
It was agreed that efforts of the Commission would be geared towards locating
the burial place of the Ogonis so as to return their remains to their people for
re-burial which is part of the conditions for peace in Ogoniland.
Justice Oputa later asked all the parties to file written submissions addressing
him on who carried out the killings in Ogoniland, whether it was due to communal
conflict or by government agencies as alleged.
In Another petition by one Mr. Christian Okongwu, Hajia Laila Dogonyaro was
accused of complicity in circumstances surrounding the death of six Igbo traders
at Panteka market in Kaduna. The petitioner alleged that Hajia Dagonyaro caused
the state apparatus to be used against the deceased because her friend was the
victim of the said robbery of which the traders were accused.
Those who were killed are Mr. Samuel Okongwu, Patrick Egwu, Joseph Okafor,
Celestine Okolo, Mr. Ignatius Onyekachi and Chukwudi Ojukwu. The petitioner
alleged that they were framed up and asked to pay some amount failure which they
were shot as robbers. The police which will start their defence on the matter
today had claimed the deceased were armed robbers who had led some detectives to
a bush where they hid their arms only to rurn violent afterwards.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
Afghanistan's Taliban regime today responded to increasing pressure to hand over
Osama bin Laden by shutting down its airspace and ordering its forces to menace
Pakistan.
Afghanistan moved 20,000 to 25,000 troops to the border and for the first time
Taliban forces trained guns on Pakistani positions and activated disused
Mujahideen installations along the shared frontier. Pakistan, for its part,
rushed troops to the frontier, then closed it down.
The moves came against a background of deteriorating relations between the two
allies. While Pakistan sent a high-level delegation to Kabul to try to persuade
the Taliban government to hand over Bin Laden, wanted by the Americans for last
week's terror attacks on New York and Washington, the Taliban talked of jihad -
holy war.
Pakistan closed its border with Afghanistan in response to requests from the US
after an exodus of refugees who had begun fleeing Afghanistan amid the rising
panic. Reports that dozens of Taliban leaders had been sending their families to
Pakistan for safety were followed by further claims that officials of the regime
had started to flee Kabul.
All trade, except for food, has been halted and more police have been sent to
Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province to implement a new order confining 1.2
million Afghan refugees to the dozens of camps scattered throughout the
province. Taliban militia leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is giving sanctuary
to Bin Laden, is meeting religious leaders to discuss the terms of a fatwa
declaring jihad if the US should carry out its threatened action against
Afghanistan. About 1,000 elders and religious leaders from Afghanistan's 32
provinces are expected to reach a decision on a possible fatwa tomorrow. If it
calls for jihad, Pakistan knows it will become a target should it ally itself
with the US. The Taliban's ambassador in Pakistan, Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef,
warned that his country would invade any neighbour who helped the Americans.
Taliban forces do not have the armour and heavy weapons of Pakistan's
well-equipped army, but according to military sources here they can wage their
own brand of warfare with deadly effect.
Mujahideen fighters have access to artillery and are believed to have stockpiles
of ground-toground and ground-to-air missiles. They also have huge quantities of
rocket and grenade launchers. One of their weapons is the 12.7 millimetre
anti-aircraft gun which they use against land targets over a distance of around
two kilometres.
The big worry for Pakistan's government is that elements of its own population
will take sides with the Taliban if it is seen to help America carry out strikes
on Afghanistan. Dozens of religious and political parties have already warned
the government of dire consequences if it allows the US resources or air space.
Demonstrations up and down the country have called on Pakistan's president
General Pervez Musharraf to reject US pleas for assistance.
The threat of a fundamentalist backlash could plunge Pakistan into the kind of
conflict that cost hundreds of lives during a terror campaign in the Eighties.
Meanwhile, the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, which shares a border with
Afghanistan, today made clear it will allow US troops to use its territory and
air space to launch attacks on Bin Laden.
US spy satellites beginning a search for his whereabouts have spotted movements
of military forces in Iran and Iraq, both of which are on the official US list
of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Some Iranian naval forces have begun to move out of their home ports a US
official told the Washington Times. Units of Iraq's army have departed their
home bases to remote locations in the western part of the country.
US officials believe these preparations are in anticipation of an attack by US
forces, as President George Bush begins a second day of discussions with his top
aides about the options open to him.
A multi-pronged, multi-level US strategy is emerging to prosecute a determined
war against terrorism. Hawks in the Bush administration are pushing for a "grand
scenario" in which the capture of Bin Laden is just a small part of destroying
the network of Islamic terrorist organisations he helped to set up.
One option is a military incursion into Afghanistan. A longerrange plan is to
send weapons and even give military support to the Taliban regime's chief
opponents, the Northern Alliance, even though its leader, Ahmed Masoud, has been
assassinated.
The emerging US strategy gives high priority to the task of tracking and
dismantling Bin Laden's financial network. The terrorist enterprise al Qaeda is
hugely rich. Not only does it have access to Bin Laden's multi-million dollar
fortune, but during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, rich Saudis and others
in the Gulf donated many millions more. Secretary of State Colin Powell will
have to coax nations like Pakistan to share its intelligence with Washington. He
is also giving his attention to India. Senior US officials said that if a
military operation against the Taliban is mounted, India would be a possible
staging area.
A deal between the US and India could arouse strong suspicions in Pakistan about
its influence in the Kashmir dispute. Putting a base in Pakistan could provoke
such a national outcry that it could destabilisethe government there. Mr Powell
must also build a broad coalition to join Washington in its new global war.
His aim is to bring on board at least 100 nations. Mr Powell, in a rare display
of humility, says this means being more sensitive to the needs of other
countries, to dispel the wave of anti-Americanism in Europe and elsewhere.
Tony Blair will join the other leaders of the EU for an emergency summit in
Brussels on Friday. A prime aim will be to reaffirm solidarity with the US and
to discuss joint action to counter the terrorist threat to Europe. Europe's home
affairs ministers, including David Blunkett, will meet the day before.
Jack Straw declared today that Britain had independent evidence naming Bin Laden
as a prime suspect for last week's outrages as the Foreign Secretary built a
platform for Britain to join the US in military action against the Saudi Arabian
dissident's terrorist organisation.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
The Russian internal security service says it has found a computer compact disc
in Chechnya which contains instructions for piloting Boeing aircraft similar to
those hijacked for the attacks in the United States last week.
The chief spokesman of the Federal Security Service Alexander Zdanovich told
Russian media that the computer CD also contained technical descriptions of
Boeing 737 aeroplanes.
He said it was found during a raid on a group which had contacts with Osama bin
Laden - the man named by the United States as the main suspect in the attacks.
Correspondents say Moscow has been trying for some time to convince Washington
that Chechen rebels are linked to the Saudi-born dissident.
+ + + +
Counter-terrorism intelligence has revealed the presence of 15 members of the
IRA in South America, according to Colombia's army chief.
Three Irish republicans were arrested in the country last month, with reports
that another two were being sought. The allegation that a further 10 republicans
have been there will lead to further calls for an explanation of their role.
General Jorge Enrique Mora said yesterday: "Military intelligence has done
valuable work that did not end with the capture of the three Irish. We have
detected a bigger presence of IRA members in the demilitarised zone."
This was a reference to the safe haven ceded two years ago to leftist rebels
from the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
The three republicans, alleged by some sources to be weapons experts from the
IRA, were arrested at Bogota's international airport last month. They are
awaiting trial for allegedly teaching rebels urban terror tactics and travelling
with false documents.
Yesterday Colombian army sources named two other alleged IRA operatives, John
Francis Johnson and James Edward Walker, who they say entered Colombia on 10
April this year but slipped out of the safe haven through Venezuela a fortnight
before the three arrests.
It is claimed they had been travelling with Niall Connolly, the alleged Sinn
Fein representative in Havana who used the false name David Bracken at the time.
Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, who denied that the organisation had a
Havana presence, is scheduled for a Cuba visit later this month.
The claims will strengthen the already strong feeling in both parts of Ireland
that Sinn Fein and the IRA will continue to be pressed on the exact nature of
the Colombian connection.
The Colombian army's report detailed Farc's links with international terrorist
groups and concluded that in the past two years, since the haven was set aside
to encourage peace talks between Colombia's largest rebel army and government
negotiators, members of the IRA have repeatedly entered the area and stayed for
up to two months at a time.
According to the Bogota daily El Tiempo, the intelligence reports outline how
the IRA visitors gave step-by-step instruction in how to design four types of
cylinder bomb. These include incendiary devices with petrol, anti-personnel
bombs packed with nails, explosives with gelatine accelerants for irreversible
burns, and chemical cylinders containing acid and toxic gas.
+ + + +
BOGOTA, Colombia- Members of a right-wing paramilitary group raided a Colombian
village early Sunday and killed at least 11 people, authorities said.
National Police spokeswoman Jenny Alvarado said up to 15 people may have been
executed in the early morning massacre near the township of Falan, some 74 miles
west of the capital, Bogota.
Fighters from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, killed the
villagers after accusing them of working with leftist guerrillas, said Tolima
Police Col. Ciro Chitiva.
Authorities from the attorney general's office and the government's human rights
office were heading to the region in Tolima state to investigate. Police said
four people were badly injured in the massacre.
The U.S. State Department last week placed the 8,000-strong AUC on its list of
worldwide terrorist organizations. Two leftist rebel armies in Colombia are also
included in the list of 31 terrorist groups.
The AUC is waging a brutal massacre and assassination campaign against the
guerrillas and those suspected of sympathizing with them.
Sunday's massacre is one the largest slayings committed by the AUC since the
emergence of its new leader, Salvatore Mancuso. Even though the AUC is blamed
for most of the human rights abuses committed in Colombia, Mancuso said in a
recent interview that his fighters don't kill innocent people.
+ + + +
Security officials in Algeria have claimed a military success against an
Islamist militant group that has been waging a war of insurgency for the past
nine years.
They said the army had killed at least 28 rebels belonging to the second biggest
Islamist faction, the Salafist Group or GSPC, to the south of the capital,
Algiers.
The victory claim follows growing criticism of the authorities over their
failure to put an end to endemic terrorism in Algeria in which an estimate
150,000 people have been killed.
Reports are rare in Algeria of military successes against Islamist rebels and
this claim of victory is fortuitous for the government which is facing a wave of
criticism.
The contrast is being made between, on the hand, the Algerian authorities
inability to have any impact on the country's endemic terrorism, and, on the
other hand, the forceful approach being taken by President Bush following the
terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
But now Algerian security forces say that, as a result of a sustained
bombardment, they have managed to kill twenty-eight Islamist rebels belonging to
the GSPC.
The rebels were located 300km south of Algiers in mountains between the desert
towns of Laghouat and Djelfa.
The group is said to have been active for some time and were responsible for
transporting weapons from African countries to the south to their GSPC allies in
the north of Algeria where many attacks have taken place in the last few weeks.
Earlier on Monday, news came through from Mascara in northwestern Algeria of the
latest attack by the main Islamist group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in which
eight civilians were killed, six of them from the same family.
+ + + +
The Liberian government has deployed police across the country to arrest any one
found selling or buying photographs of Osama Bin Laden.
He is the prime suspect named by the US for the terror attacks at the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Police Director Paul Mulbah said anyone now involved with the photos would be
treated as "terrorists".
Bin Laden has denied any responsibility.
The weekend directive followed a brisk trade by newspaper vendors and street
sellers in the capital of pirated and copied photographs of Saudi dissident Bin
Laden.
The Police Director said although people buying the pirated photographs of Bin
Laden were doing so "out of mere curiosity", it could give a negative
interpretation of the situation.
He said if the sales were left to go on unchecked, it would appear as if
Liberians were happy with the Saudi-born "terrorist."
Liberia was founded nearly 200 years ago as home for freed black slaves from
America.
It was to the US that thousands of Liberians fled during the outbreak of a
bitter civil war in 1989 that later brought President Charles Taylor to power.
The order to arrest those found violating the ban, police sources say, was taken
by Mr Taylor himself.
The deployment of troops to crack down on violators coincided with a big
memorial service in Monrovia on Sunday in honour of the 5,000 feared dead or
missing in the carnage.
Meanwhile, the authorities have detained the host of a radio talk show and
closed down the station following anti-American comments on the privately-owned
DC101.1.
Some callers had made remarks in support of the attacks during a discussion on
United Nations sanctions against Liberia.
Liberia has been campaigning for the lifting of the 12-month sanctions placed on
the country because of Monrovia's apparent failure to sever ties with rebels in
Sierra Leone.
+ + + +
The Progress (Freetown)
September 17, 2001
Jia Kangbai
A planned demonstration in support of America and against the leader of the
terrorist group which is believed be responsible for last Tuesday's attack on
the World Trade Center WTC Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Ladin is schedule to take
place on Thursday next week.
The Civil Society Movement and other civic organization in the capital Freetown
are calling for Thursday's planned demonstration.
At least 4000 people from all works of life are expected to take part in the
demonstration and demonstrators are being urged to take along wreaths to be laid
in respect of the victims of last Tuesday's attack on the WTC and part of the
Pentagon. They are also expected to demand the swift trial of Ben Ladin and his
followers as well as all those harboring him and his group. Fears are growing
from and within Sierra Leone that at least some 200 Sierra Leonean may have
perished for the dastardly single act of violence widely believed to have been
masterminded by Ben Ladin.
Yesterday in the US, sources say "patriotism mixed with prayer filled the nation
as Americans packed churches and clogged public squares on a day of remembrance
for the victims" of Tuesday dastardly act of violence which is said to have now
claimed as many as 5000 lives.
At dusk, the flicker of candles illuminated city streets, as people responded to
call for In Sierra Leone fears are mounting that some 200 Sierra Leoneans may
have been killed in the attack as close to a thousand Sierra Leone used the WTC
as their business center.
+ + + +
The Democratic Republic of Congo says a major fraud has been uncovered within
its civil service, involving the creation of more than 20,000 non-existent
employees.
The civil service minister, Benjamin Mukulungu, said the fraud had cost the
government several million dollars.
One man I know has been drawing his salary since 1992 - though as far as I am
aware he has not stepped inside the ministry in years
But the new government seems intent to look like they are doing something about
it at least.
Mr Mukulungu told the BBC that by comparing who was on the payroll, and who was
on the staff lists, his team of auditors discovered this huge number.
Fraud on such a scale is not surprising.
It was well known, even before Laurent Kabila came to power, that every time a
new minister is named, he puts his friends and families on the payroll - then
when he leaves, they stay on it.
But working out who should be paid and who should not is only part of the
problem. Salaries are so low that Kinshasa has witnessed several strikes
recently - most notably that of nurses and, now, of teachers.
They are paid often as little as five dollars a month, which they say is not
enough to even feed a family for a week.
The government says however at least the civil servants on this side of the
frontline are better off than those on the other rebel held side in the east of
the country.
There, they reportedly have not been paid for 37 months, and minister Mukulungu
says he has received letters demanding help to pay for soap and clothes and
other necessities.
With this in mind the government has offered to pay the wages of civil servants
in the east, as part of its commitment to peace and the inter -Congolese
dialogue.
This has prompted a columnist in one newspaper on Monday to say that in the DR
Congo receiving a salary is no longer a right, it is now humanitarian
assistance. Not that this assistance will reach the east quickly.
Rebels of the RCD-Goma say the offer is an attempt to destabilise their economy
by flooding the region with cash.
And when students in Bukuva took to the streets last week to demand the rebels
take the money - they were fired on.
According to witnesses one 14-year-old was killed and others were wounded.
+ + + +
The Sowetan (Johannesburg)
September 17, 2001
Ido Lekota
One of the men arrested in connection with a hoax e-mail claiming South Africa
was involved in last Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States has claimed
that the message was meant to be a joke.
The e-mail said CNN had reported that US secretary of state Mr Colin Powell had
said that the South African government could have been involved in the attacks.
The two men allegedly responsible for the hoax e-mail are brothers who own an
information technology company in Stellenbosch.
They were arrested during a raid on Friday night.
One of the men apparently confessed to police that his brother had come up with
the message and that he had only made some additions to it.
He also said that the message was meant to be a joke.
The Government has called for the two men to be severely punished. Department of
Justice spokesman Mr Paul Setsetse said the action of the two amounted to
"sedition" and they should face the full wrath of the law.
"Many lives have been lost in the American tragedy and anyone who creates
confusion around that issue must be severely punished," Setsetse said.
On Saturday Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete said the Government would
push for a harsh sentence to serve as deterrent to others with similar
intentions.
"To construct a hoax of that kind undermines the integrity of our country,"
Tshwete said.
The arrest of the two brothers followed intense investigations by the National
Intelligence Agency (NIA).
NIA officers managed to trace the origin of the message to the computer company
owned by the two brothers.
NIA sources said the information was then forwarded to police who applied for a
court order for the company's computers to be seized.
Western Cape police commissioner Joseph Ngobeni yesterday said the two would
appear in court today on fraud charges.
Setsetse said yesterday the directorate of public prosecutions would determine
what charges the two would face in terms of laws that regulated the use of
computers in committing a crime.
+ + + +
Vanguard (Lagos)
September 17, 2001
Emma Nnadozie & Albert Akpor
Lagos
SIX persons including the proprietress of a popular eatery in Ajegunle, Lagos,
called Friends Restaurant and her teenage daughter were weekend abducted by
unidentified armed men to an unknown destination.
The incident which took place at about 11.00 p.m. Saturday has sent shock waves
around the vicinity. Residents responded by making frantic efforts to locate the
abducted persons.
Police sources said the unidentified young men who were about 15 stormed the
popular restaurant located at No. 4 Achapo Street, Ajegunle in a Toyota Hiace
bus painted in commercial colour. The number plate of the bus was not known.
According to sources, the abductors who were armed with dangerous weapons
including guns, charms, knives and cutlasses, shot sporadically into the air
before stopping in front of the restaurant.
They first pounced on the proprietress identified as Mrs. Ngozi Nneji, whose
husband died early this year and dragged her, her 15-year-old daughter, Chebo
Nneji and her sales boy, called Sunday into their waiting vehicle parked in
front of the restaurant.
They reportedly returned to take away three unsuspecting customers. They were
said to have broken the head of one of the customers with an empty beer bottle,
and then dragged the men into their vehicle and sped off to an unknown
destination.
Residents of the area who were alerted after the abductors fled made efforts to
trace the whereabouts of the commercial vehicle but to no avail. They reportedly
ran to the Ajegunle Police Station to lodge a report.
When Vanguard visited the home of Mrs. Nneji, her first child, Miss Elochukwu
Nneji narrated the ugly incidents in tears.
She said: "Trouble started last Friday at about 10.00 p.m. when two boys and a
girl came to our restaurant and requested goat head. One of the boys who later
identified himself as Sule went to the back-yard to ease himself.
"We later heard a noise and when we rushed to the backyard, we saw him holding
one of our neighbours, accusing him of trying to snatch his money. Our neighbour
said he did not try to snatch his money but that he thought he was somebody he
knew.
"At this stage, Sule pulled his shirt and we all noticed that he was wearing
charms all over his chest. He claimed to be a member of Oodua Peoples Congress
(OPC).
"Our neighbour hastily freed himself and took to his heels. Sule came back to
the restaurant and appeals by others that he should allow the sleeping dog lie
fell on deaf ears as he started fighting them, an incident which led to the
intervention of the proprietress.
"Sule even beat my mother after which they closed our restaurant. But before
Sule left, he threatened to bring his gang the next day about 11.00 p.m. He came
with his group in a bus and started shooting indiscriminately. People ran for
shelter.
"They came into our restaurant and kidnapped about six persons. They later
pounced on my mother, my sister and our sales boy after which they took them to
an unknown destination. We have reported to the police who advised that we
extend our search to OPC headquarters at Idi-Oro and Orile. We went to the place
but the OPC people said we should check Ajangbandi to check if my mother and
others were among those being held there. Since then, we are helpless," she
stated.
Lagos State Police boss, Mr. Mike Okiro when contacted on telephone around 3.00
p.m. yesterday said, "we are aware that it happened. We are investigating the
matter with a view to ascertaining the motive behind the abduction and locating
the whereabouts of the victims."
+ + + +
The Guardian (Lagos)
September 17, 2001
Bayo Ohu
Katsina
NO fewer than 12 people were brutally murdered while many others, including
children were injured by suspected armed bandits who stormed the Dugun Muazu
village in Sabuwa local government area of Katsina State at the weekend.
The suspected armed hoodlums, according to a source at the state police
headquarters, were armed with locally made pistols, guns and cutlasses with
which they attacked some targeted rich individuals in the village in a robbery
operation.
Valuables and cash, running into thousands of naira were carted away from the
houses of the victims who were mercilessly matcheted to death while several
other people, including children were seriously injured.
The state police command drafted some of its men to the area with a view to
providing adequate security for the residents and hunting down the fleeing
criminal.
The state governor, Umaru Musa Yar Adua who, in company of the state police
commissioner, Alhaji Suleiman Dauda Fakai, visited the village lamented the
incident and promised his administration's determination to deal with the
criminals.
He said: "Already, the state government has taken decisive measures to counters
the nefarious activities of armed hoodlums while my administration, in
collaboration with the security agencies well fine-tune strategies aimed at
cracking down on the hoodlums and others miscreants who unleashed terror on our
people."
While describing the incident as frightening, he said his administration was
prepared to commit resources to achieve its objective of riding the state of
criminals, urging the people to be vigilant and assist the law enforcement
agents with useful information on people of doubtful characters among them.
He visited the families of the victims and those who sustained injuries to
commiserate with them and offer prayer for the repose of the souls of those that
were killed in the incident.
The commissioner of police assured the people of his command's determination to
track down the perpetrators of the act with a view to making them to face
justice.
According to him, the police and other security agencies in the state have
launched an intensive man-hunt to arrest the fleeting armed gang for prosecution
while additional policemen have been drafted to beef-up security in the area.
+ + + +
Vanguard (Lagos)
September 16, 2001
Demola Akinyemi
Ilorin
ABOUT six students of University of Ilorin and Kwara State Polytechnic are
feared dead following the clash of some dare-devil secret cult gangs in the
institutions between Thursday evening and Friday morning.
The latest cultist attack came on the heel of the incident of August 24, when
some student cultists of University of Ilorin trailed their assailant, one Tunde
Moruf Obalola at the front of the main library at the permanent campus and shot
him at a close range.
On the recent incident, eye-witness account told Sunday Vanguard that at about
6.00 p.m. within the precinct of Institute of Administration at Kwara State
Polytechnic, four students cultists rented the air with gun shooting having
brought down their target, one Adekoya Adewale, HND II student of Banking and
Finance in the pool of his own blood.
Immediately the cultists ran away, continued the account, the victim was
immediately taken to the Polytechnic Medical Centre, from where he was referred
to the Emergency Unit of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital where he is
being currently guarded with two policemen.
The University of Ilorin took its turn yesterday at about 12 noon when the
student cultists gang clashed in front of Business and Social Sciences building
engaging themselves in a serious gun battle.
In the ensued pandemonium two student of Economics sustained very serious
injuries, while one Accounting student said to be the target, was shot, another
student was hit by stray bullets.
All the said victims are lying at critical .......... receiving treatment at the
University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital as at the time of filing the report.
The Rector of Kwara State Polytechnic, Prof. Omobolanle Olatunji when contacted
confirmed the incident, while the authorities of University of Ilorin could not
be reached for comment.
+ + + +
This Day (Lagos)
September 17, 2001
Razak Yusuf, Chukwudi Nwabuko and Donald Andoor
Tension yesterday gripped the residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
as speculation of an imminent attack on Christians by Islamic fundamentalists
became rife in anticipation of a possible spill-over of the Jos/Kano religious
disturbances.
Many Christians stayed away from churches in Abuja for fear of attacks by
muslims while the police beefed-up security around churches and other public
installations in the territory.
The tension was sequel to the speculation that the Jos, Plateau State and Kano,
Kano State religious disturbances would spill over to Abuja.
Panic-stricken residents of the territory flooded THISDAY Abuja office with
telephone calls seeking to know the situation in the metropolis. They were
informed that while the rumour was making the rounds, there was no cause for
alarm.
THISDAY gave the assurance that the situation was being monitored. Random checks
at some churches and some strategic public installations revealed the presence
of policemen on red alert to forestall trouble. Unease was evident at one of the
largest churches in Abuja, the Strong Tower Parish of The Redeemed Christian
Church of God (RCCG) where almost three quarters of the faithful stayed away
from the Sunday service for fear of their lives.
This forced Resident Pastor Omotosho to call for special prayers against
continued chaos and bloodshed in the country.
At Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Catholic Cathedral, two police patrol jeeps, marked
NPF 3393 and NPF 3394, were stationed at the two entrances with battle ready
policemen sitting inside them.
Services were conducted in most churches amid low turn-out.
A policeman was spotted watching over NITEL installations FCT Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force yesterday asked Abuja residents to go about
their normal businesses and disregard rumours making the rounds that some
religious fundamentalists were planning to attack some areas of the city
including some churches. At the Wuse New Market, a police officer who would not
speak with THISDAY on his mission, kept an eye on the movements of people around
the market.
The assurance came as the police and other security agencies intensified
security surveillance on strategic public and private buildings.
+ + + +
Vanguard (Lagos)
September 17, 2001
Taye Obateru & Leon Usigbe
Jos
Twenty-two inmates of the Jos Prisons were among the victims of the recent
ethno-religious crisis in Jos, it was revealed weekend, even as the Middle Belt
Progressive Movement (MPM) alleged moves to create an emirate in Jos.
The 22 inmates were shot dead by the police while allegedly trying to capitalise
on the disorder occasioned by the crisis to escape.
They had overpowered the warders on duty, flung the gates open and attempted to
escape, prompting security men to open fire on them. The 22 got killed while
several others were injured.
President Olusegun Obasanjo who confirmed the death of the inmates, Saturday
after a tour of the state capital to see things for himself, described the
situation as unfortunate. He noted that some of them might have been reformed
while in prison, and recalled how he was able to lead a hardened armed robber by
name Baba Ali to Christ while he (Obasanjo) was serving in Yola Prison.
President Obasanjo who addressed religious and community leaders at Government
House, Jos described what he saw after visiting various parts of Jos and
environs as "an act of extreme barbarism," adding "there is probably more to it
than we know."
"Even when I was serving there (referring to his prison experience) I was not as
saddened as I was today, because of the extent of destruction of lives and
property I saw," he declared.
He blamed religious, ethnic and community leaders as well as the elite for the
crisis, noting: "If we had all done what we ought to have done as we should have
done it, this would not have happened."
The President said necessary steps should be taken to avoid things that could
breed ethnic and religious tension among the people, citing the mounting of loud
speakers indiscriminately on places of worship as a possible cause of religious
tension. He said: "We have to work out what we should do in these areas. Places
that are designated as residential should not be made worship places, so that we
do not create room for unnecessary tension.
"No matter our religion, we have no right to make life unbearable for others,"
he stressed.
President Obasanjo suggested the formation of religious committees from
community, to ward up to state level, to help promote peaceful co-existence
among the various religions. Gov. Joshua Dariye thanked President Obasanjo for
the show of concern as demonstrated by his coming personally to see things for
himself even after sending a high-powered delegation earlier.
*MPM alleges moves to create emirate in Jos
However, the Middle Belt Progressive Movement (MPM) led by retired Deputy
Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Mr. Potter Dabup alleged yesterday in a
statement in Kaduna that some people planned to create an emirate in Jos for the
Hausa/Fulani settlers.
It described the recent clashes in Jos as more religious than ethnic.
Said MPM: "The MPM is not unaware of the long term plan of the Sokoto caliphate
to create an emirate in Jos and install a Hausa/Fulani as an emir in the town.
"As part of this evil plan the military governments of Buhari, Babangida, Abacha
and Abubakar deliberately posted Hausa/Fulani Muslim officers to govern or
administer Plateau State over the long period of their rule.
"They have planted successfully and empowered economically many Hausa/Fulani
with a view to islamising Plateau State.
"During the Buhari regime, the Hausa/Fulani wrote a petition requesting for the
right of the so-called Josawas to have an emirate in Jos.
"Bearing the foregoing in mind, the government of Gov. Joshua Dariye
demonstrated gross insecurity and crass naivety in appointing a Hausa/Fulani
from Kano as head of the state's Poverty Alleviation Programme.
"The people of Plateau State saw this not only as absurd but also as a slap in
their face by the Hausa/Fulani using the hand of Dariye.
"The anger and reaction generated by this ill-advised appointment put the
Hausa/Fulani settlers on edge and so, on Friday 7th September, 2001, they
decided to vent their anger on innocent Christians and their churches," he
explained.
The chairman of the MPM further noted that his movement recognised the right of
individuals "to choose and practice their faith in a manner that does not hinder
others from their rights, either worship or of association" but "what the MPM
hates and will resist at all costs is to seek to enthrone one religion in
governance in a way that enslaves others or hold them hostage to sectarian
interests."
He called on the Federal Government to "shed its pretension" and tackle the
issue of religious fundamentalism with seriousness.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 14, 2001
The security situation is satisfactory in half the northern part of Burundi,
army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema said on Wednesday, but warned that in
the western Bujumbura and Bujumbura-Rural provinces armed robberies were
continuing, especially on the periphery of the capital, with Buterere, Kinama
and Kamenge zones currently the most insecure places, Burundi news agency ABP
reported.
Referring to the northwestern Cibitoke Province, Nzabampema noted the existence
of "frank cooperation" between the administration, population and security
forces. In this context, he pointed to last week's "neutralisation" of 200
"assailants" who had attempted to infiltrate the province from the DRC.
In reference to Bubanza Province, also in the northwest, Nzabampema spoke of
infiltration attempts by armed groups in communes bordering Kibira and Rukoko
and in the communes of Musigati and Gihanga. In the central and eastern
provinces, he said security prevailed, but emphasised that armed robberies were
continuing near the Kibira forest, notably in the west-central province of
Muramvya and Kayanza in the north.
+ + + +
The staff of the Chechen mujahideen command informs about heavy fighting
collisions in Johar, Gudermes and Argun. On the specified data in Monday on the
dawn Chechen subdivisions have simultaneously entered in Johar, Gudermes and
Argun. About 12 o'clock in the afternoon on local time appeared the information
about brought down Russian military helicopter in Johar. The Mujahideen attacked
commandant's offices and places of enemy disposition.
It was informed about attack on the main Russian military base Khankala. Fire is
conducted from heavy mortars of 120 calibres. In Zavodskoi district of the
capital crushed a column of armored vehicles. At least 7 units of Russian
engineering were burnt. The Chechen side informs about heavy casualties of the
enemy. Battles proceed in Gudermes. Chechen mujahideen have practically seized
the city. Russians may not even organize some intelligible resistance.
In Argun one of the mujahideen on a motor vehicle filled with explosive ran into
a large blockhouse of occupiers near a commandant's office. Chechen fighters
became Martyr and has killed up to 20 aggressors. After that fierce battles have
started in the city. Divisions of the mujahideen attack enemy on all directions.
In Nojai-Yurt subunits of the mujahideen blocked commandant's office and have
forced the enemy to retreat. It is informed about the great losses of
aggressors. According to our correspondent there is information about battles in
Shelkovsky and Naursky districts of the country.
Russian confirmed the incident of destruction of the helicopter
As earlier reported by correspondent of Kavkaz – center, referring to command of
mujahideen that at about 12 o'clock in the afternoon on local time in Johar city
was brought down Russian combat helicopter. Command of invaders confirmed the
fact of loss of destruction of helicopter in Johar city. Besides, Russian
informed about destruction of an army General and 9 officers, who were on board
in the helicopter. The so-called surrogate chief of the main operative
department of the general staff , major general Anatoli Pozdniakov has been
destroyed.
Helicopter has been shot down in Johar
Staff of command of Chechen mujahideen informs that a Russian combat helicopter
has been shot in the space above Johar city. The helicopter was brought down
with help of anti-aircraft missile system of the Russian made «Strela». Fights
in the Chechen capital have been reported. Divisions of mujahideen attack
convoys and places of deployment of the opponent.
Chechen mujahideen entered into Gudermes
Staff of Chechen command informs that at dawn on Monday, some hundred Chechen
fighters entered into Gudermes, second largest city of CRI. After entrance into
the area, mujahideen have taken control of occupational commandant's office. In
the first hour of fights, about 50 Russian invaders were destroyed. According to
all available information, the group of aggressors was barricaded in a cellar of
commandant's office.
On a wireless communication, invaders were asking for help. Negotiations about
surrender are going on with the opponent. The Chechen command does not exclude
the opportunity that invaders can surrender at any moment. Fights in Gudermes
are going on in the whole area of the city. At about 9 o'clock in the morning on
local time, fights have begun in Argun and in regional center of Nojai-yurt.
+ + + +
Some details of last events in Ichkeria have become known. On Monday, early in
the morning at dawn, group of Chechen fighters in command of amir of one of
divisions of Chechen armed forces, Inderbiev, permanently operating in Gudermes
area, where entered fighters of presidential guards, carried out special action
on capture and destruction of occupational commandant's office in Gudermes.
Operation was carried out on the order of president Maskhadov. During course of
performance of fighting task, the Chechen group needed reinforcement in human
force and engineering.
At about 8-30 in the mornings in Gudermes additional forces of mujahideen from
other divisions numbering some hundred fighters came and occupied the city. In
Gudermes, fierce fights have begun. Group of Indrebiev continues to keep a
commandant's office. In a cellar of a building still there are invaders. Chechen
side does not undertake assault actions and only periodically fires at the
opponent from grenade launchers. Negotiations are continuing with Russian for
their surrender.
In the meantime, the situation in city is under control of Chechen divisions.
The centers of resistance of invaders are kept in area of railway station and a
part of buildings of administrative complex of occupational regime. Two attempts
of aggressors to break into Gudermes were prevented by resolute actions of
mujahideen. During fights on Monday, at least 9 units of armored engineering and
up to 50 soldiers of the opponent were destroyed. It is informed, that three
invaders were taken in captivity.
Radio station «Kavkaz», broadcasting its programs on short waves in Caucasian
region from territory of Chechen Republic, informs about proceeding of fights in
Gudermes. According to correspondent of radio station, Russian artillery started
massive shelling of Gudermes. Combat helicopters and aircrafts are involved in
strikes on the city. Bombardments and shelling have been made on city center and
its suburbs. Chechen command informs, that some rockets and shells have exploded
in places of deployment of Russian aggressors. Chechen divisions still actively
operate in the city, while supervising the situation.
Fights are going on in city center and area of railway station. Hundreds of
Russian soldiers and mercenaries have left the divisions and escaped towards
Dzhalkinsky woods. Mujahideen attacked the retreating opponent. Not less than 30
soldiers on an exit from Gudermes were informed dead. According to latest
information in vicinity of the city was blocked armored convoy of aggressors,
moving towards settlement Novogrozny. Having lost 5 units of armored
engineering, the convoy departed back.
Clashes have taken place in Johar and Argun. In Chechen capital, mobile
divisions of mujahideen attacked a convoy of the opponent in Factory area of
capital. During fight, 7 units of armored engineering and not less than 25
soldier of the opponent were destroyed. And in area of Khankala, as a result of
bombardment of the helicopter of invaders were destroyed two generals and 8
colonels of Joint Staff of armed forces of Russia. Mujahideen used Russian made
anti-aircraft missile «Strela». Besides during the day, base of Khankala was
subjected to shelling from heavy mortars. At 13 o’clock, groups of Chechen
fighters left Johar city. At 13-30 o’clock, fights in capital stopped.
In Argun, one of mujahideen in a car filled with explosive ran into a large
block-post of invaders near a commandant's office. Becoming shaheed, Chechen
fighter managed to destroy up to 20 aggressors. Fierce fights have inflamed in
city after that incident. Divisions of mujahideen attacked the opponent in all
directions. According to reports of Chechen command, at least 40 aggressors have
been destroyed in Argun. By the end of day sporadic firing proceeded in Argun.
According to reports of Chechen command, at least 40 aggressors have been
destroyed in Argun. Groups of mujahideen blocked commandant’s office in
Nojai-yurt and beat out opponent. Many victims of the aggressors have been
reported. According to reports of our correspondent, there are reports of fights
in Shelkovsky and Naursky regions of the country.
Panic prevailed in Johar city during the whole daylong. Members of the
occupational administration did not come to work today because of the fear of
attacks by mujahideen. Command of occupational grouping confirmed the fact of
failure of the so-called session, supposed to be held on Monday, of Kadyrov
administration due to absence of its members .
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
British and American investigators are establishing a disturbing British
connection to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Seven days after the atrocities in New York and Washington, the FBI is believe
to have asked the British police to trace 14 suspects with links to the Saudi
dissident.
At the same time the CIA has asked city regulators in London to investigate the
suspicious sale of millions of shares before the hijackings. The shares relate
to airlines, insurance companies and arms manufacturers. Investigators believe
there may be a paper trail which would lead back to the terrorists. A spokesman
for the Financial Services Authority said: "It is something that it is incumbent
on us to look at to the best of our ability."
It is known that Habib Zacarias Moussaoui, one of the key witnesses so far
detained by the FBI, lived in south London before moving to the US to take
flying lessons.
He was arrested after he tried to get flight-simulator training on a 747 jet at
a Minnesota flying school but said he did not need to learn how to take off or
land. He is known to have travelled extensively in Afghanistan. His girlfriend,
a North African woman in her thirties, is being hunted after police raided a
flat in Brixton at the FBI's request.
At the same time it is claimed five of the hijackers may have prepared for the
attack in this country. According to the Daily Mail, documents and financial
records obtained during raids in Florida and California prove that a handful of
the hijackers spent time here. The revelation raises the possibility that
sleeper cells from Bin Laden's network could be in Britain.
Fears of a second wave of attacks have already triggered new emergency measures
in the US. Yesterday John Ashcroft, the attorney general, announced that federal
agents will travel on commercial flights to increase security. For now, the
armed "sky marshalls" will be transferred from existing federal law enforcement
agencies. More will be hired later.
As the new safeguard was put in place, the FBI stepped up its search, detaining
49 people for questioning and casting a global dragnet for as many as 200
others. It is suspected that 19 followers entered Japan shortly before the
attacks, with some of them coming from the Taliban headquarters in Afghanistan.
Some of those detained in the US have been charged with immigration violations
and have requested lawyers, but officials believe they may also have information
about how the outrages were planned.
The investigation now centres on four key "material witnesses" who have all been
transported to the FBI's headquarters in New York for questioning. Two are
believed to be helping the FBI but the other two are refusing to cooperate.
The FBI is also questioning 13 acquaintances of the hijackers in New Jersey.
Agents raided apartments and questioned several people in a New Jersey
neighbourhood that was once home to Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of plotting the
1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Agents also searched the home of Albader
Alhazmi, a San Antonio doctor believed to be related to at least one of the
alleged hijackers. He was detained on suspicion of immigration offences.
Airlines have been given a "danger list" of 52 people, 10 of whom have aviation
expertise.
More details are also emerging about the hijackers themselves. Hani Hanjour, one
of the men suspected of crash American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon,
flew small planes over the Washington area at least three times in the past six
weeks while taking flight training.
The Federal Aviation Authority is also investigating whether a man who toured
the tower at Logan International Airport in Boston three days before the
terrorist attacks was among the hijackers.
Investigators are also checking reports that five of the suspected hijackers may
have received training at US military installations in the 1990s. According to
Newsweek magazine, three of the suspects listed the Naval Air Station at
Pensacola, Florida, as their address on drivers' licenses and car registrations.
Officials have lear ned that representatives of major Middle East groups such as
Hamas and Hezbollah met in Beirut in mid-February and again in April in Tehran
"to unify all of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance groups, to bring them
closer and to encourage them to work closely to support the intifada", according
to a top Iranian official. Authorities think Osama bin Laden's group may have
participated.
+ + + +
Fears that Islamic fundamentalist terror groups are attempting to build a
nuclear bomb intensified today following a report that Osama bin Laden tried to
buy uranium from a Bulgarian atomic power plant this year.
The Bulgarian press agency BTA says Bulgarian businessman Ivan Ivanov met Bin
Laden in mid-April at a religious festival close to the Pakistani city Peshawar,
where Bin Laden voiced his interest in the nuclear waste from the atomic power
plant in Kosloduj.
The Bulgarian, who had been working in one of Bin Laden's companies, was quoted
by BTA confirming that the Saudi Arabian billionaire had been particularly
interested in uranium 235 which is used as a fuel for nuclear plants and can be
adapted for use in nuclear weapons.
Ivanov was among staff from Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Europe and the US working for a
Bin Ladenowned firm making water purification plants who had been invited to the
Pakistan festival.
The director of the nuclear plant, Jordan Jordanov, said security measures in
Kosloduj had been tightened after the terrorist attacks last Tuesday. Today's
report is not the first to reveal Bin Laden's quest for nuclear components.
After the 1988 Sudanese and Kenyan US embassy outrages, which killed 244 people,
a former associate testified during the bombers' trial in New York this year
that he knew of a similar transaction.
Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl told the court he had once attempted to purchase uranium for
Bin Laden.
Al-Fadl, a 37-year-old from Sudan, has been a top source to those investigating
Bin Laden's activities for five years, since his split with the Saudi exile over
money. He said he was an original member of al Qaeda, Bin Laden's terrorist
network.
He described a 1994 effort to buy uranium for al Qaeda for $1.5 million. He said
the uranium came in a two to three-foot cylinder with engravings indicating the
source as South Africa. Whether the transaction was completed was left
unanswered.
Last Thursday Tony Blair warned world leaders that they must act now to stop
Islamic suicide-bombers launching devastatingattacks with nuclear, biologicalor
chemical weapons.
The Prime Minister raised the chilling prospect of such raids during an
emergency sitting of Parliament.
He called for unprecedented international co-operation to prevent even worse
atrocities than last week's attack on the US.
Former Democratic Senator and one-time presidential candidate, Gary Hart, who
helped draft a commission report on national security, warned this week: "The
next attack will not be airliners. It will be chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons in cities like Denver or Seattle or Nashville. Our commission found that
we are not prepared for that eventuality."
In 1998, alone, a Bin Laden aide was accused in Munich with acting to obtain
nuclear materials; a Saudi-owned, London-based Arabic newspaper declared that
Bin Laden had obtained access to nuclear weapons, and an Arabic magazine claimed
that Bin Laden gave criminal contacts in Chechnya $30 million in cash and two
tons of opium in exchange for approximately 20 nuclear warheads.
+ + + +
Planners at two British military headquarters are drawing up contingency plans
for the deployment of thousands of British troops for operations overseas in the
wake of last week's terrorist attacks in America.
The plan to send a large headquarters and at least one division of soldiers
backed by air and naval forces is just one of many options, defence sources
stress. But it is now expected in Whitehall that America is heading towards some
form of military retaliation against the camps of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan
- possibly as early as this Friday.
A range of plans are under consideration at the Permanent Joint Headquarters at
Northwood under the command of Lieutenant-General John Reith, who led Nato's
first humanitarian force to help the refugees in Albania in the Kosovo crisis in
1999.
He has a direct link to special forces like the SAS. Plans are also being
generated at the Headquarters of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a largely
British team, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Christopher Drury at
Rheindalen in Germany.
The full corps comprises British and American divisions and units from Germany
and Italy - both of whose governments have expressed sharp reservations about
committing ground forces to any American reprisal operation.
The intelligence community has been surprised at the precision and planning of
the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. "Groups of this kind had
achieved nothing like this before - and it is remarkable to hit three out of
four of your objectives in this way," said one insider.
The military intelligence community had thought turning hijacked airliners into
suicide bombs was too far fetched. But one source has revealed that it had been
feared that fanatical terrorists might soon launch a chemical or biological
weapon attack at a large civilian target in a British society.
This is still a real possibility according to one school of thought. The Blair
Government is still workingto build a consensus among European allies to support
an American anti-terror strategy, despite the clearly expressed reservations
from Germany and Italy yesterday. The Government is anxious that America should
not launch a unilateral strike against Afghanistan, but it is feared it will be
hard for President Bush to resist the growing pressure from American public
opinion to strike back very soon.
Fears are growing for the position of General Pervez Masharraf of Pakistan, who
faces growing hostility from the millions of Afghan refugees and Pakistani
Muslims who see Bin Laden as a hero. Recently the general confessed to an
official that he felt in personal danger every day.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
Madrid - A 35-year-old Colombian man died at a Madrid hospital on Tuesday,
becoming the fourth victim of a presumed professional killer who also shot dead
three women.
The killings of the four Colombians have shocked the residents of the Spanish
capital where seven Colombians have been killed in three months.
The killer entered the flat where the four were living in a Madrid suburb on
Monday, shooting at them 10 times at close range.
The women, who were aged from 31 to 55 years, were killed. The man, who is
thought to have been the son of one of the women, was seriously injured.
The killer fled by car. Police believe the crime to have been a settlement of
accounts among drug traffickers, as cocaine was found in the apartment.
Sixty-three people have been killed in Madrid this year, an increase of 60 per
cent from last year. Police blame the increase mainly on the arrival of
Colombian drug traffickers and of criminals from eastern Europe. - Sapa-DPA
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 18, 2001
Fifty rebels were reportedly killed in Burundi on Wednesday when the navy sank a
boat they were traveling in on Lake Tanganyika near the port town of Nyanza-lac
in southwest Burundi, army spokesman Col Augustin Nzabampema told AFP on Friday.
"A military vessel attacked two rebel boats, one was sunk with the crew and
rebels it was carrying, while the second managed to escape to Ubwari, a lake
island in the DRC," AFP quoted Nzabampema as saying. The island is allegedly
used as a haven by Burundian rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la
democratie (FDD).
Because of security concerns, fishing has been banned since Wednesday in
Burundian waters of Lake Tanganyika. "Rebels were stepping up attacks on
civilian boats, they even attacked a Tanzanian boat. It is hard to tell the
fishing boats from the rebel boats," Nzabampema was quoted by AFP as saying.
+ + + +
This Day (Lagos)
September 18, 2001
Ademola Adeyemo
Ibadan
Oyo State Police Command were on the trail of unknown gunmen who were allegedly
after the life of the Secretary-General of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE),
Justice Adewale Thompson.
Already armed policemen have been posted to guard the Idi-Ishin residence of the
retired Judge following the alleged assassination attempt.
Four men said to be armed with dangerous weapons were alleged to have visited
the residence of the YCE leader last Friday in search of Justice Thompson who
was fortunately away in Lagos. An eye witness said yesterday that one of the
suspected assassins offered to get to one of the Thompson's aide if he could
provide information about his boss' whereabout.
However THISDAY could not get the retired judge's comment yesterday at his Idi
Ishin home as his wife said he was resting .
Meanwhile the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Oyo State branch yesterday condemned
the assassination attempt on Thompson's life warning that any attempt from any
quarter to eliminate Yoruba leaders would be resisted by the organisation.
Comrade Gbenga Elegbede, the organisation's secretary-general appealed to the
police to intensify efforts at getting the culprits and ascertaining the motives
for the assassination attempt.
"Yoruba cannot avoid to lose any of its leaders again having done so in the
death of Chief MKO Abiola, Alhaja Kudira Abiola, Chief Alfred Rewane and Alhaja
Suliat Adedeji," Elegbede said.
+ + + +
This Day (Lagos)
September 18, 2001
Joseph Adeyeye
Lagos
Two expatriate pilots, working for an oil service firm, Bristol Helicopters,
were seriously injured last week after an armed robbery gang opened fire on
their vehicle in Lagos.
According to a police source, Captain Allistair Kennedy, a Briton, and Captain
Lion, a Malaysian, were on their way to Bristol Helicopters, Local Airport
Ikeja, when the robbers struck.
The seven-man robbery gang reportedly attacked them at 7/8 Bus Stop, on the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Road, at about 6.30 A.M.
The two in the company of three other staff of the company were in a Mercedes
Benz with Reg. No. BT 724 KTU.
After riddling the vehicle with bullets the robbers were said to have swooped on
them and dispossessed them of an unspecified amount of money.
The victims were reported to have been rushed to Kupa Medical Hospital, Ajao
Estate, from where they were later transferred to the Shell Medical Clinic,
Marina, Lagos, because of their precarious condition.
Meanwhile, five members of police patrol team, Dragon Charlie 004, were being
questioned on an alleged forceful extortion after a complaint was lodged against
them by a Lagos-based businessman.
According to a competent police source, one Alhaji Ali Mohammed, recently had
claimed that the police team led by an Inspector was responsible for the loss of
N50,000 which he entrusted to his driver.
The businessman reportedly told the police authorities that the patrol team on
the 3rd of September stopped his driver while he was on a trip to deliver 600
bags of rice and shot and punctured his tyres for an undisclosed reason..
He said this was after his driver showed the policemen a waybill No. 300, which
showed that the consignment was legal.
Apart from the money, the driver also claimed that he lost a wristwatch during
the encounter.
A police source who confirmed the incident said the affected policemen were
being investigated by the police A22 department.
+ + + +
The Progress (Freetown)
September 18, 2001
William Fewry
Three trucks of pro-government Kamajor militia arrived in the capital Freetown
over the weekend in a move sending chilling fears in the spines of many city
residents that the ruling SLPP is up to something sinister.
The Kamajors were loaded in MAN Diesel military trucks shipped probably from the
southern town of Bo and some part of the east.
The arrival in the capital of the pro government militia comes at a time when
the incumbent government time to rule expires on the 26th of this month.
There are growing calls by the oppositions and the civil society for the
formation of an interim government as well as the setting of a national
consultative conference to chart the way forward out of the country's political
mess.
Both suggestion by the people and opposition parties have so fall on the deaf
ears of the ruling party.
Yesterday President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's Chief Adviser Dr Sama Banya-a political
prostitute named some individuals whom he said are bent to create problems in
the country. Earlier the Deputy Defense Minister and Head of the local militia
Sam Hinga Norman told pressmen that any individual who is bent to cause havoc
within the capital will be doing so at his or her own peril.
+ + + +
The Progress (Freetown)
September 18, 2001
Timothy Jazabe
The controversial independent journalist organization NINJAS have threatened to
resume full time operations if government attempts to muzzle the local press and
embark on the death threats it issued to eight local pressmen on Monday.
An email which was posted to THE PROGRESS from some members of the NINJAS media
group said the NINJAS will not sit by and allow the Sierra Leone government to
embark on muzzling the local press and kill journalists.
"We are watching developments from Bay Wilson and if Kabbah and his SLPP
continue with its invectiveness against local journalists then definitely the
NINJAS will resume its operation" the email reads.
The email also referred to the dictatorial attitude of the present government
over the contentious issue of a consultative conference and the formation of an
interim government while noting that these were "some of the reason which led to
formation of the NINJAS".
The NINJAS media group was formed in 1998 when the local press in Sierra Leone
was under fierce attack by the government and the ECOMOG peacekeeping force at
the time. Fighting to have accurate and uncensored news from the country filed
out of the country NINJAS journalists survived the hurdles and attacks by
military men and government spies alike.
Today, two years since it stopped its online publication it is still viewed as
the country's most respected and widely read websites at the time.
+ + + +
The Sowetan (Johannesburg)
September 18, 2001
THE Government has rejected claims that South Africa sold enriched nuclear
material to militants linked to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. The claim
was apparently made by Sudanese national Mr Jamal al Fadh, who is on trial in
the United States for bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Fadh is said to have alleged that someone working for bin Ladin bought a
cylinder of uranium from South Africa some time before 1996.
The Department of Minerals and Energy said yesterday that South Africa possessed
some enriched uranium, but that it was kept under tight security.
It said South Africa was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The International Atomic Energy Agency kept the area where the material was
stored under strict surveillance and inspected it regularly.
"We therefore doubt there is any authenticity to Fadh's reported allegations Š
enriched uranium was placed under safeguards in 1991, long before the alleged
sale which supposedly took place in 1993-94," the department said.
The denial came amid reports that the US government had compiled a list of
countries, including some in Africa, that have had dealings with bin Laden,
prime suspect in last week's attacks on the US. US president Mr George W Bush
has warned these countries they face retaliatory military attacks.
African countries believed to be on the list are Libya, Algeria, Sudan and
Liberia.
+ + + +
The Guardian (Lagos)
September 18, 2001
Isa Abdusalami And Nzoma Nzeagury
THE Plateau State government has been urged to investigate the source of
sophisticated weapons and fake army uniforms used during the recent crisis in
Jos.
The plea was made yesterday by some community leaders in the state capital, who
bared their mind after the crisis.
They said that unless such urgent measures were taken, residents of Jos and its
environ would continue to live in fear.
According to the Ponzhi Tarok of Jos, Mr. Goseli, the upheaval took everybody
unawares and rudely breached the long peaceful and cherished status of the state
as miniature Nigeria.
He said much is needed to be done to restore the image of the state as 'Home of
Peace and Tourism," even as he advised the citizens to shun rumour mongering.
The question of who the owners of Jos North local council are, which was the
remote cause of the crisis, according to the Ngolong Ngas of Jos North, Nde
Gabriel Gosum, should be resolved.
He said government should take action and authenticate the various claims, even
as he lamented that some people abused the hospitality of the people of the
state to destroy it.
The community leader decried what he called the poor and porous security system
in the state which he said gave room for a lot of wrong things to take place.
The Gosum added that if government is to properly investigate the remote cause
of the uprising, places of worship should be properly checked.
Da Tanko Yaus said for lasting peace to be achieved, government should be firm
and decisive in handling issues involving life and property.
The Edo State Consultative Forum President in Jos, Mr. Murphy Iyere, praised the
government for rising promptly to the situation but said the main problem is
that the youths who formed the bulk of the upheaval are unemployed.
"I think government has done a lot of things to restore peace in the state. But
all the same, I will attribute the problem to the government itself, in the
sense that it did not take precaution when this thing happened.
"Secondly, the security network within Plateau State is very porous. Otherwise,
this would not have taken place. Again, most of the youths that participated in
this unfortunate exercise have no jobs. And that triggered it further," Murphy
added.
He advised the leaders to always caution the young men and disuade them from
doing evil things, saying that "the moment you encourage them to do one or two
things they will do double."
He appealed to all and sundry to cooperate with one another in order to move the
state forward.
+ + + +
Suicide hijackers may have been on board a fifth American transcontinental plane
on the day of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, sources
close to the FBI investigation have reportedly said.
One source told The Chicago Tribune that the FBI was searching for a number of
passengers who were due to fly on American Airlines Flight 43 from Boston, which
was grounded due to a mechanical problem.
The plane had been scheduled to take off at 0810 local time, just 25 minutes
after American Airlines Flight 11, which struck New York's World Trade Center.
One of the sources told the newspaper that the FBI was also "very interested" in
people whose names appeared on the passenger lists of several other American
flights which were in the air when the first attacks occurred.
Those planes were then prematurely landed under the orders of air traffic
controllers in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.
None of the passengers being sought by the FBI reappeared to board the same,
rescheduled flights when the grounding order on commercial planes in the US was
lifted last week.
Florida Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said
the hijackings were intended to be the first in a series of global terror
attacks.
"There has been credible evidence gathered since Tuesday that the attacks were
not designed to be a one-day event," Senator Graham told the Orlando Sentinel.
"There were other acts of terrorism in the United States and elsewhere that were
part of this plan," he said. Those were not necessarily other hijackings, but
could have been terror tactics such as "putting a chemical in a city's water
system, or blowing up a bridge in a major urban centre," he explained.
+ + + +
Eight people have been killed in a bomb explosion in the Pakistani town of
Sialkot, near the Indian border.
Local police say the bomb, which was in a plastic bag on a bicycle, was
detonated by a timing device.
A BBC correspondent in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, says the area was
crowded with unemployed labourers seeking work.
Most of those who died were killed instantly, while many have been injured and
are being treated in local hospitals.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Pakistani security forces are currently on alert across the country for possible
attacks as tensions rise over Pakistan's decision to support possible US
military action against Afghanistan.
Sialkot is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Pakistan's border with India,
just south of the disputed region of Kashmir.
Muslim separatist guerrillas are battling Indian forces in Indian-controlled
Kashmir.
India accuses Pakistan of training and supporting the rebels. Pakistan denies
helping them but says it backs self-determination for the people of Kashmir.
+ + + +
Fears that Osama bin Laden terrorists had planned a second wave of attacks this
Saturday have sparked alarm in Britain and the United States.
The FBI and government authorities have grown increasingly certain - from
intelligence intercepts, witness interviews and evidence gathered in hijackers'
cars and homes - that a second wave of violence was planned by collaborators.
The date 22 September has emerged as important in the evidence, although
officials have refused to say what was planned. The FBI believes that the
targets might have included buildings, bridges and even chemical attacks on the
water supplies to some cities.
Reports in the US suggest that one new attempt to hijack an airliner on Saturday
may already have been foiled. The five people booked to fly on United Airlines
service from San Antonio to Denver on Saturday were on a confidential FBI list
of associates of the 19 hijackers.
Alader Alhazmi, 34, a medical student from San Antonio, has been detained and is
being questioned in New York. Last week it emerged that two men Ayub Ali Khan,
51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47, were taken off a train in Texas after being
found without legal identification and carryingbox cutters like those used in
the hijackings.
It is now thought last week's attacks were arranged as part of a larger plan
with other acts of terrorism. Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, said: "There has been credible evidence gathered since
that Tuesday's attacks were not designed to be a one-day event. There were other
acts of terrorism in the US and elsewhere that were part of the plan. These acts
were going to occur in the United States and elsewhere in the world."
Attorney General John Ashcroft added to the concern. "We are looking at the
possibility that there may have been more than four planes targeted for
hijacking," he said.
It is understood that investigators are focusing on American Airlines Flight 43,
which was due to leave Boston's Logan Airport for Los Angeles shortly before the
other hijackings began, but was cancelled at the last minute because of
mechanical problems. The FBI was reported to have drawn up a list of several men
with Arabic-sounding names who failed to rebook their cancelled seats once
flights resumed on Thursday.
Like the four crashed aircraft, Flight 43 was laden with fuel for the six-hour
flight to California. Investigators have recovered evidence from the cars and
homes of the dead hijackers indicating if the 19 hijackers failed in their
mission they had an alternative target which would have been hit with more
conventional weapons.
The authorities have filed the first criminal charges after finding three men
with false immigration papers and airport diagrams. The men, from Morocco and
Algeria, were arrested in Detroit on charges of identity fraud and misuse of
visas. The men are Karim Koubriti, 23; Ahmed Hannan, 33; and Farouk Ali-Haimoud,
21. Authorities said they believe some of the men may have worked at one time
for a company that provides food service to airlines at the Detroit airport.
The FBI now has 4,000 agents and 3,000 support staff working on the case, making
it the biggest inquiry in its history. Yesterday the bureau issued a warning to
fire departments across America to increase security on emergency vehicles,
saying they could be stolen by terrorist groups and used as rolling bombs.
Intelligence agencies in Britain and America had been expecting a terrorist
attack with biological weapons, writes Robert Fox.
They believe it could still happen. US agents believe terrorists have been
trying to acquire anthrax. Another danger is thought to be the smallpox virus.
According to satellite reports the area around terrorist camps near Jalalabad
has been littered with dead animals, suggesting chemical experiments.
+ + + +
A district court in Belgrade says investigators have found at least 269 bodies
in a mass grave outside the city.
The victims are believed to be male ethnic Albanian civilians killed by Yugoslav
troops during the Kosovo conflict.
Preliminary results of the exhumations and post mortems showed that the bodies
had been in the grave for around two years.
+ + + +
Four thousand retired military men are dying from poverty, disease and hunger at
the roadside in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.
The retired soldiers, who have travelled to Lagos from various parts of Nigeria,
have been sleeping in shacks made of cellophane sheets, disused fibre bags and
cardboard since October last year.
The men have not been paid their pensions in the 22 years since they retired
from the army.
Tired of travelling to Lagos for the money, they have now decided to camp on the
roadside near the army pensions office until their dues are paid.
With no money to buy food and medication and as a result of anxiety, exposure to
rain, cold and mosquitoes, many of them have fallen ill and died.
"It is as if we are in hell here," says Samuel Asor, who described the roadside
shacks as a death camp.
"I have watched many people fall sick and die a slow and painful death in the
tents," he said.
Many more are lying ill in the shacks. "I lie down all day with a burning
sensation in my heart, stomach and chest," says Kiotur Iwher, who has been ill
for six weeks.
The pensioners say that, but for humanitarian groups that are helping them with
drugs and food, they would all have died.
Many of them have taken to begging to complement what they get from the
humanitarian groups.
Some others have taken to smoking locally processed tobacco leaves, which they
say help them cope with hunger by reducing their appetite.
They said the leaves also keeps them warm in the face of the rains and cold
weather.
Restlessness and emotional problems caused by the death of fellow pensioners and
the thought of their families back home are also being suppressed with the
tobacco leaves.
"When we have emotional problems we smoke tobacco leaves and it makes us sleep,"
Mr Asor said.
One other problem for the pensioners is the hostility in the neighbourhood.
Ikoyi Island, where they are camping, is a neighbourhood exclusively for the
very rich in Lagos.
The rich here feel rather uncomfortable with thousands of poor men squatting
behind their high walls.
One rich man has already asked the former soldiers squatting outside his
mansions to leave.
"We have told him we have nowhere to go. If he wants to kill us he is free to do
so," said an angry Gbana Gani.
The plight of the pensioners reflects what pensioners in Nigeria go through to
collect their entitlement.
Due to bureaucracy and corruption, they are often not paid for several years,
with pensions officials telling them that their names are missing from the
payment list or that they are listed as dead.
In the case of the military pensioners, authorities blame the delayed payment on
inadequate release of funds by the government.
Rear Admiral Peter Ebhaleme, Chief of Administration at the Defence
Headquarters, says the pensions arrears will be paid before the end of the year.
But the pensioners camping on the street are hardly impressed with this
assurance.
They have vowed to stay put, whatever hardships they face.
"I will remain here until I am paid. I don't care if I die here," says Mr Gani.
+ + + +
The Post (Lusaka)
September 18, 2001
Ruth Banda
Livingstone
AN instant justice mob in Livingstone yesterday nearly killed a man mistaken for
a thief after he jumped off from the third floor of Musi-oa-tunya building
thinking that was the way out of a building he had entered for the first time.
The man attracted scores of Livingstone residents who were stunned at the
bizarre act as he passionately pleaded for mercy after they pounced on him as he
took to his heels and was only caught at Batoka Hospital by a NAPSA motor
vehicle.
The man named Hemedy Hamwenzu from Chinyaka village in chief Ufwenuka's area in
Monze was only saved by a victim support officer who rescued him and probed from
the man on the circumstances that led to his behaviour.
There was no proof of him having stolen anything from Musi-oa-tunya building
offices. Hamwenzu who was visibly scared explained together with his sister who
rushed to the scene that he had gone to Livingstone for the first time to sell
traditional baskets when one customer operating at Musi-oa-tunya House
approached him and requested him to accompany her to the office with a view of
getting one of the baskets on credit.
After seeing the offices on the fourth floor, the man was given instructions on
how to go down using the stairs as they had used an elevator when going up.
Hamwenzu, aged 27, came to the third floor and subsequently got confused upon
seeing people move from one office to another, it was at this juncture that he
went to the rear balcony and jumped off with his two sacks of baskets in his
hands and managed to reach the ground unhurt.
On lookers immediately descended on him thinking he was a thief but managed to
escape and took to his heels to Batoka Hospital where he was picked up by a
vehicle that brought him back to the building where the mob was waiting to
manhandle him. After being set free, Hamwenzu said he was totally ignorant on
how to get down the building.
He said he had lost K30,000 which he had realised from the business during the
time he was manhandled by the residents. Hamwenzu's sister, Selina Hamweene,
said she was startled with what had happened to her brother. Hamwenzu sustained
minor injuries in the attack.
+ + + +
African Church Information Service
BOOK REVIEW
September 14, 2001
George Mboya
Nairobi
Title: Angola's War Economy: The Role Of Oil And Diamonds
Publisher: Institute For Security Studies
Edited By: Jakkie Cilliers And Christian Dietrich
Volume: 370pp Year: 2000
The book assesses the impact of oil and diamonds in Angola's civil war.
According to the author, singling out the economics of diamond and oil as the
cause of the civil war is not only narrow-minded but farfetched and fails to
fully explain the war. The civil war, now entering its fifth decade, deserves a
deeper and more concise understanding.
The "economy of war" myth is propagated by the Post-Conflict Unit at the World
Bank that maintains that the "conflicts in developing nations arise only out of
economic agendas".
The book in review is a concerted effort of several authors, whose expertise in
conflict and security issues enables them to seek alternative explanations to
Angola's civil war.
In the first chapter by Jakkie Cilliers, Christopher Clapham distinguishes
between four types of insurgencies.
Liberation insurgency sets out to achieve independence from colonial or minority
rule, separatist insurgency seeks to represent particular ethnic groups seeking
autonomy, for example the Shona and the Ndebele in Zimbabwe.
Reform insurgency seeks reform from the government, for example the National
Resistance Army NRA in Uganda and warlord insurgency which seeks a change in
leadership in a country, for example in Liberia where warlords gained state
control.
Insurgency is thus described as "a prolonged conflict dependent upon the
mobilisation of the 'host' population and external support for its continuation
and eventual success".
Another category, resource-based insurgency, is used to describe Angola's war.
The factors that enhance insurgency warfare are the important economics and
politics in response to inappropriate economic policies, the post-Cold War
period that has forced warring nations to seek alternative resources, and
globalisation and its threats.
Assis Malaquias focuses on ethnicity as a factor that initiated and still fuels
the war. He also shows the main divisions between the Movimento Popular de
Libertacao de Angola MPLA, and the Uniao Nacional para a Idependencia Total de
Angola UNITA, the two main national groups involved in the war.
The Mbundu and the Ovimbundu peoples represent the MPLA and the UNITA
respectively. They fight for dominance and capture of Luanda. The UNITA movement
is controlled by J. Savimbi's Bienno subgroup. Thus the Bailundo and the Uambo
subgroups are overshadowed. As a result, group violence and internal wrangling
help to prolong the war.
Richard Cornwell, in tracing Angola's history, shows how the Portuguese wanted
to engage in slave trade and further disintegrate the people. The Mbundu are
accused of aiding in the exploitation of the human capital in Luanda.
The rising coffee prices after 1945 continued the forced labour by encouraging
White immigration and exploitation of Angola. The overthrow of the Portuguese
regime failed to push the country to peace.
The civil war in Angola threatens to spill over into a regional war. Zambia is
accused of acting as a transaction point for UNITA fuel. Other countries accused
of aiding UNITA are Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa.
Aid agencies that have been providing the much-needed social services enable the
MPLA-dominated government to concentrate on the war.
The MPLA government, which is bankrupt, does not, therefore, engage in social
activities that will enhance development.
Andrea E. Ostheimer points out the dilemmas facing aid agencies. One is that
agencies often have to gain acceptance of the rulers in the region they operate
in to ensure safety of their personnel.
As a result, they may be obliged to take sides in the war. Another dilemma is
that refugee camps are mostly controlled by the military, suggesting that the
military also benefits from aid as was the case in Rwanda.
Faced with such critics, aid agencies are now changing the way they operate;
"humanitarian actions should not work against those who are supposed to be the
beneficiaries."
According to the author, aid agencies have to be structured so that they take
into account political, military, economical and moral issues. ¿
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
A London-based Islamic fundamentalist helped two of Osama bin Laden’s hitmen
kill the main opposition leader to the Taliban, it was claimed today.
The pair murdered Ahmad Shah Massoud in a suicide bombing while posing as
journalists. They gained visas allowing entry to Afghanistan using documents
obtained in London. According to the Daily Mail, the visas were obtained using
references from Yasser Al Siri, an Egyptian dissident who runs an Islamic rights
group and lives in west London.
Al Siri, who arrived here eight years ago, has been sentenced to death in Egypt
for a bombing which killed a five-year-old girl. He has escaped extradition
because Britain says there is insufficient evidence.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
According to the Russian special services, the fundamental Islamic organization
"Jamaat Islamia" may be behind Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the USA. The
headquarters of the radical group is located in Afghanistan. It also has
branches in UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the FSB has reported.
Experts from the Federal Security Service (FSB) told RIA Novosti that it was
this group that, in all likelihood, had masterminded and "sponsored" the
explosions that demolished residential blocks in Moscow and the town of
Volgodonsk (southern Russia) two years ago.
Comparing details of the terrorist attacks in Moscow and the USA, FSB experts
pointed out that in both cases the terrorists attempted to intimidate the state
and population to achieve their political goals. According to the experts,
"Jamaat Islamia" has vast financial resources sufficient to prepare and execute
large-scale and well-coordinated acts of terrorism in any part of the globe.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
about that train crash in Utah ........
Although I'm hearing that the authorities
admit they have evidence rail transport
was also targeted...
and the count is now two more planes
may have been targeted for hijack ...
one was a cancelled flight
"Rizla wrote
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
The Post (Lusaka)
September 19, 2001
The Zambian intelligence has directed all its field officers to be on alert as
the security situation is bad in the country.
According to Office of the President, Special Division memo issued by a Mrs.
M.C.M Mwila on behalf of the director general, field workers were further
directed to check the national registration card numbers (NRCs) of all the
prominent personalities who signed the citizens' thief petition against
President Frederick Chiluba with the National Registration Office.
"You are therefore being directed that the security in the country is bad at the
moment, all field officers should be at alert and work with the police," the
September 3, 2001 memo read in part.
"You are further requested to submit and check with The Post newspaper which
carried the signed petition in the public media, let the police record warn and
caution statements from the people checked without delay."
But opposition Zambia Alliance for Progress presidential candidate Dean
Mung'omba condemned the instructions saying it was incorrect to paint a picture
that the security situation in the country was bad because of the prominent
people who signed the petition.
"I know how field officers operate and are capable of doing anything," Mung'omba
said. "You don't give them blanket instructions because they can kill, they have
no limits.
They work on presumptions so give them specific instructions. The meaning of
that instruction is that security is bad because those prominent people on the
petition have become dangerous." Mung'omba said people committed no offence for
asking where their money was.
He asked President Chiluba to intervene "and stop this nonsense, this hit squad
arrangement."
+ + + +
Islamic clerics meeting in Afghanistan have urged Osama Bin Laden to leave
Afghanistan voluntarily.
The clerics also passed a resolution that called for a jihad, or holy war, if
the United States attacks Afghanistan.
A BBC correspondent said that it is not clear if this is the final decision of
the clerics, who ended their first meeting on Wednesday with a blunt statement
from the Taleban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, that Bin Laden would
not be extradited without clear evidence
+ + + +
They hurried through the departure lounge ... anxious passengers slightly late
for a flight.
But the two men pictured by security cameras were on their way to commit the
world's worst terrorist outrage. US government officials today released a
photograph of Mohammed Atta and a man they think is Abdulaziz Alomari, key
members of the terrorist team who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the
north tower of the World Trade Center, killing 81 passengers and crew. They were
filmed as they passed through Portland Airport on their way to
Boston, where they hijacked the flight to Los Angeles. Atta, 33, who had
received pilot's training, is believed to have flown the doomed airliner.
The security picture appears to end the debate about whether Atta really was one
of the hijackers. Yesterday his father claimed he had spoken to him since the
disaster.
In a second breakthrough, officials now say they are succeeding in following the
money trail used by the hijackers to fund their operation. It is now believed
that all 19 hijack suspects shared a single contact within the US who provided
them with cash.
The money from the unnamed source was used to pay for flight lessons, rent and
even cash withdrawals at automatic tellers. Two of the hijackers Hani Hanjour
and Majed Moqed were pictured together withdrawing money from a cash machine in
Florida.
The FBI and the Federal Reserve have sent letters to banks throughout the
country, asking for any records of financial transactions involving the 19
suspects, including credit card receipts.
Investigators hope recent changes in international banking agreements will allow
them to follow the money back to sources outside the US, particularly the prime
suspect Osama bin Laden.
Analysts are also checking reports of unusual trading in the US stock options
market before the attack. An extraordinary number of trades were betting that
American Airlines stock price would fall. A similar inquiry has also been
launched in Britain.
But the investigation into the terrorists is being hampered by questions of
identity. It appears that five of the hijackers were using stolen identities.
Many of them seem to have adopted the personas of real-life commercial and
military pilots. In Saudi Arabia, five of the alleged hijackers have emerged,
alive and astonished to see their names and photographs appearing on satellite
television.
Yesterday, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said it had interviewed Mr
Alomari in Riyadh, and that he had left the US in April 2000. It said the
engineer had reported to police that his passport was stolen when his flat in
Denver was burgled in 1995.
Ahmed al-Shehri, a Saudi diplomat told another newspaper that details of another
hijacker matched his son, Waleed, who now lives in Morocco.
The pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines graduated four years ago from Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University in Florida. Another Saudi pilot, Said Hussein al-Ghamdi,
whose picture was released by the US authorities may in fact be living in Tunis
and may have been falsely accused.
While the US authorities remain convinced that Bin Laden masterminded the
attacks, they are also hinting that a number of states may have helped. The
first criminal charges arising from the attacks have been filed against three
Detroit men.
The three - Karim Koubriti, 23, Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21,
are accused of fraud and misuse of visas, passports and other immigration
documents.
+ + + +
A suicidal fervour has taken hold among Taliban forces in Afghanistan, refugees
fleeing the country have revealed.
According to Afghans crossing into Pakistan, the Islamic fundamentalist regime
is in a state of high excitement at the prospect of coming to grips with its
despised enemy, America.
"They have no fear. They welcome the coming fight," one refugee who crossed into
the border town, Peshawar, said. Others talked of Taliban soldiers greeting news
of America's possible use of ground forces with cheers.
There has also been a rush to join the Taliban. Pakistani men and Afghans based
in Pakistan have been slipping over the border to join up with Taliban forces in
Kandahar and Kabul where commanders have called for volunteers to fight a jihad
(holy war) against America.
Busloads of men have been ferried between the town of Qetta and the Chaman
crossing. Around 15,000 Taliban soldiers staged a show of defiance at the Weesh
trading post on the border near Chaman, shouting anti-American slogans and
daring foreign forces to enter their territory.
Chanting "Death to America" and "Kill the Infidels" they waved AK47 assault
rifles and rocket launchers.
Pakistan's Frontier Corps rushed up reinforcements but the Taliban group headed
back to their base in Kandahar in a fleet of buses.
The meeting of clerics in Kabul, ostensibly to decide the fate of terrorist
suspect Osama bin Laden, is expected to raise the temperature even higher. No
one in informed circles here believes the shura, or council of scholars, is
seriously debating whether to hand over bin Laden. The purpose of stringing out
the process is to confound Washington and to allow pro-Taliban factions in
Pakistan and elsewhere to organise resistance to the international coalition
against terrorism, it is believed.
The outcome of the shura is likely to be the issuing of a fatwa declaring jihad
against America and, significantly her allies including Britain and Pakistan,
all those who support her.
The delaying tactic is also allowing the Taliban to deploy forces. Refugees
talked of tank movements on all the main roads and the main route between
Kandahar and the Pakistan border has been lined with anti-aircraft missiles,
they say.
The Taliban has an unknown number of Russian-built Scud missiles and although
some have been spotted on launchers the Taliban appear to be adopting the Iraqi
tactic of moving them to hiding places. The Scud issue is of great concern to
Pakistan because it is believed the missiles have a range that could take in
most of the country's major cities.
This is yet another headache for President Pervez Musharraf. Officially his
government is saying the prospect of attack from Afghanistan is "unthinkable",
but in reality his ministers are thinking about it constantly.
In another development the Afghanistan opposition group, the Northern Alliance,
said its contacts with the US had "increased dramaticallyî in the past 24 hours.
The alliance is fighting off a huge Taliban attack. An official quoted in
Islamabad said the US was seeking information on possible targets.
+ + + +
The Afghan Northern Alliance is made up of an ethnically and religiously
disparate group of rebel movements united only in their desire to topple the
ruling Taleban.
Made up of mainly non-Pashtun ethnic groups, it relies on a core of some 15,000
Tajik and Uzbek troops defending the northeastern stronghold, Badakhshan,
eastern Takhar province, the Panjshir Valley and part of the Shomali plain north
of Kabul.
Until recently, the alliance's main backers were Iran, Russia and Tajikistan.
General Ahmed Shah Masood, leader of the alliance until his death earlier this
month, made a series of alliances with former opponents, some of whom the
Taleban had driven into exile.
This extended the area where the Taleban faced challenges into eastern, central,
northern and northwestern parts of the country.
The ethnic Tajik Jamiat-I-Islami, led by Masood's successor General Mohammed
Fahim Khan.
In the west central Ghor and Heart provinces, Ismael Khan, a member of
Jamiat-I-Islami and former Heart governer is also key figure.
The second main grouping is the ethnic Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli-yi Islami, led by
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former opponent of General Masood who joined the
alliance earlier this year.
The third main element is the ethnic Hazara shia groupings of the Hizb-i Wahdat
led by Karim Khalili and Mohaqiq.
In addition, some of the commanders formerly under the leadership of the Pashtun
leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, are now fighting with the alliance.
As a strategic thinker, General Massoud excelled in the complex task of military
and political co-ordination between this disparate patchwork of guerrilla zones.
But his success in forging alliances did not translate into significant military
success on the ground.
The alliance controls under 5% of Afghanistan - the Panjshir valley, stronghold
and birthplace of Gen Masood, and a small enclave in the mountainous north-east.
In recent months that paid off in a series of guerrilla operations in central
and western Afghanistan that diverted Taleban forces that might otherwise have
been deployed against the alliance's northeastern base.
But the alliance has until recently lacked the manpower, training and equipment
to do much more than hold its own against the Taleban.
General Masood's death might well have meant the end of the alliance if the
bombing of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon had not inspired possible US
moves to take military action against Osama Bin Laden and his Taleban backers.
This has boosted the morale of the alliance.
The alliance's political leaders are confident now that their enemy will be
eliminated and have stated that they are willing to fight alongside the
Americans against the Taleban.
However, a leading figure in Afghanistan's anti-Taleban opposition, Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, has cast some doubts on that, alleging that the Americans are wrong
to blame Osama Bin Laden for the attacks in New York and Washington.
He said Americans had no right to attack Afghanistan and warned that if they
did, his and other groups would fight against them.
Mr Hekmatyar and his Hizb-e Eslami party were major players in the struggle to
end the Soviet occupation of the country and in the subsequent power struggle
between rival Afghan factions before the Taleban practically swept the board in
the mid-1990s.
BBC Afghan analyst Zahir Tanin says the alliance expects the Taleban to collapse
and it is this hope that is likely to hold them together under General Fahim's
leadership - at least in the immediate future.
The official head of the Northern Alliance is the ousted President Burhanuddin
Rabbani.
An ethnic Tajik and former lecturer at the Islamic law at Kabul University, he
is the most senior figure in the movement and the one who could still play an
effective mediating role between the different groups.
Rabbani holds the country's United Nations seat and has embassies in 33
countries.
His seat of government in Faizabad is dependent on goods smuggled from
Taleban-controlled areas.
The Northern Alliance follow a milder form of Islam than the Taleban.
In Faizabad, women can work and girls can gain higher education.
But during Rabbani's period in office, they were not noted for their respect for
human rights.
Zahir Tanin believes that although people are tired of the Taleban, the Northern
Alliance proved a disappointment and was unable to unite the country when it
held power briefly after the expulsion of Soviet forces from the country.
People are looking for a third way, possibly by restoring the monarchy of King
Zaher Shah, ousted in 1973.
+ + + +
British troops are to be pulled out of Macedonia by next week to prepare to
support the American operation codenamed Infinite Justice.
A key British planning headquarters is being pulled back from an exercise in
Oman to help prepare the British contribution to the operation.
Yesterday US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the deployment of 100
American combat aircraft to the Gulf region.
A third carrier, the huge USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading towards the eastern
Mediterranean and the Red Sea to link up with two carriers already on station in
the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The headquarters of 16 Air Assault Brigade and most of the 2nd Battalion the
Parachute Regiment are due to leave Macedonia next week. They have been engaged
in Operation Essential Harvest to collect weapons from Albanian rebels.
"They have done a good job, and it is all but done," a senior military source
said yesterday. "They are now needed elsewhere for other things." 16 Air Assault
Brigade is the leading rapid response formation in the British Army and
comprises the bulk of the Parachute Regiment with their specialised airborne
engineering, artillery and signals units.
Much of the Royal Marines' 3 Commando Brigade, the other main rapid response
formation, is already in the Gulf region, engaged in a major exercise in Oman.
The Joint Forces forward planning headquarters, commanded by Brigadier Peter
Wall is being pulled back from the Oman exercise to work on plans for British
forces involved in Operation Infinite Justice.
So far British operational commanders have been given no details of the US
operation and they do not even know the precise targets. Commanders of British
formations in the UK and the Rapid Reaction Corps are expecting to be given the
plans by the weekend.
The forwarding of some 100 US military planes to the Gulf, ordered by the Bush
administration yesterday, is seen as a first move in any operation against the
Taliban in Afghanistan, and possibly even Iraq.
It is being emphasised from Washington that this is just a preliminary move in a
phased plan which will last at least five years.
The whole campaign, of which Infinite Justice is a part, is now expected to span
ten years at least.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
Why the Spooks Screwed Up
bin Laden's network is much harder to penetrate than previous terrorist groups
BY J.F.O. McALLISTER
Those who fight terror for a living know the deal. Success is expected. Failure
is intolerable. Last Tuesday was intolerable. Not just because of the volume of
destruction and loss of life, but because anyone who has ever tried to keep a
secret had good reason to wonder: Given the obvious scope of this terror
operation — the number of perpetrators/potential leaks, the elaborateness of the
preparations/potential money trails — how could thousands of spooks who
supposedly had Osama bin Laden in their cross hairs for a decade miss every
single moving part?
At some point, when the nation has moved beyond grief and vengefulness, CIA
Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller will have to explain how
the $10 billion-a-year anti-terror system failed, and how they can ensure it
won't fail again. The answer is not a lack of effort. In 1995 Bill Clinton
signed a top-secret order authorizing the CIA to run covert operations against
bin Laden. Since then his every word has been analyzed, his international
network has been diagrammed by computers, his movements have been tracked in
hopes — all vain so far — of capturing him.
Members of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network keep electronic communications (which
the U.S. is famously good at intercepting) to a minimum. They are encrypting
more, and when they do use cell phones, it is often in an attempt to smoke out
surveillance. "They say things on their phones, then watch us react," says a
U.S. intelligence official. The decentralized design of bin Laden's network also
makes it much harder to penetrate than previous terrorist groups. Many of the
countries in which it operates have less than adequate police and intelligence
services to provide assistance. It is imbued with a messianic ideology that
makes it relatively immune to the lure of cash, the counterspy's usual
inducement.
The CIA's self-improvement could begin with what most experts consider the best
if most arduous and dangerous way to disrupt terror: so-called human
intelligence, provided by informants and agents. The CIA has long been
criticized for its reliance on diplomatic cover for its main officers, which
stymies attempts to recruit locals in countries like Afghanistan, where the U.S.
has no embassy, or Pakistan, where the native spooks keep close tabs on official
Americans. Ever since a 1995 uproar about the CIA's use of Guatemalan informants
linked to torture and murder, the agency has been required to perform "human
rights" checks on its assets. Last week George H.W. Bush criticized the
restriction. "We have to free up the intelligence system from some of its
constraints," he said. The spy game is "kind of a dirty business, and you have
to deal with a lot of unsavory people." But a senior intelligence official
counters that no one proposed from the field has ever been turned down because
of a human-rights check.
The FBI, which monitors al-Qaeda inside the U.S., has been slammed for lacking
deep Muslim contacts, showing excessive caution in penetrating radical groups
for fear of violating First Amendment rights, and tolerating office politics
that has driven out many of its savviest counterterrorism agents.
A senior intelligence official, asked to think big about how to improve the
fight against terror, says, "I'm not sure what can be done other than give us
more money and people." Americans won't be satisfied with answers like that.
Reported by Massimo Calabresi and Elaine Shannon/Washington
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
The New Breed of Terrorist
An exclusive look at the lives of the men behind the strike. Now dozens of their
associates may be at large in the U.S. What will come next?
BY JOHANNA MCGEARY AND DAVID VAN BIEMA
It was so ordinary at the time, so ominous in hindsight. An American Airlines
agent at Dulles Airport in Virginia looked up as two polite young men of Arab
origin handed over their tickets. Odd: they were waiting in the coach-class
line, dressed in inexpensive clothes, but their tickets were first class, one
way. Prepaid at $2,400 each. "Oil money," thought the agent. Such passengers are
common at Dulles, but these two looked a bit young: one, around 20, spoke a
little English; his brother, even younge r, spoke none. And they seemed awfully
thin, almost underfed. The agent saw they had ordered special Muslim meals, but
so had some others on the flight. The brothers gave the right answers to
standard security questions and had valid IDs, one of them a pr oper-looking
Commonwealth of Massachusetts driver's license. The agent wasn't in a rush and
laughed to himself that the two brothers were such infrequent flyers they didn't
know they could check in at the empty first-class counter. But the two were
patien t, pleasant, low key. There was really nothing to trigger alarms as the
brothers and three other passengers of Arab ethnicity boarded American Airlines
Flight 77 for Los Angeles.
The two brothers were Nawaq Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi, who knew they were going
to die that morning. They were two of the 19 men who hijacked four planes and
turned them into deadly missiles last Tuesday, shocking the world with their new
technique for te rror. But they were only the visible agents of the conspiracy.
As investigators and intelligence services worldwide raced to trace their
movements and feverishly searched for other plots, it became increasingly
apparent that the 19 were merely soldiers, p art of a terrible new army that
owes its allegiance to a cause, not a country. There were other hands on the
control sticks of those planes: the masterminds who dreamed up the plot and who
saw it through to catastrophic conclusion. The goal of the new war on terrorism
is not only to arrest perps and break up plots but also to trace those lines of
responsibility as far as they go, to prove moral responsibility for terrorist
acts on the part of any world leaders who encourage them.
President Bush sounded the battle call last week for a war to be waged on a
thousand fronts. The sprawling investigation now under way will help the White
House shape a response: not only an attack of retribution against those who
plotted this massacre bu t also a long line of moves designed to forestall
future attacks. "This is a conflict without battlefields or beachheads, a
conflict with opponents who believe they are invisible. Yet they are mistaken.
They will be exposed," the President said last Satur day. "We will smoke them
out of their holes." Secretary of State Colin Powell spread the word worldwide:
You are with us or you are against us.
At the FBI, they're calling the investigation Penttbom, for Pentagon Twin Towers
Bombing, and running the probe from inside the agency's high-tech Special
Information and Operations Center, a 40,000-sq.-ft. command post in Washington
where FBI Deputy Dire ctor Tom Pickard supervises the 4,000 agents and 3,000
analysts and support people working the case. Pickard's team had received 46,125
tips by last Saturday, which they were farming out to field offices and 31 other
agencies working with them on the case . Pickard, 51, a native of Queens, faces
the colossal task of shaping the information into a portrait of a criminal
organization ingeniously designed to avoid detection. FBI agents are delving
into the training logs and financial records of four Florida flight schools and
others around the U.S., compiling a list of other pilots who could form the
nucleus of fresh hijack teams that might be scrambling for jet seats even no w.
A U.S. intelligence official told Time he believes some 30 terror operatives
were deployed on the Sept. 11 mission. "There's more," says the official. "More
than we have accounted for." And the hit squads were backed, officials now
believe, by a network of financial, informational and logistical support.
"There's a concern that there's a substantial infrastructure scattered around
the country, in Detroit, Florida and Boston, for example," the intelligence
official told Time.
U.S. security agencies must unravel a conspiracy that stretches back years and
across continents. Israel's Mossad, experts in this sort of thing, estimate that
it took at least two years and 100 people to pull it off. Someone thought long
and hard how to do it, then found willing fanatics to carry it out. They carried
different passports—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon—and perhaps
pledged fealty to different radical factions. What brought them together was
first a hatred of Ameri ca for causing their resentments and frustrations, and
then someone who knew how to transform their rage into bloody results. Osama bin
Laden may be the top general in charge, but who are the field lieutenants? Even
usually placid FBI officers called thei r search squads "frenzied" as they
hunted last week for shadow figures who might be involved. To underscore the
broad reach, at New York's Kennedy Airport Thursday, 10 people were questioned,
and one was eventually held as a material witness.
The West had developed a fairly well- defined profile of the typical suicidal
terrorist. That man would be young, 18 to 24, born in poverty, a victim of some
personal tragedy, a despairing zealot with nothing to lose. He would be fanatic
in behavior and belief: stern, moralistic, teetotaling. The status of shahid, or
holy martyr, would solve his earthly issues in paradise, and someone would give
money to his family on earth. If he hailed from the rebel training camps of
Afghanistan, where the cult of jihad gets its earthly gunmen, he would be
fundamentalist in his faith, ignorant of the outside world, immersed in a life
of religious devotion and guerrilla instruction. He would speak not in casual
conversation but in scripture. An intense, carefully nurtured fanaticism would
replace any natura l instinct for self-preservation.
But the 19 men who carried out last Tuesday's attacks were different. They did
their most important training right here, among us. They were "sleepers,"
unusually purposeful men, living ordinary lives as they prepared for
extraordinary deeds; they had ple nty of time to change their minds if they had
wanted to. They lived by the terrorist handbook cited in the East Africa
embassy-bombings trial: "When you're in the outer world, you have to act like
them, dress like them, behave like them." They were older& #151;one age 33,
several in their late 20s—educated, technically skilled people who could have
enjoyed solid middle-class lives. Some left wives and children behind. Yet even
more ardently than their young predecessors, these men made common cause wi th
each other out of some profound hatred for America. Investigators don't know yet
if they were recruited or they volunteered, but their need to do violence to the
enemy and their unflinching will to carry the plan through over months, even
years, brings a terrible new dimension to the dynamics of terrorism.
It is one of the truisims of the modern airline industry that the U.S. trains
many of the world's pilots. The backs of international pilot magazines are
crammed with ads for flight schools in Florida, California and Arizona. "Three
hundred sunny days a ye ar," some of them proclaim, an enticement to students in
a hurry to build up the hundreds of hours of basic prop-plane time needed before
moving on to jet training and potentially lucrative careers. If Harvard, Yale
and M.I.T. draw the world's future bioc hemists, these small four- and
five-plane aviation schools attract the globe's future pilots. Huffman Aviation,
tucked on Florida's Gulf Coast between Tampa and Fort Myers, is just such a
place. The weather is good. Gas and airplane rentals are cheap—you can fly a
Cessna 150 single-engine plane for $55 an hour, 40% less than what you might pa
y in a big city. The airport cafe is open, serving hot, cheap food with aviation
nicknames like "Emergency Descent," a bacon cheeseburger.
For the better part of the past year, as the U.S. elected a new President and
pondered the Internet bust, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi spent their days
buzzing up and down the Florida coast in small Cessnas, building time. Their
training began in ear nest in July. They were quiet and private. For a week or
two they leased a room—$17 a night—from Charlie Voss, a bookkeeper at Huffman.
But Voss's wife did not like their slovenly habits. In the morning they would
pad from the shower with wet ha ir and snap their heads around. "You've been
here long enough, and you need to find a place," Charlie told the two. "Go to
it."
They seemed to be in a rush to fly the big planes. Long before they were really
ready, before they had the 1,000 or so hours any airline would demand of a
future jet pilot, they invested in expensive time in a training device. The 727
full-motion simulato r is a multimillion-dollar contraption that twists and
bucks and turns on hydraulic pistons like a Disney ride. But the technology is
good enough that airline pilots use simulators regularly to train for
emergencies that are too dangerous to practice in a real plane: a double-engine
failure or a fire on takeoff. For $1,500, Atta and Al-Shehhi bought six hours of
simulator time from Henry George, who owns the SimCenter School in Opa-Locka. He
led them through a few basic maneuvers: climbs, descents, turns. It wasn't much,
but it was enough to give a beginner pilot a realistic sensation of how to
handle a three-engine jet airliner. And enough, later, to break George's heart.
"To think that I helped in any way their terrible cause, that my skills were
used f or such a terrible deed," he says. Al-Shehhi was on board United Flight
175 and was probably the pilot of the airliner as it smashed into the side of
the World Trade Center's south tower. Atta was on American Flight 11, which had
hit the north tower 21 mi nutes earlier.
They were not, it seems, alone in their training. Waleed Alshehri, in his
mid-20s, had graduated in 1997 with a degree in aeronautical science and a
commercial pilot's license from the prestigious Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where nearly a quarter of all commercial
pilots train. He surely knew how to fly the large aircraft the terrorists
planned to ram into their targets. He was on American Flight 11 with Atta.
Abdulaziz Alomari told his Vero Beach landlord in July 2000 th at he was a Saudi
commercial pilot when he moved in with a wife and three kids. He was then taking
classes at FlightSafety Academy, often patronized by employees from Saudi
Arabian Airlines. He too would have had the rudimentary skills needed to steer
an airliner. Says a neighbor: "My kids played with his kids. I'm stunned." He
was aboard Flight 11 as well. Of the five hijackers on board, four were
U.S.-trained pilots.
As far back as 1996, at least two other men were following a similar course.
Hani Hanjour, another of the eventual hijackers, was working with a CRM Airline
Training Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. By 1999 Hanjour had accumulated enough
hours—250—to fly with an FAA examiner for his commercial pilot's license. It was
awarded and issued that same year. His address: a post-office box in Saudi
Arabia, though for much of the past year he had lived with two other men, Nawaq
Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar in a San Diego apartment complex.
They were a quiet lot. "I saw them watching and playing flight-simulator games
when I was walking my dog at 10 or 11 at night. They would leave the front door
open," recalls Ed Murray, who lived across from them. It was the closest contact
anyone at the c omplex had with the three. "Anytime you saw them, they were on
their cell phones. What I found strange was that they always kept to themselves.
Even if someone got in the pool, they got out." Another neighbor, Nancy Coker,
36, saw them getting into limos late at night, even though the car that
neighbors said they drove was a gray Toyota Camry, early '90s vintage. "A week
ago, I was coming home between 12 and 1 a.m. from a club. I saw a limo pick them
up. It wasn't the first time. In this neighborhood you notice stuff like that.
In the past couple of months, I have seen this happen at least two or three
times." Last week Hanjour was the probable pilot when American Airlines Flight
77 flew into the Pentagon with Alhamzi and Al-Midhar aboard.
Hollywood, Fla., is an overlooked burg outshone by Miami on one side and Fort
Lauderdale on the other, trying to grab some limelight with a string of sushi
and blues restaurants. One such establishment is Shuckums Oyster Pub and Seafood
Grill, a music sho wcase with the requisite life-size shark mounted on an
ocean-colored wall. It was at Shuckums, on Sept. 8, that Mohamed Atta and Marwan
Al-Shehhi did some premass murder tippling. Atta drank vodka and orange juice,
while Al-Shehhi preferred rum and cokes , five drinks apiece. "They were
wasted," the bartender recalled, and Atta objected to the $48 bill. Tony Amos,
the manager, asked if they were short the cash. "No," said Atta. "I have plenty
of money. I'm a pilot." And he hauled a wad of $50 and $100 bil ls from his
pocket, eventually leaving a $3 tip.
Atta and Al-Shehhi, his close companion, are the two hijackers the investigation
has been most successful in profiling. Before journeying to Florida, Atta
studied for several years at Germany's Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg
and shared an apartme nt with Al-Shehhi. According to German chief prosecutor
Kay Nehm, they were linked with a group formed with the "aim of carrying out
serious crimes, together with other Islamic extremist groups abroad, to attack
the U.S. in a spectacular way through the d estruction of symbolic buildings."
There, in a 780-sq.-ft. apartment in a working-class district, they appear to
have lived a life involving deepening Islamic practice and community. They had
frequent visitors, sometimes as many as 20 at a time, witnesses told the New
YorK Times. The group left their shoes at the door and could frequently be heard
reciting from the Koran. They wore traditional Islamic garb, at least some of
the time. The men often sat in circles on the floor praying, a neighbor
reported. When they caught her watching, they installed blinds. They spoke good
German. One neighbor complained about loud Arabic music. Despite Nehm's claims,
the German sojourn has the feel of a somewhat more relaxed period, of working
toward a goal that was not yet imminent.
Some of the future hijackers developed a connection with Portland, Maine, that
investigators are still puzzling over. Getting to and from that city has become
easier in the past few years as the big airlines have laid on small-jet routes
to link it to Bos ton and other Northeastern hubs. The Portland airport still
has just one security checkpoint, which has a surveillance camera pointed at it.
On Tuesday, shortly before 6 a.m., the camera captured an image of Mohamed Atta
and Abdulaziz Alomari clearing sec urity in the quiet airport for a US Airways
flight to Boston. "In the photo, Atta has a ticket in his hand and a small
shoulder bag," says Michael Chitwood, who runs Portland's 155-man police
department. Both men were dressed in Western garb.
They evidently arrived in Boston the previous Sunday, drove back to Portland and
then flew again to Boston. But this would have increased their exposure to
airline security, which they had to clear once in Portland and again in Boston,
since US Airways an d American Airlines operate from opposite ends of the
terminal. Yet, says Chitwood, "if these guys carried out this attack the way
they did, they had a reason to be up here, but who the hell knows what it is?"
The movements, however, suggest a group of hijackers quite familiar with airport
and immigration security, men who had figured out how to move in and around the
U.S. without attracting notice. This is especially remarkable since several of
them, sources t ell Time, were already on FBI watch lists. Toward the end of
1999, the CIA received sketchy information connecting two of the dead
hijackers—Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhamzi—to bin Laden's organization.
Officials tell Time the CIA informati on was considered too vague to pass along,
but by this summer those suspicions had firmed up. There was no indication of
the plot they had in mind, but there were strong hints of links to bin Laden
associates, including a connection to a suspect in the bo mbing of the U.S.S.
Cole, enough to raise a flag in the CIA database. A U.S. official deep in the
investigation says it has now been determined from Immigration and
Naturalization Service records that Al-Midhar and Alhamzi visited the U.S.
briefly in 200 0. They returned in July 2001, giving "Marriott in New YorK City"
as their destination. On Aug. 23, the CIA passed their names to the FBI and the
ins for inclusion on the U.S. watch list, and FBI agents searched the country
for the two. But they had left addresses that turned out to be useless, and the
FBI never found them until they crashed into the Pentagon. Only afterward did
the FBI turn up the address for Al-Midhar in the Claremont area of San Diego.
The suicide squads seem to have regularly used their own names, or at least
consistent noms de guerre, when they enrolled in flight school, rented
apartments, bought cars. Police have impounded cars they used and searched
apartments up and down the Americ an East Coast and in Germany, hauling off bags
of potential evidence. In Florida, the FBI picked up a discarded tote bag at the
Panther Motel, where Al-Shehhi stayed during the past two weeks. Its contents:
maps, flight manuals and martial-arts books.
Some of the men seemed to use the same Visa card, on which they rang up
substantial charges, and gave the same Mail Boxes Etc. addresses, especially
toward the last days of their lives. On attack day, four to seven cross-country
tickets were billed to the same card. The same card number showed up on the
rental contract for a car the hijackers left at Logan Airport and for a Boston
hotel room some slept in. The pile of credit-card receipts, rental-car
contracts, hotel bills and airline tickets tracks their movements as they
eventually made their way from Florida to three chosen airports. By then, the
ones determined to die didn't seem to care whether they left a trail, but
investigators say the paperwork also opens useful leads in new directions.
Investigators don't know how much the suicide pilots knew about their
confederates before they gathered Tuesday morning at their assigned planes—or if
they knew others would undertake similar missions. But preliminary information
suggests that the ce lls followed classic bin Laden practice: over time, cell
members built up a small local support network to collect information, rent
houses, buy equipment for the "sleeper" operatives while they waited to be
activated. As happened with the East Africa emb assy bombings, agents think only
a few superior handlers—a Commander X or two—sent perhaps by HQ at the
penultimate moment, knew how the final pieces were meant to fit together.
They're the ones Washington desperately wants to find, because they might
provide the definitive link to bin Laden and interdict more terrorist acts.
But there are plenty of clues to retrace the steps of the hijackers in their
final days and hours. Boston seems to have served as a forward staging area, a
big city where the terrorists could vanish in the large Arab population. Three
times last month Att a rented cars from Warrick's Rent-a-Car in Pompano Beach
and checked one back in with 2,000 miles on the odometer. He brought the last
one back Sept. 9. Parking-lot cameras picked up a white Mitsubishi sedan leased
from an Alamo franchise that had gone in and out of Boston's Logan Airport five
times between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11.
Someone, maybe Atta, was meticulously casing the airport, checking plane
schedules, looking for half-empty flights, testing security measures. He and his
accomplices obviously learned a great deal about airline schedules, aircraft
capabilities and fuel lo ads, perhaps even seat configurations. The car was
found there again Tuesday night, containing a "ramp pass" to enter restricted
areas of Logan Airport. Maybe that someone was reconnoitering with accomplices
who worked on the planes, who could plant weapo ns onboard. Monday night, some
of the Boston suicide squads collected at the Park Inn in suburban Chestnut
Hill. By Wednesday dozens of police in bulletproof vests descended on Room 432
to collect and remove evidence.
When the four cells arrived at their takeoff airports on Tuesday morning, they
no longer needed the karate and flight manuals investigators would later
discover. Two teams of five rendezvoused at Boston's Logan, a third group of
four at Newark and the las t five men at Dulles, with their knives and their box
cutters either stashed in their shoulder bags or perhaps already concealed
onboard. Wail Alshehri, Waleed Alshehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and
Satam Al Suqami boarded American Airlines 11 and drove it square into the World
Trade north tower at 8:45 a.m. A few minutes later, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez
Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi departed on United
Airlines 175 and rammed it through the corner of World Trade south towe r 21
minutes later. Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Hani Hanjour and
Salem Alhamzi embarked on American Flight 77 out of Dulles and swung it around
to smash into the Pentagon at 9:40 a.m. The cockpit voice recorder that might
have clarified whether this plane intended to take out the White House or the
Capitol was found too badly damaged to provide any information. Only the
kamikazes who got on United 93 in Newark were thwarted, after determined
passengers decided to die "doing something abo ut it" rather than let the
terrorists crash the plane into their apparent Washington target.
what we know now is only the surface. The unidentified support structure worries
intelligence officials just as much. Officials want to know too the whereabouts
of others from the Muslim world who enrolled at the same flight schools, trained
with the kami kazes and perhaps connected to field supporters of the operation.
More than 100 names of acquaintances of the hijackers have been forwarded to
18,000 law-enforcement agencies in the U.S. and 20 overseas FBI offices in hopes
that a few will help identify t errorists still living. Some raw intelligence
led to speculations there might be a phase-two operation, maybe involving car
bombs. Some leads suggest a fifth suicide effort was aborted when its target air
flight to L.A. was canceled in the wake of the oth er terrorists' successes.
What we still need to know is the deeper connections: the radical affiliations
of the hijackers and the links that connect those 19 dedicated death seekers to
the men who ordered them to do it, and the men who would like to emulate them.
Their personal ag endas are less important than who recruited them, financed
them, oversaw their mission. As Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday,
"When you are attacked by a terrorist and you know who the terrorist is and you
can fingerprint it back to the cause of the terror, you should respond." Now the
public tips and paper trails, worldwide investigation and local canvassing need
to hunt down that fingerprint.
Nearly everyone in Washington has all but concluded the whorls and ridges belong
to bin Laden. President Bush named him the "prime suspect" on Saturday. When you
look at the point of this attack, who better does it serve? The faceless enemy
needs no claim of responsibility to get his message across; he has no agenda
that can be met. What he wants is to make a statement: to carry out attacks to
prove that he can. What better recruiting poster than that searing image of a
plane shearing through the south to wer: it tells the faithful, Look at me, look
what we can do, join me.
The U.S. will have to keep cool in the coming days as it proceeds to give life
to Bush's vow of war on terrorism. It may lift our hearts now to pledge an end
to it, but heartache and heartbreak lie ahead in what promises to be a long,
painful struggle to prevail. "You will be asked for your strength, because the
course to victory may be long," said Bush last week. Even if bin Laden worked
"alone" this time, he is not alone in his enmity. His ideas and thousands of men
like him are still out there.
Reported by Carole Buia/New York, Teresa Brumback and Elaine Shannon/
Washington, Jeanne DeQuine/Miami, Yvette C. Hammett/Vero Beach, Broward Liston/
Daytona Beach, Rochelle Renford/Venice, Jill Underwood/San Diego, Eric
Francis/Boston and Kathie Klarreich/Coral Springs
+ + + +
time
Rizla Ranger UK
The bodies of at least 30 people killed in ethnic clashes in Kenya are reported
to have been dumped in the River Tana in the east of the country.
Kenyan television quoting local officials said armed gangs from the pastoral
Wardey community attacked members of the Pokomo community in the area.
The report said the Pokomo people were on their way from a funeral when the
attack took place on Tuesday afternoon.
The BBC's Noel Mwakugu monitoring events in the region says police have disputed
the number of dead saying that only one person was injured.
This is the latest in a series of clashes between the two communities over land.
Since the start of this year some 100 people are estimated to have lost their
lives, despite government's attempts to mediate between both sides.
Our correspondent says the peace initiatives have not succeed because of petty
jealousies and mutual suspicions.
New police
The Pokomo people are now calling for new members of the local police to be
brought in, claiming that the present force gives preferential treatment to the
rival Wardey community.
They also say most of the rural guards have been disarmed, leaving them exposed
to attacks.
The Wardey for their part complain of harsh treatment on the hands of the local
administration.
No arrests have been made in connection with Tuesday's attack.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
commercial and
military pilots. In Saudi Arabia, five of the alleged hijackers have
emerged,
alive and astonished to see their names and photographs appearing on
satellite
television."
it just gets 'better', innit?
;)
Rizla Ranger UK
The head of the Colombian armed forces, General Fernando Tapias, says that at
least 24 rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, have been
killed in clashes with government forces.
General Tapias said the rebels died during a government military offensive
against the guerrillas in the Guaviare region in the southeast of the country.
He also said that more than 50 rebels had been killed since the start of the
government operation last month, which has involved more than 6,000 members of
the special forces.
There's been no announcement by the FARC confirming or denying the general's
report.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
+ + + +
AP: International -
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Indians turned shotguns and machetes on raiders from a
neighboring reservation, killing seven people and wounding at least 19 others in
a clash over disputed lands in the mountains of western Colombia, officials said
Thursday.
In retaliation, homes and tribal offices of the native group that used the
weapons were burned and ransacked in the nearest town.
Troops were sent in to prevent further violence following the confrontations,
which erupted Wednesday in Cauca state.
Cauca state spokesman Servio Tulio Diaz said the dead are members of the
Guambiano tribe, part of a group that staged an aggressive raid Wednesday
against lands inhabited by a neighboring group of Paez Indians.
Medical officials confirmed Thursday that seven people were killed and 19 were
injured in the clashes, said Cauca's top federal human rights official, Victor
Melendez.
Cauca State Gov. Floro Tunubala, who is a member of the Guambiano tribe, made a
plea for peace and said he was forming a high-level commission to help defuse
the situation.
After the raiding Guambiano party burned and dismantled several wooden shacks
housing squatters, the Paez fought back with weapons, Diaz said.
Tunubala, Colombia's first Indian governor, said a Guambiano woman had been
doused with gasoline and set on fire. She was hospitalized in serious condition,
he said.
In retaliation Thursday, Guambianos attacked homes and tribal offices of their
rivals in the nearby town of Sylvia, about 200 miles southwest of Bogota.
The clash followed a brawl a week ago when Guambiano tribal member attempted to
dislodge people from the disputed land.
The violence is taking place in one of Colombia's poorest regions, which is home
to the largest concentration of Indians in the South American country. Nearly a
quarter of Colombia's national territory has been turned into Indian
reservations, but population pressures have led to periodic disputes.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 20, 2001
Some 200 Ugandan soldiers who trudged through jungles for over two months on
their way home arrived in the northeastern Congolese border town of Beni on
Wednesday, 'The New Vision', reported.
The soldiers left the Congolese town of Bafwaboli, some 110 km east of
Kisangani, early July passing through Bafawasende and Mambasa before reaching
Beni, some 50 km short of Uganda's western border, the Kampala daily reported.
They form part of the 800-member 65th battalion still stuck on the 120 km of
highway between Mambasa and Beni because of a breakdown of trucks and tanks, it
added.
"We are dispatching equipment to them immediately," Brig. Joram Mugume, the
Ugandan deputy army commander, said. These will include spare parts for the
repair of the vehicles, the Ugandan government-owned daily reported him as
saying.
He said the army might have to fly the entire battalion home after they all
reach Beni. However, the daily quoted another military source as saying the
battalion may rest in Beni before redeploying onto the western slopes of the
Ruwenzori Mountains to contain insecurity in the area.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered his troops out of the DRC early March,
in line with the 1999 Lusaka peace deal between warring factions in the DRC.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 20, 2001
Anti-government forces shot dead five rice farmers on Thursday in the
northwestern Burundi province of Bubanza, Burundi Radio Publique Africaine
reported. Quoting unnamed administrative sources, the radio reported that rebels
first demanded that each farmer pay 10,000 francs before they would continue
their work. Late Wednesday, other armed bandits robbed 10 homes in two other
locations in the same province, one near the Gitenge River.
+ + + +
Rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, SPLA, say they have killed a total
of one hundred and seventy five government soldiers in three days of fighting in
southern Sudan.
In a statement issued in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the SPLA said their forces
had attacked a convoy of 12 river warships travelling along the upper reaches of
the Nile between Tonga and Barboy 10 days ago.
Two of the warship steamers were destroyed and 150 soldiers killed.
In a separate clash, the rebel statement said twenty five militia members were
killed near the town of Pam El Zeraf.
There has been no independent confirmation of the fighting.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
+ + + +
BBC North Africa correspondent
David Bamford
Morocco has deported to France an Algerian national whom Algeria has accused of
having links with an Islamist faction supported by Osama Bin Laden.
Kherbane is thought to have fought alongside Bin Laden
The Moroccan security services said that Kamar Eddine Kherbane had been expelled
following questioning about allegations of arms smuggling to Algeria.
He was due to be deported to Britain where he has been living as a political
refugee for some years.
However the authorities seem to have put Mr Kherbane on a plane bound for Paris.
Extradition request
By doing so the Moroccan Government has ignored an extradition request by the
Algerian authorities who stated that Mr Kherbane was a wanted criminal and was
linked to Bin Laden.
That is not clear, but it is known that Mr Kherbane was a founder member of the
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria as well as being a former airforce
pilot and a former Islamist fighter in Afghanistan at the same time as Bin
Laden.
A spokesperson for the British embassy in Rabat said that Mr Kherbane was free
to return to Britain.
He had been visiting his imprisoned brother-in-law in Morocco on a legitimate
British travel document though contrary to reports he does not have a British
passport.
These developments come soon after Algeria said they were furnishing the
American Government with the names of Algerians abroad they believed were linked
to Bin Laden.
+ + + +
India says the Taleban are calling on Afghan fighters in Kashmir to return to
their homeland ahead of a possible US military strike.
India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told a news conference the call had been
issued by Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Mr Singh said he had received "several intelligence reports" about the recall of
fighters, but declined to elaborate.
+ + + +
Special Branch and the Home Office are monitoring the activities of an Islamic
fundamentalist security firm in London that is training British Musims to fight
in Afghanistan.
Headed by radical Muslim leader Omar Bakri Mohammed, who this week called for a
holy war against the West, Sakina Security Ltd teaches Muslim youths how to make
explosive devices and offers courses on weaponry and close-quarter fighting.
The FBI and Scotland Yard have been aware of its activities for more than a year
and have examined if the firm is linked with Osama bin Laden - an alleged friend
of Bakri - whose writings appear on its internet site.
Run by 24-year-old Britishborn Muslim Mohammed Jameel, a friend of Bakri and
closely linked to volatile cleric Sheikh Abu Hamza, the firm claims to have sent
hundreds of young British Muslims to fight in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
It recruits youths aged 17 to 20 at mosques and religious conferences where they
are shown videos of camps in Afghanistan that train men to fight against
un-Islamic regimes, including those in Britain, America and Israel. The firm
claims members of former Russian and Libyan special forces units help in the
training.
Muslim youths pay around £4 an hour to learn how to fight with knives and how to
disarm people at lessons held at, among other places, Finsbury Park Mosque.
There are also sessions on ambushing, live vehicle firing and sniperfire.
Because of British firearms laws, recruits are sent to the US for two weeks to
take part in a live-firing programme.
The firm bills this as the "the ultimate jihad challenge" and apparently teaches
guerrilla warfare, hostage negotiation and combat techniques. It claims the
course is based on live-weapons practice where up to 3,000 rounds are fired.
Bakri says camps are held in Michigan, Virginia and the Missouri desert where
firing ranges are leased. According to him, recruits liaise with American
Islamic groups on arrival in New York and around 400 youths are sent on the
courses each year. Scores of them then go to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan,
where security sources believe some may be in camps run by Bin Laden.
The FBI is now investigating their use of US bases and possible links to Libya.
Sakina Security also acts as a conduit for funds for the Al Aqsa Liberation
movement in Israel, using a Woolwich bank account to send money to Palestinians
fighting Israeli forces. It has also used this account, set up by a member of
Sakina, Frank Etim, to solicit funds for Afghanistan's Taliban regime. But where
they acquire the funds to send recruits to America is unclear, as are much of
the firm's workings.
According to Companies House, the registered office is a grubby flat above a
refrigerator repair shop in Battersea. Records show the firm's company secretary
is Julia Dominique and the only director a 20-year-old Brazilian called Michael
Dominique, who allegedly lives at the address.
However, no records of the couple living there can be found and neighbours say
they do not know of them. Companies House was today being urged by MPs to
examine procedures in setting up limited companies. The firm is only contactable
by mobile phone and a fax number registered to a third-floor council flat in
Ryan Close, Kidbrooke. The flat is the home of Sulayman Zain-ul-Abidin, also
known as the "Amir of Sakina", who is said to be an instructor with the
movement.
Mr Zain-ul-Abidin declined to specify the exact nature of his job with the firm
when contacted by the Evening Standard.
Mohammed Jameel, an expert in Russian military combat techniques, answered the
mobile but declined to discuss the groups activities. He said: "Just look at the
website, my friend, and see what we do."
When asked if it was appropriate for a British firm to recruit people to fight
holy wars in the light of the terrorist attacks on America, he replied: "What
happened in America was an utter tragedy and you should be ashamed of asking me
if what we do is relevant."
Previously Mr Jameel has said a jihad was inevitable and that it was the duty of
British Muslims to prepare for it.
Home Office sources said today: "We are aware of these activities and they are
being monitored closely."
+ + + +
BBC
Chris Lane went back to the country he grew up to help deal with the terrible
disease Ebola.
He was selected because of his epidemiological expertise and because he could
speak Swahili and the a little of the local language Acholi.
But he says his previous experience tracking outbreaks of salmonella and
Legionnaire's Disease in no way prepared him for what he saw in Uganda.
"When I arrived, there was a sense of urgency because we were talking about
death, not people going to hospital for treatment.
"There were a lot of people being found dead on the side of the road on their
way to hospital.
"Everyone was very scared. Locals were extremely frightened because everything
that they normally did had to stop."
People suspected - or even those cured - of Ebola were snubbed by people they
had known all their lives.
The consequences of the outbreak are enormous. Mr Lane estimates between 500 and
800 children were orphaned.
And he says one of his biggest fears was that someone had slipped through the
tight controls on people who had been in contact with those affected by Ebola -
and got on a plane to another country.
"It would be extremely difficult to track contacts in somewhere like an airport
or a big city."
How Uganda was hit
Three areas were affected. Most people who developed Ebola were from Gulu, six
per cent were from Masindi, and one per cent from Mbarara.
The outbreak lasted from October 2000 to February 2000.
Ebola haemorrhagic fever is passed on through person to person contact - and
healthworkers traced 5,600 contacts who were followed up for 21 days to see if
they developed Ebola symptoms.
Mr Lane's work was to note confirmed and suspected cases of Ebola who would be
isolated, and track who they had been in contact with.
Workers would concentrate on any cases confirmed in new areas and race to try to
prevent the disease spreading.
Fatal disease
Ebola can lead to haemorrhaging, severe dehydration, organ failure and death.
There is no cure.
Local customs were badly affected - including the way the tribes buried their
dead.
"Many members of extended families traditionally come from miles around when
someone dies, and the dead are traditionally buried just three to four feet away
from the hut the family live in."
This all had to change to prevent the spread of Ebola.
After the outbreak had ended, he went back to Uganda and helped set up disease
surveillance units so any future outbreaks could be picked up sooner.
+ + + +
MY FAVOURITE CHICK
http://avonteonline.com
;)
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
In a surprise move today the Irish SAS have stormed
Battersea Dogs Home and arrested all the Afghans.
It will be remembered that the ISAS first came to fame
during a siege last year when they succesfully stormed
London Zoo, shooting all the gorillas and secured the
release of the ostriches.
+ + + +
;)
Rizla Ranger UK
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
The IRA have hijacked the goodyear blimp and have
so far bounced it off Canary Wharf Tower 4 times
+ + + +
;)
"Rizla (twice!) wrote
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
Riz's belly rumbles
"Swarvegorilla" wrote
Damn!
Now thats a fuck up!
Ostrich tastes divine and well....... this speak of killing gorilla's
makes me nervous...
Swarvegorilla..... impregnated with carcinagenic brasso, so beware!
Rizla Ranger UK
The East African (Nairobi)
September 17, 2001
Wairagala Wakabi
IN SPITE of recent efforts to mend fences, relations between Uganda and Rwanda
remain strained, with both countries claiming that the other is training rebels
to overthrow its government.
Rwanda is now saying that Uganda is training its enemies in camps located in
Masindi and Mbarara districts, which host hundreds of Rwandese refugees. Last
week, for the first time, Dr Emmanuel Ndahiro, the security advisor to President
Paul Kagame of Rwanda, confirmed that he had information about Rwandan rebels
being trained at the Nyakivale refugee camp in Mbarara and other camps in
Masindi. He did not elaborate.
Kampala meanwhile says Ugandan dissidents are being trained in Goma in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the officials claimed. Goma, a medium sized town
in east part of the vast country, is controlled by the Rwanda Patriotic Army
(RPA), who Kampala alleges are training the dissidents.
Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesman Lt Col Phinehas Katirima denied
that Uganda was training Rwandese rebels and challenged Rwanda to provide
evidence that it was. He also denied accusations that Ugandan military
intelligence was luring RPA soldiers to defect to Kampala.
But other Ugandan security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said
they were "gravely concerned" that Kigali had failed to hand over to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the Ugandan soldiers who defected to
Kigali.
In a meeting, held two months ago between the Ugandan and Rwandese heads of
state at Katuna, Rwanda, it was agreed that the two countries hand over to the
UNHCR all deserters on their territory.
President Museveni recently announced a security beef-up and establishment of
military detachments in several border areas in western Uganda. This came in the
wake of intelligence reports suggesting that dissidents were recruiting fighters
and planning to launch an attack on western Uganda.
Troops were recalled from diverse parts of the country, including far-flung
eastern Uganda and redeployed to the western region, particularly Kisoro,
Kamwezi, Ntungamo, Kabale, Kiroso and Mirama Hills.
It was reported last week that the Ugandan Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence
(CMI) was renting a house in the Kampala suburb of Bugolobi for renegade RPA
soldier Maj Furuma.
Officials in Kigali told The EastAfrican that other Rwandese exiles living in
Kampala were Maj Mupende, Capt Tega and Maj Ntashamaze, who reportedly shuttles
between Brussels and Kampala.
There was also former Interior Minister and Security Minister Thebold Ruwaka,
who was sacked in March and was said to be living in a "safe house," and former
MP Evariste Sisi, who Kigali says fled the country after failing to repay a bank
loan of $652,000.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Ugandan opposition leader Col Kizza Besigye
travelled to South Africa from Kigali Airport on a Rwandese diplomatic passport,
after sneaking past security surveillance in Kampala. During the March
presidential campaigns, the Uganda government accused Kigali of sponsoring Col
Besigye, and declared Rwanda a hostile nation.
Last week, a key Besigye supporter who had just been released from detention on
suspicion of being a rebel recruiter, escaped to Rwanda and later claimed that
officials from the CMI had aided his escape.
The aide, security sources claimed, had been travelling frequently to Rwanda and
was found in possession of a "list of recruits." He was arrested at the home of
Col Besigye's brother-in-law and, when he was freed, he went to Col Besigye's
home, from where he sneaked out of the country.
Security agencies later arrested Col Besigye's wife, Winnie Byanyima, who is
also the MP for Mbarara Municipality. She was charged with failing to ensure
that the aide stayed in the country after she stood surety for him, and a pistol
was allegedly found in her house. Police also accused her of complicity in
misappropriation of funds in a non-governmental organisation where she was
chairperson.
Col Besigye, who is now in the UK has not ruled out the possibility of using
force to overthrow the Museveni administration.
+ + + +
A German hostage has escaped from the mountain hideaway where rebels from the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) had held him for more than two
months.
Thomas Kuenzel, one of three German technical workers abducted on 18 July by
leftist guerrillas, was found wandering by Colombian soldiers on Saturday near a
rebel stronghold 200 miles south-east of the capital, Bogota. He was taken to
safety in an army truck and is now at the German embassy in Bogota.In the midst
of a pitched battle, Mr Kuenzel told his rescuers that after escaping he hid for
three days inside a hut in a local village. He said he had been confused by the
landscape and was worried that he might be recaptured by the rebels.
He said he feared for the well-being of the other two hostages, his brother
Ulrich Kuenzel, and Reiner Bruchmann. After forced marches at high altitude and
two months of an inadequate diet, his brother's heart condition had worsened, Mr
Kuenzel said.
Exhaustion showed on Mr Kuenzel's face during a brief press conference held by
the army, in which he made no statements.
While inspecting agricultural projects near the town of Silvia, he and his
colleagues, from the German government's co-operative agency GTZ, were snatched
by five Farc gunmen and bundled away in a Toyota pick-up. The day after their
disappearance, the governor of Cauca state, Floro Tunabala, organised a search
party of 7,000 local Indians to hunt for them in the scrub, to no avail.
Guerrillas from the Farc, and the smaller ELN (National Liberation Army) often
use ransom money to purchase weapons, and consequently Colombia's kidnap rate is
the highest in the world, with 3,700 kidnappings recorded last year. In the past
six months, 19 foreigners and 1,694 Colombians have been abducted.
Colombia's bitter three-way civil war has raged for 37 years, causing 40,000
deaths in the past decade alone.
European Union officials had warned Farc rebels that they would pull out of
peace negotiations if the three Germans were not freed. A fourth German, Lothar
Hintze, was kidnapped at his lakeside hotel in March by other suspected members
of the Farc.
Colombia Times
+ + + +
Reports from Burundi say there is heavy fighting between ethnic Hutu rebels and
the mainly Tutsi army north of the capital, Bujumbura.
Local officials say that at least two government soldiers have been killed and
several wounded.
The main road from the capital to the north of the country has been closed as a
result of the fighting.
The rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy has refused to sign up to a peace
agreement that calls for a power-sharing government with the mainly
Tutsi-government and other political parties.
A transitional government is expected to be installed in November under the
peace agreement brokered by the former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Military sources have told the French news agency, AFP, that the FDD seemed well
equipped, "with 82mm mortars".
A local official told AFP that the fighting began at dawn on Thursday when the
rebels attacked a military post in Mageyo district, 15 kilometres (nine miles)
from central Bujumbura.
The army responded by launching a heavy counter-offensive.
Army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema, told Associated Press news agency:
"These are regular military operations against rebels that have come massively
from the [DR] Congo, but we have all the means to hit them hard."
He also said that the army was bombarding rebel positions from the air.
President Buyoya will remain in power until 2003
The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge said this was certainly using newly-purchased war
planes.
Witnesses told AFP that Burundi's main north-south highway, Route Nationale 1,
which goes from Bujumbura north to Rwanda has been closed since Thursday.RN1
passes through Mageyo.
Under the power-sharing plan, President Pierre Buyoya will remain in power for
18 months from November, with a Hutu vice-president.
In April 2003, their roles will be reversed, with Mr Buyoya becoming
vice-president.
While most of Burundi's political parties have accepted this proposal, some are
unhappy that Mr Buyoya will remain as head of state for the first part of the
transition period.
The murder in 1993 of Burundi's first ethnic Hutu president triggered a civil
war which correspondents say has killed at least 200,000 people.
+ + + +
Police fear Muslim extremists may be behind an explosion that rocked a shopping
centre in Indonesia's capital, injuring five people.
It is the second time in two months that a blast has shaken the Atrium Mall in
central Jakarta.
Five people are reported to have been injured.
Eight cars were badly wrecked and some were torn apart by the explosion in the
car park.
Investigators have yet to confirm whether it was caused by an accident or a
bomb.
"Looking at the force of the blasts, it could have been bombs. But we have to
investigate further," Colonel Adang Rochyana, Jakarta's chief detective, told
the Associated Press
Reports that there was more than one explosion have yet to be confirmed.
The incident came just days after Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri
held talks in Washington with US President George W Bush and backed his war
against global terrorism.
According to the police, the bomb which exploded at the shopping centre on 1
August may have been the work of Islamic extremists from Malaysia.
One of those injured in the blast was a Malaysian national who was carrying the
device when it detonated.
The police say the information he has provided led to a series of arrests,
including several other Malaysian men.
They had joined a radical Indonesian group which has been fighting a jihad, or
holy war, against the Christian community in the Moluccan islands, according to
the police.
The Malaysian group is also suspected of being involved in several other recent
attacks, including the bombings of churches across Indonesia last Christmas Eve.
BBC
+ + + +
BBC's Matt Frei in Lebanon
Groups from the German Baader-Meinhof Gang to the Italian Red Brigade and the
Kurdish PKK found refuge in the maze of Beirut torn apart by civil war.
The Shia or "Party of God" organised kidnappings from the parched Beka'a Valley
on the Syrian border.
Radical Palestinian groups recruited foot soldiers from the wretched refugee
camps in and around the capital.
As America assembles an international coalition against terrorism and hunts down
the perpetrators of last week's carnage, Lebanon has once again come under
scrutiny, as well as a host of other Arab nations notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf states.
Unusual suspects
But this time the suspects could not be more different.
We went to see the family of one of the suspects behind the fatal hijackings.
The last time Semir Jarrahi, a chief inspector of social services, spoke to his
son Ziad was two days before the attacks in Washington and New York.
Ziad was 26 and planning to marry his Turkish-German girlfriend later this year.
He was in Boston on his way to California.
"He sounded cheerful," his father told me.
Ziad was "fun-loving"
"I even told him that he could expect a new car when he came back to Lebanon on
holiday," he said, wiping away a tear.
The Jarrahi family cannot believe that their son is a suspect in the hijacking.
The FBI says his name was on the passenger list of United flight 93, which
crashed in Pennsylvania after a group of passengers tried to overcome the
hijackers.
The circumstantial evidence appears damning.
Ziad had a pilot's licence and he was studying in Hamburg, the same city in
which seven other suspects were studying.
In one of his last conversations with his parents he had asked for a loan of
$2,000, saying that he urgently needed the money.
But Ziad's profile could not be further removed from an Islamic radical bent on
mass murder and suicide.
His uncle Jemal, a suave banker, pointed out that Ziad was living with his
girlfriend, which would be completely unacceptable to any devout Muslim, let
alone a fundamentalist.
He had been sent to Catholic school.
He was brought up in the easy-going cosmopolitan atmosphere of Beirut.
He liked to have a drink, was fun-loving and sociable and he never expressed any
anti-American feeling.
To prove the point, the family produced a video showing Ziad at his cousin's
wedding in January, dancing, drinking, clean-shaven.
The family is so distressed by the accusations that they have cooperated with
the Lebanese police and even tried to conduct their own investigations
Ziad's father still refuses to believe that his son has died.
He clutches his cell phone waiting for a call that may never come, convinced
that Ziad is in American police custody, unable to pick up a phone.
Middle class
All of the 19 hijack suspects identified by the FBI come from similar
backgrounds in the Middle East.
These are not the destitute and dispossessed from the refugee camps.
They are members of a small middle class able to pay for a better education in
countries like Germany and the United States.
How young men with prospects could be seduced by Osama Bin Laden's organisation
and turned into suicidal mass murders is the mystery behind the tragedy.
Ziad was planning to marry later this year
Unlocking it is one key to winning America's war against terrorism.
History may prove a useful guide.
Ulrike Meinhof, one of the founders of one of Germany's most infamous terrorist
groups who took refuge in Beirut in the 1970s, also came from a wealthy Hamburg
family.
The leaders of Italy's Red Brigade were recruited at university.
And Osama Bin Laden himself is of course the well-educated son of one of the
wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia.
Having something to lose is clearly not a disincentive to becoming a terrorist.
And much of the investigation will try to uncover how Bin Laden's agents were
able to recruit and brainwash Arab students and get them to a point where they
were prepared to fly civilian aircraft into a high rise building.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
BBC
Colombian secret police say they have thwarted a plot by right-wing
paramilitaries to assassinate President Andres Pastrana.
The government has been talking to FARC rebels to little avail
Colonel German Jaramillo, a head of the Colombian secret police (Das), said that
the plan had been to kill the President as he visited the western city of
Armenia at the end of July.
The visit was cancelled but news of the assassination plot was kept secret until
now so that the alleged gunman could be captured.
And two men believed to be members of the right wing paramilitaries of the
United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (Auc) have been arrested in connection
with the plot.
The AUC, which numbers up to 10,000 fighters, is an alliance of right-wing death
squads formed to fight Marxist guerrillas.
It is funded by rich land owners and industrialists, who have long been the
frequent targets of guerrilla kidnappings and extortion.
It is deeply involved in the drugs trade.
The AUC has long criticised President Pastrana for giving too many concessions
to their sworn enemies, the left-wing guerrillas, and getting nothing in return.
In a recent letter addressed to the president they said they would launch
attacks against a government-granted rebel safe haven of the FARC, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, unless the guerrillas called a
ceasefire.
Such an action would put in peril the entire peace process, which after three
years has yet to show any concrete progress.
+ + + +
allAfrica.com
September 24, 2001
Washington, DC
Less than two months after former military ruler Said Abeid was deposed, another
coup d'etat was reported Monday on the Comoro island of Anjouan, situated in the
Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. The military committee that seized
power on August 9 announced on Radio Anjouan that Ahmed Aboubacar Foundi is now
the "first leader of the authority" on the island.
Avoiding the term 'putsch' and referring to the takeover as "a change of
authority", the radio urged residents to remain calm. Local witnesses say no
shots were fired but the streets were deserted and shops closed.
Foundi's appointment, said the military, was designed "to guarantee the future,
protect the population from any adventurism and consolidate the national process
which guarantees the widest autonomy of each island."
In 1974, Anjouan voted for independence from France and joined the Federal
Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands, which also includes Grande Comore and
Moheli. But in 1997, it tried to break away from the federation and has since
seen no fewer than twenty coups. A fourth island, Mayotte, remains under French
control.
The statement on Radio Anjouan also said Major Combo Ayouba, deputy head of the
federal army, is now in charge of the military in Anjouan, adding that lack of
cohesion among soldiers there, "posed a grave threat to the island and a real
danger to peace and security."
Major Ayouba, a native of Anjouan, returned to the breakaway island in August,
reportedly to celebrate his wedding. But gendarmerie chief Mohamed Bacar accused
the federal government in Moroni, Grande Comoro, of having sent Ayouba to stage
Monday's coup. "According to information we have now," said Bacar, "the coup
d'etat was remote-controlled from Moroni." He also said that his forces did not
want "to act immediately to avoid bloodshed but reprisal is being prepared."
+ + + +
The Daily Trust (Kaduna)
September 24, 2001
A Saudi Arabian aircraft pilot who was named as one of five suspects on board
one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre, has turned up alive
and well in Morocco. The man, Waleed Al-Shehri, has told Saudi journalists in
Casablanca that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and
Washington, and had been in Morocco at the time. The FBI named five men with
Arab names that they say were responsible for deliberately crashing American
Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center. One of those five names was
Waleed Al-Shehri, a Saudi pilot who had trained in the United States. His
photograph was released by the FBI, and has been shown in newspapers and on
television around the world. That same Mr Al-Shehri has turned up in Morocco,
proving clearly that he was not a member of the suicide attack. He told Saudi
journalists in Casablanca that he has contacted both the Saudi and American
authorities to advise them that he had nothing to do with the attack.
He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the
United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al-Shehri to whom the FBI has been
referring. But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, and
became a pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines, and is currently on a further
training course in Morocco. He says he was in Marrekesh when the attack took
place. Mr. Al-Shehri's case is not the first in which there has been apparent
confusion as to the identities of the hijackers who commandeered the four planes
on 11 September. Mr. Al-Shehri said the American authorities, which apologised
for the misunderstanding, have now interviewed him.
+ + + +
The Perspective (Smyrna, Georgia)
September 24, 2001
Liberian opposition leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, returned to Liberia on Friday
and is scheduled to meet with the Liberian ruler today. Last year, Mrs.
Johnson-Sirleaf, along with other opposition politicians, were implicated in the
war in Lofa and were charged with treason. Denying the charges in an interview
with this paper, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf said: "The accusation by Mr. Taylor of my
involvement in the so-called Lofa war is a diabolical lie and Mr. Taylor knows
that . The evidence which he has given in this regard is not only disingenuous
but laughable because he said my name was found on the body ofa killed rebel.
This is stupidity of the highest order. I have to conclude that the purpose of
the accusation is a desperate attempt by Mr. Taylor to react to the report of
his involvement in the Sierra Leone debacle and the fact that I have put out a
press release on the 2nd of August calling for him to take action to clear his
name and indicting him for his failure to respond to the needs of the Liberian
people during the past three years."
About a year after the charges were levied against Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf (along
with Alhaji Kromah, Roosevelt Johnson, etc), President Taylor pardoned them on
July 26, 2001, in Harper, Maryland County, in commemoration of Liberia's
independence celebration.
A few days after President Taylor announced the pardon, this paper contacted
Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf to find out if she was prepared to take the risk of
returning to Liberia? The Liberian opposition leader's answer was positive:
"My supporters are in Liberia. Every day they stand up for me, they take risk.
If I am not willing to take a calculated risk, how can I expect them to continue
to support me. Now I will not be foolish to go when Mr. Taylor says if you come
here I will lock you up. It will then mean that I want to commit suicide. With
respect to the treason charges, the party [Unity Party] went one step further.
The party officials in Monrovia said we don't accept the amnesty from the
president until the court itself cancels the case. Yesterday, the Solicitor
General, Mr. Theophilus Gould, went to the court and presented the document
requesting the court that the government is withdrawing its case, and that they
have no more case against me. The court canceled the case in keeping with the
Unity Party's request."
But shortly after the government dropped the charges against Mrs.
Johnson-Sirleaf, former rebels of Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia
announced that they were going to stage a demonstration upon her return. The
ex-combatants' threats were precipitated by statement made by Mrs.
Johnson-Sirleaf that it would be foolish on Taylor's to arrest her should she
return home. But the Taylor government immediately disassociated itself from the
statement made by the ex-combatants on BBC and said that she was welcome to
return home.She took their word for it and returned to Liberia.
Describing the feeling to be back home, Mrs. Sirleaf said: "I feel terrific,
terrific because of the reception of the people, terrific just because it is
good to be home after such a long while I have seen members of my family this
morning, went up to my ancestral village, I was able to go to my old folks'
graves and said a prayer.
"After an announcement of some demonstration by ex-combatants, I did not come
because I did not want for my thousands of supporters to confront them. It
changed because, I believe the government took a position and tried to lessen
the tension by telling them demonstration should not be authorized I thinkthe
overwhelming call of the people for me to return was such that no small group
could have prevented it."
Asked by BBC over the weekend as to whether she was safe in Liberia or not, Mrs.
Johnson-Sirleaf replied: "No one is totally safe in Liberia for many reasons. I
feel as safe as anyone else."
"Now that the door is opened, I will be coming back, and I will be
stayinglonger".
Mrs. Sirleaf did not say as to whether she is eyeing the presidency in 2003 or
not. She said her party has launched a membership drive to build an institution:
"We have to build an institution. We got to be able to have a party that can
function effectively, whether I'm here [or] whether I'm not here."
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 22, 2001
The head of the rebel Saharan Armed Revolutionary Forces (FARS - Forces armees
revolutionnaires du Sahara) in Niger has died in violent clashes with government
forces near the Libyan border, AFP reported state radio as saying.
The report said FARS leader Chahayi Barkaye was killed just over a week ago.
There were no details of other casualties but, according to the radio, 12 rebels
were captured during the two-hour confrontation between government forces and
several hundred rebels. The army recovered sixteen 4x4 vehicles - some equipped
with heavy machine guns - rocket launchers, anti-personnel mines, assault rifles
and communications equipment, the radio said.
FARS is the only group which has refused to disarm in keeping with a peace
accord signed by the government and Tuareg and Toubou rebel groups in 1995, AFP
quoted a military source as saying.
The agreement gave amnesty to all those involved in the war, which began in the
early 90s, while demobilised rebels were to be integrated in the army and public
service. However some fighters, disappointed by the slow implementation of the
accord, resumed attacks on military targets in 1997 until a new peace deal was
signed later that year.
+ + + +
This Day (Lagos)
September 24, 2001
Lagos
The United Nations (UN) have been urged to intervene in Nigeria's political
problems by convening a session and judicial commission on the matters affecting
the nation's body polity. A group under the aegis of Covenant Party made this
plea in a statement signed by messres Bunmi Olusona and Sola Otitolaye,
President and Secretary respectively.
In the statement addressed to the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Anan, the group
said it was expedient for the global body to carry out the assistance in view of
some grave problems threatening the polity in Nigeria, ad-ding that there was a
glaring evidence that the Yorubas were no longer contended with staying together
other groups in the country. The group however traced the situation to what it
described as "hapharzard manner in which the British at independence lumped
together different ethnic groups in the country", saying such arrangement was
fraught with dangers as people could resort to things that might bring
casualties.
Continuing, the group alleged that tampering with the unique feature of the 1959
and 1963 constitutions by the Hausa/ Fulani had created civil war, political
unrest which have thus led to lack of progress and development amongst the
Yorubas, noting that the patience of the Yoruba ended in 1993 when the North
allegedly annulled the June 12 elections.
"That barbaric annullment poignantly captured the arrogance of the Hausa/Fulani
unwillingness to relinquish political power, whatever the consequences", the
group stated. Following this however, it maintained that the race had no options
other than join the developed and civilised world.
It therefore called on UN leadership to conduct a referendum to decide whether
or not the Yoruba wish to remain with or leave the country, stressing also that
the representatives of the Yoruba, Ijaw, Ogoni, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani should appear
before the commission whilst it promised to cooperate.
+ + + +
September 24, 2001
AP: International -
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Suspected leftist rebels Monday kidnapped the attorney
general's wife, a woman who formerly served as culture minister, police said.
Consuelo Araujo, 62, was missing along with 10 others traveling with her,
including two body guards.
Police said the kidnappers grabbed the group at a roadblock near the provincial
capital of Valledupar, Araujo's hometown about 420 miles north of Bogato.
Araujo served as culture minister under President Andres Pastrana until her
husband, Edgardo Maya, roise to attorney general in December. She resigned to
avoid a conflict of interest.
Police said leftists rebels are suspected, and both the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, roam the
region where Araujo was taken.
Araujo's brother, Fernando Araujo, a former economic development minister, was
kidnapped by the FARC in December in the coastal town of Cartagena. He still is
held. The FARC is also holding four congressmen captive.
Leftist rebels and rightist paramilitaries set up road blocks on rural highways
in an effort to kidnap the weathy and powerful. The practice, called ``miracle
fishing,'' has forced thousands of Colombians to abandon the highways.
More than 1,700 people were kidnapped in the first seven months of the year -
about a third of them by the FARC, the largest rebel group in the country.
Colombia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world.
The hostages are often held months while their families negotiate ransom
payments. Kidnappers have also demanded prisoner swaps or political concessions
in exchange for releasing high profile hostages.
+ + + +
September 24, 2001
AP: International -
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Anti-drug troops fought with leftist rebels in
Colombia's chief cocaine-producing province in one of several weekend clashes
that left 26 guerrillas dead, the army said Monday.
Authorities also announced the arrests of two suspects in what they said was a
plot by the country's right-wing paramilitaries to assassinate President Andres
Pastrana last July. The paramilitaries oppose Pastrana's efforts to make peace
with the rebels.
Soldiers trained under a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package were among the government
troops in a battle against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
in the southern state of Putumayo on Sunday, an army spokesman said. Eight
guerillas were killed.
Government forces killed 15 other FARC members in towns across Cundinamarca
state, which includes the capital, Bogota, and three guerrillas died in clashes
elsewhere, the army said. No army casualties were reported.
Putumayo, bordering Ecuador, is Colombia's largest source of coca, the raw
material for cocaine. The FARC taxes and protects drug laboratories and coca
plantations in the area.
Washington insists its aid is meant to fight drugs, not rebels, but U.S.
officials consider any rebel units involved in the drug trade a legitimate
target for U.S.-trained troops. U.S. Special Forces trainers have instructed
some 3,000 anti-drug troops based in southern Colombia.
The rebel deaths were the latest in Colombia's 37-year war, which kills some
3,500 people every year, most of them civilians. The war pits the FARC and other
leftist guerrillas against government forces and rightist paramilitaries with
clandestine ties to the military.
German Jaramillo, director of the secret police, or DAS, said late Monday that
two men were arrested over the weekend in connection with a paramilitary plot to
kill Pastrana in the town of Armenia, 110 miles west of the capital. He did not
name the suspects.
Pastrana was planning to travel to Armenia on July 31 to attend a ceremony
presenting houses to victims of a 1999 earthquake, but the trip was canceled at
the insistence of security officials, Jaramillo said. His statement was the
first time authorities revealed the alleged plot.
The paramilitary United Self-Defense Force, or AUC, is particularly critical of
his 1998 decision to cede a Switzerland-sized territory in southern Colombia to
the FARC in a bid to jump-start stalled peace talks.
+ + + +
The Chinese authorities have executed a man convicted of detonating a stockpile
of illegal explosives, killing at least 47 people.
The man, Ma Hongqing, was shot after being sentenced at a public rally in
Shaanxi province in central China, where the blast happened in July.
Reports in the Chinese media say Mr Ma blew up the explosives, belonging to a
rival illegal producer, after failing in an attempt to steal them.
Correspondents say police across China have been ordered to take measures
against illegal manufacturers of explosives.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
+ + + +
Qoqaz
24-09-2001
According to the Swedish newspaper Expressen a Said Bahaji - wanted for
participation in the terrorist act against World trade center - was a member of
the Qoqaz.de mailing list. The newspaper describes Qoqaz as a website "dedicated
to Jihad in Chechnya" and "containing terrorist instructions". It is further
mentioned that the memberregister of Qoqaz.de has been hacked, and the names of
all members are available on a website registered in Switzerland (no webaddress
mentioned). The article does without doubt give the reader the impression that
being a member of the Qoqaz mailing list is the same as being in favor of
terrorism. In addition a spokesman of the German state prosecutor is quoted as
saying that part of the investigation against Bahaji is focused on the internet.
Members of Qoqaz mailing lists (and other mailing lists connected to Chechnya as
well) ought to take this as a warning; if you care about the suffering of
(Chechen) Muslims you might be suspected of terrorism.
+ + + +
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 12, 2001
Biologist Dr Michael Fay of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society
(WCS) has made an impassioned appeal to save the Langoue Forest, a pristine area
of more than 600,000 acres within the Congo jungle in Gabon, Business Wire
reported on Tuesday.
Speaking at a recent conference sponsored by Environmental Systems Research
Institute, Inc. (ESRI) held in California, Fay indicated that US $3.5 million is
needed immediately to purchase the logging rights to the forest and return it to
the public domain. This is the first step in creating the Langoue National Park,
which will preserve the land.
Fay recently made a 15-month exploratory trek through a remote forest corridor
spanning the Republic of Congo (ROC), Central African Republic (CAR), and Gabon,
including the Langoue Forest, in order to systematically survey the plant and
wildlife in the region and to determine the human impact of sparsely populated
villages in the region. By documenting the near-pristine wilderness of central
Africa, Fay said he hopes to convince the world of the importance of preserving
the region. "My mission is to raise the US $3.5 million needed to purchase
logging rights to this forest and to support legislation to make it a national
park. Should this mission fail, another magical place will vanish forever."
For more information on this initiative, go to http://www.savethecongo.org
+ + + +
Zambians who brew a local beer known as kachasu want the industry to be
legalised by the government.
The beer is the darling of most unemployed shanty township dwellers who brew the
liquor because they cannot afford the more expensive bottled beer.
Kachasu is fondly described as "catch us all" or "bomb" because of its potency -
one of the beer's selling points.
Consumer Stephen Chitwa says: ''You don't spend much on kachasu. Just a little
will go a long way to getting you drunk.''
Mr Chitwa believes the beer is now so popular that foreigners sometimes visit
their drinking houses to sample the local brew.
The local beer, though untaxed, is a big industry in Zambia and is expanding
very quickly.
Brewers want the enterprise legalised and have formed an association to
spearhead their fight.
They are bitter over what they say is the government's blacklisting of a good
beer product which has the potential to be exported, earning the country much
needed foreign exchange.
One kachasu brewer in Ndola's Chipulukusu township, Jason Mumbi, says he is sad
to see a Malawi-made spirit called "Number One" that is just as strong as
kachasu being imported into Zambia.
''The 'Number One' spirit is brewed by local people like us who are being funded
by their government in co-operatives, why can't the same happen to us?" he asks.
He called on the Zambia authorities to support the local trade rather than
simply condemning them.
Mr Mumbi denies allegations that some kachasu brewers add battery acid or
fertiliser to give the drink its bite.
''People would die if we added any of those substance," he protested.
He said the beer is made from maize meal porridge, germinating maize seeds and
sugar.
The ingredients are mixed into a paste and left to ferment for seven days.
Others may want to add some yeast to help the fermentation process.
On the seventh day, he says the contents are boiled on an open fire.
Mr Mumbi cautions that the drink can cause drunkenness but added consumers
should not over-indulge.
"Even the other legally consumed beers have the same complications if you don't
follow the rules.''
A research on the composition and safety of kachasu has been conducted by a
group of lecturers at the University of Zambia.
They found it has about 20 to 30% ethanol - pure alcohol.
The researchers say that if flavoured with fruits, it could be made less potent.
They discovered that the beer contains no major contaminants but added that
basic hygiene must be maintained.
For now though, the government's ban on the drink stays in force, with those
caught facing fines.
It insists the product in its current form does not meet basic health standards.
But there have been no reports of people dying as a result of drinking kachasu
in Zambia.
Mr Mumbi says the beer has been unfairly stigmatised.
+ + + +
Vanguard (Lagos)
September 22, 2001
George Onah
Calabar
War veterans in Cross River State have told the American Government of their
desire to fight alongside US troops when the war against terrorism eventually
commences in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The ex-servicemen who feature under the aegis of World Wars and African Wars
Veteran Movement (WAWVMOV) said they were "deeply touched by the unwarranted and
unprovoked attacks on the American people and military installations there.
Speaking to newsmen in Calabar, midweek, the veterans were of the view that "the
magnitude of destruction and the loss of lives in the attacks of Tuesday,
September 11, 2001 were comparable only to the Nazi holocausts."
According to the spokesman of the group, Warrant Officer Ignatius Odey, "we
sympathise with our brothers and sisters in arms who died, not in war, but while
carrying out routine duties in the offices in their Ministry of Defence,
Pentagon."
"We also sympathise with their families as well as the families of the civilians
who died in what used to be the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) and
the friends, relatives and dependants of those innocent people who died in the
four civilian jet liners, hijacked by the terrorists.
"We have fought in wars such as the first and second World Wars, we fought
during the war in Congo, we saw action in Tanzania, we laid down our lives for
Nigeria to survive and we fought for peace in Liberia and we put our lives on
the line in Sierra Leone."
"We witnessed death in large scale in all these places but nothing compares with
the dastardly acts of those cowards of terrorists, who have set out to destroy
mankind in the name of religion. We have fought for peace in far away countries
as well as ours and near countries and we are still ready to fight for world
peace even in the twilight of our lives" they stated.
Harping on their resolve to go up in arms alongside the American Armed Forces,
the veterans said "to have invested one's youth to maintain peace around the
world, it follows then that, it would amount to waste of one's live to start
experiencing crises in old age."
Consequently, "we have to complete what we started so as to be happy in our
graves if we eventually die fighting for peace to reign in the world", adding
that, America does not deserve what it has been subjected to, pointing out that,
"an unwarranted attack must be responded to with equal force and if need be
greater response."
They then called on the Nigerian Legion to rise up to the challenge and offer
assistance "where necessary" to the US soldiers, stating that, what happened in
America could happen anywhere given the volatile nature of the Nigerian society
in respect of religious bigotry amongst adherents.
Furthermore, the ex-servicemen want President Obasanjo to work out ways of
protecting the country's borders "as most of our borders are porous and
foreigners flood the country unchecked and these people could be dangerous and
may become the enemy if any fighting erupts in Nigeria."
Also, the men want the Federal Government to tell Nigerians the number of its
citizens who died "during or after the attacks as the country should not create
the impression that it does not know the number of its citizens in various
countries of the world.
Meanwhile, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has pledged to
fully support American people in their resolve to bring those who were
responsible for the terrorist attacks on their country, to book.
To also show their concern over the terrorist attacks that had claimed hundreds
of lives, Ogoni people under the auspices of MOSOP, will, at the weekend,
organise a special interdenominational church serve at Bori in sympathy with the
government and people of America.
Reacting officially to the terrorist attacks on America, MOSOP information
officer, Mr. Bari ara Kpalap said, "MOSOP and indeed the entire people of Ogoni
vehemently condemn in very strong terms the appalling and unprovoked attacks on
the American people which led to the lose of many innocent lives and property."
He averred that, Ogoni people could understand the "feeling of shock and loss
that comes with such outrageous attacks against innocent people and we offer our
solidarity and heartfelt support for the American people who did nothing to
merit such punitive actions of the terrorists.
"We are deeply shocked and concerned at the devastating act. We feel morally
obliged to stand up and challenge the misguided hatred which has inspired such
acts. If commitment of the American people to the rights and freedom of others
allows such hatred and insanity to breed, then we will speak up in defence of
justice, with renewed vigour," MOSOP vowed.
The entire world was urged by MOSOP to feel a sense of loss at such a vicious
attacks on America which symbolises the freedom to which we aspire, stressing
that the people of Ogoni would have no reason to support these dastardly acts.
"We, therefore, pledge to cooperate fully with the American people in ensuring
that justice prevails. Our position may likely not dull the pains of many who
may have suffered in one way or the other as a result of the attacks, but we
hope to convey that we all feel attacked", MOSOP added.
MOSOP remarked that "in a further demonstration of our solidarity and
commiseration, we, the Ogoni people will on Saturday, September 22, 2001 conduct
a special inter-denomination church service at Bori to offer prayers for the
repose of the souls of those who lost their lives in the attack."
We will also pray for the quick healing of the injured, as well as asking God to
grant the government and the people of the United States the fortitude to bear
the irreparable losses, including strength and wisdom with which to handle the
sad development" the movement stated.
+ + + +
Reuters
24-09-2001
A senior Afghan cleric said on Tuesday the ruling Taliban would launch a jihad
against the United States, but officials of the Islamic movement quickly said
that he was in no position to declare a holy war.
The final decision lies with a council of clerics due to convene this week,
officials said.
Afghanistan, which has given refuge to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, the top
suspect in last week's devastating attacks in New York and Washington, could be
a target in case of a U.S. military reprisal, possibly sparking a Taliban jihad
in retaliation.
But what does the term really mean?
What jihad is
* The Arabic word jihad is often translated as "holy war," but a more accurate
translation is "holy struggle." Islamic scholars say the term "holy war" was
actually coined in Europe during the Crusades to mean a war against the Muslims.
* In a purely linguistic sense, the word jihad means struggling or striving.
There are two different, unrelated words that mean war.
* In a religious sense, as described by the Koran and teachings of the Prophet
Mohammed, jihad means striving for the benefit of the community or the restraint
of personal sins. It can refer to internal as well as external efforts to be a
good Muslim or believer. Scholars say it primarily refers to efforts to improve
oneself.
* Jihad is a religious duty.
* If jihad is required to protect the faith against others, it can be performed
using anything from legal, diplomatic and economic to political means. If there
is no peaceful alternative, Islam also allows the use of force, but there are
strict rules of engagement. Innocents - such as women, children, or invalids -
must never be harmed, and any peaceful overtures from the enemy must be
accepted.
* Military action is therefore only one means of jihad, and is very rare. To
highlight this point, the Prophet Mohammed told his followers returning from a
military campaign: "This day we have returned from the minor jihad to the major
jihad," which he said meant returning from armed battle to the peaceful battle
for self-control and betterment.
* In case military action appears necessary, not everyone can declare jihad. The
religious military campaign has to be declared by a proper authority, advised by
scholars, who say the religion and people are under threat and violence is
imperative to defend them. The concept of "just war" is very important.
* The concept of jihad has been hijacked by many political and religious groups
over the ages in a bid to justify various forms of violence. In most cases,
Islamic splinter groups invoked jihad to fight against the established Islamic
order. Scholars say this misuse of jihad contradicts Islam.
* Examples of sanctioned military jihad include the Muslims' defensive battles
against the Crusaders in medieval times, and before that some responses by
Muslims against Byzantine and Persian attacks during the period of the early
Islamic conquests.
What jihad is not
* Jihad is not a violent concept.
* Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions. It is worth noting
that the Koran specifically refers to Jews and Christians as "people of the
book" who should be protected and respected. All three faiths worship the same
God. Allah is just the Arabic word for God, and is used by Christian Arabs as
well as Muslims.
* Military action in the name of Islam has not been common in the history of
Islam. Scholars says most calls for violent jihad are not sanctioned by Islam.
* Warfare in the name of God is not unique to Islam. Other faiths throughout the
world have waged wars with religious justifications.
+ + + +
Business Day (Johannesburg)
EDITORIAL
September 24, 2001
Johannesburg
IF POST-APARTHEID SA has proved anything at least up until now it is that indeed
it's not every principle that is worth dying for.
For some of us the experience of the past seven years or so has had such a
strange ambivalence about it, that to publicise some of our thoughts leaves us
feeling naked and exposed, vulnerable to all sorts of humiliation, even
insanity.
Tis true, though, that under apartheid, in order to maintain law and order' at
all costs, whites in this country had elaborate fantasies about what the kaffirs
could do to them in the absence of tight security.
In terms of their twisted logic the enemy was not within. No. The enemy was out
there the "instigator" that was Steve Biko; the "klipgooiers" that became of the
black youth who drew inspiration from Biko; the
"cryptocommunists-trying-very-hard-tobe-religious-leaders", like Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and the Rev Frank Chikane; as well as the savage "terrorists"
personified in the likes of exiled leaders of the liberation movement such as
Oliver Tambo.
Theories about what such people were up to had to be wild, suspicions about them
truly whacky. All that the apartheid establishment wanted to hear was its own
voice, pretending it was the only voice, the only truth.
By applying coercion and intimidation tactics to all South Africans, ignorance
about the facts was maintained and paranoia was left to flourish.
The obvious lie, therefore, was being sustained, as whites in this country truly
believed they were under a siege from their irascible bloodthirsty black
compatriots.
What white SA failed to see, was that all that apartheid apologists wanted to
do, was to mask the reality that they were taking the country to the cleaners.
Apartheid's legacy now lives with us. Among its consequences: destitution and
racial polarisation. It was such memories that were evoked on Wednesday, when US
president George Bush made that call to President Thabo Mbeki, presumably to win
him over to the US government's desire to teach the terrorists a lesson.
On the same night, opposition leader Tony Leon urged government to be more
enthusiastic about joining the war. The US government is, of course, not the
same thing as the former apartheid state. And the chief suspect in the US
carnage, Osama bin Laden, is not the freedom fighter that Biko, Mangaliso
Sobukwe and Albert Luthuli were.
Makhenkesi Stofile, the Eastern Cape premier and provincial African National
Congress chairman, surely regrets making himself appear to be romanticising the
deeds of the perpetrators' of the attack on the US.
He may have crossed the diplomatic line too, but he may not have been wrong
necessarily, to say the US should do some introspection. Is it not true that the
US made a Bin Laden, just as apartheid created Wouter Basson and Vlakplaas? Who
propped up monsters such as Chile's former ruler Augusto Pinochet and a host of
other dictators like him, if not the US?
Questions of what principles and ideas are worth dying for do indeed look very
absurd in today's world. In SA, those who were once revolutionary cadres sit in
a coalition government with both the fatalistic advocates of loyal resistance to
apartheid, alongside renegades who betrayed our struggle for personal gain and
money.
It's called tolerance, or nationbuilding, or reconciliation. Some struggle
socialists have become the most recognisable face of capitalism. It's about
being "realistic", we are told.
Yesterday's die-hard liberals, who all along had us believe that they were the
do-gooders the Nats weren't, today sleep in the same bed as them, mired in a
blanket of conspiracy the only visible effect of which is the negation of the
wishes of the majority of the people of this country. It's "the nature of
democracy".
When such contradictions swirl, they pain the heart, especially to those of us
for whom hundreds of years of being wronged means we will never restore the
future that we lost.
Our affliction did not take place over a few days but over decades. At this time
in SA, when it is so damn difficult to find a racist or someone who supported
the apartheid that maimed scores of black people, one wonders just how many of
us have so often felt the urge to take up arms just to prove a point, let alone
defend a principle.
When a lot of whites refuse to acknowledge they are beneficiaries of apartheid,
to paraphrase the utterances this week of the leader of the world's first
democracy, George Bush, one wonders why blacks too cannot smoke the racists and
apologists of apartheid out of their caves.
And like Bush, we could possibly solicit the assistance of scores of others who
think alike. Vengeance. Retaliation. The choice is Bush's. We cannot be party to
it. Hopefully Mbeki told him so. We do not condone the atrocity, and Mbeki has
pledged humanitarian assistance as proof that there is belief in this country in
the sanctity of human life.
But one does not know what Leon means when he urges us to join Bush's "new
alliance of civilisation against barbarism" with "enthusiasm". Surely, had a lot
of the people Leon now leads done the same during apartheid, our country would
now be miles ahead. If there is anything still worth dying for, it is that we
are not joining any war, least of all this one if it goes ahead.
+ + + +
The Post (Lusaka)
September 24, 2001
Sheikh Chifuwe
Lusaka
Former mines minister Syamukayumbu Syamujaye has renamed his dog after foreign
affairs minister Sipakeli Walubita.
Syamujaye said he decided to name his dog after Walubita because he was
disappointed with him when he announced at a press briefing last week that dogs,
including his, were terrorising ministers and their families. "I am so upset
that Hon. Walubita made such a bad joke that I have decided to rename my dog
from Cruft to Sipakeli," Syamujaye said.
"But to make it easy for the people we shall easily call it Keli." Syamujaye
said he loved his dog, a German Shepherd, so much that he could not abandon it
under any circumstances. And vaccination documents from the veterinary
department indicate the dog is now called Sipakeli.
Syamujaye said he shifted with Sipakeli when he left the government house and
wondered what Walubita was talking about. He advised Walubita to ask Ministry of
Works and Supply to erect a wall fence around his house so that stray dogs
cannot have access to his house.
"The reason why dogs are flowing into Walubita's house is that the Ministry of
Works and Supply has failed to complete the wall fence because part of the money
was stolen," he said. Syamujaye also offered a contribution of K500 to Walubita
towards the maintenance of dogs.
Walubita last week told a press briefing that dogs left behind by Syamujaye,
former community and development minister Dawson Lupunga and former environment
minister Samuel Miyanda were terrorising the ministers and their families.
He appealed to the former cabinet ministers to collect the dogs.
+ + + +
happy birthday to me ;)
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
Dr Dig tells it to the Diggers ;)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/roces2.html
;P
All they drank was sweet stout!
Lovely!
Perfumed Guinness!
hehehehe
Riz
---
No children without sex - no drunkenness without beer.
-Ancient Sumerian Proverb
"Swarvegorilla" wrote
>>>>>> Riz!!!!!!!! DUDE! Beer sitreps!
:-)
Now thats what i call need to know!
Apparently theres a move underway to start selling beer made from a very
very very old Egyptian recipe!
> + + + +
> happy birthday to me ;)
> + + + +
Indeed!
Have a good one!
Swarvegorilla
>
Rizla Ranger UK
BBC
Power supplies were interrupted in many parts of the Angolan capital Luanda
after suspected members of the Unita rebel movement attacked an electrical
substation in the outskirts of the city
Not since 1992 has Unita managed to stage an attack so close to the capital.
The attack took place in the early hours of the morning in Viana, 16km from
central Luanda, and well within the limits of the greater Luanda area.
An explosion that damaged the substation was followed by an exchange of fire in
which a soldier from the Angolan armed forces and two Unita fighters are
reported to have been killed.
But one eyewitness told a local radio station that no attempt had been made to
pursue the attackers.
Power has only been supplied intermittently in various parts of the capital
since then, and towns up to 60km away are reported to be without electricity.
This is the first time Unita has struck within the greater Luanda area since
1992 when rebels were driven from the city after losing Angola's first and only
democratic election and taking up arms once again.
Since then, Unita's conventional military capacity has been virtually destroyed.
But in the last six months, the rebels have managed to regroup as a guerrilla
force, staging a number of attacks on towns in the north-west of the country.
Their object appears to be to sow terror in the area surrounding the capital,
which is also the heartland of the ruling MPLA party.
Prior to this morning's attack, the closest the rebels had been to Luanda was
when they attacked the town of Caxito, 60km away at the beginning of May.
Meanwhile, President George W Bush has extended United States sanctions against
Unita for another year.
The White House said Mr Bush had concluded that Unita were continuing to
threaten the peace process in Angola.
The sanctions, imposed in 1993, ban arms and oil sales to Unita and mean the
movement's assets in the US are frozen.
+ + + +
BBC
The military leadership on the separatist Comoran island of Anjouan say they
have retaken power and arrested those responsible for Monday's attempted coup.
Major Mohamed Bacar, head of the police wing of the Anjouanese army and leader
of the military ruling council, recovered control of the radio station in the
capital, Matsamudu, according to the French news agency, AFP.
On Monday, soldiers had seized the radio and declared Ahmed Aboubacar Foundi
"first leader of the authority of Anjouan", replacing Mr Bacar.
Anjouan seceded from the Indian Ocean Federal Republic of Comoros in 1997 and
has since been rocked by political instability.
Correspondents say that Mr Foundi is the only civilian member of the military
ruling council.
Government spokesman Salim Ali Abdul told the BBC's Focus on Africa that all
strategic locations such as the port, airport and radio station were back under
army control.
He said that all those involved in the coup attempt were either on the run or
had been arrested.
He added that the situation was now calm and that no-one had been either injured
or killed. Arrested
Mr Bacar said that the coup attempt was backed by the authorities on the main
Comoran island of Grande Comore.
French Overseas Radio, RFO says that the alleged coup leader, Major Combo
Ayouba, had been arrested after proclaiming himself the new chief of the armed
forces.
But Mr Combo, deputy chief-of-staff of the Federal Comoran army, denies any
involvement in the attempted take-over.
There have been 20 coups or attempted take-overs in the Comoros islands since
independence from France in 1975.
+ + + +
BBC
The FBI is stepping up its hunt across Africa for suspects wanted in connection
with their investigation into the recent suicide attacks on New York and
Washington.
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa have all been given long lists of names
of people believed to be linked to the prime suspect behind the attacks, the
Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden.
A list of about 200 suspects has been handed to Kenya, says the Daily Nation.
United States investigators are also reported to be scrutinising banking
transactions in Kenya's second city of Mombasa.
Kenyan intelligence officials say they are investigating pro-Bin Laden graffiti
in Muslim areas of Mombasa, according to the French news agency, AFP.
AFP says that one street has unofficially been renamed Bin Laden Street.
"We want to determine the motive of the writers of these graffiti and who they
are. It could be an important bait", a senior National Security Intelligence
Service (NSIS) source told AFP.
Border controls between Kenya and its East African neighbours Tanzania and
Uganda have also been tightened.
More than 200 people died in bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
in 1998, which were also also linked to Bin Laden.
Officials from the FBI and the CIA have been in Sudan for a year, where Bin
Laden was based until 1996.
Following the 1998 attacks, the US launched missile strikes on a pharmacutical
factory in Khartoum.
Bin Laden's organisation is thought to be a loose coalition of groups operating
across continents with US officials believing that his associates may operate in
more than 40 countries.
Tracking the people, the front organisations and the financial infrastructure of
this network, is an immensely complex task.
Tanzanian police told The East African weekly newspaper that of 60 names given
to them, none were Tanzanian citizens.
South African and Ugandan police have not divulged how many names they have been
given.
The US has pledged to protect and support African states that co-operate in its
international campaign against terrorism.
The US is understood to be seeking varied support from different states, from
diplomatic and intelligence help to providing troops, bases and ports.
South Africa previously helped US intelligence track down Tanzanian Khalfan
Mohamed, who was traced through an asylum application following the embassy
bombings.
He received a life sentence earlier this year for the bombing of the US embassy
in Dar es Salaam.
+ + + +
BBC
Security forces in Togo say they have arrested 16 people in connection with an
illegal arms network in West Africa.
Security officials say the group - 14 Nigerians and two Ghanaians - was arrested
on the border with Ghana.
The officials say they were carrying American-made weapons capable of firing
missiles as well as assault rifles, hidden in their vehicles.
It is believed they were taking the weapons to Nigeria.
Officials say they are investigating the source of supply.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 25, 2001
Traffic is flowing again along the road running north from the capital,
Bujumbura, to Bugarama after army troops pushed back anti-government Hutu forces
that were threatening to sever the highway at a point some 15 to 20 km northeast
of the capital, army spokesman Colonel Augustine Nzabampema told IRIN on
Tuesday.
He said the government troops ejected the attackers, whom he declined to
identify, on Sunday from most parts of Mageyo toward the valley of the Muzazi
River. Reuters reported at least seven soldiers and three civilians dead in the
four days of fighting. The army has not released any figures.
"I cannot discuss casualties," Nzabampema told IRIN.
Traffic had been closed since Thursday when the army took on fighters of the
National Liberation Forces (NLF) a Burundi news agency, Net press, reported. It
said hundreds of civilians had fled. A senior NLF commander told Reuters that it
had attained its objective in the attack and would continue the war. The agency
did not state the objective. The NLF has been fighting the Tutsi-dominated
government and army since 1993 in a war in which about 200,000 people, mostly
civilians, have been killed, Reuters reported.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 25, 2001
Senior military officers from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa are
meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi, to review the security situation in the country
and lay the groundwork for a small peacekeeping mission, Burundi army spokesman
Colonel Augustine Nzabampema told IRIN.
They will also review the composition of the force proposed under a peace accord
signed in August 2000, he added. AFP quoted Burundi Defence Minister Maj-Gen
Cyrille Ndayirukiye as saying the foreign delegation, members of the technical
military committee set up under the accord, were in Burundi at the behest of
Nelson Mandela, the mediator in the peace process.
The committee is headed by the deputy eastern operations commander of the South
African Defence Forces, General Lusse Yan. He said that the peacekeeping force
would be strictly neutral in pursuit of its objective to stabilise the country,
PANA reported.
Despite recent fighting just 15 km from the capital, Ndyirikiye said at Monday's
opening of the military technical committee meeting that there had been
"significant" progress made in implementing the peace process under which new
state institutions and a transitional government are due to be installed on 1
November.
The committee's meeting is due to end on 4 or 5 October.
+ + + +
War News
CP&MARSHO
25-09-2001
Information from the General Staff of the ChRI Armed Forces
Chechenpress
On 20 September a Russian column on its way from the Itum-Kali district to
Shatoi was attacked and totally destroyed. The attack was carried out in the
classical way - the armed vehicle at the head was blown up on a mine, and
afterwards the column, which consisted of 11 armored vehicles, was taken under
massive fire from grenade launchers and machine-guns. The battle lasted for full
3 hours. There were many casualties among the Russian troops.
Military clashes are going on in the big cities of Chechnya - Johar, Gudermes
and Argun.
Operations of the mujahideen in the capital of the Chechen Republic
MARSHO
Several successful army operations were carried out on the territory of Chechen
Republic capital. So, in Staropromyslovsky district, near factory
"Elektropribor", on a radio-guided mine blown up armored troop-carrier (BTR)
therefore killed 2 and wounded some occupiers.
In the city center of Johar mujahideen from the L. (Lechi) Dudayev subunit, have
carried out attack on a blockhouse of aggressors. As it is informed, during 20
minutes, the blockhouse was subjected to the automatic fire. Under the
nonvalidated information, as a result of this attack, there are killed and
wounded among occupiers
Armored troop-carrier blown up in Ingushetia
According to our correspondent, some days back, on the territory of Ingushetia,
on a motorway between the settlements Galashki and Mujichi was undermined the
Russian armored troop-carrier (BTR). As a result of this undermining, were
killed 3 and wounded 5 occupiers. Further was attacked the mobile group of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation attached to republican
OMON, caused on a place of undermining of an armored troop-carrier (BTR). As a
result, were killed 2 more and wounded 2 aggressors.
As our correspondent informs, on a place of incident were not revealed any
sleeves or traces of Chechen fighters. Also there is no Chechen divisions which
has undertaken realization of this operation. As have been informed our
correspondent in the staff of the Chechen mujahideen command, the given
operation has obvious character of the Russian special services.
+ + + +
CARACAS,
Venezuela,
(Reuters)
-- Venezuelan Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel on Tuesday dismissed as a
"cooked-up story" a Colombian television video showing an alleged leftist
guerrilla acting as a bodyguard to President Hugo Chavez.
The video, broadcast on Monday night by RCN TV on the eve of a visit by Chavez
to Bogota, showed a self-confessed Colombian FARC rebel, Diego Serna Alzate,
acting as escort to the Venezuelan leader when he visited Colombia in early May.
RCN cited Serna as saying he had given evidence to the Colombian authorities and
to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency about alleged links between Colombia's
Marxist FARC rebels and the left-leaning Venezuelan president.
Reacting to the video, which was also shown on Venezuelan television, Rangel
said its broadcast just hours before Chavez was due to arrive in neighboring
Colombia was "very strange."
"The impression it gives is that there is some kind of cooked-up story here, to
create a scandal over the visit" the Venezuelan defense minister told reporters.
He said he had asked Venezuela's military intelligence services to investigate
the video.
Political opponents of Chavez, who has pledged to carry out a political, social
and economic "revolution" in oil-rich Venezuela, have frequently accused him of
sympathizing with, and having secret links with, Colombia's left-wing rebels.
The Venezuelan leader, a former paratrooper who won a landslide election in 1998
after failing to take power in a coup bid six years earlier, strongly denies
these allegations.
Rangel repeated this denial. "We don't have any kind of link with the Colombian
guerrilla movement," he said.
He added that the only contacts which existed were related to Venezuela's
support for ongoing international efforts to arrange a peaceful end to the war
in Colombia, which has killed more than 40,000 people in the last decade alone.
Rangel said it was the responsibility of Colombia's security services to explain
the presence in the video of Serna, who was shown alongside Chavez during a
lunch in early May with Colombian President Andres Pastrana.
"If this person is who he is supposed to be, and he was there, then it is
probably because Colombian security allowed it to happen and allowed him to be
there," he added.
Serna earlier this month informed Colombian authorities about a plot by FARC
rebels to kill a popular hard-line Colombian presidential candidate, Alvaro
Uribe, using a suitcase carrying hollow Bibles filled with explosives.
The 37-year-old conflict pitting the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) against the government
and right-wing paramilitaries has ruffled ties in the past between Colombia and
Venezuela.
Earlier this year, Bogota complained after Venezuela briefly released a leftist
ELN guerrilla wanted for hijacking in his own country and detained on Venezuelan
soil.
The guerrilla, Jose Maria Ballestas, was rearrested and jailed by a Venezuelan
court for carrying false papers. He has since asked for political asylum in
Venezuela but the government has not yet taken a decision about his case.
+ + + +
At least 30 people have been injured in a bomb attack on an express train in
north-eastern India, according to local police.
The authorities in the state of Assam say at least six coaches were derailed by
the bomb, planted by suspected separatist rebels.
Police said the explosion hit the train near Bagmara village in the remote
western district of Bongaigaon.
The train, which was believed to be full of people, was travelling from the
Indian capital, Delhi, to Assam's state capital, Guwahati.
One report said the bomb had been hidden under the tracks on a bridge.
An Assam police spokesman told the BBC that at least seven of the casualties
were seriously injured but denied any deaths so far.
But the BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says local correspondents, quoting
eyewitnesses, say at least three passengers have died in hospitals. The reports
are yet to be verified by the authorities.
Police say they suspect the involvement of rebels belonging to the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
The NDFB is fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo tribes in Assam
and our correspondent says they are now upset with Delhi for having started
negotiations with another militant group of the same tribe, the Bodoland
Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF).
An NDFB leader recently blamed the government for using the BLTF to attack its
spaces in western Assam.
At least 12 people were killed in a similar attack in July last year which was
also blamed on rebel groups operating in the sate.
Such groups have targeted railways and oil installations in the past.
+ + + +
A prominent Egyptian Islamist based in Afghanistan is emerging as a key figure
in Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Ayman al-Zawahri - along with Imad Mughniyeh, the head of overseas operations
for the Lebanese group Hezbollah - has been named by Israeli intelligence as the
"operational brains" behind the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon.
Dr Zawahri is thought to have played a central role in forging a coalition
between the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group and Bin Laden's al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan.
He was a guest at the wedding of Bin Laden's son in Kandahar in January -
reportedly making the first speech at the wedding.
Following the death of Osama Bin Laden's religious mentor, the Palestinian
scholar Abdullah Azzam, in a car bomb in Peshawar in 1997, Dr Zawahri appears to
have taken on the role of chief ideologue in the Bin Laden group.
He leads an itinerant life, travelling among the camps in Afghanistan,
delivering sermons and then moving on.
To say that Dr Zawahri is Bin Laden's right-hand man may be to understate his
importance, according to Giles Foden, author of a forthcoming book on the 1998
US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr Foden says some analysts believe Dr Zawahri now controls much of al-Qaeda's
finance operations following Bin Laden's assurances to the Taleban that he would
no longer take part in terrorist activities.
Dr Zawahri is named in European legislation on financial sanctions against the
Taleban and in documents produced by the US sanctions body, the US Treasury's
office for foreign assets control.
Israeli intelligence says the attacks "were probably financed and got some
logistical support from the Iraqi intelligence service".
Born in Egypt in 1951, Ayman al-Zawahri, comes from a middle class family of
doctors and scholars.
The 1981 assassination of President Sadat led to a crackdown on Islamic
militants
His grandfather, Rabi'a al-Zawahri, was the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar
university, a centre of Islamic learning in the Arab world.
He was already involved in Egypt's radical Muslim community when he was arrested
at the age of 15 for being a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - the
Arab world's oldest fundamentalist group.
He graduated from Cairo University's medical school in 1974 and obtained a
masters degree in surgery four years later.
His father, who died in 1995, was a pharmacology professor at the same school.
Dr Zawahri was tried along with scores of radical Islamists for their part in
the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat during a Cairo military parade.
He was convicted and served a three-year sentence for illegal possession of
arms. After his release, he left for Saudi Arabia.
Soon afterwards he headed for Peshawar and later to neighbouring Afghanistan,
where he established a faction of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group.
In 1997, the US State Department named him as leader of the Vanguards of
Conquest group - a faction of Islamic Jihad thought to have been behind the
massacre of foreign tourists in Luxor the same year.
Two years later, he was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court for
activities linked to Islamic Jihad.
Dr Zawahri is believed to have lived in Denmark and Switzerland in the early
1990s, sometimes travelling on a false passport.
Giles Foden says Dr Zawahri's "freewheeling role across western Europe during
the early 1990s raises questions about the security and asylum policies of a
number of European nations and about their refusal to act on information
provided by the Egyptian Government".
Dr Zawahri appeared in a video alongside Bin Laden threatening retaliation
against the United States for the detention of the Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel
Rahman in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Then, in 1998, he was the second of five signatories to Bin Laden's notorious
1998 "fatwa" calling for attacks against US civilians.
He is also listed on the US Government's indictment sheet for the 1998 US
embassy bombings.
He was one of the figures whose satellite telephone conversations were used as
proof that Bin Laden was behind the plot.
+ + + +
Interpol has issued an arrest warrant against Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian man
thought to be the top deputy of Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden.
The warrant for al-Zawahri, who heads the Egyptian militant movement Islamic
Jihad and is believed to be operating in Afghanistan, was issued at the request
of the Egyptian authorities.
The international police organisation said al-Zawahri was believed to have
masterminded several terrorist operations in Egypt and was "emerging as one of
the key figures in Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network".
Israeli intelligence has named him as the "operational brains" behind the 11
September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which Washington
says Bin Laden organised.
He is thought to have played a central role in forging a coalition between the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
He appeared in a video alongside Bin Laden threatening retaliation against the
US for the detention of an Egyptian man in connection with the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing and in 1998, he was the second of five signatories to Bin Laden's
1998 "fatwa" calling for attacks against US civilians.
He has also been named as the leader of a faction of Islamic Jihad which was
thought to have carried out the massacre of foreign tourists in the southern
Egyptian town of Luxor in 1997 and is listed on the US Government's indictment
sheet for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Furthermore, he is named in European legislation on financial sanctions against
the Taleban and in documents produced by the US Treasury's office for foreign
assets control.
Giles Foden, author of a forthcoming book on the 1998 US embassy bombings in
Kenya and Tanzania, says some analysts believe the Egyptian doctor now controls
much of al-Qaeda's finance operations.
He already has a high-profile criminal history.
He was put on trial for taking part in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat and was convicted of illegal possession of arms, serving a
three-year sentence.
And then in 1999 an Egyptian court sentenced him to death in absentia for
activities related to Islamic Jihad.
Interpol said it had issued a "red notice" high-priority warrant for his arrest
- one of about 800 the Lyon-based police organization circulates each year.
+ + + +
BBC
Indonesia's top Islamic organisation, the Council of Ulemas, has warned it will
call for a jihad or holy war if the United States attacks Afghanistan.
The council called on Muslims worldwide to unite and mobilise against any US
aggression in response to the suicide attacks in New York and Washington.
The call came in a strongly worded statement by the secretary-general of the
council, which represents mainstream Islamic scholars and clerics across the
country.
The statement condemned the recent suicide attacks, but criticised the arrogance
of US plans to retaliate against Afghanistan.
The Council of Ulemas, a respected organisation which the government listens to,
said any military strikes would be seen as an attack on Islam itself.
The statement follows warnings last week by radical Islamic organisations in
Indonesia that they would attack US facilities in the country in the event of a
military strike on Afghanistan.
Since then, there has been a series of small anti-American demonstrations in
Jakarta, some outside the US embassy.
The ambassador has called on the police to provide extra security for all
American citizens and organisations.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri met President George W Bush in
Washington last week, pledging to join the global coalition against terrorism.
But this latest statement by the Council of Ulemas will be particularly worrying
for her government.
It is confident it can use the security forces to control any backlash from the
radical fringe groups.
But if large numbers of ordinary Muslims take to the streets in response to a
call from the Council of Ulemas, the situation could become much more volatile.
+ + + +
The renewed media interest in Afghanistan in the wake of the bombings in
Washington and New York has focused attention on RAWA - the Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
It is based just inside Pakistan in the border town of Quetta. Its members are
regularly photographed distributing aid and medicine among the swollen refugee
camps.
They wear the concealing clothing that is obligatory for all women who wish to
move in safety in this part of the world - but this is not a reflection of their
beliefs or piety.
Behjat, who works in RAWA's media office, says she would like to see a
government in Afghanistan that is 100 per cent secular.
"We believe that's what the Afghan people want. We don't want anyone to impose
their beliefs or religion on anyone else."
RAWA was set up in Kabul in 1977 as a movement of women intellectuals with the
aim of increasing women's representation in politics and society and promoting a
secular democratic society.
That is still its long-term aim, but deteriorating conditions inside Afghanistan
have forced the movement to shift its focus to more practical matters such as
healthcare and education.
As a condition of membership RAWA members are also obliged to act as witnesses
and record what is going on inside the country.
It is dangerous work and many RAWA supporters have been killed.
One of its greatest media coups was smuggling out a video cassette showing a
summary execution carried out by the Taleban in a stadium in Kabul.
The video was shot by a RAWA member who hid the video recorder under her burqa -
the long veiled garment that all Afghan women are obliged to wear in public
places. It shows a horrifying scene.
A man with a microphone is pictured reading from the Koran. One of three women,
accused of adultery, is then led to the centre of the stadium where a man puts a
gun to her head and shoots her.
Behjat welcomes the increase in media attention, but says it has not so far led
to any increase in support or funding for the organisation.
RAWA has even received hate mail from those who equate all Afghans with the
atrocities committed against the US. But she says the overwhelming majority have
been supportive.
Like Behjat, many members of RAWA are from what once made up the educated middle
classes.
Behjat moved with her family to Pakistan from Kabul 13 years ago and was
educated at one of two secondary schools run by RAWA in Quetta.
Her mother was a member of the organisation and Behjat gave up the chance to go
to university to work full time for RAWA.
But the membership has grown to include many women who learnt to read through
RAWA's clandestine literacy classes inside Afghanistan.
Those who have benefited from these classes now form some of the organisation's
most active and dedicated members.
But, understandably, morale inside Afghanistan is not good.
RAWA has hundreds of members inside the country who are still carrying out their
work running literacy classes and offering basic healthcare services.
But since the borders were closed there has been no news of them.
Until recently, people made contact by relaying messages via people coming
across the border, but this is no longer possible.
Behjat believes that if the United States leads an attack on Afghanistan it will
be "another catastrophe for the country".
But she is hopeful that the current situation will eventually lead to a change
of regime.
In the meantime, RAWA is looking into ways of expanding its membership to
include the vast numbers of supporters who would like to help, but are not able
to make the sacrifices required of the current membership.
Behjat believes most Afghans share RAWA's basic aims: "We want a peaceful
country where people can express their beliefs and feelings without fear."
RAWA has stated that it would support the return of the exiled King Zahir Shah.
His 30 year rule which ended in 1973 "though unremarkable, was one in which at
least the people did not suffer", says Behjat.
+ + + +
A World Health Organisation warning has renewed fears about chemical or
biological weapons being used by groups like the one which targeted America.
The United States takes the threat seriously enough that it has grounded
crop-dusting planes - a possible means of delivery of deadly agents - and gas
masks are reported to have sold out in New York shops.
The vast majority of chemical attacks to date have been by governments in
wartime.
Chemical weapons were used widely in World War I following their introduction by
German forces at the beginning of 1915.
The British and French were using them by the end of the year as well, and by
the end of the war in 1918, roughly one-quarter of all shells fired contained
chemical weapons. Some 100,000 people were killed and up to one million injured
by gas attacks.
The 17 different gasses used in the war fell into three categories:
Tearing agents, much like the tear gas used for personal defence or crowd
control today
Asphyxiants, designed to choke the enemy, against which gas masks offer some
protection
Blistering agents, such as mustard gas, which burns any exposed skin, lungs and
eyes. Gas masks offer only very limited defence.
The chemical weapons used in World War I were unreliable. The first time British
forces used them in September 1915, wind blew the gas back at the soldiers who
had fired it.
The Geneva Protocol of 1925 outlawed the use of chemical and biological weapons
in war, but did not actually prevent their use.
But the personal experience of one World War I German soldier may have helped
prevent the battlefield use of poison gas in World War II.
As a sergeant in the Kaiser's army, Adolf Hitler was gassed by British troops in
1918, and the experience may have caused him to refrain from using it as a
tactical weapon himself.
The Nazis did, of course, use poison gas on civilians in death camps.
Chemical weapons were used in a further 11 campaigns after World War I,
according to the Federation of American Scientists - often delivered from
aircraft rather than artillery, thus reducing the fear that it would rebound
against those who used it.
Mustard gas was used by British forces intervening in the Russian Civil War in
1919 and by Soviet forces in China in the 1930s.
Spanish and Italian troops used it in north African campaigns between the world
wars, as did Japanese soldiers in China during World War II.
The US used a chemical defoliant, Agent Orange, in Vietnam throughout the 1960s,
which proved to have harmful effects on people as well as the plants it was
intended to clear.
Iraq under Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against both Iran in the 1980-88
war and simultaneously against Iraqi Kurds in 1987-88.
Despite Israeli fears that Iraqi Scud missiles would be tipped with chemical or
biological agents during the Gulf War, there is no evidence Saddam Hussein fired
non-conventional weapons at the Jewish state.
Chemical campaigns
World War I: Both sides
Spanish in Morocco, 1923-26
Italian in Ethiopia, 1935-40
Soviets in China, 1934, 36-37
Japanese in China, 1937-45
US in Vietnam, 1961-69
Iraq in Iran and Iraq, 1983-88
Source: Federation of American Scientists
While some soldiers who fought in the Gulf War say they were exposed to chemical
or biological weapons, resulting in Gulf War Syndrome, there is no solid proof
of that assertion.
But UN inspections of Iraq after the Gulf War showed that Saddam Hussein had no
fewer than five laboratories working to develop chemical and biological weapons.
Some 130 countries signed a protocol banning the production, stockpiling and use
of chemical weapons in January 1993.
Biological weapons had been banned under an earlier treaty, in 1975.
With states having pledged to put chemical and biological weapons beyond use,
concern now focuses on militant groups and other so-called "non-state actors".
One militant group, the Japanese sect Aum Shinrikyo, released nerve gas on the
Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 12 and injuring thousands.
The militant leftist German group the Red Army Faction is believed to have tried
to develop botulism toxin - with some success - in the 1980s.
A raid on a Red Army Faction safe house in Paris in 1984 uncovered a makeshift
laboratory containing toxins.
Members of a religious cult in the US state of Oregon succeeded in poisoning
local restaurant salad bars with salmonella in 1994, injuring more than 700
people. No one is believed to have died as a result of the attack.
A militant group would encounter significant difficulties if it wanted to use
chemical or biological weapons.
Developing and storing them would require sophisticated facilities. There are
concerns that they could be stolen from countries that have them.
Even if a militant group obtained non-conventional agents, it would find them
difficult to deliver effectively.
That is the source of worry about reports that one of the World Trade Center
hijackers was interested in learning about crop dusters - they are designed
specifically to disperse chemicals over a large region.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
"Rizla wrote
+ + + +
One of its greatest media coups was smuggling out a video cassette showing a
summary execution carried out by the Taleban in a stadium in Kabul.
The video was shot by a RAWA member who hid the video recorder under her
burqa -
the long veiled garment that all Afghan women are obliged to wear in public
places. It shows a horrifying scene.
A man with a microphone is pictured reading from the Koran. One of three
women,
accused of adultery, is then led to the centre of the stadium where a man
puts a
gun to her head and shoots her.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as I am in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
and lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For Thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Barman.
;)
"Swarvegorilla" wrote
BUT where do i order?
Must have ancient beer!
:-)
Swarvegorilla
He who drinks beer sleeps well. he who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does
not sin goes to heaven. Amen.
Unknown monk
Rizla Ranger UK
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 26, 2001
Rwandan and Burundian rebels aided by Congolese army officers have captured the
strategic town of Fizi on the northwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika in eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), some 200 km south of Bukavu, news
agencies reported on Tuesday.
The president of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma),
Adolphe Onusumba, said the 7 September capture of Fizi occurred as Burundian
government forces were pulling out of eastern DRC to fight rebels outside their
country's capital, Bujumbura.
"The capture of Fizi is significant because Burundian and Rwandan rebels now
have an opening to mount incursions into their countries across the lake," he
told the Associated Press.
He said the capture was "particularly significant" because the government in
Kinshasa had supplied these groups with speed boats that can insert fighters
into Burundi. "Officers of the [DRC] government forces are the ones
masterminding logistics and other key operations of the Rwandan and Burundian
rebels in the east," he added.
The RCD-Goma vowed on Tuesday to recapture Fizi. The head of internal affairs,
Bizima Karaha, told Reuters there was "a huge force" of Rwandan and Burundian
rebels in the town, as well Congolese militia commanded by well-known Congolese
government army officers. "We have asked the Kinshasa government to remove these
forces, or we will be obliged to use force to chase them out of the area," he
said.
Rwandan deputy army chief of staff Brig-Gen James Kabarebe said the forces who
captured Fizi had arrived in boats from the port of Muliro, on the southwestern
shores of the lake. "We have no forces deployed in that area, but the RCD is
making plans to regain control of the town, and I think they will," Kabarebe
told Reuters.
Rwandan military officials said the Hutu rebels who had established bases in and
around Fizi were part of a force of more than 40,000 men advancing towards
Rwanda. Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated government says tens of thousands of Hutu
militiamen, who led Rwanda's 1994 genocide, were still hiding in the DRC, and
accuses Kinshasa of backing them. The DRC rejects these allegations.
+ + + +
BBC's South-east Europe analyst Gabriel Partos
Nato is wrapping up its mission to collect weapons handed in by the ethnic
Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, or NLA.
But the political reforms to extend the ethnic Albanians' collective rights have
yet to be ratified by the Macedonian parliament where the debate on this issue
has been prolonged by several delays.
We have collected the number of weapons that we'd intended to when we came in
here that were promised by the NLA to be voluntarily turned over
Nato spokesman Major Barry Johnson
So what are the successes of the Macedonian peace processes so far and what are
the problems lying ahead?
Nato was given a one-month mandate in Macedonia to collect and destroy 3,300
weapons that the NLA had agreed to surrender.
The deal was reached in August after the NLA's six-month conflict with
Macedonian security forces.
The process of collecting the arms - known as Operation Essential Harvest - has
now been completed on schedule.
Nato spokesman Major Barry Johnson said:" We have collected the number of
weapons that we'd intended to when we came in here that were promised by the NLA
to be voluntarily turned over.
"More importantly, is the fact that we've continually seen a decrease in
incidents and the environment is vastly improved since we've been here. But the
environment has to remain secure so people can believe that they can live and
work together once again."
But the success of Operation Essential Harvest does not mean the end of Nato's
mission in Macedonia.
Although the bulk of the British-led 4,500-strong contingent is being pulled out
in the next two weeks, a smaller force of perhaps around 1,000 soldiers is going
to take over on a longer-term mission.
The task of that new German-led mission - Operation Amber Fox - will be to
protect the 120 or so civilian monitors from the Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe and the European Union who will be overseeing the
implementation of the peace deal.
The new, smaller Nato contingent - with a mandate of perhaps six to nine months
- is part of a compromise arrangement.
The Macedonian side is suspicious of any foreign military presence, fearing that
its task might be to police the effective partition of Macedonia between
government-controlled and ethnic Albanian-held areas.
The ethnic Albanians would like a large Nato presence to protect them from
possible retaliation from the Macedonians now that the NLA has given up a
sizeable part of its arsenal.
The end result of much hard bargaining was to agree on the stationing of a small
Nato force in Macedonia.
And as far as Macedonia's Western partners are concerned, its task is limited to
protecting the unarmed observers. There is always the possibility, though, of
mission-creep - of Nato troops being sucked into other, potentially more
dangerous activities.
There have been repeated delays in the parliamentary procedure. As a result, the
15 constitutional amendments which give the ethnic Albanians more extensive
collective rights have yet to receive full ratification.
There has been even less progress on an amnesty for the NLA's fighters which
President Boris Trajkovski announced at the start of the peace talks, but this
has not been followed up so far by a formal procedure.
The delays have prompted Nato's envoy to Macedonia, Joerg Eiff, to ram home the
message that further political measures need to be taken now - whatever the
success of the mission to collect the NLA's weapons.
He said: "It is an enormous step towards peace. It is a unique event regarding
not only the Balkans' recent history - a movement of this kind voluntarily
surrenders its weapons and simply declares it self-disbandment.
"It is not everything and the other side of course, the official Macedonian side
and the entire society of course, this reconciliation must follow suit.
"The political process has not been advancing as desired, not quite. An amnesty
is being eagerly awaited. The political process will have to implement an
agreement on constitutional arrangements which will improve the legal and
political situation of the Albanians in this country."
Nato's Secretary-General, George Robertson, used much more dramatic language
during a visit to Skopje.
He warned that Macedonia could face the bleak prospect of sliding into renewed
conflict and possible civil war if the required constitutional changes were not
adopted in time.
Lord Robertson's warning was based, at least in part, on an awareness that the
ethnic Albanian fighters have not handed in all their weapons.
Weapons still hidden
The NLA may have largely demobilised for now - but ethnic Albanians are still
believed to have many weapons hidden away. And they may restart their struggle
if they believe that the provisions of the Ohrid agreement are not being carried
out.
That is why there is an urgent need for speedy progress to make the required
constitutional changes and to recruit ethnic Albanians into the police force so
that their numbers would reflect their share of the population.
But some Macedonian politicians - particularly those in Prime Minister Ljupco
Georgievski's centre-right Vmre-Dpmne party, are worried that they might
alienate many of their supporters if they implement the deal in full.
They have even been discussing putting the constitutional changes to a
referendum - which could torpedo the entire deal.
With parliamentary elections due within four months, an informal election
campaign has already got underway. And many politicians are trying to outbid
their rivals in their appeal to nationalism - making their campaign cast a dark
shadow over the peace process.
+ + + +
BBC US State Department correspondent Jon Leyne
Members of the Bush administration have cast doubt on a plan to issue a document
containing evidence linking Osama Bin Laden to the recent attacks on the United
States.
The idea was suggested by the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on
Sunday.
But a matter of hours later President Bush failed to endorse it.
Washington seems to have had a swift change of heart on this important issue.
Mr Powell spoke in a television interview on Sunday of issuing a document that
would tie Bin Laden to the most recent attacks.
He suggested it would be published in the near future.
But less than 24 hours later President Bush declined to endorse the plan and Mr
Powell himself then suggested they would just be releasing individual items of
information when it was safe to do so.
Many allies of the United States have been asking for more proof of a link to
Bin Laden.
The calls have been loudest from Arab and Muslim countries eager to placate
domestic opinion.
But within the Bush administration it seems there is a dispute between those
eager to do everything to build an international coalition and other officials
who believe releasing too much information would compromise American
intelligence sources.
It is certainly true that Bin Laden has come very close himself to admitting
culpability, at least for previous attacks such as that on the American warship
USS Cole in Yemen last year.
+ + + +
BBCs Joan Baxter in Bamako
The area around the US embassy in the heart of the market in the Malian capital,
Bamako, has all the makings of a battle front.
Apart from the roving cameras mounted on the walls to monitor pedestrian traffic
around the embassy, there are also barriers that close the roads to vehicular
traffic, manned by Malian watchmen, Republican Guards and numerous secret
service agents in sunglasses.
And the day after the devastating attacks in the US, American officials began to
erect yet a new set of barriers, ignoring an order from the Malian government
earlier this year that the work be stopped.
Robin Yeager, Public Affairs Officer at the embassy, admits that there was no
written permission for the most recent construction of still more barriers.
But she says there was "verbal agreement" from the Malian government after the
World Trade Center tragedy.
Hundreds of merchants who had the misfortune to find their shops inside the
barriers erected around the embassy in 1998, after the bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania, are furious.
For the past three years, they have been requesting compensation for business
lost because of the barriers, but to no avail.
They say they have been subjected to further humiliation as embassy security
agents search all the merchandise they bring in to stock their shelves in shops
where few clients bother to come these days.
"Many have gone bankrupt and left," says Ousmane Sall, the elderly owner of a
commercial building just across the street from the embassy, inside the
barriers. "I bought this building on credit in 1996, and I'm going bankrupt like
all my creditors."
The merchants who have weathered the past three years say they have remained
only because they cannot afford to move.
Mr Sall says the construction of new barriers is on his deeded property, will
make it impossible to even open the doors to shops in his building.
Robin Yeager insists the barriers are on public land and says they will provide
"better access to the area and also more security for the merchants, so we don't
get blown up on top of them, as happened in Nairobi and New York."
She says that the US embassy has "no programmme, funds or projects" to
compensate any merchants.
The merchants are having none of it. They say they remained quiet for one week,
even sending a letter of sympathy to the US ambassador to Mali following the
attacks in the United States.
They say they cannot understand why America, the richest country in the world,
will make no gesture to help impoverished merchants in Mali, one of the world's
poorest countries, when it is American security causing their problems.
"They wonder why they have enemies," says Mamadou Wague, who has a small
computer shop in the affected area. "They create their own enemies. We are their
enemies now."
In the past week, riot police have been called to the area on two occasions, to
restore order when tempers boiled over and the merchants began pelting
construction workers around the embassy with stones.
Special Malian security forces stationed around the embassy are, as one witness
describes them, "trigger happy" and "over-zealous."
Myself and another BBC journalist who approached the merchants were arrested by
the Republican Guard and our recording equipment confiscated, despite protests
from embassy officials.
Our release came only after four hours at the central police station, where
police superiors admitted that the situation around the embassy was "tense" and
the Malian security forces were particularly nervous because of pressure on them
to protect the US embassy.
Many people in Bamako complain bitterly that the US embassy has yet to relocate
away from the busy market area.
They feel it endangers hundreds of thousands of lives every day.
Robin Yeager says plans are afoot to construct a new embassy in Bamako, but
admits that it may take years to secure the land and construct a new building.
For the time being, tension remains high and the area around the embassy is
anything but inviting for idle passers-by, shoppers - or journalists.
+ + + +
Tensions are growing within Somalia after the United States administration on
Monday named a Somali group as one of 11 worldwide that it said had links to
terrorism.
The United Nations pulled its international staff out of Somalia last week after
being told flights to and from the capital Mogadishu can no longer be insured
after the suicide attacks on the United States.
The European Union also withdrew its expatriate staff because of "general
tension and uncertainty there" following the attacks on the US.
Many Somalis are now speculating that the adminstration in Washington may be
considering some kind of military action in Somalia.
Last week, Somalia's Transitional Government denied having any links with Osama
Bin Laden and said that it was ready to co-operate with the US in its fight
against international terrorism in the wake of the attacks on New York and
Washington.
But at the weekend there was a large demonstration in Mogadishu, in support of
Bin Laden and against the US.
The Somali group named, the Al-Itihaad organisation, is said to have branches in
several countries, with one of its main bases in Somalia.
Bin Laden posters have sold well in Mogadishu
According to diplomatic sources the group has trained terrorists and been
engaged in terrorist acts.
There are suggestions that it was responsible for the bombing of a hotel in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, and that it also mined roads in the Ogaden region
of Ethiopia.
But some observers express surprise that Al-Itihaad is being targeted, saying
they are a spent force.
Indeed they have not been reported to have carried out any attacks or held any
meetings since 1996.
Our East Africa correspondent says there is speculation that the Americans may
be more concerned at the capacity of groups like Al-Itihaad to channel funds
towards international terrorist organisations.
Many Somalis operate an informal system of banking where large sums of money can
be moved around the world on the basis of trust and acquaintances rather than
using conventional financial institutions.
Elsewhere in the region, Kenya police have denied a report in one of Kenya's
main newspapers, The Daily Nation, that American FBI agents are searching for
those connected to the US attacks in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.
The police said they were not aware of any such activity.
Somalia has been devastated by civil war since 1991 in which clan-based militias
have plunged the country into anarchy.
The transitional government still does not control all of Somalia's territory.
+ + + +
Kenyan Muslims feel the government is targeting them
The Government of Kenya says it is once again tightening security controls on
Kenyans of Asian and Arab decent in response to the suicide attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon two weeks ago.
A directive from the immigration office in the coastal city of Mombasa, host to
a large Muslim population, said applicants for birth certificates or passports
must include their grandparents' national documents with their applications.
The grandparents' documents, it says, would serve as proof that the applicants
are genuine Kenyan citizens.
Similar restrictions were imposed two months ago but streets demonstrations by
thousands of Muslims forced the government to rethink the policy.
The Council of Imams and Preachers has condemned the new action.
Secretary General Sheikh Mohammed Dor said the directive is only aimed at
whipping up the emotions of Kenya's Asian and Arab population.
He said several members of the two communities were now turning to them for help
and advice following the refusal of their applications.
Mr Dor said the government was now in the habit of constantly provoking Kenyan
Muslims by imposing "outrageous restrictions on them in time of crisis."
Following the last mass street protests, the Kenyan authorities relaxed the
order and instead asked that applications be endorsed by a committee
representing the two communities before they were forwarded to the immigration
department.
The Muslims accused the government of trying to frustrate their economic
prospects by stifling their chances of travelling abroad for either further
education or work.
But on Tuesday, the Minister in charge of Internal Affairs, Marsden Madoka,
denied the move discriminated against people of Asian or Arab decent.
He said the government is merely carrying out its responsibility to ensure that
non-citizens do not infiltrate the country and cause havoc.
Mr Madoka asked them to bear with the government and understand its predicament
at a time of increased security concerns in Kenya.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
Authorities in the United States have arrested nine more people on charges of
illegally obtaining licences to transport hazardous materials.
Twenty-nine people have now been detained in an investigation into the
possibility that the hijackers who attacked New York and Washington may have
planned an attack using trucks loaded with hazardous substances, including
chemicals and nuclear waste.
Truck companies and water and food suppliers have been put on high alert, while
freeways now have official checkpoints, stopping big vehicles from entering
densely populated areas.
Only days ago, the US grounded all crop-spraying planes for the same reason.
Shops in some areas have sold out of gas masks.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
At least 22 people are reported to have been killed and several others wounded
in a massacre of civilians attending a wedding near the capital, Algiers on
Thursday night.
The celebrations, in the town of Larba, were in the space of a few minutes,
transformed into a wake.
At about 2100 the attackers believed to be from an armed Islamic group, killed
women and children ranged in age from 7 to 60.
Thirteen of the victims were shot in the house where the wedding party was being
held and a further nine were killed in a neighbouring house.
Some were shot and some had their throats cut. The killers wore military
uniforms.
They arrived at the first house and asked for water. They then opened fire on
everyone gathered there, shooting indiscriminately.
The shootings caused panic in the surrounding neighbourhood and people fled
towards the forest or towards the next town.
The neighbourhood in which the massacre took place was known between 1994 and
1997 as one of the most significant strongholds of the Armed Islamic Group, GIA.
Larba was the birthplace of Mustapha Kertali, leader of the local GIA group
between 1993 and 1999.
In 1998 the Algerian army used massive force over the course of a month to
destroy a GIA base near Larba.
Tens of militants and several members of the security forces were killed in the
operation.
In 2000 the GIA split when Mustapha Kertali and his group took up the government
offer of an amnesty and laid down their arms while GIA leader Antar Zouabri
refused.
Since then the majority of the former fighters have lived in Larba and
surrounding villages.
The attack is the latest in a series of killings to the south of the capital,
Algiers and indicates that the group wishes to return to areas around the
capital from which they were driven out two years ago.
Thursday's attack comes as the Algerian authorities are trying to get the West
to align their battle against international terrorism with that in Algeria.
+ + + +
Ceri Jones
THe Irish security forces are reportedly surrounding a major department
store in the centre of Dublin following reports that Bed Linen can be found
on the second floor.
:-)
--
THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE HIGHEST LAW
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
and Awesome Bin Liners!
but I think we should start to
list the nationalities that other
countries pick on, like the Polish
for the Yanks etc.. :)
"Ceri Jones" wrote
Rizla Ranger (Re-Energised) UK
BBC
There has been an outbreak of fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo in a further violation of an already shaky ceasefire.
According to the UN the fighting has centred around the town of Fizi, which
is close to the border with Rwanda.
General Mountaga Diallo of the UN mission told a news conference that
fighting had escalated between the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for
Democracy and unidentified armed groups in South Kivu Province.
The UN say the Mai Mai militia, Hutu Interahamwe militia from Rwanda and
rebels from Burundi are all present in the area.
The RCD lost control of Fizi earlier this month and had vowed to recapture
it.
The French news agency, AFP, quoted General Diallo as saying that there were
"fairly sizeable troop movements" of the Rwandan army in Kivu.
The UN's special envoy in DR Congo, Amos Namanga Ngongi, told AFP: "The
ceasefire is not really respected" in areas under the control of the RCD
rebels.
Meanwhile, UN spokesman George Ola Davis, who is trying to mediate a
settlement of the conflict, says there is unanimous agreement that the
Mai-Mai militia group be allowed to attend next month's talks about the
country's future in Addis Ababa.
The spokesman said representatives from the Congolese government, rebel
factions, opposition groups and others from civil society had agreed that
the government-backed tribal militia be given a place at the talk.
He said the mediator, Sir Ketumile Masire, would now determine what sort of
delegation the Mai-Mai can send.
The move comes two days after the group demanded that it be included in the
talks, which will draw up a new constitution and consider how to unify the
various regions of the country.
The Mai-Mai are a loose grouping of Congolese tribes mainly opposed to the
Rwandan presence in Congo, but also keen on establishing their own region in
the east of the country.
Reports of the violence followed talks between Rwandan President, Paul
Kagame and President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo in
Malawi.
Mr Kagame had said at the end of the meeting that he would pull his troops
out of DR Congo only if the Hutu Interahamwe militia on the eastern border
areas were disarmed and demobilised.
President Muluzi of Malawi is encouraging the two sides to keep talking and
said that a ministerial follow-up committee to the talks would be created.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose country is also involved in the
war, is expected in Malawi on Saturday, when Mr Muluzi says he will brief
him on the talks.
Mr Muluzi is the current chairman of the Southern African Development
Community.
About 2,000 UN troops are already in DR Congo to help monitor the ceasefire
and a withdrawal of foreign soldiers from the frontline.
The next phase of the UN operation involves the deployment of more troops to
begin a programme of voluntary disarmament.
Diplomatic efforts to seek to resolve Africa's largest conflict have
intensified since the beginning of September with the visit by the UN
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 27, 2001
Kenya
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 28, 2001
Suspected UNITA rebels attacked a power station on the outskirts of the
Angolan capital, Luanda, early on Tuesday - bringing the rebel movement's
current wave of attacks closer to the capital than ever before.
An explosion took place at the substation in the Viana municipality, about
20 km from the centre of Luanda. A gun battle ensued between the attackers
and soldiers of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), during which at least three
people were killed. Power supplies were interrupted in the capital on
Tuesday morning, and places up to 60 km away were reported to be without
electricity.
A day after the Viana attack, UNITA released a statement saying it had also
attacked the Government Military Deployment of Cabiri, about 40 km south of
Viana, on Sunday. The statement, issued by UNITA armed forces chief of staff
Geraldo Abreu, said the attack showed UNITA's ability to infiltrate the
capital. It said 23 government soldiers and two UNITA fighters died in the
fighting. "Thus, the UNITA Armed Forces, FALA, are capable of carrying out
military strikes in all the country's provinces," the statement added.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
September 28, 2001
Police arrested about 10 soldiers, including two army captains, on the
separatist Comoros island of Anjouan after an attempted coup on Monday.
Major Mohamed Bacar, the head of the army's police wing on Anjouan, told the
island's radio on Wednesday that while some soldiers were detained, "others
turned themselves over to loyalist forces".
Diplomatic sources in the Comoros capital, Moroni, told IRIN on Wednesday
that the triumvirate which had been ruling Anjouan since a 9 August coup
were once again in control. The two captains arrested were both members of
the Rapid Intervention Section (SIR) which served as the personal guard of
Lieutenant-Colonel Said Abeid Abderemane, who ran Anjouan until he was
ousted in the August coup. Reports said the army police were still looking
for Major Combo Ayoub, the Anjouan-born deputy head of the Comoran army's
general staff, who was blamed for instigating the coup attempt on behalf of
the Moroni government.
Anjouan unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the archipelago
in 1997 and diplomatic bids, led by the Organisation of African Unity, to
get it back into the fold and establish a loose confederation among the
islands have constantly run into trouble.
+ + + +
New Vision (Kampala)
September 28, 2001
Grace Matsiko
Kampala
Two more combat brigades have been created in the UPDF from the original 16
as part of new security measures.
The new military structures were announced on Tuesday by Army Chief of
Staff, Brig. James Kazini, at the UPDF 2nd Division in Mbarara on Tuesday,
during a meeting of senior commanders, sources said.
A brigade can accommodate upto 3,000 soldiers. "In the new structure, the
UPDF 2nd Division will have five brigades instead of four so will the Fourth
Division," a source in Kazini's office said.
The UPDF 2nd Division has been in charge of military operations in western
Uganda and Congo while the Fourth Division takes charge of northern region.
Sources said Major Mawa Muhindo has been appointed to command the
recently-created Mountain Brigade to be permanent in the Rwenzoris.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Phinehas Katirima said there has been a process of
filling gaps within the existing units of the army in the UPDF 2nd Division.
"I don't have details but you cannot have an army unit without a commander,"
Katirima said of Muhindo's appointment.
President Museveni recently created a barracks in Kabale.
+ + + +
Vanguard (Lagos)
September 28, 2001
Uwakwe Abugu
Warri
An explosion was reported yesterday at Shell’s flow station in Olomoro,
Isoko North Council Area of Delta State, resulting in a huge fire.
Shell’s fire fighters were battling to put off the inferno that followed the
invasion of the facility by about 200 youths from the area. The youths were
protesting the handling of a project for the Anglo-Dutch company by an oil
servicing company.
Police have arrested no fewer than four youths over the incident.
Seriously affected by the explosion, according to Shell sources, are
facilities known in the oil industry as surge vessels.
It was further gathered that the unresolved dispute between the oil
servicing firm and the community had resulted in a protest march to the
facility by the youths with the aim of shutting down the flow station.
The aggrieved youths, however, closed a wrong value which resulted in an
explosion and subsequent fire.
Shell’s Manager, Government and Public Relations Department, West, Mr.
Harriman Isa Oyofo confirmed the incident and said "our fire men are already
battling to put off the fire."
He, however, said further details about the extent of damage done to the
flow station would be made known in due course.
A Shell’s security guard working at the facility was also said to have been
injured in the incident. Although sources hinted yesterday that several
people have been arrested, the state Police Commissioner confirmed four
persons arrested.
+ + + +
The Namibian (Windhoek)
September 28, 2001
Chrispin Inambao
Two civilians were allegedly shot dead by a detachment of Special Field
Force (SFF) on a routine patrol along the Okavango River near Shinyungwe
village some 130 km east of Rundu, say human rights monitors.
Shinyungwe residents, Marian Muyeghu (25) and Poroto Kakuru (21), were shot
dead by SFF members late on Saturday morning, the National Society for Human
Rights (NSHR) claimed in a statement.
The rights group said it had spoken to one of the mothers and some relatives
of the deceased.
The two youths went to search for their cattle at around 08h00 on Saturday
because the animals had failed to return to the kraal the previous night.
Relatives of Muyeghu and Kakuru told rights monitors at Rundu that the two
had gone to the riverside to collect their cattle when the tragedy occurred.
Police spokesman Sergeant James Matengu yesterday could not confirm or deny
the incident.
He said he had been unable to contact the regional office at Rundu because
there was a problem with telephone lines to the provincial capital.
SFF members initially claimed they shot two Unita bandits who wanted to
cross the river, but relatives who went to the scene recognised the
deceased's clothes."
"The SFF then changed their story and claimed that they have shot 'two old
men with white hair' whose bodies where washed away by the river," said the
NSHR.
The bodies of the two men have not yet been retrieved from the river.
Though the Police could not immediately confirm the information, the
Executive Director at NSHR, Phil ya Nangoloh, said "our information is 100
per cent correct because we spoke to the relatives".
+ + + +
Concord Times (Freetown)
September 27, 2001
Freetown
Recently released RUF top guns from Pademba Road Prison have told the rank
and file of their men that there will be no disarmament in Bombali except
they got some diamonds.
Reports say they have embarked on mining in Sanda on the way to Kamakwie
where diamonds were discovered few years ago. Competent sources told Concord
Times that former RUF Spokesman Eldred Collins and his colleagues including
Paolo Bangura and Mike Lamin have requested the RUF to delay disarmament
until they have got some pieces of diamonds to start a new life arguing that
they do not have enough money to sustain themselves.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, some Makeni residents explained that the
mining is the primary reason for the last Monday refusal of the RUF to
disarm. The sources said that other reasons for rebels not handing in their
guns is their ambition to retain Makeni as their political base while other
indications are that not many RUF have guns in that district.
The mining for diamonds is said to be done by civilians against their wish.
Concord Times gathered that the Saint Francis Secondary School has been well
prepared by Unamsil, but no Makeni RUF combatant has handed in his gun.
Reports say some RUF commanders sit around the NP Petrol Station, opposite
the Saint Francis school, in a bid to identify and discipline any combatant
who attempts to disarm.
This development is said to have made many people in Makeni angry and
terrified. "We want UNAMSIL to stop mining activities in Sanda," a very
concerned citizen suggested.
However, even as most people would like disarmament to take place in
Bombali, Concord Times gathered that those doing business with the RUF are
not unhappy with the development.
The released commanders have however assured that they are committed to
disarmament. "If they are committed why do they give excuse after excuse?" a
Makeni youth Brima Sesay questioned.
+ + + +
Concord Times (Freetown)
September 27, 2001
Regina Thomas
Freetown
379 members of the Civil Defence Forces and RUF have joined the Sierra Leone
Army.
They are now members of the Army after undergoing a nine-week training at
the Sierra Leone Armed Forces Training School, Benguema.
A total of 831 including 12 officers passed out Thursday at a very colourful
and impressive ceremony that was attended by Vice President Albert Joe
Demby.
The RUF also sent a delegation from Makeni with a Col. Badara as leader.
The training was done by the British Second Light Infantry Brigade.
The soldiers are called 'the short term training team nine.'
+ + + +
Three American special forces troops are reported to have been captured in
Afghanistan.
The Qatar-based al-Jazeera cable television station says the Americans are
among five people seized by Taliban forces. But Foreign Office minister Ben
Bradshaw says the claim needs to be clarified.
The Americans are said to have been armed and carrying maps of bases
belonging to suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw said there was still no independent
confirmation of the reports.
"We have to wait for clarification of this," he said.
The Taleban deny they captured any soldiers
+ + + +
Continuing unrest in India's Jammu and Kashmir state has left at least 13
people dead - two soldiers and 11 separatist militants.
The deaths occurred in four different clashes.
An army spokesman said the two soldiers and five militants died after troops
launched an offensive against a group of armed militants.
Three more Muslim militants died in a similar incident on India's border
with Pakistan near Poonch.
A member of the Laskar-e-Toyeba militant group was killed by soldiers near
Surankot in Poonch district.
And two militants were shot dead in a fierce gunbattle in the mountainous
Doda district.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
+ + + +
The Guadian (Lagos)
September 28, 2001
Feyi-Abiodun Oyeniyi
Lagos
As the figure of missing persons continue to soar by the day with some never
seen again by relations and loves ones,the trend rather than be a source for
worry for authorities, is continuing in a manner that suggests that anybody
could become a victim.
In the city of Lagos, apart from agents of darkness such as armed robbers,
hired assassins who spill blood of innocent citizens daily, ritualists
and conjurers of money are equally on the prowl. Their search for blood and
human parts, disgusting as it is, is being done mindlessly on daily basis as
that is said to be the ingredients, with which magical wealth is acquired.
So threatening is the problem that presently, the fear is rife that it is no
longer safe to walk alone late in the night or even enter commercial
vehicles at early hours of the day at Lagos bus stops.
This fear is real. Not even in day light can anybody's safety be guaranteed
as the story of 40-year-old, frail looking and light complexioned Ifetayo
Omotayo Balogun of Shagamu, Ogun State, in the hands of kidnappers who trade
human bodies for money testifies.
Balogun had had a chain of troubles around him . He lost his job with the
Flour Mill of Nigeria Plc recently. His former landlord had forced him out
of his former residence before he moved into his new abode on 14, Nimota
Street, Sari-Iganmu area of Apapa Local Government Area.
He then bought a fairly used motorbike, otherwise called Okada on higher
purchase. Not long after, armed robbers dispossessed him of it.
While the man who sold the motorbike to him was on his neck to get back his
money through police arrests and detentions, the troubled man who is also a
former employee of Nigerian Bag manufacturing company (BAGCO) was caught in
the web of some mysterious kidnappers who carry out their evil act under the
guise of being commercial bus operators around the city of Lagos.
Unlike many others, Omotayo was lucky as he would tell anybody his story
with the conviction that God had spared his life for more fulfilling
missions on earth.
He had left home for Ilasamaja on Sunday, August 26, 2001 and boarded a
presumably Oshodi-bound danfo commercial bus from the Orile-Iganmu bus stop.
He had left home early at 6.00a.m. to make sure that his friend whom he
meant to visit at Ilasamaja did not go out before he arrived there.
Little did he know that that journey which would have lasted for few hours
would drag on till he returned on the 12th of September, 2001 to reunite
with his wife and children.
Omotayo never knew that the ritualists were thirsty for fresh human blood
and neither did he know that kidnappers were on the prowl again. He felt
safe in the company of the other passengers. They were well dressed and it
was obvious many of them were just returning form parties they had attended
overnight, judged by different gifts or souvenirs they had in their hands.
According to him, he was one of the last three who boarded the vehicle at
Orile-Iganmu Bus Stop. And Zoom! the driver drove off. He suspected strongly
they must have been gassed with a tranquilliser, in his own words:
"The next thing I knew was that I just found out that I slept off
completely. By the time I woke up I found out that I was completely naked.
It was almost in the evening. My co-passengers, about twelve of us in the
bus had been stripped naked.
"There was only one woman among us. I looked around and discovered that we
were in the same bus, parked in the middle of a deep forest," he said with
fear creeping into his face, then anguish. He continued:
"Immediately, I sensed that there was trouble. I looked round and noticed a
hut around the parked vehicle in the bush with four men sitting in it. I was
scared I knew what it all meant. I had only heard stories about the
ritualists. I never believed it. I did not know what next to do. But, I said
Jesus, Please help me! I am not supposed to be here," I shouted repeatedly
and hysterically".
Suddenly as Omotayo explained to The Guardian, four men in the nearby hurt
walked towards where the vehicle was parked.
"They opened the side door of the vehicle, took hold of me and threw me
fiercely into the bush a little away from where the vehicle was parked," he
said, although, with passion and fear.
Continuing the narration of his terrifying experience, he said that as the
men were bringing him out of the vehicle for disposal, he swore:
"They were afraid as if they would be damned for the noise I made. One of
them spoke in Yoruba language. Oloshi l'eleyi, (this one is a wretch) He
would spoil business for us. Lets get rid of him quickly. He is accursed.
Let him go and die off in the bush. Omo Jesus leleyi ntie (this one is a
child of Jesus), they said in turn," revealed Omotayo.
He explained that as he was thrown away from the site into the surrounding
bush, he lost consciousness again and did not know what went on until he
later found himself in a hut with a man and a woman.
"By the time I woke up. I saw the old man who looked like a hunter and a gun
leaning on the side of the hut decorated with earthen stone, pots and other
utensils."
According to the embattled man, a man who later introduced himself as Mr.
Akinlaja went out of the hut to fetch a woman whom he introduced as his
wife.
"He told me that he had picked me up about four days earlier in the bush
where I was dumped. He expressed happiness to discover that I am Yoruba and
offered me food which I turned down. I was shocked, confused and afraid. The
old man told me that even though, I was not fully conscious, I had been fed,
with their food, in the past four days since I was picked-up, " Omotayo
said.
Thereafter, Akinlaja was later joined by another strange man who appeared to
also own a farm or hut around the spot. But, Omotayo insisted on leaving for
home that same day despite their persuasion that he stay for full recovery
before leaving.
"They asked me where I lived and I told them. They expressed shock at the
story of my experience. When they could not persuade me to eat, the man,
Akinlaja and his wife led me through the bush to the main road where I
boarded a pick-up van, with the N100.00 they offered me," he said.
According to Omotayo, the man and woman who were later to be joined by the
other stranger, a friend of the Akinlajas had revealed that they sympathised
and helped him because they also have their own children in distant lands
and did not know what could happen to them where they are.
By the time he alighted at the Lagos end of Lagos-Ibadan express road, he
discovered that he had been missing for the past sixteen days. Thereafter,
he said that he was taken to hospital for treatment.
"It was after I boarded the vehicle that I knew that I was in Benin Area of
Edo State.
We had walked from the hut for about 45 minutes before we got to the main
road. After few minutes drive away form the spot where I boarded the pick-up
van, I noted a signboard signifying that we were in Ore. I had thought that
I was in some area around Oshodi", he said.
He however said that he could not recollect the direction to either the same
spot where he boarded the vehicle nor the hut where Akinlaja and others had
helped to resuscitate him. Not even the spot where the kidnappers took him
to.
"In fact, I could not locate the spot. I cannot find my way back into the
bush if I am told to," he regretted and added, "all that was on my mind was
to get back to Lagos and home," while lamenting the fate of others taken
captive with him who he said were lying naked in the vehicle he left behind.
"Only God can determine their fate," Omotayo lamented.
Ifetayo Omotayo who is though a tenant in the house where he resides is also
the assistant secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the area and a
member of the community Development Association.
Therefore his missing was not a cause of worry to only members of his family
but also eminent politicians and community leaders in the entire area.
The Vice Chairman of the Apapa Local government area and a retired
educationist, Mr. Anaglo Z. Christopher confirmed the story and the effort
he and other prominent community leaders made in locating the missing
politician. "He just came back and told as that some people kidnapped him.
"We were worried at hearing the story. We went to the Orile -Iganmu Police
Station to report the case. The DPO of the station radioed the entire
formations in the state and they confirmed that a man of his (Omotayo's)
description was not being held in any of the stations," said Anaglo.
The search party had combed all nooks and crannies including mortuaries in
Lagos in an effort to locate the missing man to no avail.
Anago told The Guardian: "However, Omotayo's mother later came and said that
a spiritualist had advised that further search of him be stopped , because
according to her, the missing man will soon reappear on his own volition.
We therefore stopped looking for him until on the 12th of September when he
truly reappeared, saying that he was kidnapped by some unknown men.
Ifetayo Omotayo had, prior to his missing, had a chain of trouble which even
made the family members and associate turn the heat on someone else and the
police as possible culprits when he disappeared.
After he lost his job with the Flour mill Nigeria Plc, his former employers,
he had purchased a fairly used motorbike, otherwise called Okada, last
April.
Two months later, the Okada he got on higher purchase for N80,000 was taken
by robbers from its driver who was Omotayo's younger brother.
"I had just paid N15,000 of the money when my younger brother came to tell
me on a day in June, that he had been robbed of the motorcycle."
The owner, the man who sold the bike to him, one Adonis Olu from Ebonyi
State did not believe his story of robbers. He believed it was fake and
refused to be appeased by all supplications from people.
After three different arrests by the men from the Orile-Iganmu Police
Station failed to force Omotayo to produce the stolen bike or its price, Olu
had come to Omotayo's house the Saturday prior to the day which he was
kidnapped.
Olu had threatened that he would deal with me unless his balance of N65,000
was paid. And that by the coming Monday police from the Panti Police Station
would come to make another arrest as he said the case of stealing against me
had been transferred to Panti," explained Omotayo.
When by Monday morning Omotayo failed to return home, his wife and fellow
tenants thought Olu must have made good his threat. And so, he was in
trouble, as despite several appeals from the missing man's people he denied
any knowledge of Omotayo's disappearance. Olu was arrested. Olu forgot the
debt being owed and had to resort to prayers for the man to resurface.
When The Guardian visited him recently in company of Omotayo, Olu first took
the reporter for a security operative was still afraid. When however, later
he was told of the mission he became calmer.
"In fact, I am very happy. He (Omotayo) appears to me like a new baby. On
the Monday when his people came here to ask me of his whereabouts, because
of an earlier threat against him by me, I was confused and afraid.
"What is Okada? What is Money? His life is worth much more than money. I
know that I can now sleep happily and freely, I can walk the streets without
fear since my claim of ignorance of the cause of his disappearance is now
clear." He said even as Omotayo promised that he would pay the balance of
his debt whenever he has money.
The two had been friends and co-workers at the Nigerian Bags manufacturing
Company (BAGCO) for over a decade prior to the recent problem.
They promised , in the presence of the reporter, that they will continue
with their friendship.
For Ifetayo Omotayo, the whole experience is a lesson which has completely
changed his life. He has now vowed to worship God more than before.
"I have resolved to go into sale of gospel, audio and video, music cassettes
as soon as I get some money. I must win souls for God, as a sign of my
appreciation to Him," he had concluded.
+ + + +
Rizla Ranger UK
BBCs Helen Vesperini in Kigali
The much vaunted ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo is looking more
precarious by the day.
In the past week there has been fighting in Fizi, on the western shore of Lake
Tanganyika and in Kindu, another strategic town in the east.
The latest fighting is the most serious to break out in Congo since Rwandan
troops started their partial withdrawal from the country in February.
This fighting has pitted Congolese rebels, with the backing of the Rwandan
Government, against militias supported by the Kinshasa authorities.
The Congolese Goma rebel faction, who are backed by the Rwandan Government, say
they have pushed them back to a peninsula on the lake that they have used as a
base since 1998.
"We've cleaned up the whole area around Fizi and the fighting is now going on to
the east and the south," said a spokesman for the Goma rebels.
In Kindu, a town further north on the strategically important Congo river,
fighting has been going on since Saturday morning.
The Goma rebels say the town's airport was taken by a mixture of Congolese
tribal militia known as Mai Mai and Kinshasa government forces.
"We dislodged them from the airport around 2200 last night and they are now
scattered in town," the Goma rebels' spokesman told the BBC.
He said they had taken 10 prisoners, including soldiers identified as belonging
to the Kinshasa government army.
+ + + +
BBC
Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil company, says it will need 18 months to repair a
southern Nigerian flow station, which has been severely damaged in an attack by
armed youths.
Shell says the attack has wiped off 40,000 barrels per day of its production.
"The flow station will remain shut for the next 18 months," said Frank Efeduma,
Shell's External Relations Manager in the southern oil town of Warri.
"It will cost Shell $25 million to bring the station back on stream," he added.
Shell, Nigeria's largest oil producer, has been the target of local militants
who demand a greater share of the country's wealth.
The company said the shutdown of the Olomoro flow station would not affect its
Nigeria export programme.
Shell produces about half of Nigeria's total daily output of oil - about 800,000
to 900,000 of a daily total of just over two million barrels.
In the past, militants have kidnapped oil workers as bargaining chips for cash
or jobs. But the kidnappings have lessened this year.
Armed youths took over Olomoro on Thursday and tried to shut it down, Shell
officials said.
But then a build-up of pressure in the surge tanks caused the explosion, which
put the facility out of use and spilled crude oil over several hundred square
metres of woodland around the station.
Mr Efeduma said the attack, apparently carried out by ethnic-Isoko youths from
the neighbouring Olomoro and Oleh communities, was criminal.
"If you calculate how much Shell and the nation will lose in 18 months, it will
be enormous," he said.
"Those responsible for this must be fished out and brought to book."
A Shell spokesman said on Thursday that police had arrested nearly 40 militants.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
October 2, 2001
An attack by suspected UNITA rebels on the town of Golunga Alto, in Kwanza Norte
province and about 150 km east of Luanda has been repelled by government forces,
Lusa reported on Monday.
The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) source in Ndalatando, the provincial capital, was
quoted as saying that the first attack occurred in the early hours of Friday
morning involving a 30 minute exchange of fire. The UNITA forces then withdrew,
later they attempted to storm municipal buildings, this attack was driven off
after a further fire fight.
Last Tuesday suspected UNITA rebels attacked a power station on the outskirts of
Luanda. An explosion took place at the substation in the Viana municipality,
about 20 km from the centre of Luanda. A gun battle ensued between the attackers
and soldiers of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), during which at least three
people were killed. Power supplies were interrupted in the capital on Tuesday
morning, and places up to 60 km away were reported to be without electricity.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
October 1, 2001
The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed
opposition movement has announced that its fighters repelled a pre-dawn attack
by government troops and their allies on Kindu in eastern Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC).
AP reported that an estimated 800 government soldiers and their Mayi-Mayi allies
were expelled from the airport and town on Saturday. The day-long occupation
resulted in the deaths of at least 11 Mayi-Mayi fighters. Some government army
officers were reportedly captured, two civilians were killed in crossfire and
one RCD soldier was seriously injured, RCD spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga
told AP on Sunday.
"This is the worst escalation of the war since March this year when all parties
disengaged from frontline positions," he was quoted as telling Reuters.
Kindu, with about 300,000 inhabitants, is the main town in Maniema province and
home to the DRC's third-largest airport. The town lies on the Congo river, about
400 km west of the RCD's headquarters in Goma, on the Rwandan border, AFP noted.
Rwanda said it was concerned that the escalation of fighting could threaten
efforts to end three years of war.
"We shall spare no efforts to have forces occupying other parties' positions in
violation of the [Lusaka] cease-fire deal quit," Patrick Mazimhaka, the Rwandan
special envoy for the DRC was quoted as telling Reuters on Sunday.
Meanwhile, fighting is reportedly continuing in Fizi, on the shores of Lake
Tanganyika in South Kivu province, where earlier this month, a coalition of
Burundian and Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie
and the Interahamwe together with Mayi-Mayi militias allegedly supported by the
Congolese army captured the town.
In a statement released on Friday, the RCD accused the DRC government of
violating the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement and demanded the immediate withdrawal
of its troops and allies from Fizi. RCD warned that failure to do so would
obligate them to launch a military offensive, thereby jeopardising the
inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue due to begin on 15 October in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
+ + + +
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
October 2, 2001
Liberia's President, Charles Taylor, on Friday announced the reopening of its
borders with neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the pro-government Radio
Liberia International (RLI) reported. He made the announcement to members of a
joint security committee of the Mano River Union (MRU) who visited him. Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea form the MRU.
Liberia closed its borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone on 20 March this year
after declaring the ambassadors of both countries personae non gratae for
committing what he described as acts incompatible with their status.
Taylor has also lifted restrictions imposed early this year on the movement of
foreign diplomats and UN officials in Liberia, RLI said. According to the radio
station, the restrictions had been imposed "for security reasons" because of the
war in the northwestern county of Lofa.
Taylor said Friday's decisions were a clear manifestation of his government's
eagerness and sincerity to foster peace and security for the peoples of the
three countries. He said there was an urgent need for MRU authorities to work
hard towards peace, security and development in the region.
The Liberian side of the border with Sierra Leone was opened at the weekend, BBC
confirmed on Saturday.
+ + + +
VALLEDUPAR, Colombia (AP) — Bearing white candles and pink flowers, thousands
marched silently through the streets of this northern city to protest the
killing of a beloved matriarch who was kidnapped by leftist guerrillas.
The killing of Consuelo Araujo has shaken Colombia's fragile peace process and
ripped into the heart of her native Valledupar. Upon reaching her home, some of
the mourners broke down in tears.
``In Colombia, they assassinate beauty and intelligence,'' one of the marchers
cried into the muggy Sunday night.
In a statement Monday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
guerrillas blamed the slaying on the army. The statement did not say who shot
Araujo, but implied that she was killed because the army undertook a rescue
mission. Rebels have, in the past, killed hostages when authorities tried to
recover them.
The head of Colombia's armed forces, Gen. Fernando Tapias, rejected the FARC's
assertion. The army has said that the rebels killed Araujo after she fell to the
ground exhausted as soldiers chased the group through the mountains. Five other
hostages were freed in the operation.
``At no time were the lives of the hostages put in danger and the proof of that
is that the majority of them, or almost all of them, got out alive,'' Tapias
told a news conference Monday.
At least 3,000 Colombians are killed annually in the country's civil war, which
pits leftist guerrillas against the government and right-wing paramilitaries.
``We are all orphans now,'' said another marcher, Emilda Castillo, a grade
school classmate of the slain former culture minister.
Many Colombians hope the slaying of a 62-year-old woman revered for her social
and cultural contributions will become a turning point in the 37-year war.
Colombia's latest atrocity severely tests President Andres Pastrana's policy of
negotiating with the rebels.
Pastrana condemned the crime Sunday, saying it was a ``vile and cowardly act.''
But he fell short of announcing any definitive policy changes, despite calls for
clear action from Araujo's family and leading politicians. Following daylong
meetings with government ministers, the president said he would ``evaluate'' the
peace process.
Noemi Sanin, a presidential candidate in next May's elections, had called for an
immediate suspension of the peace process.
The talks began almost three years ago, after Pastrana granted a safe haven to
the rebels in southern Colombia. They have produced no substantial results.
The president has come under increasing pressure to make progress in the
negotiations or impose controls on the rebel zone, which expires Oct. 7.
Pastrana has renewed the zone several times, but has not said whether he will do
so again.
Critics say the guerrillas use the Switzerland-sized territory to hide hostages
and carry out military training.
On Saturday, rebels prevented the leading presidential candidate, Horacio Serpa,
and a peace caravan of 3,000 followers from entering the zone.
Peace Commissioner Camilo Gomez said Sunday the killing of Araujo and the FARC's
refusal to allow Serpa's caravan to enter the safe haven had ``put the peace
process in danger.''
Araujo's death came only a few days after a civilian advisory panel to the peace
talks urged a halt to rebel kidnappings.
The 16,000-strong FARC, considered a terrorist organization by Washington, has
been waging war against a series of elected governments for almost four decades.
Government troops found Araujo's body late Saturday in a ravine in the Sierra
Nevada mountains outside Valledupar, the army said.
FARC fighters kidnapped Araujo, wife of the country's inspector general, and
about 20 others on Sept. 24, officials said. Some of the hostage were released
before the rescue mission.
Araujo's nephew, Congressman Alvaro Araujo, denounced the FARC as ``terrorists''
Sunday, saying ``their mask is coming off.''
After dark, thousands of people gathered in Valledupar's whitewashed colonial
plaza.
Araujo gained fame for promoting Valledupar's Vallenato music, an
accordion-based folk music popular all over Colombia. More than 30 years ago,
she founded an annual Vallenato festival that is one of Colombia's most
important cultural events.
Holding a white candle, Luis Rafael Mendoza, 62, cried when asked about the
murder.
``It was an act of barbarity against a woman who never hurt anybody,'' he said.
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Rizla Ranger UK
KABUL (Voice of Sharia) -- Citing worldwide reaction to last week's terrorist
attacks, multi-national terror network Al Qaeda announced Thursday that it would
lay off 5,000 or more holy warriors. The "holy war" concern said the move was
necessary because of an expected 20 percent fatwah reduction and the cost and
complexity of thwarting new airport and immigration security procedures,
according to a statement broadcast on Afghanistan's Voice of Sharia radio. "This
is, without a doubt, the most difficult thing I have had to do in my over two
decades as a mujahad," said Al Qaeda mastermind and chief operations officer
Osama bin Laden in a letter to employees. He added, "Some of these people are my
friends, who have been fighting the infidel by my side since we were were living
in caves in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. We are still living in
caves in Afghanistan, but I believe the bottom is forming and we will see a
turnaround soon, provided we can meet the challenge by getting both leaner AND
meaner."
"I have declared a state of emergency at Al Qaeda," he said. "This declaration
is an official recognition that, hard as it may be to accept, our network's very
survival depends on dramatic change to our operations, our jihad and worst of
all our staffing levels." The cuts, bin Laden said, would include both mujahadin
(holy warriors) and ulema (clerics). They will impact Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Iraq. Some mujahadin will be notified immediately, others won't be notified
until the end of next week as they finish attacks in progress or in late stages
of planning, according to Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed. Staff cuts for suicide
pilots, car bombers, petty religious clerics and other Al Qaeda holy warriors
will be based on seniority, Ahmed said, in a deal worked out at a meeting
between bin Laden and union officials from the IBIJ (International Brotherhood
of the Islamic Jihad).
Mujahadin and others who lose their jobs will not receive any sort of severance
package, according to the Al Qaeda statement. Pakistan, which oversees Al Quaeda
and its subsidiary Taliban organization, is the world's largest country with a
pre-medieval culture and justice system. The country's latest quarterly report
said the different units of the Al Qaeda/Taliban organization, including the
madrassas (schools Pakistan has been running for twenty years to turn ordinary
children into suicidal holy warriors) had at total of 30,000 employees, meaning
the cut represents a 16 percent reduction in staff. Al Qaeda is the latest in a
string of Islamic terror network layoff announcements, pushing the total of
announced cuts in the last five days to 10,000.
Referring to massive U.S. troop movements involving three carrier groups in the
Mediterranean and Arabian Sea, worried Afghani ulemas in testimony during the
emergency sharia council in Khandahar on Thursday told their spiritual leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar that the number is likely to cross the 20,000 threshold in
the coming days, through attrition, with none of the expected openings slated to
be refilled. OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) and bin Laden are
considering spending billions on emergency aid to the industry, distributed
through a vast network of corrupt Saudi emirs, international prostitution rings
and drug smugglers. The current exchange rate is approximately 100,000 afghanis
to the dollar. The PLO announced Tuesday it will reduce its workforce by 200 to
300 sleeper agents worldwide by end of 2002 at its commercial bus bombing
division and restaurant theater operations.
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Rizla Ranger UK
Reports from Angola say at least 15 people were killed when Unita rebels
attacked the village of Cachingues in Bie Province on Sunday.
Government forces were driven out by the surprise attack, but retook the village
after two hours.
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