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| Africa: Subsaharan | ||||||
| South African thugs planned attacks | ||||||
| 2004-08-03 | ||||||
Two South Africans in Pakistani custody have told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg, a security official alleged on Tuesday. "They had hatched a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on Johannesburg's main tourist sites," said the official, who is familiar with the interrogation.
The pair -- Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail -- were arrested last week in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat along with Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicted by the United States over the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Bakar (a doctor) and Ismail, described as new recruits to Osama bin Laden's terror network, had arrived in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore early in July, the official said on condition of anonymity. They joined Ghailani in Gujrat, 160km south-east of Islamabad, and together hid out in a rented house. The house was stormed by police commandoes on July 25 and after an eight-hour shootout the pair were arrested with Ghailani, his Uzbek wife, three other women and some Pakistani "facilitators".
Maps, foreign currency, computers, computer discs and Arabic-language documents were found in his hideout, another security official said. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the information on the computer was "valuable" and had been passed on to Pakistan's "friends", a reference to the US, its close ally in the war on terrorism. An independent analyst on Friday described the two South Africans' situation as bleak.
If tried in Pakistan, the death penalty is mandatory for terrorism and the definition of the crime very broad, said South African Institute of International Affairs war and organised crime researcher Gail Wannenburg.
Should they be handed over to the United States, the men are likely to spend a long time awaiting trial in a detention facility like Guantanamo Bay -- the US military prison in Cuba. They would probably be considered illegal combatants under American law, meaning that minimum international standards of detention would not apply to them, she said. Terrorism is a capital crime in some US states. "Their situation would appear to be quite bleak, particularly if they are deported to the US," Wannenburg said. "I would be quite worried if I were in their shoes." The South African government could on Friday give no update on the men's position.
Last Thursday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad met Pakistani High Commissioner Akbar Zeb in Pretoria to request access to the men. He also asked for details of the arrests "to enable the South African government to determine the course of action to be followed".
The high commissioner committed his government to assisting South Africa and enabling consular visits to the men. Asked on Friday whether arrangements for a visit were under way, a departmental spokesperson said: "There is no further information. The status is as yesterday." If any link is definitely established between Ghailani and the South Africans, they are likely to be deported to the US, Wannenburg said. But the burden of proof would be very low, she said, as the US and Pakistan "have both not been very open about the evidence they rely on in such cases". | ||||||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Two South Africans in Pakistani custody have told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg. What I can't figure out is why they would want to attack their own newly-liberated "rainbow nation" - unless they want to turn it into an islamic state. Maybe tourism is unislamic?? Oh, I've got it. It's a lie to cover up their real intention - which is to attack Pakistan. |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-08-04 2:24:48 AM |
| #2 attack tourist sites in Johannesburg, They better attack them quickly as Theo seems parials to Bob's economic innovations. In five years there will be very few tourists to disrupt. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-03 10:47:48 PM |
| #1 They had hatched a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on Johannesburg’s main tourist sites," This wouldn't be happening if there was a just resolution to the Palestinian problem! . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-08-03 10:28:52 PM |