No AlQaeda connection in Kenya? No Al-Qaeda link found so far, says Kenya
By Declan Walsh
arabnews.com
MOMBASA, Kenya, 1 December 2002 — Kenya said yesterday it had so far found no link between 12 people held over Thursday’s attacks on Israelis in Mombasa and the Al-Qaeda network, and authorities freed the two Westerners among the detainees.
The authorities said they were still holding for questioning six Pakistanis and four Somalis.
As police hunted for clues in the suicide bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel, where 16 people including three attackers died, a Kenyan government minister appealed to people to help without fear of persecution.
“This is not a witch-hunt. We want to get only the culprits and punish them,” Katana Ngala told a memorial service held amid the wreckage of the hotel.
US officials have said the top suspect for the blast is the Somali-based group Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya, known also as AIAI or the Islamic Union. They said it had links with Al-Qaeda.
The interim government in Somalia declined comment yesterday on the US charge, but called for the dismantling of “terror groups” throughout East Africa. A leading Somali leader, however, said such violence was the result of what he called oppression.
“I am very sorry about what happened in Mombasa but this kind of thing will not cease until some parts of the international community stop ignoring the rights of oppressed people,” Sheikh Ali Sheikh Mahmud said in brief remarks by telephone to Kenyan-based reporters.
A Kenyan Muslim leader, Sheikh Ali Shee, chairman of the Council of Imams of Kenya warned American and Israeli tourists to avoid Muslim countries in the wake of the latest terrorist attacks. “There is an undeclared war between their countries and the Muslim world,” said Sheikh Ali. “It is not good for them to come until the (Palestinian) problem is solved.”
Kenyan Internal Security Minister Julius Sunkuli, asked if police had found any connection between Al-Qaeda and those being held over the explosion and a failed simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner, told reporters: “None so far.”
Police later released American Alicia Kalhammer and her Spanish husband Jose Tena after questioning, saying they had no connection with the attacks. The two said they bore no grudge and would continue their holiday elsewhere in Kenya.
“There are no hard feelings. We love Kenya. We love the Kenyan people and we know they were doing their job,” Kalhammer, 31, told Reuters.
The other detainees are six Pakistanis and four Somalis who were arrested for entering Kenya illegally and only later came under suspicion by those investigating the attacks, police said.
At the Mombasa bomb site, hotel staff wiped away tears as they picked through charred rubble, searching for any items of clothing or mementos belonging to friends killed in the blast. One shook ash off what looked like part of a pair of trousers.
An official of Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG) said Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah also condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms”. (The Independent) |
