Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, Vuyo Mvoko And Sapa-Afp
10 October 2001
Pahad says government recognises US right to seek those responsible for the attacks
THE US has reacted coolly to an SA government response in which it hesitantly supported the US actions in Afghanistan.DEPUTY Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad has said while the that SA government unequivocally condemned the last month's terrorist attacks on the American US cities, and he wished to reiterate reiterated that SA recognises the right of the US administration to seek out those responsible for those the acts of terror.
He said yesterday that justice meted out to the culprits "should be informed by hard evidence and must be directed against the actual culprits".
He said government would not be complacent regarding those that support terror.
"Our law enforcement will not be tolerant for anyone to even carry out terrorist attempts here, even if such people are planning to support actions elsewhere," Pahad said.
The matter was not negotiable, Pahad said, SA was bound by United Nations resolutions to report, within 90 days, to the UN Security Council, on what actions it has taken to deal with such things as money laundering, giving sanction to people suspected of being terrorists, and extraditions.
This comes after as US forces struck at the heart of Taliban rule in Afghanistan on Tuesday yesterday, bombarding the home of the militia's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, during the first daytime strikes of the three-day-old air war. Omar had already vacated the compound.
A statement released yesterday by the US embassy in Pretoria said the US embassy noted that the SA government "has acknowledged our right to undertake these strikes in self-defence and in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter and the terms of the the relevant Security Council resolutions".
Earlier yesterday at a press briefing a senior US diplomat welcomed the support that SA was providing in the fight against terrorism. John Blaney, the chargé d'affaires at the US embassy, said that SA was providing giving "tangible help" to American US law enforcement and intelligence bodies. agencies.
He said that SA, along with several a number of others, countries, had been provided with a list of 200 names of terrorist suspects. To the best of his knowledge, he said, that this did not include any South Africans.
While People Against Gangsterism and Drugs features on a US list of US terrorist organisations, Qibla, also a Cape-based radical Islamic organisation, which has threatened retaliation against the US, is not on the list.
There has been an almost total silence on the part of African governments over US-led air and missile strikes against Afghanistan, reflecting widespread alarm over the likely fallout of the conflict for Africa.
Nigeria was the only economic heavyweight in Africa to express swift backing for military operations by the US and Britain to root out prime terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime sheltering him.
South Africa waited until Tuesday, more than a day after the attacks began, to show support. Deputy Foreign Minister Azid Pahad said that action against terrorists "should be informed by hard evidence and must be directed against the actual culprits." He added: "The USA has provided such evidence to its NATO allies and to countries in the region." Pahad said President Thabo Mbeki was briefed Sunday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on the military strikes against targets in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies.
The response from most African governments has been muted or nonexistent across a continent where many countries have large Muslim populations.
Niger President Mamadou Tandja called the action against Afghanistan a "normal" reaction but told AFP: "The wish of every Muslim is that this situation ends and that peace returns."
Elsewhere in west Africa, Islamic leaders have expressed sympathy with the victims of last month's terror attacks on the US which killed more than 5,000 people but condemned Washington's foreign policy.
A long "war against terrorism" waged by the US and its wealthy allies could batter the prices of Africa's commodities exports and slash the amount of its development aid. made available to the continent.
The World Bank warned last week of severe economic repercussions for developing countries from the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's office on Monday said on Monday: that: "Nigeria reaffirms its support for a concerted international effort to combat terrorism. We see the war against terrorism as an action not against any race, country or religion." But like many in Africa, Nigerian presidential spokesman Tunji Oseni warned against any confusion of terrorism with Islam, "a religion of peace and total submission to the will of Allah (God)." Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, with 120-million people mainly Muslim in the north and Christian in the south.
Clashes on religious and ethnic lines have claimed thousands of lives there this year.
Officials in Senegal, where 90% of the population is Muslim, simply warned US expatriates to take precautions.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade will next Wednesday host a conference of African heads of state to seal his own initiative for an African Pact against Terrorism.
However, an African human rights group based in Senegal, RADDHO, expressed "strong concern" about Washington's response to the attacks.on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in a view heard elsewhere in the continent.
"However serious and ignoble the attacks on September 11 may be, the United States must put human rights first in their response," RADDHO said in a statement.
The group "says no to the American strikes, which will obviously worsen the humanitarian crisis Afghanistan has been enduring for more than 20 years." On the economic front, the repercussions of the September 11 attacks on the United States are hitting South Africa hard, with the rand plunging fast against the dollar since then.
"Now we have a rolling crash ... a steady looting of South Africa," said Patrick Bond, an economist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, calling for exchange controls to be imposed.
Africans appear to be increasingly marginalised. Their average minimum monthly wage is about 40 dollars in a world where each Tomahawk cruise missile costs up to 1.2 million dollars.
French Co-operation Minister Charles Josselin recently told journalists said: that "African public opinion is an expression of coldness, relative indifference and frustration in a world of selfish people."
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