Zanzibar leaders attacked

2004-03-21 19:31

Zanzibar - Explosions have rocked the homes of Zanzibar's top Muslim leader and the semi-autonomous archipelago's transport minister after unknown assailants planted bombs outside their residences, police said Sunday.

Army bomb experts also defused another bomb placed inside a bar in Zanzibar's Stone Town, said George Kizugutu, the regional police chief.

There were no casualties in any of the incidents, which took place on Friday and Saturday, and are the latest in a series of attacks and acts of sabotage that have beset the Indian Ocean island in recent weeks.

Details were sketchy, but the residence of Sheikh Harith bin Kalef, Zanzibar's mufti, was damaged by an explosion late on Friday that shattered windows and destroyed parts of the roof. Transport Minister Zubeir Ali Maulid's home was struck by a bomb late on Saturday that damaged parts of a wall. The same evening a bomb was defused in the Mercury Bar in Stone Town, Kizugutu said.

Neither official was in their homes - both of which are on the outskirts of Stone Town - at the time of the attacks, police said.

Police picked up three suspects shortly after Kalef's home was bombed, Kizugutu said.

Spate of attacks

Zanzibar has rocked by a spate of attacks on government and private property since a March 5 demonstration by an Islamic group - Uamsho Mihadhara, or Islamic Propagation Organization - turned violent.

It was not clear if the three detained after the bombing of Kalef's home were members of that group, which police accuse of promoting extremism.

On Wednesday, a primary school bus was destroyed by a petrol bomb while it was parked in school grounds, and on March 10 arsonists set fire to a Roman Catholic Church in central Zanzibar, burning chairs and chests filled with clothes.

Several electricity transformers have also been destroyed on the predominantly Muslim island, which lies off the coast of Tanzania.

Police detained five senior members of Uamsho in connection with the attacks on Thursday.

Police had banned the group from holding the March 5 demonstration, saying it advocates killing leaders who refuse to impose Islamic law in Zanzibar. But the protest went ahead and turned violent when members of the group started stoning police, who responded by firing tear gas.

Uamsho's leaders have acknowledged that at a few of its earlier rallies, and in some of its literature and videos, preachers say secular leaders should be killed. But they have insisted those were individual views, not the group's policy.

Kalef has been at the centre of a dispute with Uamsho about whether the mufti - the top legal authority for Islamic affairs - should be appointed by the government. Uamsho insists he should be elected by Muslims.

Moderate Zanzibari Muslim leaders and Tanzanian and foreign officials have expressed concerns about rising extremism among young Muslims in the archipelago, which includes Zanzibar and the smaller island of Pemba.

- AP