Pakistan 2: Delays continue

2004-08-06 16:56

Pretoria - South African consular staff would get access to two citizens held on terrorism accusations in Pakistan once authorities felt the time was "appropriate", the Pakistani high commission in Pretoria said on Friday.

"The case is still under investigation. We must wait until we reach some point when access can be given," first secretary Javed Khattak told Sapa.

Asked what he meant by "some point", Khattak said: "When we reach somewhere and the authorities feel it is appropriate to give access to the high commission people".

On Thursday, the South African government vowed to continue exerting diplomatic pressure to gain access to the two men, held in Pakistan since July 25.

"We are leaving no stone unturned to get access to those people," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.

Asked what the obstacle was, he said: "In the fight against terrorism a lot of the rules of law go out the window." Much of the diplomatic pressure from South Africa's side was being "blocked" by Pakistani authorities describing the matter as an operational issue to be handled by intelligence and security services, he said.

The two are Feroze Ganchi, a doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismail from Laudium in Pretoria.

They were among about a dozen people detained after a 12-hour shootout with security forces at a house in Gujrat, south-east of Islamabad, on July 25.

A Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was reportedly among those arrested. He is wanted by the United States for the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The South African government has dismissed media reports of Ganchi and Ismail telling interrogators of plans to attack targets in their home country.

Meanwhile, the fate of two other people being held, apparently on South African passports, in the United States and Mexico, remained unclear.

The US embassy in Pretoria had no information on reports of a woman arrested on terrorism-related charges at border town of McAllen near Texas on July 19.

It could also not explain why South African officials had not been given consular access to the woman.

The US department of homeland security referred enquiries to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had not responded to a written query by Friday afternoon.

The woman was apparently being charged with illegal entry into the US, making a false statement to a federal officer, and altering a passport for purposes of residing in the US.

The Foreign Affairs Department has also not yet obtained information on the suspected South African in Mexico.

The Mexican embassy in Pretoria said it had asked for information from authorities back home, but was still awaiting a response. Due to the time difference, this was expected to arrive late Friday evening, South African time.

- SAPA