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Africa faces terrorism spectre
31/05/2003 14:48 - (SA)
Rabat - The suicide-bombings that killed 43 people in Casablanca earlier this month reverberated far beyond the frontiers of Morocco, as an entire continent comes to terms with militancy and terror attacks.
Africa, already ravaged by earthquake, civil war, drought, Aids and famine, is no stranger to terror attacks - Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and Tunisia are among the countries that have had firsthand experience.
But the Casablanca attacks brought terrorism - whether linked to the al-Qaeda network or not - to a new theatre in the northwest of Africa. And recent warnings from Western governments about the dangers of travel to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Erithrea, Djibouti and Somalia have done nothing to ease the tension.
The thread that links the different attacks is radical Islam. Ties with Israel, the presence of Western tourists, the vulnerability of US targets, places where Western "decadence" is on display. These are the triggers. Those African states closest to the Middle East have been the first to be affected.
In August 1998 US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam were bombed and 213 people died. Last November an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa was attacked and 15 lives were lost.
An attack on tourists in Egypt in 1997 cost 57 lives. Countless scores of thousands of people have died in the civil violence in Algeria, many of them in incidents of horrifying brutality perpetrated by Islamist groups,
Last year terrorism moved west, to Tunisia, and 21 people died in a bombing at a synagogue. And in May 2003 it was the turn of Morocco.
The consequences for political progress have often been disastrous as governments scramble to eliminate the phenomemnon of radical Islam. The Algerian authorities are accused of conducting a ruthless "dirty war" against the Islamists.
In Morocco an increasingly bitter debate is under way as proponents of a hard line argue that moves towards democracy have weakened the authority of the government.
"The hour of truth has struck, heralding the end of an era of laxism in the face of those who exploit democracy to attack the authority of the state," King Mohamed VI of Morocco said this week.
He said he would not stray from the path of "democracy and modernity" but indicated clearly that those who "wanted to send Morocco backwards" would face stiff opposition.
The Casablanca bombings have had some unexpected side effects. The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), Morocco's third largest political grouping, has decided to lower its profile before local elections due in September because it fears it will do too well and does not want to contribute to a climate of fear.
A PJD leader Saad Eddine Othmani, criticised in a magazine interview " a politico-media campaign" against his party since the Casablanca bombings. He said it showed how frightened other parties were of the possible outcome of the elections.
"Once again this will lead us to revise our electoral strategy for the forthcoming local elections," he said, referring to a similar tactical decision last year. - Sapa-AFP
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