Al-Qaeda report 'far-fetched'
2004-05-27 13:06
Johannesburg - The director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the University of Pretoria (Issup) in South Africa, Mike Hough, said on Thursday it was highly unlikely that al-Qaeda would have wanted to disrupt elections in South Africa.
National police commissioner Jackie Selebi revealed on Wednesday that police had nabbed suspected al-Qaeda operatives ahead of last month's elections and that these arrests had led to similar arrests in Britain, Syria and Jordan, a Johannesburg daily reported on Thursday.
Hough said: "If you think of the government's fierce resistance against a war in Iraq and its sympathy with the Palestinians ... then an al-Qaeda plot against elections in South Africa sounds a bit far-fetched."
However, it was likely that some al-Qaeda members were based here.
"Al-Qaeda has decentralised tremendously since its headquarters in Afghanistan were attacked. There have been fears from the United States that al-Qaeda cells might re-establish themselves in Africa.
"In terms of the global threat of terror the Americans did ask South Africa to be on the look-out for al-Qaeda," Hough said.
But if the government had real evidence against the suspects it would probably have arrested and tried them in South Africa before extraditing them.
"It sounds like there was not enough evidence against them and that is why they were deported immediately."
South Africa held peaceful elections on April 14 which returned the ruling African National Congress to power and saw President Thabo Mbeki elected to a second five-year term.
The reports of al-Qaeda activity in South Africa came as US Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that Osama bin Laden's network was poised to stage a new attack on the United States.
Foiled plot
According to the report, Selebi told parliament's safety and security committee the alleged al-Qaeda members were deported five days before the April 14 elections and suggested that intelligence-sharing allowed authorities in the three other countries to take action, a radio report said on Thursday.
"We arrested some people who had evil intentions against this country - five days before the election. We got these people to leave," Selebi said.
"The result is that you saw in Jordan, in and around those days, a number of people arrested who were al-Qaeda. A number of people were (also) arrested in Syria as a result of our operation."
Jordan foiled a massive chemical attack linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in late April which resulted in six members of the network being arrested and four others killed in a series of raids.
"In part of this operation, in London, the British police found boxes and boxes of South African passports in the home of one of these people, or an associate of these people, which says to me there must be a link that people are able to acquire these documents,"
Selebi did not elaborate and his office declined to give details.