Mombasa
Muslims to demonstrate against State terror
Mombasa residents are expected to come out in their thousands over
the weekend to show their anger against the State-sponsored harassment
targeting Muslims. The march which will wind its way through the
streets of the country’s second largest town is being organised
by the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK).
Addressing
the media in Mombasa, the council’s organising secretary Sheikh
Muhammad Khalifa accused the government of waging a relentless campaign
on a section of its citizens to gain the favour of foreign nations.
In the process, he said, many innocent people have had their constitutional
rights thrown out of the window by the anti-terrorist police unit
which is at the forefront of the campaign.
Sheikh
Khalifa, who is also the chairman of the unregistered Islamic Party
of Kenya (IPK) said while the government was taking a heavy handed
approach against so-called terrorist suspects and sympathisers of
the Union of Islamic Courts, criminals who are terrorising Kenyans
have all their rights guaranteed.
“Criminals who are arrested with illegal weapons are being
allowed access to lawyers and relatives while innocent Muslims arrested
on the guise of terrorism are being denied their constitutional
rights,” he said.
Instead
of addressing the spiralling rate of crime in the country, the Sheikh
said the government was instead focussing its resources on innocent
men, women and children.
The
demonstration, he said, will send a strong a signal that Muslims
will not support President Kibaki during the forthcoming elections
if the oppressive policies were to continue.
As
he spoke, it emerged that the government, despite protests from
Muslims and human rights organisations had gone ahead to deport
more than 20 people seized in the country for being sympathetic
to the UIC, who controlled much of southern Somalia prior to their
ousting by the American backed Ethiopian invasion. The latest deportation
included a Tunisian pregnant woman Ines Chine said to have been
shot by the Kenya police after her arrest as she was fleeing the
war in Somalia. Reports indicate she was being held in Baidoa with
other deportees who included Kenyans.
Four
British nationals were deported back to their country and detained
by the British police on arrival. The four were later set free without
any charges. Daniel Joseph, an American citizen who had been detained
with his three children was flown back to the US and was reportedly
charged in a Texas court.
Close
to 100 people, who include Kenyan citizens are known to have been
deported to Somalia which is back in civil strife after the ousting
of the UIC. In a Guantanamo-like approach, the deportees are being
flown out of the country with their hands and legs in shackles and
their heads covered in sacks. Reports indicated that some of the
deportees have been executed by the Kenyan-backed Transitional Federal
Government, run by warlords who are blamed for the 16 years of anarchy
in Somalia.
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