August 2
ALGERIA:
Algeria: Death Sentence for Convicted Militant
An Algerian court has sentenced an Islamist militant to death for his
involvement in the 1997 massacre of at least 240 people near Algiers.
Defendant Fouad Boulemia, a member of the banned Armed Islamic Group, had
already received a separate death sentence for a 1999 murder.
In the 1997 raid, militants cut electrical power to Bentalha, 20
kilometers east of Algiers. They then went on a rampage, shooting, burning
and slitting the throats of their victims.
Rebels launched the insugency in 1992, after the Algiers government
scrapped elections that militants were poised to win. The insurgency
claimed an estimated 150,000 lives, most of them civilians.
The Armed Islamic Group disbanded 4 years ago, after the government
offered a conditional amnesty.
(source: Voice of America News)
PAKISTAN:
South Africans arrested in Pakistan could get death sentence
2 South Africans arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of links to Al Qaida
could get the death sentence if convicted, but their families here are
sticking to the claim that the 2 were on a hiking holiday.
Zubair Ismail, a 20-year-old Islamic student of Pretoria, and doctor
Feroze Ganchi, 30, of Johannesburg, were arrested after a raging battle in
the city of Gujrat in Pakistan's Punjab province.
They were arrested with other alleged Al Qaida operatives, including
Tanzanian national Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
Ghailani allegedly masterminded the devastating bomb attacks on the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Concern is now growing that Ismail and Ganchi, who had not contacted their
families for the past two weeks, may face the death penalty for terrorism
in Pakistan, especially if they are believed to have links with Ghailani,
one of the most wanted terrorists on the FBI list.
Family members said they were in the dark about the exact circumstances of
the arrests. They still believed someone might have got hold of their
passports and used them illegally, but this raised further concerns about
the safety of the men.
South African authorities earlier issued a warning about international Al
Qaida operatives having possibly obtained South African passports from
crime syndicates working with local home ministry officials.
South African Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad has held
discussions with Pakistan's High Commissioner Akhtar Zeb on the arrests.
Zeb assured the minister that his country would provide all assistance to
South Africa's diplomatic staff in Islamabad in their efforts to have
access to and arrange legal representation for Ismail and Ganchi.
The two men had gone to Pakistan on tourist visas issued by the high
commission in Pretoria. Besides the hiking trip they had planned, Ismail
wanted to explore opportunities for further study in Pakistan, while
Ganchi had intended to do some social welfare work if there were
opportunities.
The family of a third South African Indian Muslim, Farida Goolam Mohamed,
48, who was arrested in the US after allegedly producing a South African
passport with 4 pages torn out, also said they knew of no links between
her and Al Qaida.
Mohamed's family said she had no interest in politics at all. But US
officials said the woman had crisscrossed several neighbouring countries
250 times and had confessed to entering the US illegally from Mexico when
she was arrested.
Mohamed, who was denied bail, is expected to appear in court this month.
(source: Indo-Asian News Service)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Death Penalty To Fight Crime Terror
My blood ran cold when I heard of Leigh Matthews's horrendous murder.
I read letters of condolence in The Mercury and also the estimated figures
of kidnapping crimes in South Africa. Crime in this country is flourishing
- don't try and kid us.
I am 74 years old, born and bred in Durban. In all of the first 64 years
of my life I had never known a person who had been murdered or hijacked -
burglary was the worst of crimes 10 years ago. I now know, personally, at
least 15 folk who have been murdered in that time. I have relations and
friends who have been hijacked. Housebreakings - I've lost count.
I live in a retirement complex which has security alarms. In 9 years a
resident has been murdered; there have been seven break-ins on vehicles
and in the most recent incident a car was stolen (a hole was cut in the
security fence large enough to take a car). We all live in fear and never
go out at night. It's strange that when the death penalty was a
punishment, crime was a minor irritation.
It's about time the country stopped being do-gooders for outside states
and spent their money and attention in policing this country properly. I
never see a policeman anywhere except for police cars speeding by.
There was nothing I liked better than going down to the beach on a weekend
for a walk - or evening window shopping in West Street.
This crime has touched all races and causes fear and stress. Personally I
think it's all due to no visible policing and our TV shows, in which every
kind of violence is shown every day.
Bring back the death penalty for a period and watch the violent crime
drop.
Bridget Jessen
(source: Letters, The Mercury)
