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"The fight against terrorism requires coordinated efforts by the international community in the framework of the United Nations," said Chissano
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NAIROBI,
September 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Africans, and U.S.
diplomats based across the continent, marked Wednesday, September 11,
the anniversary of last year's attacks on the U.S., with some
officials mingling their condolences with cautions and even harsh
criticism for the United States.
While
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh declared Wednesday a national holiday
and his Liberian counterpart Charles Taylor announced a "working
holiday", most commemorative services across the continent were
organized by U.S. diplomatic missions, rather than governments, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
With
its wars and the devastation of AIDS and famine, compounded by the
indifference of a global economic system widely seen as geared to
making the rich richer, Africa shed few tears over the sudden
humiliation of the United States.
A
Muslim cleric in the Malian capital, Bamako, said he would mark the
day by "praying for the souls" of the more than 3,000
victims who perished in the attacks on September 11, 2001.
"Islam
has never ordered its followers to kill gratuitously," said Imam
Haidara.
But
Ivory Coast's newspaper, Le Jour, placed the attacks on a par with
many other events when "inhumanity defied humanity" naming
slavery, colonization, the genocide of Amazonian Indians, the two
World Wars and the genocide in Rwanda.
Rwanda
in 1994 saw the orchestrated slaughter of between half a million and a
million Tutsis and Hutus.
If
the greater estimate is accurate, more than three times the number of
people who died in the U.S. attacks, 3,034, were killed every day for
100 days in Rwanda as the international community stood by inactive,
AFP said.
The
only commemorative event in Kenya was an invitation-only church
service led by U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson and attended by
a couple of hundred be-suited diplomats and government officials.
At
the service, Roman Catholic nun Claudette La Verdiere implored God
"to free them [the U.S.] from the enslaving desire of
revenge."
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"The attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace," said Mandela |
While
appreciating the need to tackle terrorism head-on, an editorial in
Kenya's leading paper, the Daily Nation, said "We cannot blindly
support a campaign that seems to have no rhyme or reason. Such as the
plans now being pursued by President George W. Bush to topple Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein."
"This
is a war that must not be waged. Terrorism will not be defeated
through terrorism," it added.
South
African President Thabo Mbeki was equally cautious, calling for
"intensifying efforts for peace in all regions of the globe and
joining hands in the global campaign to eradicate poverty and
inequality".
Business
Day newspaper said: "Far from making the world safe from terror
as he undertook, Bush's conduct has brought the world to the brink of
a new Gulf War."
South
African former president Nelson Mandela struck a similar vein in an
interview with Newsweek magazine.
"If
you look at those matters [Washington's foreign policy mistakes], you
will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of
America is a threat to world peace," he said.
President
Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique urged Bush not to play the maverick
warrior.
"The
fight against terrorism requires coordinated efforts by the
international community in the framework of the United Nations,"
he said.
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Mbeki called for "joining hands in the global campaign to eradicate poverty and inequality" |
Gambia's
President Jammeh added his own plea against more conflict, AFP said.
"Mankind
must stand up and act against all acts of violence, be it terror or
war, as violence or war will not serve any good," he said.
"We must get rid of hate in our hearts and share what we have
with humanity... to come together as one family."
A
broad spectrum of Senegal's press was bluntly derisive of the U.S.
administration, accusing it of failing to learn anything from 9/11.
Americans
"have never asked themselves why they are so hated around the
world," said the Walfadjri newspaper.
"This
'global policeman' makes his own laws, imposes his own views, strikes
who he wants when he wants, which incurs the antipathy of poor
people... It's back to square one," the paper said.
