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"Attacks
against America, Israel and other western interests are fueled by
injustices…against Arab and Muslim countries, people and
culture," said Mutua
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NAIROBI,
December 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies ) - Kenya's close ties with
Israel and the U.S. contribute to its being targeted by terrorist
organizations, the country's human rights commission said Tuesday,
December 10, calling on the government to fully explain these
relationships.
Kenya,
where a third of the population is Muslim, "is targeted by
terrorists because of its strategic significance in the region and its
economic and military relationships with Israel and the West,"
Professor Makau Mutua, the chair of Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
said in a statement, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
U.S. and British military have trained and conducted joint exercises
with the Kenyan military in several parts of the east African country.
Both
countries are important trading partners, and bilateral trade between
Kenya and Israel reportedly totaled some 49 million dollars last year.
But
Mutua accused Kenya's allies of having scant regard for the country and
its people, the statement added.
"In
classical racist garbage, Western and Israel intelligence and
investigative services treat their Kenyan counterparts – non whites
– as lazy, incompetent, untrustworthy, sub-human, childish and
stupid," it charged.
"We
call upon the Kenyan government to fully account to the people the
nature, extent, and scope of these relationships so that Kenyans can
develop an informed response to these and future terror attacks,"
the statement said.
"Such
close ties make Kenya appear as a supporter of the much-derided U.S.
foreign policy.
"One
thing is clear: Kenyans are in the view of the attackers' collateral
damage, a meaningless sacrifice caught in the shooting war between the
West and the Muslim world," it added.
"KHRC
believes that global terror attacks against America, Israel and other
western interests are fueled by injustices – both perceived and real
– against Arab and Muslim countries, people and culture," said
Mutua.
"In
retaliation, Kenya is hit, not only as a soft spot, but also a warning
to dissociate from the oppressors," he added.
Another
human rights commission official, Willy Mutunga, told AFP that the roots
of Kenya's perceived position in the Middle East crisis could be traced
back to the 1976 raid by Israeli forces on a hijacked plane in Entebbe
Uganda.
"Our
airspace and airports were extensively used in 1976 when Israel
commandoes raided Uganda's Entebbe airport to free its nationals trapped
in a French carrier, which had been hijacked by Palestinians,"
Mutunga told AFP.
"That
was when the Palestinians concluded that Kenya was against their cause
to have an independent nation," he added.
On
November 28, 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and three attackers were killed
when as yet unidentified assailants rammed an explosive-packed vehicle
into the Israeli-owned Paradise Mombasa hotel.
About
five minutes earlier, two missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter
jet full of departing Israeli tourists, just after it took off from
Mombasa international airport.
The
elusive Al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The
group was previously blamed for the simultaneous bombings in August 1998
of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, which killed 224
people in all, most of them Kenyans.
