Warnings to travelers broadened
International Herald Tribune
May 17, 2003
Barry James 

Britain warned its citizens Friday that they were in danger from "a clear terrorist threat" in six additional East African countries following the country's decision to suspend all commercial air travel in and out of Kenya.

Other warnings were issued by the United States, Australia and New Zealand about the risk of attacks in southeast Asia, where terrorists linked to Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people in a devastating bomb attack on Bali.

"We continue to receive reports that terrorist elements in the region are planning attacks," the Australian foreign ministry said, urging Australians to be extremely cautious in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor and Brunei.

The British warning covers Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, some of which already were subject to travel alerts because of instability or conflict.

There have been a wave of intelligence reports pointing to possible terrorist attacks on foreign embassies and the residences of foreign officials in Nairobi, officials said on Friday.

Kenyan intelligence contributed to the reports of possible attacks in Nairobi, hardly expecting that this would lead to the suspension of British flights, stranding hundreds of tourists, and a warning by the British foreign office against traveling to Kenya. The warnings promise to be devastating for an economy that relies heavily on tourism. About 100,000 Britons visited Kenya last year.

"The situation is regrettable because this information was not supposed to alarm anybody or any country, particularly those who we are cooperating with in the fight against terrorism," said a spokesman for the Kenyan security ministry, Douglas Kaunda.

The Kenyans say their information was only prudent following the bombing of the foreign compounds in Riyadh that killed 34 people.

The Kenyan national security minister, Chris Murungaru, said that the threat was not specific.

But officials said the menace in Kenya was more than a vague threat. For a start, there have been credible reports that a senior operative of Al Qaeda, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, might be in the region again. He is wanted in connection with the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, a bombing attack on the Kenyan coast and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner last year.

The Associated Press quoted one official in Nairobi as saying that other known Qaeda operatives were in the region and collaborating with Mohammed.

The senior British diplomatic representative in the region, the high commissioner, Edward Clay, said the reports of Mohammed's return were a factor in Britain's decision to suspend commercial flights.

"It's simply one factor in a wave of recent reporting on this theme, which in the wake of the Riyadh events, give us very serious concern," Clay said in an interview broadcast by the BBC. The United States has warned of "a credible threat" of attack in East Africa, and earlier specifically warned of the risk of attacks on commercial planes with portable missile launchers.

The terror scare illustrated a problem for poor countries like Kenya that collaborate with anti-terrorist efforts but suffer a direct impact on their economy as a result of doing so.

The Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad, said the United States had over-reacted in telling its citizens not to visit his country. "They're afraid of their own shadow," he said.

The United States says it has also received an unconfirmed report that terrorists may also be planning an attack in Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

The attack in Riyadh has forced Saudi Arabia to recognize that it and the United States are "both in the cross-hairs" of Al Qaeda, according to Adel Jubeir, a senior foreign policy adviser. He said the bombing had been a "massive jolt" for Saudi Arabia, and he pledged the government would pursue terrorists vigorously and punish them mercilessly.

In the future, he said, Saudi investigators would share information with their U.S. colleagues "almost in real time." In the past, the United States has complained of lack of cooperation from the Saudi authorities.

In Pakistan, officials were investigating possible Qaeda involvement in a series of bomb attacks against Western-controlled service stations in Karachi. In Peshawar, the Pakistani police assisted by U.S. agents seized dozens of stolen British, Afghan and Pakistani passports and other travel documents, and arrested an employee of a travel agency. Officials say they suspect the documents are being used by Qaeda fugitives in the tribal regions of Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.

State Department officials quoted by Agence France-Presse said Friday that Washington would in the future require all people wanting to travel to the United States to be personally interviewed by a diplomat before receiving a visa.

Fewer than 50 percent of applicants are now interviewed. One official conceded, "people who are already complaining about visa delays are going to be screaming."

The proposed measures will not affect travelers from the 27 countries, mostly in Europe, whose citizens do not require visas.

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