Khelef Khalifa, Kenya

BETWEEN ANTI-TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS INTRODUCTION:

Human Rights Defenders, as often as not, find themselves literally between the rock and a hard place. The ‘rock’ in this connection is the crushing and all-powerful governmental machine and the ‘hard place’ is the impossible choice between the rights of those being crushed and one’s own personal safety. We shall try to put this in context in my own home country of Kenya.

Kenya had endured a number of human rights abuses during the first two regimes after Independence. These have been the sad but frequent result of intolerance of political dissidents. Many Governments the world over – as Human Rights Defenders know only too well – work on the principle that ‘you are free to say whatever you like so long as you agree with me!’ 9-11 has come to be a watershed point for a number of countries, not least Kenya. ANTI-TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN KENYA

9-11 was a human rights disaster measured by any set of scales. Muslim leaders the world over rightly condemned it because it was a deliberate attempt to take the lives of innocent men, women and children to satisfy political vendetta. Unfortunately, the dust clouds of the Twin Towers are coming down in distant Africa hitting innocent victims as far away as Lamu in Kenya and Lilongwe in Malawi. It was the globalisation of the determined effort of the world’s most powerful nation which is leading to the trampling of human rights with gay impunity. Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has come to symbolize the impact of blind national rage against human rights. Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay has been a subject of unrelenting human rights criticism even by close allies such as the United Kingdom and a number of European countries. But, it would appear, to have had little positive effect.

The globalisation of the Anti-Terrorism effort by the United States and her allies has meant that Third World countries have had to be drawn into the exercise. Some of these countries have had an awful Human Rights track record. They do not need much encouragement to use the Anti-Terrorism mantle to subject their own people to even harsher measures. Kenya happens to have emerged from some four decades of political suppression with unrepentant Human Rights abuse against ideological dissidents. But the culture of Human Rights abuse in the last four decades had grown to all sectors of the nation. Police atrocity even to victims of petty crime is rampant. The so-called Anti-Robbery Squad has had standing instructions to shoot to kill. It parades victims regularly who are said to have been armed and, we are supposed to conclude, were thus about to open fire on the police! Prison officials beat up prisoners without any questions being asked. A number of resulting deaths in prison do not even get reported.

It is against the background of this widespread occurrence of Human Rights abuse that the new Anti-terrorism pressure from our US paymasters has to be seen. In the first place, there are the open harassment of Kenya nationals by either combined US and Kenya armed forces or – as often as not – US forces acting with apparent sanction from the Kenyan Government. The National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (so-called NARC) of President Mwai Kibaki which was swept to power on the anti-corruption and anti-human rights abuse ticket, has become severely compromised by American and British governments. They have exerted enormous pressure on the new Kenya Government to take manifestly violent measures in search of Al Qaeda terrorists.

Accounts of the manner in which US Marines are lashing it out to the people of Lamu are not particularly encouraging. Those Lamu residents that consider themselves Pro-Western, call the behaviour ‘extremely unfortunate’. Some others describe it as ‘harassment, plain and simple.’ And yet others use stronger terms and even accuse the Marines of ‘outright terrorism’ against the people of Lamu. Is playing the Ugly American the best way of winning hearts and minds? Is it not time to stop and think?

Eye witnesses have told us of fishing and passenger boats being capsized or nearly capsized by the swell of the powerful boats being used by the US Marines. Even the BBC has featured reports about this type of behaviour. Others talk of daily incursions into almost every household particularly in the many villages on Pate Island leaving the residents stunned with shock and seething with silent fury. It would appear that the lessons of the past dealings with the Muslims of Kenya have yet to be learnt by the FBI. Let us briefly bring out the issues involved.

One other theory is that the US is very worried about Al Qaeda infiltration into Kenya. Let us assume that this is indeed the prime motivation. It is widely acknowledged that possible Al Qaeda operators could have based themselves in Somalia. There is little doubt that the Kenyan-Somalia border is (like all African borders), to say the least, rather porous. If this is so, then both the Lamu area and the North-Eastern Province become possible entry points of infiltration by Al Quaeda operators. These are both strong Kenya Muslim areas. Let us assume further that the Kenya Government has been sold the fear of this infiltration and that it too is worried about possible establishment of Al Quaeda cells in these areas. Would this perfectly legitimate fear justify the kind of show of force and trampling of human rights and undignified incursions into people’s homes that are reported to be going on in Lamu? SUCH INCURSIONS USING MANIFESTLY TERRORIZING TACTICS DESIGNED TO INDUCE FEAR IN THE LOCAL POPULACE WOULD, WE MAINTAIN, BE TOTALLY COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. IF ANYTHING, SUCH AN APPROACH WOULD INDUCE SEVERE AND POSSIBLE LONG-LASTING ANTI-AMERICANISM AND GENERATE (THROUGH SUCH HATE) A GREATER WILLINGNESS TO SYMPATHIZE AND TO SUPPORT AL-QAEDA CELLS.

We ask again of both the US and the Kenya Governments to consider whether playing the Ugly American is the best way of winning the battle of hearts and minds of the peoples of Lamu and of the Kenya Muslims in general. Kenya Muslim leaders have been at pains to show both the Kenya and the US Governments the best ways of doing this delicate job using more refined methods. It is a bit late in the day to reverse the effects of the trauma already inflicted but if both the Kenya and the US Governments are willing to listen to Kenya Muslim leaders, it is still possible to get more cooperation from the people of Lamu and end up trumps!

Of late – since August 7, 1998 when the US Embassy in Nairobi was bombed and particularly since 9-11 – Kenya Muslims have come to bear the brunt of an external Big Brother joining in the fracas. Although the NATIONAL ALLIANCE RAINBOW COALITION (NARC) Government of President Mwai Kibaki came to power at the beginning of this year on an anti-torture, anti-corruption, democracy, transparency and accountability ticket, it has also come under enormous pressure from the US Government in particular to enact an Anti-Terrorism Bill which by all accounts would effectively sanction the use of terrorist tactics in pursuit of Al Qaeda terrorists! This Big Brother double-speak is all the more curious in that the US Government has been a frontline player against human rights abuse and has been publishing thick volumes of those abuses committed by each country including Kenya! Yet today US Marines on the Northern Kenya Coast have been playing the Ugly American every day in the last few months against poor Muslim households in Mombasa, Lamu and associated islands!

It is against this background that the human rights defender finds himself. The iron hand of the Bush Government is pressuring young democracies to prevent them from consolidating the newly won freedom of choice based on anti-corruption and anti-human rights abuse. Through such pressure a new Anti-Terrorism Bill has been enacted. Even many hard-nosed dictators would not dare to put this to their Legislature. Now the Bush administration is extending the X-Ray Camp culture to countries that have spent decades trying to shed themselves of the infamous Nyayo dungeons. In between these stand the lonely voices of the human rights defender.

MOMBASA

SEPTEMBER, 2003