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Leading international civil rights groups have condemned the US for forcing Malawi government to act outside the rule of law to help spring out four Muslims suspected of having links with the terrorist ring al Qaeda.
An open letter to president George Walter Bush, who on Monday started his official tour of five African countries of Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria, said US actions on the issue showed lack of respect for other people’s laws.
The bodies said although the world shares the pain and suffering of American people resulting from September 11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands in the US two years ago, ties between Washington and Africa cannot be driven by US war against terrorism.
The letter, sourced in Maputo, was signed by five African and six African-American civil rights bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), African Women’s Empowerment Network, Transafrica and AfricaAction in the US.
“We view with deep concern the pressure that is placed on African governments to adopt laws that contravene national constitutions and act in a manner that strips their citizens or residents of their fundamental freedoms and access to the rule of law.”
“This divides Africa along racial and religious lines,” they said, “Democracy is a principle and not a matter of expediency.”
Mahmud Sardar Issa, a Sudanese who heads a charitable organisation Islamic Zakat Fund Trust, Fahad al Bahli, of Saudi Arabia, director of the Malawi branch of Registered Trustees of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Special Committee on Relief and Arif Ulusam, a Turkish man and an Islamic scholar from Kenya were seized by America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) a fortnight ago.
The US says the men were on a “watch list” since the 1998 twin bombing of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
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