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Under U.S. pressure, Kenyan police have launched a series of raids targeting the country’s Muslim community. Nairobi has focused on the predominantly Muslim coastal city of Mombasa, which is believed to harbor terrorist cells connected to al Qaeda and which is also a transit point for South Asian drug traffickers. The crackdown will widen divisions between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities and will also force drug smugglers to seek alternate routes.
Kenyan police recently arrested more than 50 Muslims, including the leader of the National Muslim Youth party. The arrests are part of a new crackdown by Kenyan authorities — in response to pressure from Washington — aimed at rooting out potential terrorist cells.
Several members of the business community were targeted in the raids, which are exacerbating the historical hostility between Kenya’s Muslims and non-Muslims. The heightened tensions bode ill for the East African country’s long-term stability. In the near term, the expanded police vigilance will hinder drug smuggling through Kenya, forcing traffickers to seek alternative routes and undermining the effectiveness of law enforcement.
The Sept. 11 terror strikes against the United States have thrown a spotlight on East Africa’s Muslim communities. Washington has focused especially on Kenya and Tanzania. Some of the suspects implicated in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings came from Zanzibar and the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, suggesting al Qaeda has established cells and contacts in these areas.
East Africa: terrorism’s ties to drugs
Seven Pakistanis and a Zambian en route to Europe were arrested recently in Uganda. The suspects are allegedly tied to Osama bin Laden and have also been linked to drug trafficking. Suspected terrorist networks in East Africa overlap with the drug trade from South Asia, making East Africa a vital source for information on funding sources for al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Uganda’s Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce arrested seven Pakistanis and a Zambian Sept. 29 in Entebbe, Uganda. The suspects — thought to be both drug traffickers and members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network — were en route from Rwanda to Europe, The Post, a daily in Lusaka, Zambia, reported Oct. 2.
Terrorists in the region also allegedly receive funding from the drug trade, and both they and drug traffickers are reliant on the same networks and routes for support. For instance, Mombasa, besides possibly harboring terrorist cells, is a key transit point for South Asian drug traffickers.
Nearly 7 percent of Kenya’s 30 million people are Muslim. They are concentrated in Nairobi and Mombasa and comprise a significant portion of Kenya’s entrepreneurial and middle-class business leaders. The Muslim community’s politicians and religious leaders are also vocal factions in Nairobi’s political landscape.
Since Sept. 11, Kenyan authorities have expanded law enforcement efforts, especially in Mombasa. Several businessmen and politicians there, including the leader of the National Muslim Youth of Kenya party, Rishad Amana, and well-known business leader Ali Sharrif Sagaaf, have been held for days.
The FBI had sought to have the suspects extradited to the United States for questioning about the hijacking attacks. But Mombasa’s High Court earlier this week issued a temporary injunction preventing the extradition to the United States of Kenyans whose arrest may be connected to the terrorism investigation, the Daily Nation, a Nairobian daily, reported.
Kenyan authorities have denied that Muslims are being targeted, yet the recent crackdown suggests the contrary. Several Muslim political groups, including the powerful Council of Imams, Muslims for Human Rights and the Islamic Party of Kenya, have condemned the arrests and the involvement of U.S. law enforcement.
The crackdowns threaten to widen the religious divide in the country. There have always been tensions between Kenya’s religious communities. More than 60 percent of Kenyans are Christians, but the Muslim minority exerts an inordinate amount of political influence because of its control over Mombasa.
Strained relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and between the government and religious leaders could threaten political stability. The potential presence of terror cells suggests at least some Muslims are already radicalized, and heightened political tensions could further alienate members of the community.
Moreover, with presidential elections approaching and Kenya facing only the second transition of executive power since gaining independence, a politically volatile issue like religious profiling by law enforcement agencies could enflame what will already be a heated race, setting the stage for a violent political campaign.
The closer scrutiny by the FBI and local law officers is also creating a difficult situation for regional traffickers, who prefer to move drugs from South Asia through countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda because they all have international airports with daily flights to Europe and the United States.
Criminal organizations within these Islamic communities provide in-country support for drug smugglers emanating from Muslim Pakistan and Afghanistan. And with porous borders, long and difficult-to-patrol coastlines and corrupt law-enforcement authorities, the chances of interdiction are low.
The new focus by local and international law enforcement will force traffickers to avoid Kenya and Tanzania and seek alternative routes, such as Mozambique. With a long coastline and sieve-like borders, the former Portuguese colony is already a transit state, providing traffickers with an established route.
But Mozambique, unlike its northern neighbors, does not enjoy the same level of international travel through its airports, thus making traffickers more vulnerable to interdiction. Smugglers may therefore try to reach South Africa, another conduit for South Asian drugs. Even Zimbabwe, verging on political chaos, could see traffic increase.
Smugglers who normally use East Africa may also turn to routes through Somalia, other nations in the Horn of Africa and states in the Persian Gulf. But there are fewer international flights out of the Horn and a greater risk of getting caught in the strict societies of the Gulf states, reducing their appeal as alternate routes.
The consequences of heightened drug smuggling through southern Africa will be dramatic and long lasting, with increased drug use, violent crime, corruption and clashes between rival smuggling gangs threatening the region’s stability. A greater spread of trafficking will also force law enforcement agencies — including Western agencies focused on terrorism in East Africa — to disperse their resources, making them less effective.
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