The Church in Africa is concerned about United States pressure on African countries to introduce anti-terror legislation on pretext of fighting terrorism.
The church is cautioning African governments against enacting such laws blindly, which it warns infringe on human rights.
Uganda and Tanzania have already passed anti-terror Acts amid protests from human rights groups. Neighbouring Kenya may soon join the bandwagon, if its Bill, published last April, sails through Parliament.
During a human rights meeting in Kenya at the weekend, representatives of about 50 National Christian Councils from across African heard that militarism and anti-terror laws vest much power in the police.
Participants at the meeting, organised by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), fear that police will resort to harassing citizens under the pretext of tracking down terror suspects. The power that police will wield, they argue, will interfere with democratic processes and erode civil rights.
Therefore, the church urged African governments to avoid interfering with the rights of citizens.
”Democracy invokes the moral power and the dignifying value of collective participation of all citizens. It is on the basis of the dignity of the people that power is conferred to individuals or institutions because they serve as instruments for the common good and social well being of the whole community.
”When the people recall their authority from those in positions of power, then moral imperative to rule is also taken away,” said Reverend Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the AACC.
The church says it is exploring alternative solutions to militarism and unfair anti-terror legislation.
”Searching for other ways of countering terrorism in place of militarism, including the impact of anti-terror legislation on human rights, will remain a great challenge for the church in future,” remarked Clement John of the WCC.
The church’s concern comes at a time when debate on anti-terrorism legislation is at its peak in Kenya. Human rights campaigners are breathing fire over the government’s proposal last year on a Suppression of Terrorism Bill.
They are meeting this week in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to plan on how to mobilise the public against the Bill. Meeting under their umbrella body, the Kenya Human Rights Network, the 43 organisations concur that the Bill does little to combat terrorism, but much to do with suppressing rights of Kenyans.
”The Bill is against the sovereignty of our nation. If passed, Kenya will have lost its sovereignty. It is not that we have [a] shortage of rules. We have enough laws in our land, which are adequate to deal with any crime. The Bill is being pushed down the throats of Kenyans by America,” claims Njeru Gathangu, chairperson of Citizens for Justice, a Nairobi-based human rights lobby group.
”The government should not allow itself to be intimidated by America. It should not bow down to pressure in exchange for aid. It should put the interests of its people first and foremost,” he says.
The US began pushing developing countries to introduce anti-terror Bills following the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 2001.
Last year the US put up $100-million on the East African terrorist initiative. Most of the money will go to Kenya, according to the US State Department.
In 1998 terrorists targeted the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing more than 250 people, among them 12 Americans. About 5 000 people were severely injured.
Another attack four years later in Kenya killed 16 people. It involved a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned hotel near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Mombasa. A failed missile attack on an Israeli aircraft was delivered concurrently.
In an apparent bid to support the law, human rights activists say sections of the Bill that infringe on rights of individuals should be scrapped.
”If sections that pose danger to Kenyans are removed, then we have no problem. We know that those dangerous clauses of the Bill might be used by [the] government to tame political dissidents,” notes Kange’the Mungai of Release Political Prisoners, a Nairobi-based human rights body.
Controversial sections of the proposed law suggest the possibility of life imprisonment and extradition of suspects without normal legal safeguards. It also empowers police officers to hold suspects incommunicado indefinitely without trial. The Bill also provides for the police to confiscate suspects’ assets.
By engaging the public, the government says human rights groups ”are making their contribution to the Bill”.
”The final law must be a hybrid of both sides of the divide,” said Douglas Kaunda of the Ministry of National Security.
The Bill, he said, is now before the attorney general, who is collecting views from different groups to enable the Bill to stand a high chance of being passed.
”I can see it going through soon,” he said.
Kaunda said the proposed law is a commitment by the government to engage in the war against global terrorism.
Human rights groups in Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana have also complained that the Bill is heavy-handed and threatening human rights guaranteed in their countries’ constitutions. — IPS