TerrorismCentral Newsletter
-- For the week ending January 5th, 2002 --

AUTHOR:
TerrorismCentral Editorial Staff

TITLE:
TerrorismCentral Newsletter - January 5, 2002

SOURCE:
TerrorismCentral, January 5, 2002

TEXT:

On 11 September 2001 a series of attacks were launched on America, in a day that many around the world may never forget. But we also must not forget that terrorism and political violence have always been with us, as have efforts to prevent and protect against such attacks.

For this first Newsletter of 2002, we have compiled a review of the past year that describes other events that have occurred in various regions of the world. For more background on the material covered in this newsletter, click on the links herein. All linked additional information is from the TerrorismCentral Library.

There Was Good News in Ireland

In October the Irish Republican Army decommissioned arms.

This momentous event, with its practical and symbolic impact, has removed a huge obstacle to the ongoing peace processes and opens the foundation for a stable polity in Northern Ireland.

Perhaps this tremendous breakthrough will help to show the way for other troubled areas of the world.

A Peace Caravan in Mexico

Thousands of cheering Mexicans greeted two dozen masked Zapatista rebels as they arrived in Mexico City after a 15-day peace caravan to press for indigenous rights and begin peace negotiations with the new president, Vincente Fox.

South African peacekeeping troops arrived in Burundi in October in the next phase of a plan developed by Nelson Mandela to end the Hutu-Tutsi war that claimed 200,000 lives in the last eight years.

And Room for Hope in Sri Lanka

Recent elections in Sri Lanka have ushered in a new government and a cease-fire declared by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). This brings another chance for peace in this remorseless conflict that has cost 64,000 lives over the last 18 years.

However&

Political Violence Continued in Spain

ETA, the Basque separatist movement, continued its bombing campaigns, including several car bombs and more than a dozen fatalities. While no tourists visiting Spain have yet been killed in these attacks, foreign embassies continue to issue warnings, and the separatists continue to carry out summer campaigns in popular tourist resorts in Spain. It is thought that inflicting maximum economic damage to Spain's tourism industry during the peak holiday period will put greater pressure on the central government in Madrid. Most recently, a bomb in Madrid in November injured nearly 100 people.

In addition to the bombing campaigns, ETA attacked regional police forces, including targeted assassinations killing two traffic police officers and a provincial judge in November.

The Spanish government has detained suspected militants as well as people suspected of involvement in front organizations. They have also frozen bank accounts of suspected front organizations.

Connections among ETA and international groups including the Irish Republican Army and Colombia's FARC are being actively investigated and prosecuted.

Elsewhere in Europe

The Revolutionary People's Liberation party/Front in Turkey continued militant action, including a suicide bombing. Turkey continues to work with the European Community and various human rights groups regarding the ongoing detention of PKK suspects and other Kurdish militants.

Chechen rebels battled government authorities in Georgia and Russia.

Spain, UK, France and Germany took action against Islamic militant organizations.

Islamic Militants are an International Force

In April, Italian police arrested five people suspected of belonging to an Islamic terrorist group which planned an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Rome. Reports said that North Africans and Algerians linked to Usama bin Laden were involved.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamic rebel group fighting for the independence of Jammu-Kashmir, claimed responsibility for a car bomb that exploded outside the state legislature in Kashmir, killing over 30 and wounding more than 75 people. Jaish-e-Mohammed and another militant group, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, are suspected in the attack on the Indian parliament. They join more than a dozen other militant groups fighting in Jammu-Kashmir for independence from India or a merger with Pakistan.

In the Philippines the Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf group used kidnapping, extortion, bombings, and militant attacks to try to accomplish their goal of a separate Islamic nation.

The Darul Islam group in Indonesia has links with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Similar groups are active in Malaysia.

The wide dispersal of these groups and their independent authority constitutes an international danger against whom counter-terrorism initiatives will be extremely difficult.

In South Africa, the Islamic group PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs) continued their campaign of bombings and murders.

Palestinian groups include militant Islamic organizations such as Hizballah and Islamic Jihad, are active across the Middle East.

Across Europe, al-Qaida cells, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizballah, and groups associated with Algerian factions such as GIA (Armed Islamic Group) are widespread.

FARC also exhibits an International Presence

FARC, (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist rebel group in Colombia, continues a forty year insurgency campaign that has claimed 35,000 lives.

FARC is at the center of a terrorist web suspected of spanning 18 countries. Connections with Basque separatists ETA and the Provisional IRA were underlined after three suspected IRA members were arrested in Colombia in August.

The ELN (National Liberation Army) in Colombia also continued its conflict and is also suspected of ties to the IRA.

The right wing paramilitary group AUC (United Self-Defenses of Colombia) continues activities, including foiled plot to assassinate President Pastrana.

These militant groups engaged in a series of kidnappings, hijackings, executions, bombings and raids.

Conditions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel Continue to Deteriorate

There is no end in sight for this horrific conflict that continues to claim victims in a seemingly unceasing cycle of violence and retaliation. Violence ranges from bulldozing homes to a virtual epidemic of suicide bombings, from torture of suspects under detention to the first aerial bombing attacks in decades. Despite international appeals, neither side seems able or willing to break this tragic impasse.

Easy Places to Hide

The Philippines and Indonesia continue to battle Islamic and other militant organizations operating from jungle strongholds and islands. The Straits of Malacca that span the Indonesian islands, the southern Philippines, and Malaysia, are the home of international piracy.

Muslim extremists in the Philippines undertook a kidnapping spree beginning in May. In November, two American missionaries were freed after six months after a rescue effort involving 7,000 Filipino soldiers with U.S. backing. Other hostages were not so lucky; Abu Sayyaf militants preferring to behead some of their victims. Guerillas of the Moro National Liberation Front, fighting for an Islamic state, engaged in skirmishes during the year that culminated in a raid in November that killed 4 soldiers and wounded 27. The raid was defeated after an aerial bombing counter-attack that killed 51 rebels and wounded 13. Similar attacks were undertaken by Marxist New People's Army.

Islamic militants like the Darul Islam and Islamic Defenders Front take advantage of Indonesia's 13,500 scattered islands to evade capture.

Elsewhere in Asia

India and Pakistan continue their brinkmanship over Kashmir. Pakistan has cracked down on Islamic militant groups and individuals suspected in the attack on the Indian parliament and other ongoing violence.

Nepal struggles with assaults by Maoist guerrillas (the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or CNP(M)) who attacked and killed over 130 people in November, bringing their list of victims to 2,000. The Maoist rebels have modeled their revolution after Peru's Shining Path guerillas.

Vigilantes in Africa

The best-known contemporary vigilante group is in South Africa. PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs) is an Islamic group that has engaged in four years of beatings, bombings, kidnappings, and murder. These kinds of attacks are common in areas where high murder rates and social violence spiral out of control of the local authorities. These attacks are similar to those in Algeria, where 100,000 people have died since 1992 in Islamic-related violence.

Trials

In January, the Lockerbie trial ended in the conviction of one of the two Libyans accused in the 1989 bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

The trial in New York of four bin Laden associates for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing ended in September with convictions but no death penalties were imposed.

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was executed in June.

Next week

Watch for the first of a three-part series on Financing Terrorism.

Please contact us with your questions or comments by sending email to . We look forward to hearing from you.

Editorial Team
TerrorismCentral

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PUBLICATION DATE:
January 5, 2002

DATE:
20020105