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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bin Laden behind
By Jailan Halawi
Luxor massacre?Urs von Daeniken, Switzerland's federal police chief, told a news conference last week Egypt believes that militants staged the 1997 Luxor massacre upon orders from Mustafa Hamza, military commander of the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, with funding from Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. "The Egyptian conclusion is that Bin Laden seems to have financed the attack, which was ordered, directly or indirectly, by Hamza," von Daeniken said.
Fifty-eight foreigners, many of them Swiss nationals, and four Egyptians were killed by six militants outside the Hatshepsut Temple near Luxor in November 1997.
Hamza has been sentenced to death three times in absentia: the first time in the "returnees from Afghanistan" case in 1992; the second for the failed attempt on the life of Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif in 1994; and the third for armed attacks in the southern province of Minya in 1996. Hamza was also blamed for the June 1996 attempt to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
The six militants who carried out the Luxor massacre, claiming the lives of nationals from several countries, including Switzerland, Britain, Japan and Germany, were all killed.
Hamza is believed to be living in Afghanistan, where Bin Laden also has his headquarters, although the latter is reportedly seeking a new home because of a fall out with his Taliban hosts.
Von Daeniken paid a four-day visit to Cairo, accompanied by Swiss General Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, for talks with judicial and police officials on the Luxor massacre as well as bilateral cooperation.
Del Ponte told reporters she sought answers to "116 questions" submitted to Egypt in December, such as who the militants were, how they acquired weapons, how they arrived in Luxor and where they had been before.
"Finally, we received the answers to our questions today, but only verbally; we have been promised a written report, within 15 days, from the Egyptian prosecutor's office," del Ponte said.
Osama Bin Laden
"I am satisfied because it is the first time we have met Egyptian judicial and police officials and also because we discussed the possibility of cooperation in the war against terrorism," she said.
Both del Ponte and von Daeniken raised the possibility of Switzerland lifting a travel ban to Egypt imposed following the Luxor carnage. "This falls outside my scope. It is a decision for the Foreign Ministry to make, but they will naturally seek our view. I think that the situation has changed and, from a security perspective, I think that a decision can be taken to lift the ban," del Ponte said.
Von Daeniken agreed and said that Egyptian security forces had upgraded the standards of their equipment and training since the attack. "A lot has been done and it is a good step forward," he said.
Del Ponte and her team met separately with Prosecutor-General Ragaa El-Arabi, Justice Minister Farouk Seif El-Nasr and the head of the state security department at the Interior Ministry, Maj. Gen. Hani El-Ezabi.
The team returned to Egyptian authorities jewellery, watches and sun-glasses that belonged to unidentified Luxor victims and that had been sent by mistake to Switzerland, del Ponte said.
The attack dealt a severe blow to the Egyptian tourism industry, leading to a significant drop in the number of tourists from Switzerland and Japan.
Meanwhile, Swiss Ambassador Blaise Godet said his country would not pursue earlier requests for financial compensation, after being told by President Mubarak that this would set a "dangerous precedent".
"Egypt, too, was a victim of the attack," Godet said.
For their part, Arab Islamists close to Bin Laden insisted that he had no prior knowledge of the attack, and denied that he had taken part in financing it.
The sources added that Bin Laden has good relations with the Al-Gama'a, but said this does not mean there is coordination between them on armed attacks. They said that Afghanistan is "a melting pot for Islamists, but each group remains independent".
The sources did not deny that Bin Laden had assisted the Al-Gama'a in the past, but noted that this assistance took the form of organising paramilitary training camps on Afghan soil for Al-Gama'a members during the war against Soviet invaders.
Montasser El-Zayyat, the Al-Gama'a lawyer, denied, in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, that Bin Laden was involved in funding the Luxor attack. He also denied that it was ordered by Hamza.
El-Zayyat said, "Information on the relationship between Bin Laden and Al-Gama'a -- available through confessions of arrested militants who had returned to Egypt from Sudan, Afghanistan and other countries -- indicates that cooperation between them never reached a level of coordination on the armed attacks which the group staged outside or inside Egypt."
El-Zayyat noted that the government has not officially released details of the Luxor attack and only named five of the six assailants. He said that a statement found beside the body of one of the assailants contained a salute to Hamza, in his capacity as a leader of Al-Gama'a, and also an apology for not carrying out a previous attack which Hamza had ordered.
"A close study of the statement proves that the six assailants carried out the attack without the approval of Hamza or any other expatriate leader of the group," El-Zayyat said.
He added that since the conflict between the government and Islamist groups erupted in the first half of 1992, Al-Gama'a has staged dozens of attacks against security forces and government officials as well as tourism targets, trains and banks. Bin Laden's name was never mentioned in any of the investigations into these attacks. But his name was mentioned repeatedly in investigations of attacks staged by militants of the Jihad group, which is led by Ayman El-Zawahri.
Jihad militant Ahmed Ibrahim El-Naggar, who was extradited to Egypt from Albania last June, had been quoted as saying that Bin Laden objected to Jihad attacks inside Egypt because they trigger negative reactions and also because their funding is exorbitant.
El-Naggar, who had been sentenced to death in absentia earlier for his role in a conspiracy to blow up Cairo's Khan Al-Khalili bazaar, said during interrogation in connection with the "returnees from Albania" case that Bin Laden asked that Jihad should target US and Israeli interests only. El-Naggar was sentenced to life imprisonment in the "returnees from Albania" case.
El-Zayyat pointed out that the Gama'a position on the International Islamic Front for Fighting Jews and Crusaders -- which was established by Bin Laden, El-Zawahri, two Pakistani groups and one from Bangladesh in February 1998 -- reflected Al-Gama'a's belief that its decisions and policies should be independent from those of any other group.
Rifa'i Ahmed Taha, head of Al-Gama'a's Shura council, was a signatory of the front's statement that sanctioned the killing of Americans and the confiscation of their property.
However, Taha later dissociated himself from the front.
El-Zayyat believes that "talk of Bin Laden's involvement in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania has made the Americans, and the West in general, hold him responsible for any other attack, even if a connection is illogical."
