Nigeria 'Taleban' threatens to widen its terror activities
Published Date: March 30, 2010

KANO: Nigeria's self-styled Taleban militant Islamist sect, whose short-lived uprising was brutally put down by the security forces last year, has threatened to widen its activities beyond the borders. "Islam doesn't recognise international boundaries, we will carry out our operations anywhere in the world if we can have the chance," said Musa Tanko, spokesman of the Boko Haram sect, in a rare interview given to AFP on Sunday.

The United States is the number one target for its oppression and aggression against Muslim nations particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan and its blind support to Israel in its killings of our Palestinian brethren," Tanko said, adjusting his starched bottle green kaftan. Thousands of Boko Haram Islamic sect militia launched an armed insurrection in July 2009 from their enclave in the northern city of Maiduguri and several other cities in the region in a doomed bid to establish an Islamic state.

We will launch fiercer attacks than Iraqi or Afghan Mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) against our enemies throughout the world, particularly the US, if the chance avails itself within the confines of what Islam prescribes but for now our attention is focused on Nigeria which is our starting point," Tanko said, as he placed a black file folder on his lap. Slim, dark, chin-bearded and soft-spoken, Tanko, 30, betrayed no emotion as he spoke under a defoliated tree, intermittently wiping sweat off his glistening
forehead with a white handkerchief, while his four colleagues nodded in approval between pauses.

The group draws its inspiration from the Afghan Taleban and sees Taleban spiritual leader Mullah Umar and the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, as its champions, Tanko said. "We see Mullah Umar and Osama bin Laden as the true champions of Islam who are fighting Allah's enemies and our allegiance and support go to them although we don't have any contact with them yet," Tanko said. Tanko said the group was not daunted by the police's extra-judicial killings of its members by security forces during the Jul
y rebellion. Nigerian police and troops crushed the uprising after a four-day street battle that claimed more than 800 lives, mostly of sect members. The killings, he said, "have made us more determined and committed in our struggle. We are undeterred," Tanko said in the local Hausa dialect.

Former Yugoslavia
In another development, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has suggested that Nigeria be broken up into several states along ethnic lines like the former Yugoslavia, in comments likely to worsen a diplomatic spat with Africa's most populous nation. Nigeria recalled its ambassador from Tripoli earlier this month when Gaddafi proposed that Nigeria split into two countries formed from the Muslim north and mainly Christian south.

His comment followed violent clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs that killed hundreds of people around the central Nigerian city of Jos and prompted Nigeria's government to question whether Libya might be sponsoring the violence. Nigeria said Gaddafi's comments were insensitive and irresponsible and "diminished his status and credibility". Responding to the Nigerian government, Gaddafi repeated the idea of dismantling the country, but this time suggested not two but several independent states for it
s multiple ethnic groups.

The partition into Christian and Muslim states will not resolve Nigeria's problems because there are other peoples claiming independence despite the religion issue," official news agency JANA cited Gaddafi as saying. He compared Nigeria to the former Yugoslavia, which collapsed after the end of the Soviet Union and split into several independent states, sparking conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and then Kosovo.

Nigeria , resembles the Yugoslav union which included several peoples, like Nigeria, and then these people gained independence and the Yugoslav union was ended in peace," said Gaddafi. "The model that fits Nigeria is the Yugoslav one." Gaddafi was chairman of the African Union until recently and has adopted the title "King of African Kings", but the veteran Libyan leader has a mixed reputation on the continent. Praised by some African leaders as a generous benefactor and champion of development, he stan
ds accused by others of financing rebellions and fomenting instability, often to counter the interests of the United States and its allies. - Agencies



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