By Shashank Bengali
McClatchy Nairobi Bureau
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The U.S. government refused to confirm or deny allegations that it played a significant behind-the-scenes role.
A spokesman for Kenya's police, who detained at least 150 people caught fleeing December's U.S.-backed war against Islamist militias in Somalia, said top levels of government in Kenya and Somalia had directed the transfers of at least 80 of the prisoners.
The spokesman, Gideon Kibunja, said U.S. law enforcement agents had provided "consultations" to Kenyan authorities, who held and interrogated the prisoners. The countries routinely cooperate on terrorism cases in Kenya, where alleged al-Qaida operatives bombed the U.S. Embassy in 1998.
"Kenya is an independent state," Kibunja said. "We can consult with friends. We cannot take orders."
Human rights groups in Nairobi said detainees had reported that U.S. law-enforcement officials had questioned them.
The transfers of prisoners -- on three middle-of-the-night charter flights in January and February -- provoked concern among Muslim groups and human rights activists in Kenya, who successfully sued for the release of the records. The groups say the Kenyan authorities have provided no information on the detainees' whereabouts to their families and that Somalia's weak transitional government is unable to guarantee the prisoners' safety.
The secret transfers have caused alarm because of transfers of detainees by the CIA without court proceedings to foreign countries to be interrogated. Critics say the practice violates international law and has led to the torture of prisoners.
Source: McClatchy, Mar 15, 2007