Djibouti denies serious threat to life of German president

[Gabbal]

German president Johannes Rau

 

DJIBOUTI : Djibouti denied there was a credible threat to the life of German President Johannes Rau on its soil and expressed "astonishment" at his decision to cancel a planned trip there at the last minute on security grounds.

 

"We can state with absolute confidence... that the threats against the life of President Johannes Rau were not to be taken seriously," Djibouti Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zyad Doualeh told AFP on Wednesday.

 

"All security measures were put in place to ensure President Rau and his wife were welcomed in the best possible conditions," added the spokesman.

 

He was speaking only a few hours after Rau flew back to Berlin from Tanzania, instead of to Djibouti, which lies at the mouth of the Red Sea, as scheduled.

 

In Berlin, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said Rau had been advised not to visit Djibouti after German intelligence received reports that an Islamist group was preparing an attack "striking at the head of a Western state".

 

"It is part of our responsibility that no harm comes to the president," the minister told ARD public television.

 

He said the threat had been assessed as "regional," but that "we have to be prepared for such threats of attacks applying to Europe as well. We must take them seriously."

 

Doualeh said the Djibouti government was "astonished" and "very surprised" by the decision to cut Rau's trip short.

 

Djibouti plays an important role in international anti-terrorism efforts, and hosts German and US troops involved in Operation Enduring Freedom which Washington launched in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

 

Rau's was due to visit Djibouti on the last leg of a nine-day Africa trip that has already taken him to Nigeria and Tanzania.

 

He was due to inspect a German frigate moored in Djibouti's port.

 

There had been earlier vague threats during Rau's visit to Tanzania, where he arrived on March 19 from Nigeria, but the president had previously refused to change his programme, according to his office.

 

A spokeswoman for Germany's foreign intelligence service, BND, said it had received growing indications of an imminent threat.

 

She said that there had been "an increased, but at that time not worrying" threat level before Rau began his Africa trip.

 

But the indications became "very concrete" during Tuesday, and within a few hours the decision was made to call off the Djibouti portion.

 

She refused to say where the information came from or how the attack was to have been carried out.

 

According to ZDF public television and the Bild newspaper, quoting German intelligence sources, the plotters planned a mortar or car bomb attack on his convoy or at Djibouti airport.

 

- AFP

[Nin-Yaaban]

yea, more of our leaders crying for GAALO money. makes me sick.