Terror Attacks in Mombasa, Kenya
Interview with Israel Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ron Prosor on CNN
November 28, 2002
Ron Prosor: I'm just coming directly from our operations center,
where we're in direct contact with our embassy and our people on the
way from Nairobi to Mombasa. What we know now is that two missiles
were shot at an Arkia plane and that we have three confirmed people
dead, Israeli citizens, two of them children. This is an escalation,
in our mind, of international terrorism and it's obvious that if we
don't take down this network of international terrorism, it will
bring us down at the end of the day.
Q: What do you know about who was responsible for these attacks? What
are you hearing (inaudible)?
A: At this stage we won't go into who's responsible, because I think
it's too early and we won't like to set the scene on one organization
or the other, but I don't think it's important. We see for the first
time a direct attack on civilian aviation - a precedent. We've seen
in the past a direct attack on Israel with the hijacking of planes.
We're at the forefront of international terrorism, and if we don't
stick together and fight it around the world we will see the scenes
in Mombasa, where there are more Kenyans killed and wounded than
Israeli citizens, as part of an international terror that we have to
bring down. We cannot live this way with civilian aviation, with
civilian citizens on airplanes being directly under danger from
terrorist organizations.
Q: Mr. Prosor, let's talk a little bit about what happened at the
hotel outside of Mombasa, the Paradise Hotel. What do you know
exactly about what happened there?
A: We know at this stage that a car exploded in the lobby of the
hotel. The hotel was built from wood and basically it burned down. We
know that there are many casualties and we have people in the
hospitals, again, trying to take care of the wounded. Like I said,
and it's very important to emphasize: This is an attack not only
against Israeli civilians. This is an attack against people who have
nothing to do [with Israel], innocent civilians in Kenya, in any
other part of the world. What happened in Mombasa today is a direct
escalation of international terrorism and we should all join hands in
trying to stop it in order to make sure that our citizens and
everyone in the world will be able to travel safely, live safely, and
go to restaurants and go to work safely without being bombed to
death.
Q: What do you know about security at the hotel? Was there any
security, was there substantial security at the hotel?
A: Look, I don't have the exact details, but it should be obvious to
you and I think to all the listeners that you cannot have security in
every place, in hotels, in restaurants, in streets, on airplanes.
It's impossible to turn the whole world into a garrison state.
Terrorists try to make sure that we will not be able to live our
lives quietly and we have to make sure that we join hands in order to
fight international terrorism, which takes place not only in Israel
but around the world. Today it's Mombasa, tomorrow it can be anywhere
else in the world. If people are not aware of what is happening, this
is really a wake-up call for all of us around the world. We have to
fight terrorism, because if we don't bring terrorism down it will
bring us down.