Persian Gulf: Gallows Humor

Kuwait convicts bombers

At the outset, the 21 men had japed and jested like a group of sophomores about to be reprimanded for a prank. But for some of them, the humor led straight to the gallows. The men were among the 25 terrorists accused of attempted murder and conspiracy against Kuwait after seven bombs rocked the oil-rich gulf state one morning last December, leaving 60 wounded and five dead. “Long live justice!” cried one relieved young man among the spectators as Chief Judge Ghazi al Sammar declared five of the defendants not guilty. But in the course of his 15-minute verdict, Sammar dispensed sentences of from five to 15 years in prison to seven of the culprits and life imprisonment to seven others. Six defendants (including three of the four still at large) were found guilty of plotting murder and sentenced to death by hanging.

Five of the condemned men are Shi’ite Muslims who belong to Iraq’s underground and Iran-backed Al Dawa Party. Committed to toppling the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, they plotted the attacks to punish Kuwait, France and the U.S. for allegedly supporting Iraq in its 42-month war against Iran. Yet the attempt proved to be both ill-managed and ill-starred. Most of the blast from a car bomb outside the French embassy was absorbed by a thick brick wall. Another car bomb, meant to wreck a local petrochemical complex, exploded outside the compound. A truck that burst wildly through the gates of the U.S. embassy was piled high with 45 butane gas cylinders, but only ten of them exploded. Very little was left of Suicide Driver Raad Muftin Ajeel but a fragment of one of his fingers. That was enough for police to identify the terrorist and, apparently, to round up most of his accomplices. While handling the case with singular aplomb, the Kuwaitis also detained scores of suspected dissidents for questioning and deported hundreds of others.

But the tremors from the December bombings may not subside for a while. With as many as 30% of its 1.6 million people Shi’ites, Kuwait is highly vulnerable to those who aim to spread Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Middle East. “Now the whole question of Shi’ite Muslim vs. Sunni Muslim has been reopened in our society,” notes the publisher of an influential Kuwaiti newspaper. “If there is any destructive force within our country, it is the sectarian issue.” That the issue is incendiary was proved at the conclusion of the 45-day trial. The terrorists were whisked away in armed personnel carriers manned by soldiers with machine guns. Judge Sammar was driven home in an armor-plated Cadillac.