Manama: Kuwait’s parliamentary speaker has called for all the countries, organisations and people implicated in plots targeting the country to be named.
“There must be a zero-tolerance policy towards those involved, be they inside Kuwait or abroad, and they all should be named publicly once the investigations are over and the gag is lifted,” Marzouq Al Ganem said in a statement.
Kuwait on Thursday announced the busting of a terrorist cell and the discovery of a large arms cache. Several suspects were arrested and their confessions widened the scope of the investigation and revealed the intricacy of the plots targeting Kuwait’s security and stability.
As the probe widened and included more suspects, the public prosecution imposed a media gag to ensure details that could compromise the investigation or fuel sectarian tension are not revealed.
Al Ganem said that he was in constant contact with officials and lawmakers and that there was an agreement with Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Mubarak to hold a joint meeting between the MPs and the ministers to inform the public about the investigations.
However, he insisted that the details should be divulged only after the investigations are over and that all Kuwaitis should join together under the national banner against terrorism and terrorists attempting to harm Kuwait.
“All Kuwaitis are determined to confront this cowardly war, armed with their strongest asset and that is their national unity,” Al Ganem said in his statement on Tuesday. “It is thanks to such an asset that Kuwaitis were able to win in the past. They have well embodied the fact that there is no country, organisation, party or ideology that is higher than the interests of the nation,” he said.
Kuwaitis, and particularly lawmakers, can never fail to assume their national responsibilities and get carried away by ideologies promoted by “the merchants of crises”, he added.
“Any message or discourse that may contribute to fuelling sectarian tension or social division is in fact a positive point for terrorists to achieve their objectives,” Al Ganem said. “Terrorism cannot be divided or categorised according to sects or races and doing that would be highly risky. Terrorism has the same effects regardless of the identity of the perpetrators and plotters of acts of sabotage. We must be careful here in Kuwait not to overgeneralise or to identify terrorism with a specific sect or group. Islam says clearly that everybody is responsible for his or her own acts, and the Kuwaiti constitution clearly stipulates that punishment is personal, and not collective,” he said.
