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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Belgium: Global Terrorism
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Patterns Of Global Terrorism: 1991
Western Europe Overview: Belgium
</hdr>
<body>
<p> In January 1991, Belgium won the release of the last four
Belgian hostages held by the Abu Nidal organization (ANO).
However, the revelation that ANO spokesman and negotiator Walid
Khaled, as part of the hostage settlement, had traveled to
Brussels on the eve of the Persian Gulf war generated an
intense domestic political reaction resulting in the
reassignment of three senior aides to the Belgian Foreign
Minister. According to several news reports, in exchange for the
hostages who had been seized from the Silco yacht in 1987,
Belgium also expelled convicted ANO terrorist Said Nasser after
he had served his required minimum sentence, agreed to
contribute more than $5 million in aid to Palestinian refugees,
and provided two scholarships in Belgium to Palestinians.
</p>
<p> During the Persian Gulf war itself, Belgium expelled seven
Iraqi diplomats and increased security around foreign missions.
There were no terrorist incidents in Belgium directly related to
the Persian Gulf war.
</p>
<p> Brussels was the scene of several incidents perpetrated by
Turkish expatriates in 1991. To protest raids in Turkey against
their organization, Dev Sol terrorist firebombed a Turkish bank
and airlines office in July. Radical Kurds attacked a Turkish
airlines office in August and a Turkish bank in December. In an
unrelated development, the Belgian Parliament in March passed
a motion calling for Turkey to grant full cultural and
political rights for Kurds.
</p>
<p> Three Irish suspects, who were arrested in an Antwerp
safehouse in December 1990, were convicted of conspiracy against
the British Government and possession of weapons and false
papers in April 1991. They were sentenced to one- (suspended),
two-, and three-year terms. At least one of the three is
suspected of being a member of the Provisional Irish
Republican Army (PIRA). In another case, Belgium requested the
extradition from the Netherlands, expected in 1992, of Irishman
Peter McNally, suspected of being a member of a PIRA splinter
group and involved in the wounding in 1989 of an Antwerp
policeman.
</p>
<p> Several apparent political killings in Belgium that occurred
before 1991 (Jewish leader Joseph Wybrand, Muslim Imam Abdullah
al-Ahdal, Canadian "supergun" inventor Gerard Bull, and ethnic
Albanian leader Enver Hadri) remained unsolved.
</p>
<p>Source: United States Department of State, April 1992.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>