Somalis fearing arrests backlash

CANBERRA - Police are working with Melbourne's Somali leaders as anger and frustration grow in the wake of the arrest of five men alleged to have been plotting a suicide attack on a Sydney Army base.

Three of the five men are of Somali extraction, and the remaining two Lebanese. All are Australian citizens.

Nayef El Sayed, 25, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 33, Abdirahman Ahmed, 25, Yacqub Khayre, 21, and Saney Edow Aweys, 26, have been remanded in custody until October 26 on charges of conspiring to plan an attack on Holsworthy Barracks. Ahmed has also been charged with breaching the Foreign Incursions and Recruitment Act, and engaging in a hostile act in a foreign country.

The Somali community has condemned terrorism and supported the police investigations, but told federal and Victorian police at a meeting with community and religious leaders that they were concerned at the way early-morning raids on Tuesday had been carried out and reported.

They also said they feared a backlash as intensive coverage of the alleged plan to attack Holsworthy with automatic weapons continued to focus on the discovery of violent Islamic extremism at the fringes of the 11,000-member community.

The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, issued a statement attacking any form of terrorist activity on Australian soil, "vehemently" discouraging violence, and fully supporting the police.

Mohamed Baaruud, of Sydney's Somali Advocacy and Action Group, told ABC radio that the community had been unaware of any extremists in its midst or of any local links to the al-Shabaab terror organisation.

Police claim that members of the alleged Melbourne cell had trained with al-Shabaab in Somalia, including one who had acted as a "facilitator" for young Australian men wanting to fight in the war the group is waging for control of the African nation.

"The Somali people are very peace-loving people," Baaruud said. "The last thing they want to see is any problem happening here in Australia. Somali people ran away from conflict and fighting ."

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland of the Victorian police said it was important to keep the arrests in perspective and not overreact, as the best way to counter the attraction of radical Islam was to ensure young migrant men were welcomed into the broader community. "We must not get to a point where we blame the Somali community or we blame the broader Islamic community, because that actually works against what we're trying to achieve here."

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland told ABC radio that in the past few weeks he, the Victorian police and other agencies had discussed in detail plans to counter radicalisation of Somali youths.

"The evidence was ... that a number of Somali youths come out here, literally without any family [with] no support networks around them, no role models. The police have a very sophisticated programme to look at what they can do to build some support structures around those young men."

But McClelland, who will release a new white paper on counter-terrorism by the end of the year, is uncertain if the Government will move to place al-Shabaab on its list of proscribed terrorist organisations.

He also said he wanted to develop a new protocol for the coverage of operations such as Tuesday's raids across Melbourne after news reports in the Australian that police allege appeared before the raids had started.

The Australian claims it adhered to an agreement struck earlier with the federal police and that editions with the story were held back until the operation was under way. But Overland said the reports had risked the success of the operation and the safety of his officers, and McClelland described his dealings with the newspaper - including the possibility of an injunction - as a "nightmare".

The Australian's News Ltd stablemate, Sydney's tabloid Daily Telegraph has further angered the Government after a reporter and a photographer were arrested and charged for entering Holsworthy and taking photographs. Security at the base has been criticised because of the use of unarmed civilian guards, and a review is now under way. The newspaper's team only had to show driving licences to gain entry.