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The man in charge of organizing the World Cup in South Africa is
bristling at security questions sparked by violence in Angola,
saying his country should be judged on its own record, not events
more than a four-hour flight away.
Speaking at a crowded news conference Tuesday, Danny Jordaan,
chief executive of the World Cup organizing committee, also said
South Africa was taking extensive precautions to ensure a safe
tournament.
Since suspected separatists ambushed a bus carrying Togolese
players arriving in Angola for a continental football tournament
that began Sunday, South African officials have been pressed to
explain why similar violence can't happen here during the June-July
football World Cup, the premier event for the world's most popular
sport.
Jordaan said it was unfair and ill-informed to assume that
because South Africa and Angola share a continent, they share
similar security challenges. He said that would be akin to having
questioned Germany, which hosted the 2006 World Cup, about terror
attacks in London a year earlier, or proposing that all sporting
events in Asia be called off because of the war in Afghanistan.
"We don't apply the same standard to any other country," he
said, accusing questioners of applying double standards. "If
something happens on the African continent, we cannot condemn the
whole continent."
Jordaan said South Africa, which will be the first on the
continent to host the football World Cup, has hosted more than 100
major sporting events since 1994 without experiencing violence.
South Africa was welcomed back into international sports
after apartheid ended in 1994, and the events it has hosted include
the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 1996 African Cup of Nations football
tournament, and last year's Confederations Cup and Twenty20 Indian
Premier League cricket tournament. The latter was hastily moved to
South Africa from India because of security concerns.
"We surely must be judged on the reality, not just on flights
of fantasy and imagination," Jordaan said when asked whether South
Africa could be targeted by international terrorists. He said South
Africa has no separatist movements like the Angolan group suspected
in the attack on the Togolese team.
South Africa does, however, have a high crime rate and there
are concerns that guns and even explosives - stocked by the mining
industry - are too easily available.
The U.S. Embassy and other American offices in South Africa
were closed for two days in September because of what the U.S.
State Department called "credible" information about a possible
threat. U.S. officials have refused to elaborate on the threat.
Britain started requiring visas from South Africans last
year, claiming terrorists and criminals were exploiting the
availability of stolen or forged South African passports to gain
access to other countries. British security and intelligence
officials have expressed concern about an increasing risk of
Islamic extremists using South Africa as a transit point and venue
to plot.
If Jordaan played down the threat of terrorism, he also
stressed that preparing for that possibility has been part of
planning for years. And he brought a general to the briefing to
help make that point. South African police and military forces are
coordinating security planning for the World Cup.
"We are more than ready," said Lt. Gen. V.I. Ramlakan, who is
the South African security force's chief medical officer but said
he spoke for the entire force.
Ramlakan, who has helped prepare a medical emergency response
as part of security planning, said broader preparations included
sharing information with other governments. South African police
and troops have also conducted training simulations of chemical,
biological and radiation attacks.
"In our planning, we take every possible eventuality into
account, including that of terrorism," Ramlakan said. "It is not an
issue of belief. It is an issue of preparedness."
