One day after the U.S. unleashed cruise missiles against suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan, Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Friday strongly denounced the American military action and Washington’s lack of consultation with Russia and other nations.
“I am outraged,” Yeltsin said upon landing in the Arctic city of Murmansk to review naval operations. “It was an underhanded strike.”
Elsewhere, the opposition was not limited to words. Violent protests against American attacks on the alleged terrorist sites broke out Friday in South Asia, and Muslims burned American flags.
A number of U.S. allies, however, gave belated and sometimes cautiously qualified support to Washington for its action, taken in response to terrorist bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and to prevent further terrorism against American targets.
In Peshawar, Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, police shot and wounded several Afghan refugees in a crowd attempting to march on the U.S. consulate. A Pakistan-based Afghan news service said one of the protesters was killed, but there was no official confirmation.
The Pakistani government at first claimed some U.S. missiles hit a Pakistani border region and caused five or six casualties, but it later retracted the report and said all the casualties and damage were across the border in Afghanistan.
Nonetheless, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif phoned President Clinton to protest the raids on Afghanistan and the Sudan and said he should have relied on diplomacy instead.
In the Afghan capital of Kabul, an Italian military officer and a Frenchman traveling in a vehicle transporting United Nations workers were wounded by shots fired at the vehicle. An Italian diplomat said it was clear the shooting was in response to the U.S. attacks, and several charitable agencies later said they were evacuating their personnel from Kabul.
Elsewhere, there were burnings of the U.S. flag and protest demonstrations in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, and in Libya, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, several Pakistani cities and Bangladesh. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose home was hit by an American air raid in 1986, led a rally in Tripoli.
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In London, about 120 protesters from two Islamic groups burned the Stars and Stripes outside the U.S. Embassy and chanted: “Kill, kill USA” and “America, we want your blood.”
In Russia, Yeltsin lashed out in no uncertain terms at the U.S., just 10 days before his scheduled summit with President Clinton.
The Yeltsin denunciation, which Russia’s Foreign Ministry later toned down, focused on the White House decision not to consult with Moscow or the United Nations Security Council before launching the deadly missile raids.
In its statement, the Foreign Ministry said: “This action does not bring the eradication of terrorism any closer. But it may create a dangerous precedent of resolving international disputes, thus undermining the legal framework of international relations.”
Officials said the Sept. 1-3 Clinton-Yeltsin summit remains on despite the U.S. raids and Russia’s deepening economic crisis.
Domestic politics may have played a role in Yeltsin’s harsh response, analysts said. With Russia’s economy in crisis, it cannot hurt the president to be seen on national television standing up to America.
Yet the Kremlin is consistently quick in criticizing what it sees as Washington’s increasing desire to dominate the world stage. In the last year alone, Russia and the U.S. have knocked heads over the wisdom of military strikes in Iraq and Kosovo.
“This could be included in quite a long list of Russian concerns about the Americans,” said Vladimir Baranovski of the Center for Geopolitical and Military Forecasts. “This is quite widely perceived as something that demonstrates the American intention to operate on their own, without taking into account international law, without thinking about the necessity of consultations with the United Nations Security Council, without trying to find a different model of behavior. This is irritating to many Russians.”
In Western Europe, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave immediate and strong support to the U.S. raids on Thursday, other leaders delayed their reaction and some were less than wholehearted in support.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl voiced the strongest backing, saying: “The German government supports all measures which help to fight this scourge of the international community. This is particularly the case for the attacks the U.S. carried out yesterday on targets in Afghanistan and the Sudan.”
Germany’s opposition Social Democrats, who may take over the government after next month’s elections, said they supported the strikes if the targets were indeed linked to attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa.
“If the U.S. details about the targets are correct . . . the American reaction should find understanding among all friends and partners,” party spokesman Guenter Verheugen said.
The French government issued a statement condemning terrorism and said it was every country’s right to use necessary means to fight it. Referring to the attacks on U.S. Embassies, it said: “Such acts must not remain without response and their authors must be put out of action.”
But former government minister Jack Lang expressed regret that Clinton had not consulted President Jacques Chirac in advance.
In Italy, a Foreign Ministry statement offered “clear and unequivocal condemnation of terrorism of all kinds” and said the international community had the right to protect itself against subversive elements.
But the statement expressed concerns that “events of recent days could spark a dangerous series of reactions and counterreactions,” and urged a search for political solutions to terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave full backing to the U.S. action. “We understand the importance of what the United States is doing and we think President Clinton did absolutely the right thing,” he said.
Other support came from Australia, Spain and Belgium, and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressed understanding.