December 22, 2006

ATTEMPT TO FIRE BOMB SNP ACTIVIST

 A device which exploded under a vehicle last Sunday night, has been described as a politically motivated attempt at firebombing his vehicle by the owner, Mr Joe Sullivan. Mr Sullivan is a well know activist of the Seychelles National Party (SNP) and drives around at all times flying the colours of his party on his vehicles.

The explosion, which was of an incendiary device, made a loud bang which was heard  by most inhabitants of La Gogue as well as most residents of Anse Etoile village. Mr Sullivan was sitting under his veranda when the explosion took place. He had earlier in the day parked his car in his usual spot, which is not seen from the house since it is of a split level design. When he rushed to his vehicle, Mr Sullivan said, he saw black smoke bellowing from underneath his car. As a precaution, he rushed back to his house to get a fire extinguisher which he used to douse the affected area. No serious damage was caused to the vehicle.

Mr Sullivan said he recovered remnants of the device which included part of a plastic water bottle as well as well as what looked like a piece of gelignite. Mr Sullivan said, that after the explosion the air reeked of paraffin, which he said was contained in the plastic bottle.

A CID officer has told LNSW that the police are treating the incident extremely serious regardless of any political connotation that may be attached to the incident. The police believe the device was a plastic bottle, in which a stick of gelignite, generally available on purse seiner tuna vessels to break the packed frozen tuna apart before being deischarged, was packed with granite chips and paraffin. This explosive generally makes more noise than real damage. Nevertheless, the police believe that in this case the stick of dynamite was surrounded by paraffin (an inflammable liquid) which made it a potentially very dangerous explosive device which can cause a fire or even serious harm to people. They said they are leaving no stone unturned to find the culprit(s) behind this criminal act.

Meanwhile, Mr Joe Sullivan is convinced that this was politically motivated criminal activity because of his very overt support for the SNP. One of his brothers has received an anonymous threatening letter. Mr Sullivan believes that attempting to fire bomb his vehicle was not the work of same crank but a well orchestrated plan involving state security agents.

Copyright 2006: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles