Belgian authorities facing criticism
BRUSSELS• The Belgian government sought Sunday to contain criticism of its handling of the Brussels attacks, as investigators launched 13 anti-terror raids in the capital and two other cities and taking four more people in custody.
In central Brussels, riot police used water cannon when scuffles broke out in front of the Bourse, which has become a symbolic rallying point for people to pay their respects to those who died in Tuesday’s suicide bombings. Black clad men carrying an anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant banner with an expletive on it held an agitated rally, but were pushed back by riot police.
As the city tried to get back to normal after the worst terrorist attack in Belgium’s history, organizers cancelled a commemoration service that had been planned for Sunday in central Brussels at the request of Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur.
“The priority is to let the police do their work in the best possible circumstances,” Jambon said.
Jambon conceded Sunday that decades of neglect had hampered the government’s response to violent extremism. He said the government has invested 600 million euros ($890 million) into police and security services over the past two years but that Belgium’s justice system and security services are still lagging behind.
Jambon, whose offer to resign Thursday was declined by the prime minister, also acknowledged some shortcomings prior to the March 22 suicide bombings in Brussels that killed at least 31 people and wounded 270 others.
“There have been errors,” he said on VRT television.
Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, said Sunday morning’s raids were linked a “federal case regarding terrorism” but did not specify whether it had any links to the March 22 attacks.
As international pressure on Belgium has mounted for serving as an unwitting rear-base for extremist fighters who launched the Nov. 13 massacres that left 130 dead in Paris, the government has felt forced to defend its choices and the actions of investigators. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are demanding an inquiry.
Belgian police and the army have been deployed, sometimes around the clock, at major buildings and sites in the capital in increasing numbers since November, when Brussels went into lockdown over fears that top Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam had returned and was hiding there.
On Sunday, Italian police in the southern city of Salerno said they had arrested an Algerian wanted in Belgium for an alleged false ID crime ring facilitating illegal migration linked to the attacks in Paris.