Terrorist alert as traveller detained

 Noted & Quoted in: The New Zealand Herald

 The man, who arrived in New Zealand this week, is understood to have the same name as an Algerian sentenced to death by his country after being found guilty of acts of terrorism.

 Ahmed Zaoui arrived at Paremoremo prison yesterday under a heavy police escort. It is understood a police helicopter was used to monitor his transfer to the prison.

 Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said last night that she could not confirm any details except that a man was being detained under the Immigration Act, which gives the Government power to hold him for 28 days.

 "We have security concerns and investigations are proceeding," she said.

 Asked to elaborate on the level of her concerns, the minister said: "They are of sufficient concern."

 Airport authorities say they have no record of a man by the name Ahmed Zaoui entering New Zealand in the past few days.

 But the Herald understands the man was travelling on South African documents, some of which he shredded on the aircraft before landing in New Zealand.

 The man detained in Paremoremo has the same name as the man who fronted the Algerian Islamic Salvation front.

 He was condemned to death in the mid-1990s by an Algerian court for supplying weapons from Europe to guerrillas in Algeria, and went into exile in Burkina Faso, a West African country bordering Niger and Ghana.

 Zaoui's group was blamed for massacres of civilians in Algeria.

 In 1997, he went to Switzerland and requested asylum.

 Last year, media reports from Vancouver linked Zaoui to Osama bin Laden's secret army in Southeast Asia. The Asian Post said that a previously unidentified group called FIDA or Sacrifice was being investigated in Malaysia and that a man called Zaoui was the frontman who worked closely with FIDA affiliates in Switzerland and the United States.

 FIDA is linked to a coalition of Islamic groups that the Asian Post said was being investigated for links to the September 11 terror attacks in the United States last year.

 The lawyer for the man being held in Paremoremo could not be contacted last night.

 Immigration Service spokesman Ian Smith said he was not aware of the man.

 "Normally if there was anything untoward they would let me know and I haven't heard anything."

 People who came to New Zealand without documents were detained, usually at the Mangere immigration centre, or at the Auckland central remand prison "if we want to make doubly certain that they are not a security threat to New Zealand".

 Anyone told to leave New Zealand by the Immigration Service can appeal to the Removal Review Authority against the decision.

 Applicants need to prove that there are exceptional humanitarian reasons for them not to have to leave New Zealand.  

They also need to prove that if they are allowed to stay it would not be contrary to the interests of New Zealand.  

Since the September 11 attacks, the Government has committed an extra $30 million to agencies involved in counter-terrorism and border protection.