A year ago, the world witnessed the horrific attacks in Mumbai, watching helplessly as gunmen rampaged through hotels and the city’s train station. Sri Lanka has suffered for decades from acts of terrorism, and time will tell if the Government’s military response and its implementation of necessary confidence-building measures will be adequate to finally put an end to the violence. And the international community living in the region is not immune to terror either. Just last month, the offices of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Islamabad were hit by a suicide bomber while in Afghanistan five UN staffers were killed in a guesthouse and again we in the UN family were forced to mourn colleagues who were simply in these places to do their job.
These are just the spectacular examples of the violence that has permeated the region. And yet, law enforcement personnel in South Asia, who serve on the frontlines in implementing counter-terrorism measures, have very limited opportunities to interact at an operational level with their counterparts in the region when this is essential in the fight against terrorism. Funding, explosives and technical know-how, all critical elements of a terrorist attack, flow too easily across borders. Those who fight terrorism in the region need to be able to collaborate with their counterparts in other countries if they are to have any hope of disrupting an attack and capturing those who are planning it.
There is also a lack of a common vision in the region for confronting terrorism in a manner that fully incorporates respect for the rule of law, human rights and human dignity, thereby increasing the chance for success over the long term.
In an effort to remedy these shortfalls, the United Nations, in association with the Government of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), this week organized a meeting that brought together working-level law enforcement experts of the region.
Police officers and prosecutors from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – along with observers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) – met for the last three days in Dhaka, sharing their experiences and the lessons they learnt in fighting the very real threat of terrorism.
The regional workshop gave them an opportunity to enhance their counter-terrorism capacities by discussing the role of the police and prosecution services in combating terrorism and the challenges they face in leading effective investigations and prosecutions. Part of the discussion focused on the way in which a counter-terrorism approach based on sound legal procedures and respect for the rule of law can strengthen international cooperation, making it more likely that terrorists will be properly brought to justice.
The meeting also provided a forum for raising their awareness of the latest available investigation and forensic technologies and techniques. Discussions between participants were facilitated by technical experts from INTERPOL, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Government of Australia. Resources to enable the meeting to be held were provided by the Australian and Danish Governments.
Of course one meeting, even a successful one like this, achieves little on its own. What will truly drive progress in combating terrorism is a sustained commitment on the part of governments to enact legislation, to build the institutional structures and operational mechanisms that can make frontline law enforcement officers and prosecutors effective. What is also critical is an effort by all governments to overcome mutual distrust and political difference sufficiently to allow their agencies to cooperate so they can all better address the common enemy – the terrorist groups.
The United Nations recognizes that not all countries can do this on their own – in most cases there exists the political will but not necessarily the practical expertise. The office that I head, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), in partnership with other Departments and organizations in the UN family, has been assisting countries with building their ability to effectively combat terrorism through a number of measures.
This workshop is however a milestone. It is our hope that greater interaction among working-level law enforcement experts in the region will not only enhance technical expertise in countering terrorism, but will also serve as a confidence-building measure which could help promote greater regional cooperation among frontline officials involved in combating terrorism and other forms of serious crime. It is the first step of many necessary to give countries a fighting chance to prevent terrorist attacks before they happen and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
(Writer is the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, CTED).
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