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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Taking terrorism to task
By Jailan Halawi
"THE WORLD community should cooperate in denouncing and combating terrorism," Interior Minister Habib El-Adli told Egyptian reporters at the end of the 16th General Assembly of Arab Interior Ministers in Amman.
Egypt, having suffered from the scourge of terrorism since 1992, has repeatedly called for a concerted international effort to fight what it describes as a worldwide phenomenon. During the three-day conference, Adli echoed President Hosni Mubarak's call for an international conference on terrorism to be held. The interior ministers also supported Mubarak's call in a statement denouncing terrorism, issued at the end of the conference.
"The international community is showing greater awareness of the dangers of terrorism, yet some European countries continue to allow militants to use their territory as a springboard for action against Egyptian interests," Adli said. "Granting them the right to political asylum and providing them with residence permits or passports, should be considered a form of support for terrorism."
Adli said if that if a country knows that someone is wanted in his country for terrorist activities and allows him to move around freely, "this means that country supports terrorism. It is unacceptable to say militants living in foreign countries are inactive," he said.
During the three days, Adli also held meetings with several of his Arab counterparts. He described his meetings with the interior ministers of Yemen and Sudan as "promising greater cooperation based on a better understanding of the security issues."
Responding to a question about the recent hostage crisis in Yemen, Adli said: "What happened in Yemen has given the country's security officials a deeper insight into how dangerous terrorism can be."
He explained that information gained from the confessions made by suspects "draw attention to the evil schemes of these terrorists." "The confessions of militants sometimes take us by surprise. We learn things that would never have occurred to us," he said.
Adli cited as an example an investigation into an Islamic group a few years ago, during which the militants described how they had built an underground prison to hold the people they were planning to kidnap.
"Acts of terrorism can take place in any country," he said. "For example, African countries had not anticipated terrorist acts would be carried out on their soil, and yet they became the scenes of terrorist activities."
Explaining the calmer situation on the domestic security front, Adli said, "this did not come out of nowhere." Terrorism, he said, is now denounced by people who had previously sympathised with underground groups, believing them to be Islamists preaching religion.
Adli praised the role played by the media in exposing the nature of these illegal groups to the people. "There is no doubt the press and media are a means of enlightenment, revealing the ideology of these groups," he said.
Furthermore, he said the new pre-emptive security strategy used by the police has produced positive results. "The role of the police force should be primarily pre-emptive," he said.
He explained that international cooperation was another factor that contributed to the stable domestic situation. Cooperation on terrorism was previously confined to bilateral agreement, but as more and more countries fell victim to terrorism, "there was an urgent need for international cooperation in this field," he said.
Over the past year, he said, the police were able to arrest 18 leading militants after wide-scale operations uncovered their hideouts in mountainous and rural areas.
Adli denied that the United States had offered to extradite to Egypt Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, spiritual leader of the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, who is serving a sentence of life imprisonment for his role in the bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York. "This matter was never raised. Some parties may be spreading this rumour for their own purposes," he said.
Abdel-Rahman had declared his support for the cease-fire call issued by the "historical" leaders of the Gama'a from Tora prison in July 1997. "This, I believe, is a positive sign. Maybe he realised that the use of violence is bound to fail," Adli said.
Making anti-terrorism global
By Jailan Halawi
ARAB interior ministers ended their 16th general assembly in Amman on Saturday with a statement rejecting "terrorism in all its forms". The ministers pledged to "make every effort to fight terrorism", and gave their full backing to an international conference to be held on the subject under the auspices of the United Nations. The conference had been proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Interior Minister Habib El-Adli
The ministers stressed the importance of drawing a distinction between terrorism and the "inalienable right of peoples to resist foreign occupation and aggression by all means, including armed struggle."
The ministers promised to "provide all necessary assistance" to the Palestinian police operating in the self-rule areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said that each country would separately reach agreement on the scope of this support with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The ministers set up a technical committee to decide legal and security procedures for the enforcement of the Arab Treaty on Combating Terrorism which they signed in April. The treaty lays down guidelines for security coordination, the exchange of information and the extradition of terrorists.
Under the treaty, signatories are required to cooperate on judicial matters, inspections, investigations and the apprehension of terrorists. They will also carry out joint studies on terrorism. The treaty further stipulates a commitment by signatories to halt the activities of militant groups on their soil.
After the closing session, Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers Ahmed Al-Salem, announced that eight countries had already ratified the treaty, namely: Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Sudan and the Palestinian Authority.
This means that the treaty will be in force one month after the ratification documents are deposited with the general secretariat of the Arab League.
Al-Salem said that foreign powers have been informed of the treaty and assured that Arab countries "are determined to combat terrorism and tighten the noose around its elements."
The ministers accepted an invitation from Algerian Interior Minister Abdullah Sallal to hold the next general assembly in Algeria.
