Close global ties vital to curb terrorism

Sarath MALALASEKERA

COLOMBO: Terrorism has become a way of life and a way of death globally, said International Police Affairs DIG Asoka Wijetilleka.

The assassination attempts made upon former US President Ronald Regan, Pope John Paul II, former Sri lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and assassinations of President Anwar Sadat, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, President Ranasinghe Premadasa and many other important personalities and more recently the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in USA llustrates the cruel reality that no one is safe from the cruel terrorism, he said addressing the 9th Indo-Pacific Congress on Legal - Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Indo -Pacific Association of Law, Medicine and Science held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo recently.

He said terrorism not only dominates the new headlines of the contemporary world, but it also has been responsible for significant and sometimes far reaching internal social changes. Emphasis on the preservation and maintenance of domestic order is a theme common to most countries today.

The ceremony was organised by the Medico-Legal Society of Sri Lanka.

Attorney General C.R. de Silva PC, INPALMS Congress Chairman and President Medico-Legal Society of Sri Lanka Chandra Fernando, President INPALMS Stephen M. Cordner, INPALMS Congress Secretary General S.B.W. de Silva and several foreign members of the Indo -Pacific Congress on Legal Medicine and Forensic Science of the Indo Pacific Association of Law, Medicine and Science were present.

Speaking on “International Terrorism” assessing the Global Threat and approaches to counter them DIG Wijetilleka said “We have to, willingly or unwillingly, underline the fact that the world has entered a ‘new age’ of criminality, an era in which common murderers and thieves have become comparatively less important perils than terrorists.

Terrorism, whether it is national, or international has generated a global nightmare Terror-violence is fundamentally an assault upon the State and its consequences will change the future of the world community, the DIG added.

During the last several decades terrorism has been adopted, as the Modus Operandi of ‘liberation’ movements and as the ultimate weapon of self-appointed groups, however small and insignificant, seeking to topple democratically elected governments or to withdraw from established entities.

International terrorism is not merely a creation of the 1960’s and the 1970’s nor is it solely a post World War II phenomenon.

The history of the twentieth century is also the history of terrorist actors. Since its impact has been both constant and universal, terrorism, in either word or deed, is not been confined to one particular region and is a technique for “demolishing State.”

Speaking on “Terrorism - Weapon on the Weak,” Wijetilleka said that the terrorist act is often one of political desperation rooted in the belief that violence is legitimised when it becomes a form of public protest designed to compel governmental entities to act in a articular fashion.