Call for greater cooperation to combat terrorism

The International Conference on Countering Terrorism concluded on Saturday recognising the increasing challenge posed to democratic States by terrorist groups, and the need for greater cooperation at both the bilateral and multilateral levels in facing upto this challenge.

The Conference, attended by terrorism experts including academia and media from 23 countries, pledged to continue to function as a network in furthering the struggle against terrorism.

In comments, concluding the sessions of the Conference, which involved all the principal speakers, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Palitha Kohona said: “Terrorism has affected many countries of the democratic world, and we share the pain and the determination to deal with this problem resolutely.”

He pointed out that “it was evident from the discussion which occurred over the last two days that Sri Lanka has taken a firm position with regard to terrorism consistent with the attitudes of other countries which have suffered from terrorism.”

Noting that, “when a sovereign State is challenged by the brutal terrorist organisations there is no choice but to face it,” adding that “It is our duty to deal with it now and resolve it today. There was no reason to leave this problem for yet another generation to suffer.”

The need to develop strategic doctrine for countering terrorism beyond mere action at the operational level, was also highlighted by the participants from countries, who had faced similar situations. It was also suggested that a Regional Counter Terrorism Centre be established to monitor and share experiences among countries.

The session on the Socio economic costs of terrorism, which was chaired by Professor of Economics of the University of Colombo, Prof. W. D. Lakshman, had as its Principal Speaker, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, Dr. Saman Kelegama who examined the costs of terrorism from a multi-dimensional perspective, focused on the economic output loss, the damage and destruction to the physical and social infrastructure as well as the human cost of war in terms of deaths and displacement.

Dr. Kelegama summarized his comments by saying that a sovereign state had no choice but to confront terrorism despite the costs. The Discussants joining the session included the former Director of the Department of Statistics of the Central Bank, Dr. Anila Bandaranaike as well as the Principal Researcher of the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Dr. Muthukrishna Sarvananthan.

Assistant Professor of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Shyam Tekwani was the Principal Speaker at the session on terrorism and the role of the media and civil society which was presided over by the Chairman of the Marga Institute Mangala Moonesinghe, and which included the Director of the Sri Lanka College of Journalism Arjuna Ranawana and Dr. Hiranthi Wijemanne, formerly of UNICEF.

Identifying key areas in which the media needed to play a more proactive role, Tekwani examined the implications of “an independent media, and whether it needed to be an irresponsible one.” Noting that “terrorism is not an ideology, but a methodology” Tekwani observed that terrorism is “not an objective, but a method of achieving an objective.”

He also pointed out that terrorism is a means of communication, with more focus after 9/11 as a means to get to wider society. He commended the manner in which, in recent times, the Sri Lankan Government was seeking to engage the media proactively.

The session which was chaired by the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, had as its discussants the Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare, Douglas Devananda and the Coordinator of the Nepal Council of World Affairs and expert on peace building, Dr. Som Pudasaini. Minister Devananda noted that “the LTTE thrives on the Tamil cause.

It has stood in the way of negotiated settlement within the framework of united Sri Lanka, fearing such an arrangement would not give room for their fascist rule of law.” He stressed that “the fundamental concept of tackling terrorism is that we should not do what the terrorist expect us to do; in other words we should not fall prey to their manoeuvres. LTTE terrorism too has to be tackled keeping this notion in mind.”