PRESS RELEASE
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United Nations Calls for Universal Effort Against Terrorism
Counter-Terrorism Meeting set for Almaty, Kazakhstan 26-28 January 2005
The United Nations will press its case for universal participation in the
fight against terrorism
at a meeting of more than 70 international, regional and sub-regional
organizations in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this month (26-28 January 2005).
The meeting, co-sponsored by the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism
Committee (CTC) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), will be
the fourth since March 2003 to leverage the knowledge and capacity of these
bodies to help poorer nations build more effective legislative and
institutional barriers to terrorist financing, illegal weapons trafficking
and other threats.
“This meeting should bring us closer to a global framework for communication
and cooperation,” said Javier Rupérez, Head of the CTC’s newly established
Executive Directorate (CTED). “These organizations have vast experience and
established networks and many of them fund technical assistance programmes
that can help poorer nations bring their laws into harmony with
international conventions and resolutions against terrorism.”
Mr. Rupérez noted that many countries have the will but not the legislative
and other capacity to secure their borders and financial systems against
terrorist intrusions and share critical information with their neighbours.
“Everyone agrees that we are in this fight together,” he said. “The
challenge before us is to establish coherent policies and share the best
practices and resources to win it.”
Terrorist financing issues on the two-day agenda for Almaty include: money
laundering; efforts to regulate formal and non formal money transfers; the
activities of charities; freezing and seizing of assets; and cooperation
between financial intelligence units. Legal and institutional concerns for
discussion include: the shortcomings of existing bilateral and multilateral
agreements and the need for better information-sharing between national law
enforcement agencies. Other trans-border issues include: airport and seaport
security and the safe international transit of goods and people; border
monitoring and threat assessments to prevent illegal trafficking in arms and
hazardous materials.
“The bottom line in all of this is cooperation,” says Javier Rupérez. ” We
have to intensify our efforts to bring together governments, international
organizations and other key players in a comprehensive fight.We need to
assess our vulnerabilities and work more closely together to reduce them.”
CTC/CTED: The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), was established on 28
September 2001 (resolution 1373) to enhance the ability of Member States to
fight terrorism. It includes all 15 members of the Security Council.The
Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate was established on 26 March 2004
(resolution 1535) to reinforce the CTC’s work in monitoring
Member States’ implementation of resolution 1373; building cooperation among
regional, international and subregional organizations and brokering
assistance for poorer nations needing help to meet their obligations under
the relevant Security Council resolutions to fight terrorism.