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| Sunday, 27 November 2005 |
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Commonwealth leaders in Malta to tackle terrorism VALLETTA, Saturday (AFP) Commonwealth leaders meeting on the Mediterranean island of Malta slipped out of the public eye at the weekend to tackle the growing and elusive menace of terrorism. The leaders also grappled with how to avert threats to greater democracy in member countries like Uganda and correct world trade imbalances ahead of a key meeting in Hong Kong. Many officials and analysts say repression and poverty fuel terrorism. Outside a honey-colored stone mansion, framed by palm trees and cactus groves, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, the former colonial power from which the Commonwealth sprang, set the tone for the weekend. "We talked about common issues, in particular the threat of terrorism," Blair said late Friday after emerging with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz from the the British High Commissioner's residence in Malta. "And we need to do all we possibly we can to cooperate together to defeat it," Blair said on the rear steps of the residence, with Aziz on his right. Though other Commonwealth countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka have also been hit hard by terrorism, Pakistan moved to the fore in the US-led war on terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Behind its main ally the United States, Britain gave support to Pakistan and its troops joined both US forces and those from Commonwealth nations like Australia in driving the Taliban and al-Qaeda from neighboring Afghanistan. Cooperation with Pakistan deepened when British police explored possible links between shadowy groups in Pakistan and three of the four British-born men who allegedly killed themselves and 52 commuters in London on July 7. Nothing conclusive has emerged publicly linking the ethnic Pakistanis with their ancestral land. "We have to stand together, we have to share security information, we have to go after those elements who are trying to destabilize the world," Aziz said It was one of the first of a whole array of weekend meetings between various Commonwealth leaders before the summit ends on Sunday, though most of them would not even be followed by a press briefing. Threatening to overshadow the summit was the jailing of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's main rival in upcoming elections. At a press conference with Malta's Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Blair said the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Bisegye "is causing us a great deal of concern" and that he would discuss the matter with Museveni during the summit. Blair told journalists one of the main Commonwealth principles was "proper respect for the proper functioning of democracy." In a rambling news conference Friday, Museveni denounced "misinformation" surrounding the case against Bisegye. A Commonwealth human rights forum has said Uganda would not be appropriate as the planned venue for the next summit in 2007 because of its poor record on democracy and good governance. Leaders of the Commonwealth, a loose collection of 53 mainly former
British colonies, also heard a plea at their opening session from President
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigera for a "zero-tolerance" attitude to corruption. |
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