Lankan FM urges effective participation against terrorism

Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama expressed his concerns over certain countries which tend to shy away when it comes to the issue of tackling terrorism.Minister Bogollagama was speaking at the Commonwealth Ministerial meeting on terrorism in New York on Thursday.

The speech made by Minister Bogollagama at the Commonwealth meeting as follows:The threat of terrorism is not localized to a few countries. It is common to all States in this increasingly interdependent world, which is why the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy has called for a holistic and inclusive approach to counter-terrorism. The need for international cooperation and enhancement of the role of regional and sub regional bodies has also been recognized. While these global initiatives on terrorism are bringing hope to a number of countries grappling with terrorism, it is surprising that some of our friends tend to shy away when it comes to the issue of tackling terrorism. This to me is sometimes puzzling.

At the international level, Sri Lanka has been an active participant in promoting global cooperation in the fight against terror. Within the framework of international law, Sri Lanka is party to 12 International Conventions relating to the suppression of terrorism and has been Chairing the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee, mandated with the task of concluding the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. Sri Lanka also fully supports the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy. It is recalled that this Strategy calls for States to take measures to address conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism. It maybe observed that apart from the military strategy which helped overcome the terrorist activities in Sri Lanka, concerted international cooperation interdicting the flow of finances, arms and ammunition were factors that also assisted us overcome the menace of terrorism, bringing to the fore the importance of collective action. Therefore it is imperative that the Comprehensive convention on International. There is a dire need for practical measures to be adopted by the Commonwealth that would help contribute towards cutting off the sources of funding of terrorist groups, both direct and indirect in particular through charitable organisations; establishment of effective mechanisms to counter the movements of terrorists across national frontiers. In this regard it may be noted that such co-operation resulted in the apprehension of one of the main LTTE operatives; preventive mechanisms to ensure that no safe haven is provided to terrorists in the Commonwealth by way of the abuse of asylum procedures. The Commonwealth with its reputed quiet diplomacy could contribute greatly towards such measures. We must hope that we are not too late, in providing the political will for this process. In this regard, the updated CPAT is most welcome and it must be implemented with much vigour. We may also consider a comprehensive review of the Harare document on Legal Assistance.

No doubt such proactive work would call for agreements at Ministerial Level and that was why Sri Lanka has been requesting for such a meeting. While harmonizing the Commonwealth's counter terrorism actions with those of the UN an effective networking system based on collective co-operation and harnessing of resources among member States could be developed particularly in seizing assets of terrorist groups through intelligence sharing. In the long run, while member States would definitely benefit, such a system would help the work of other international fora. Therefore undertaking such action against terrorism would definitely not be duplication of the work of other world bodies, but would be complimentary to their work. Sri Lanka hopes that the Commonwealth will find the courage to take this process forward and convene a dedicated Ministerial Meeting on terrorism to explore new areas of co-operation sooner rather than later to discuss in detail these issues.