Counter-terrorism meet ends: Expert hits fund slack from western countries

A top official of a Singapore-based research body has assailed the limited investment of western governments, including the United States, in the fight against terrorism.

Speaking during the closing day of the Counter-Terrorism Experts Conference in Lapu-Lapu City, Dr. Roham Gunaratna said that to reduce the threat of political violence, the international community must also spend to develop the capability of other countries in the region to resolve the volatile situation. The conference concluded without clear mandate on what to do with the situation. The participants or delegates from 56 countries, four international organizations, including the United Nations, and various agencies, ended up calling on all nations, agencies and organizations to explore further for a middle ground or approach in resolving the threat of terrorism.

Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said virulent ideologies have been spawned and sustained in regional conflict zones but the limited funding to counter these made it inutile to contain them effectively.

Gunaratna said the regional conflicts zones in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao in the Philippines, Maluku and Poso in Indonesia, Algeria, Afghanistan and Irag are the biggest producers of human rights violations, internal displacement, refugee flows and production of terrorists.

He recalled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the l970's and l980's that produced large numbers of terrorists, with the conflict spilling over neighboring countries.

He further said that this international neglect of regional conflicts, thinking that the warring parties will fight among each other and exhaust them themselves as a result, has been proven a wrong move like when Al-Qaeda terrorists struck a post-modern US.

"By developing capabilities to facilitate negotiation and by actively mediating between warring factions, the oxygen and space for ideological extremism and political terrorism can be significantly reduced," Gunaratna said.

He however said that the relevant knowledge and the essential tools for building peace processes must be developed and resources allocated to engage in a sustained dialogue between protagonists to terminate the conflict.

ABS-CBN executive vice-president Maria Ressa, one of the speakers at the closing rites of the conference, said the single largest regional threat comes from southern Philippines where training of terrorists is believed to be continuing.

Ressa also bared that criminal syndicates have been funding terrorists groups in the country, citing a US State Department report that the illegal drug network has linkages with the Abu Sayyaf. - Jose P. Sollano