The Hindu : International : Riyadh calls for global centre to fight terror

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

International

International

Riyadh calls for global centre to fight terror

RIYADH, FEB. 5. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince called on Saturday for countries worldwide to create an international anti-terrorism centre for quick information-sharing, as he opened a conference on ways to fight the Al-Qaeda and other terror groups.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto leader of a country struggling to contain terrorist attacks, said such an international centre could allow officials and experts from countries worldwide to ``exchange information instantly in response to the demands of the situation and the need to prevent incidents, God willing, before they occur.''

The Crown Prince also told delegates the world cannot fight terrorism unless it fights three other global crimes linked to it — arms smuggling, drug smuggling and money laundering.

Saudi Arabia is already thought to exchange information with the United States. But the Kingdom has been blamed by some in the West for exporting terrorism, and failing to openly disclose the steps it takes internally to fight terrorists.

Aggressive campaign

The Counter-Terrorism International Conference caps an aggressive anti-terror campaign by Saudi authorities to uproot the Al-Qaeda's structure in the kingdom, one responsible for the deaths of scores of civilians in bombings, shootings and kidnappings.

Prince Abdullah told delegates from the United States, Britain and more than 50 countries in an enormous palace conference hall that Saudi Arabia has fought terrorism ``vigilantly on the local, regional and international levels. ... We will continue to do so until we eliminate, with the help of God, this evil.''

"Wise and timely"

Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League who was at the conference, described Prince Abdullah's proposal for the centre as ``wise and timely'' and said the league was ``willing to participate in establishing this centre and running it.''

But experts say that while the conference provides symbolic evidence of Saudi progress in the fight against terror, the kingdom's biggest problem is making the rest of the world believe its efforts are genuine.

``When they speak about internal security nobody believes them,'' said Kevin Rosser, an analyst with the London-based Control Risks Group.

``Even when they have made genuine progress it's taken a long time for the outside world's recognition to catch up.'' — AP

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