Brussels, 09/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union will commemorate the 8th European Day in Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism on Monday 11 March. “Despite all our security efforts thousands of people still die from terrorist attacks every year. More has to be done to make the voices of victims heard in public and to devote more attention to victims, their families, friends and relatives and less to the perpetrators”, said EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove. “More attention has to be given to the victims and their fate. We always have to remember: while public life gets back to normal some time after an attack, there is no normal life anymore for survivors, families of victims, their relatives and friends. The suffering of victims does not stop with the end of the attack”, he continued.
A conference was held in Brussels on 9 March, jointly organised by the European Commission and the European Network of Associations of Victims of Terrorism. In 2011, terrorism continued to bring grief to people all over the world, including in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Turkey and elsewhere. Across the globe, terrorist attacks claimed over 30,000 victims, with almost 10,000 deaths. Most clearly engraved on the minds of the people of Europe are the horrific double attack in Norway in July of last year and the murders carried out by an extreme right-wing group in Germany in November. “It reminds us that the threat of terrorism remains very real and that we can never let our guard down. We must undermine the efforts of terrorists to radicalise our youth and recruit new members. We must counter their message of destruction and despair”, said European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. (CG with LC/transl.rt)