Brussels, 10/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The situation prevailing in Mali is a serous threat for all the countries of the region - Maghreb and West Africa - and there must be a joint response to that threat. Such is the main conclusion reached during the first debates initiated in Algiers on 9 April under the aegis of the African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT). The talks are expected to last for three days.
Mozambique's Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, who chairs the ACSRT, said “the Sahel strip is sitting on a powder keg after what happened in Libya and what is taking place in Mali”. An adviser to the Algerian president took the same view. He did not conceal his “fear that great tension would arise in the Sahel sub-region. The situation prevailing at our borders is a factor of tension that may have an impact on the Sahel region”, said Kamel Rezzag Bara. Debates showed there was a need for the countries of the region to control their common borders better in order to prevent arms transiting to the Sahel and beyond. They also pointed to there being a need to strengthen relations with Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan.
The seminar on the theme “radicalisation and de-radicalisation: experience and prospects” aimed to allow a concerted answer to be found not only to terrorism but also to the context that allows terrorism to take root. According to the Algerian media, the ACSRT director said “the realities that have given terrorists an advantage in the region are the armed conflicts, corruption, sorrow, exclusion and problematic forms of governance. And that is what drives entire peoples or individuals to radicalisation. Individuals are seized with frustration, while views change and crystallise”, to become an element of the AQIM or another terrorist organisation that finds fertile soil in the existing realities. It is for that reason that the ACSRT and the FLU (Fusion and Liaison Unit) have organised the seminar to prevent radicalisation of the people and to cut the ground beneath the feet of the terrorist organisations that use the people's distress to promulgate their own plans.
The FLU is a cooperation body between security services, created in Algiers in 2010. Its task is mainly to centralise and to process information received from member services with a view to developing and diffusing reliable information to the forces on the ground engaged in combating terrorism, arms trafficking and drug trafficking. The FLU also has the mission, in the context of communication strategy, of keeping public opinion informed of the dangers of fanaticism, countering terrorist propaganda and seeking to prevent further recruitment into the ranks of the AQIM, in particular. The presence of several FLU members was noted at the opening of the seminar.
The adviser for the Algerian president said that “Algeria has long understood that the fight against terrorism also means there must be a strategy for restoring rule of law, civil harmony, national reconciliation and development plans”. It was noted in the media that he drew a parallel between Islamist terrorism and far right racism in a number of western countries.
The African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) organised on 14-15 March, in Addis Ababa, a meeting of experts from the countries of the Sahel region on the proliferation of Libyan arms. (FB/transl.jl)