Minister Bogollagama said he saw this Conference as the start of a process that has the prospect of growing and "to be something like the Shangri La summit that is devoted to discuss, and dedicated for matters of military importance and defence issues, which is annually held in Singapore by the IISS of London." He further stated that he wanted to "see that we progress out of our 30 years of experience and sacrifices we have made in Sri Lanka on account of terrorism, as now we are finding the way out for terrorism, and also way out for the people"
Colombo, 22 September, (Asiantribune.com): The Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) - affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - will hold a two-day International Conference on Countering Terrorism (ICCT) at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo from October 18–20.
Conference theme will be 'Terrorism: A Challenge to Democratically Elected Governments'.
The Conference will highlight the challenges posed to democratically elected governments by terrorist movements and discuss strategies required to counter such threats. Given Sri Lanka's particular circumstances as a nation besieged by terrorism of increasing sophistication and complexity, the distinctive terrorist threats confronting Sri Lanka , a democracy with an active and articulate civil society and free media, will be a particular focus.
Special Guest of Honour at the Conference will be the renowned French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs, Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere. He has been credited for having tracked down and captured one of the world's most wanted terrorists , Carlos (the Jackal) and being involved in the case of UTA Flight 772 which was sabotaged over the Sahara Desert in 1989 with the loss of 170 lives. I n more recent years, Judge Bruguiere was invited by the US Government to assist in the investigations conducted into the terrorist acts of 9/11 in New York and Washington. He has also investigated the LTTE's illegal fund raising activities in France.
The Conference (ICCT) will have eminent personalities in their respective fields lead eight thematic sessions. They are: Dr. Gerard Chaliand, Former Director European Center for the Study of Conflicts from France (The threat posed by International Terrorist Networks), Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, Anti-Terrorism Judge of France. (International Responses to Terrorism), Gen. V. P. Malik, Former Commander of the Indian Army (Regional Responses to Terrorism), Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, Head, International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Singapore (Domestic Dimension of Terrorism), David Leppan, Founder & CEO, World-Check and Shanaka Jayasekara, Researcher, Centre for Policing, Intelligence & Counter Terrorism, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (Combating Terrorist Fund Raising), Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka. (Socio-Economic Costs of Terrorism), Shyam Tekwani, Assistant Professor, N anyang Technological University, Singapore (Terrorism and the Role of the Media and Civil Society) and V. Anandasangaree, TULF Leader (Transforming 'Terrorists' – Lessons for Sri Lanka).
A concluding panel discussion on the conference theme will be chaired by Dr. Palitha Kohona, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka and attended by all principal speakers.
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at a media briefing attributed to the decision to hold the conference to the following reasons:
Although the events of 9/11, had drawn much attention to the terrorist threat that faced the developed world and to its interests, no comparable attention had been paid to the challenge terrorism posed to the developing world - particularly to democratically elected governments. Hence the need has arisen to compare experiences, and to discuss strategies required to counter such threats through enhanced international cooperation.
Since the signing of the GOSL-LTTE Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in 2002, sections of the global community, which have been either misled or more consciously sought to dilute and sometimes even ignore the LTTE terrorist facing Sri Lanka. This is despite the fact that terrorism expert and Chief Scientist at the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College Dr Magnus Ranstorp has described the Tigers as "the most sophisticated terrorist organization in the world."
Minister Bogollagama further said, "It is not as though this fact is not known among experts in the field who deal with this problem having made constant references in terrorism related literature of such instances and the potential for technology transfer involving the LTTE." He noted that "the past year has seen an unprecedented level of action taken against LTTE activists and members of LTTE front organizations operating internationally, both by individual countries, as well as by international bodies such as the UN, for terrorist involvement".
He said it was proposed to devote an entire session of the Conference to the theme "Transforming Terrorists", which is reflective of the Sri Lanka Government's continued commitment to seek to arrive at a negotiated settlement, notwithstanding past failures. He said Sri Lanka was ready to learn from the experiences of other countries, as well as our own, how this goal can be achieved.
The Minister, in association with the members of the Board of Management of the LKIIRSS also ceremonially launched the website of the LKIIRSS (www.kadirgamarinstitute.com) at the Press Conference. In addition, a dedicated website was also launched for the ICCT. Minister Bogollagama said he saw this Conference as the start of a process that has the prospect of growing and "to be something like the Shangri La summit that is devoted to discuss, and dedicated for matters of military importance and defence issues, which is annually held in Singapore by the IISS of London." He further stated that he wanted to "see that we progress out of our 30 years of experience and sacrifices we have made in Sri Lanka on account of terrorism, as now we are finding the way out for terrorism, and also way out for the people"
The audience at the sessions will include academics, diplomats, NGOs, senior service personnel, serving and retired, leading members of the business community, leading members of the legal fraternity and senior public servants both serving and retired. It is anticipated that the Conference will also attract journalists both resident in Sri Lanka , as well as in other parts of the world, including those covering Sri Lanka from New Delhi , Singapore , Bangkok and Hong Kong . The proceedings of the Conference will be published in the English, Sinhala and Tamil languages, for sale and distribution.
The LKIIRSS, named after the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, functions as a multi-disciplinary research forum dedicated to the study of Sri Lanka 's strategic interests. It is mandated to develop a national perspective on issues pertaining to international relations and strategic studies, within the contemporary domestic and global contexts.
- Asian Tribune -
