Leaving Tanzania, UN counter-terrorism official urges national prevention efforts

Building the ability of States to fight terrorism is crucial in the struggle against the scourge, the United Nations top counter-terrorism official said today at the end of a weeklong visit to Tanzania as part of the Security Council's technical assistance efforts.

“The best way to prevent the attacks by terrorists and the best way to prevent at the same time the consequences of those attacks is to put in place a good legal system, a good financial system, a good system of international cooperation where the terrorists and their accomplices would not find a way to strike,” said the head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), Javier Rupérez, is leading the 11-member team, which was in the country since 13 February.

Experts from Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Maritime Organization, the African Union and the European Commission are participating in the visit, as in previous missions.

The Tanzania trip also marks the first time that the delegation will also include an expert from the Security Council Committee on Al-Qaida and the Taliban, showing “the need to cooperate among ourselves when conducting on site visits,” Mr. Rupérez said.

“We have managed to develop at the same time a very strong sense of partnership with all the regional and sub-regional organizations within Africa just to make sure that we not only get the cooperation from the national authorities, but that we get at the same time a very strong sense of partnership from the regional organizations,” he added.

The purpose of country visits is to precisely assess, on location and in practice, how Member States implement the obligations of the landmark Security Council measure, resolution 1373, which was adopted in 2001 in the wake of the terror attacks against the United States. The expert teams also evaluate the nature and level of assistance that a particular country may need in order to fulfil those obligations.

Resolution 1373, which also established the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) to monitor compliance with its provisions, calls on countries to implement a number of measures to enhance their ability to counter terrorist activities nationally, regionally and globally.

The CTED began on-site meetings with States last year with its first country visit to Morocco in mid-March, followed by trips to Kenya, Albania, Thailand and Algeria.