An idea whose time has come
THE Awami League's commitment to fighting terrorism has been clearly defined in its election manifesto. One could assume that a part of its strategy would be effected through a collaborative effort regionally to combat the scourge, as enunciated by the party leader.
There is every reason for the Awami League to take the issue of terrorism very seriously given the fact that its top leadership were targets of terrorist attacks on more than one occasion, but even more because the short shrift that the issue was given by the erstwhile 4-party alliance regime, one of whose constituents is alleged to have been directly responsible for the rise of the indigenous religious terrorist groups in Bangladesh in recent times.
It bears repetition that a policy of denial by the erstwhile BNP-Jamaat regime had put the country's security at stake till such time pressure from both home and abroad compelled it to move against these elements. We have to face up to the reality that there are strongly motivated groups who would want to impose their political philosophy that they feel stems from religious motivation, by force.
It would be a folly to think that the phenomenon of ideologically motivated terrorism in Bangladesh is entirely an indigenous occurrence, and an even greater mistake would be to think that it can be addressed by us alone through entirely our own efforts. For one thing, the terrorist groups in our country are not without their ideological sponsors although there may not be a fully established organic international link. There is also the issue of funding and regional networking between these elements motivated primarily by survival instinct.
The fact that regional resources must be combined to address terrorism had been acknowledged long ago when the Saarc Convention on Terrorism was adopted in 1987 and reinforced by the adoption of Additional Protocol on terrorism at the 12th Summit whose modalities were finalised in the Dhaka Summit the next year.
The comments of the then foreign minister of Bangladesh on that occasion, "The modalities of the protocol are being discussed and (will be) finalised here for taking collective measures to eradicate terrorism from the region. We have built up an institutional framework, which can be utilised by the member countries to initiate effective actions. Combatting terrorism is a task that South Asia needs to pursue relentlessly," attest to the need for a regional approach.
However, some controversy has been whipped up in the wake of the prime minister's re-articulation of her party's election manifesto regarding setting up of a task force at regional level to combat terrorism. What one can gather from comments posited in opposition to the idea of a regional task force is primarily regarding the character of the said task force.
The idea that one can form from reading these comments is that the task force might assume the form of a standing military force ready to be employed against the terrorists (something like the ISAF in Afghanistan) The issue of sovereignty as well the wider strategic ramification has also been alluded to should this become a part of the so-called US war on terror.
I feel that a task force is not necessarily a standing military force. There are many examples of regional task forces, like the APEC Counter-Terrorism Task Force, established to address terrorism, have nothing to do with military force. A very significant case in point is the UN task force on terrorism set up in 2006.
The terms of reference of APEC Counter-Terrorism Task Force, set up in 2003, are to coordinate the implementation of the anti-terror strategy enunciated by its leaders, assist economies to identify and assess counter-terrorism needs, coordinate capacity building and technical assistance programs, cooperate with the international organisations to implement the strategy, and facilitate cooperation between APEC fora on counter-terrorism issues.
And those who deal with the issue of terrorism cannot be oblivious of the UN strategy to combat terrorism and the establishment of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, whose some tasks among the many are: helping member states in implementing the strategy in an integrated manner; factoring counter-terrorism prevention into conflict prevention, through the use of envoys and special representatives; providing a forum for addressing political and economic exclusion, in particular among youth.
I, for one, feel that the idea of a regional task force is an eminently good idea that should help in fulfilling the provisions of Saarc agreements related to terrorism. However, given the peculiar strategic orientation of the region and geopolitical compulsion, one may well ask how effective the proposed task force would be. That is a subject we shall address later.
However, since doubts and apprehension have been raised by some quarters, either deliberately for the sake of opposing an idea or out of genuine concern, it is for the government to expand and elucidate on the idea and put the controversy to rest.
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