While much of the world relived the horrors of last year’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington this week, African officials gathered in Algiers to deal with their own recollection of what might have been.
The choice of date for the African Union’s high-level meeting on the prevention and combating of terrorism in Africa was not coincidental.
“When it became clear that we would not get through our work in time for the inaugural African Union summit in Durban, we chose September 11 because that got the message across,” said Jakkie Cilliers, director of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies that organised the conference.
At the request of the continental organisation Cilliers secured start-up funding from Norway and hired expert consultants from South, West and North Africa to tackle the eight-month project to fast-track implementation of the Algiers convention on the prevention and combating of terrorism.
“The goal is to get a new African protocol on fighting terrorism and a plan of action,” said Cilliers. “We feel this is necessary because so much has happened since the Algiers Convention was adopted by the 1999 summit of the then Organisation of African Unity.”
In Algiers this week South Africa is expected to become the 15th country to ratify the convention bringing it officially into force. “There should not be a problem with a new action plan that will address police and border control, judicial maters, financial consideration and information technologies,” said Cilliers. “But some countries have difficulties with a new protocol because the United Nations Security Council resolution (1373) after September 11 already places an onerous reporting obligation on them. Some contend that it is not practical to be beholden to two bodies on a matter as vital as this.”
This does not in any way dilute African commitment to fighting terrorism. The experts gathered here have a very real sense of how September 11 might further marginalise the continent. Even as the smoke cleared from the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, many were left wondering whether a new set of priorities forced on the United States might cause it and its allies to overlook the burning needs of Africa.
Allison Little, a Briton, is in Algiers to provide reassurance on this score. “Fighting terrorism is everyone’s business. We are here as observers to show solidarity on the part of Britain and the European Union for the important work that Africans are doing.”
Cilliers has noted a radical shift in thinking on terrorism by the Western powers. “Immediately after September 11 there were fears of a return to Cold War thinking that ‘he may be a bastard but at least he’s my bastard’. Instead the ruling mantra has become one of promoting stability. The assertion that there can be no development without security has expanded to the realisation that stability leaves no place for terrorism to hide.
“Experience has taught us that stability cannot be imposed by large bodies like the UN. It has to be done by governments assisted where necessary by regional organisations and the international community,” Cilliers said.
“This is why the United States has worked through its objections to the government in places like the Sudan. In some cases this has meant turning their backs on rebel groups with which they have had some affinity or at least pushing the peace process forward in a more meaningful manner,” he said.
“The danger here is that sometimes this is at the cost of good governance and democracy, but that is a price the Western powers are increasingly prepared to pay for stability.”