Round The World

New Delhi, 5 August 2008

Colombo SAARC Summit

PAKISTAN RAPPED ON TERROR

By Monish Tourangbam

School of International Studies, JNU

Concerns over terrorism took centre-stage at the recently concluded 15th SAARC Summit (2-3 August) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The priority was hardly surprising given some recent events that have again brought forth the menace of terrorism. All the 8 leaders representing the member countries identified terrorism as a stumbling block on the road to peace, progress and development in the region.

The Colombo Declaration titled "Partnership for Growth of Our People" adopted at the concluding session gave due importance to terrorism, trade promotion and measures to face the challenges posed by climate change. Recall, SAARC was established on 8 Dec 1985 when its charter was formally adopted by the Heads of State or Government of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined the SAARC at the 14th summit in New Delhi in April 2007.

Evidently, India has been a victim of some gruesome terrorist activities. Vociferously condemning the recent attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and the serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh espoused the need to defend the values of pluralism, peaceful coexistence and the rule of law.

Lamenting the progress in South Asia below expectations and reflecting on the potency of the regional grouping, he said, "we have only to see the rapid integration within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its emergence as an important bloc in Asia to understand the opportunities that beckon."

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened his address with an apology to India for the attack on its embassy in Kabul, charged that terrorism was being institutionalised and gaining deep inroads in Pakistan. Other leaders in the summit also equally condemned the brutality and barbarity of terrorism, including the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse who highlighted the need to strengthen the regional legal mechanisms and intensify intelligence-sharing to boost South Asia's collective prosperity, peace and stability.

Quite visibly, Pakistan bore the brunt in the frontal attack launched on terrorism during the Summit. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been accused of masterminding the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and a report from the New York Times that the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had provided wireless intercepts of communications between the ISI Directorate and the Kabul bombers has seriously dented Pakistan's promise of fighting terrorism.

Under these circumstances, things would not have been queer enough for the Pakistani Prime Minister Makhdoom Raza Gilani who joined others in condemning the Kabul attack. Reflecting that Pakistan too had lost the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to terrorism, Gilani emphasised the need to fight terrorism individually as well as collectively. He hoped that the forthcoming meetings of SAARC police chiefs and Home Ministers in Islamabad would focus on regional cooperation against terrorism.

In the Colombo Declaration, the leaders reiterated their commitment to strengthen the "legal regime against terrorism" by implementing all international conventions relating to combating terrorism to which the member-states are parties, as well as the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism. They recognised the salience of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) and the proposed U.N. Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

The Declaration recognised the linkage between terrorism and illegal trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances, humans and firearms and stressed the need to address the problem in a comprehensive manner. It also expressed satisfaction with the signing of the SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLAT), which needs to be ratified by the member countries to be operational. The treaty significantly enables greater cooperation among security forces of the SAARC Member-States to track, arrest and handover criminals and terrorists.

But, there are issues that might negate the effectiveness of the treaty. In the absence of a consensus on an acceptable definition of terrorism, cases where requests for extradition of identified persons are pending, might be impeded. For instance, India and Pakistan have given each other a 'list of wanted persons' supposedly sheltered in each other's country. But, both still question the veracity of the report, stating that either the persons mentioned are not in their territory or not considered terrorists or criminals, thus leading to inaction.

The MLAT would be the implementing mechanism on two SAARC conventions on Terrorism and Drug Trafficking. However, two major provisions of the proposed treaty eluded consensus. These were on participation by the requesting parties' security officers in evidence-taking and incorporation of the word 'terrorism' with respect to tracking funds meant for financing acts of terrorism. During the Summit, the leaders also decided on early finalisation of the standard operating protocol to help victims of trafficking and decided to develop a pan-SAARC toll-free helpline for women (1091) and one for children (1098).

Welcoming the decision of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Ministerial Council to commence negotiations on the Framework Agreement on Trade in Services, the SAARC Heads of State directed the Draft Agreement on Investment Promotion and Protection be finalised early and the SAARC Arbitration Council be operationalised. They expressed their belief in the importance of committing to SAFTA for the betterment of the region, in particular and Asia, in general. They directed that the decision to revise the sensitive lists of items and Non-Trade Barriers (NBTs) by the SAFTA Ministerial Council be implemented early, reflecting the need to address major hindrances to effective trade liberalisation in the region.

The SAARC leaders also called for an early ratification of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) and an early operationalisation making use of the available funds. The SDF was signed with a corpus of $ 300 million. The identified projects relate to women empowerment, maternal and child health and teachers training. Expressing the importance of an effective and economical regional telecommunication regime to further connectivity, they called upon the member-states to work towards a uniformly applicable low tariff, for international direct calls within the region.

Amidst a tense period in India-Pakistan relations, the Prime Ministers of both the countries, Manmohan Singh and Makhdoom Raza Gilani met for the first time on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit. India's Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon briefing the media, said Prime Minister Singh referred to the Kabul bombing, the ceasefire violation and the increase in infiltration from Pakistani territory into Jammu & Kashmir as impediments to improving bilateral ties.

The Prime Minister expressed dismay over the recent events, reiterating the need for the causes to be addressed. The Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani while assuring that Islamabad would independently investigate the Kabul attack, said that he would talk to the Afghan President Karzai so as to "get to the root" of the case. Prime Minister Singh also met his Bhutanese counterpart Lyonpo Jigmi Y. Thinley and Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Fakhruddin Ahmed, to keep abreast of the developments in bilateral relations.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)