Belarus to host first major international conference on counter-terrorism
23 October, Minsk /BELTA/. The State Security Committee of Belarus will hold a major international scientific and practical conference "Partnership of the State, Public Sector and Business Community in the Fight Against Terrorism - Security Through Dialogue, Accord, Cooperation" from 30 to 31 October. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the head of the KGB press service, Artur Strekh.
An event of this level is being held in Belarus for the first time. "The range of invited participants to the conference is determined by various factors. First of all, we proceeded from the desire to get a clear understanding of the experience of preventing ethnically motivated terrorism in multinational states. Therefore, among the guests are specialists from Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, the USA, and a number of other countries. In addition, we attach great importance to the issue of non-violent resolution of political and social conflicts, and this topic will be considered at the forum," the KGB press service stated.
The conference agenda includes issues of promoting a culture of peace and accord, intercultural, interethnic and interfaith dialogue, current problems in the interaction between the state and the business community in the fight against terrorism, and improving methods and means of counter-terrorism protection. Representatives of the CSTO Secretariat, the CIS Anti-Terrorist Centre, relevant OSCE structures, state bodies and other organizations of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, Belgium, France and other states, as well as foreign diplomatic missions will take part in the forum.
One of the tasks to be addressed at the conference is the consideration of interaction between subjects fighting terrorism and the business community. "Not all issues in this area can be resolved at the expense of the state and the budget. Many measures taken by law enforcement agencies to ensure the security of transport, trade, and energy facilities are also taken in the interests of the organizations that operate these facilities," the department explained. - The participation of representatives of the banking sector in the forum is due to the fact that the agenda includes issues of preventing the financing of terrorism. The relevance of this topic is linked to the adoption of a new version of the Law of Belarus "On Measures to Prevent the Legalisation of Income Obtained by Criminal Means, Financing of Terrorist Activities and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction". Mechanisms for the implementation of this law are currently being worked out.
The State Security Committee explained that the draft resolution of the Council of Ministers on the list of persons involved in terrorist activities, in respect of whom measures to prevent the financing of terrorism will be applied, is at the final stage of development.
The main goal of the conference is to unite the efforts of theorists and practitioners in the field of preventing violent manifestations of extremism, the department added.