Terror workshop 'a starting point'
2005-11-24 17:14
Cape Town - An Interpol workshop on bio-terrorism in Cape Town this week has given African police forces "a strong starting point" to deal with the threat, police commissioner Jackie Selebi said on Thursday.
Some 90 delegates from 41 African countries, including a number of police chiefs, attended the three-day workshop which ended on Wednesday.
"While everyone agrees there is much work to be done in preparing to face the threat of bio-terrorism, this workshop has given all participants a strong starting point," Selebi, who is also Interpol's current president, said in a closing statement.
"It is now up to those individuals who came to Cape Town to develop their knowledge about preventing bio-terrorism to return home and pass on the skills and expertise they have learned here."
Interpol is to hold regional bio-terrorism prevention workshops, in Singapore and Chile in 2006, and a second African workshop will be held in Kenya.
Opening the workshop on Monday, Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble said the threat of an al-Qaeda bio-terrorism attack was a "clear and present danger of the highest order".
Bio-terrorism is generally defined as a terror attack using biological weapons such as anthrax, smallpox or plague.
- SAPA