2010 terrorism under discussion

2006-12-08 12:05

Windhoek - Measures to combat terrorism before and during the 2010 World Cup were high on the agenda at a Southern African Development Community (SADC) conference which ended in Windhoek on Thursday.

Defence and security experts met for the first time to discuss ways how to build capacity in all 14 member states to combat terrorism throughout the region.

The conference which was funded by the UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre, focused on border control measures which could assist with the expected increase in human traffic during the tournament.

Jonathan Lucas, the regional UNODC representative, said SADC has already set up an anti-terrorism unit which is housed at the Interpol sub-regional bureau in Harare.

"SADC countries share information on terrorist organisations and submit regular reports to the centre and to UNODC on terrorism issues and progress made with regard to combating it," he says.

SADC police chiefs recently set up a special task force to map out strategies on combating possible security threats to the World Cup.

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