How African civil society can help counter terrorism

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE WOR-ldwide threat of terrorism has so far been the exclusive domain of military and intelligence operatives. The African Union and UN are embracing civil society, the media and the private sector as partners in a comprehensive strategy to halt the threat.
A recent experts’ meeting organised by the UN Special Adviser on Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, underlined the need to bring African voices, perspectives and contexts into the counter-terrorism debate as a way of deepening effective partnership between the UN cluster of organisations and African actors at all levels.

The shift is a result of a new counter-terrorism strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, which broke new grounds by drawing attention to the nexus between the threat of terrorism and the vexing conditions of under-development, poverty, spiralling food and fuel prices, widening inequality gap, debt overhang, interlocking conflicts, ruinous impacts of global recession and climate change, authoritarian undertows and violent setbacks of democracy by disputed polls and military takeovers.

ALSO AIDING THE NEW SHIFT TO CI-vil society is the new Obama administration in Washington, which has moved away from the ‘hard’ and lone-ranger military style of the Bush era in favour of a ‘softer’, collective and inclusive focus on strong criminal justice system, which seeks to balance security concerns with human rights and rule of law issues.

Following the terrorist bombing on American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998, and Paradise Hotel, Kikambala in 2002, Africa became a soft target for terrorism. Africa is now widely seen as a potential safe hideout for units of international networks.

Western intelligence and defence sources pinpoint warring Somalia as an alternative safe haven for training, hideout, planning and recruiting for international terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda flushed out of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Shoring up this view is the raging war in Somalia and the wave of piracy heists on the Indian Ocean rim.

A counter-terrorism architecture has evolved in Africa, including the 1999 Organisation of African Unity counter-terrorism convention, the AU’s 2002 counter-terrorism plan of action, and the AU’s 2004 protocol to the convention.

In addition, the AU established the Centre for the Study and Research of Terrorism in Algiers. Linked to this architecture is Igad’s Capacity Building Programme against Terrorism; the Eastern African Police Chiefs Organisation; and the East African Community.

But civil society is marginal in this top-heavy structure, whose effectiveness is also hampered by lack of capacity. There has also emerged an appreciable sub-regional counter-terrorism capacity. Africa has witnessed major efforts to develop national counter-terrorism laws, which define terrorist acts and offences, penalties and the role of security forces.

Ethiopia has recently developed a counter-terrorism Bill, but there is growing concern that anti-terror laws in countries like Zimbabwe have also been used against leading human rights activists and government critics. Finally, we have operating from the continent, international counter-terrorism initiatives by the United States.

The UN counter-terrorism strategy has advanced ‘soft’ approaches advanced by African member states. The 2006 UN counter-terrorism strategy broke new ground by drawing attention to the threat of terrorism and other conditions in Africa from grinding poverty to underdevelopment to food security.

Viewing terrorism from a purely security prism and treating issues of terrorism as top-security issues has hampered the role of media and civil society. There is need to balance human rights and security in the fight against terror.

Civil society and the media can play a key role in raising awareness of the UN and AU counter-terrorism strategies. This demands efforts to identify and co-ordinate the specific skills and strengths of actors in implementing counter-terrorism measures.
THE UN SHOULD DEEPEN THE IN-volvement of civil society and media in promoting the various strategies and projects. UN-Africa partnership should focus on the training of the African media to report on issues of terrorism.

The experts called for the exploration of the possible role of the private sector, especially in the financial and tourism sectors. Over and above lobbying and activism, “to scream and shout about the rights and justice of the victims” on counter-terrorism issues, civil society has a role in training and capacity-building.

Civil society has a role in the reform of the criminal justice system to ensure that perpetrators and victims of terrorism have their day in just courts.

Dr Kagwanja is an academic and researcher in Pretoria, South Africa.