Terror Meeting a Showcase for Saudi Efforts

02/05/2005

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Delegates from the around the world will spend four days discussing ways to combat terrorism at a conference hosted by a country some in the West blame for exporting terrorism, even as Saudi Arabia sees itself as the victim of such violence.

The Counter Terrorism International Conference, which opens Saturday, caps an aggressive anti-terror campaign by Saudi authorities to uproot al-Qaida’s structure in the kingdom. Al-Qaida is responsible for the deaths of scores of civilians in bombings and shootings here.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, will open the conference, which is to be attended by delegates from the United States, Britain and more than 50 countries and international organizations.

Experts say that while the conference provides symbolic evidence of Saudi progress in the fight against terror, the kingdom’s biggest problem is making the rest of the world believe its efforts are genuine.

“When they speak about internal security nobody believes them,” said Kevin Rosser, an analyst with the London-based Control Risks Group. “Even when they have made genuine progress it’s taken a long time for the outside world’s recognition to catch up.”

“There’s a general problem of lack of transparency and an unwillingness to speak frankly about internal problems,” he added. “They have begun to try to address that but ... they haven’t done enough to close the credibility gap.”

Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to Prince Turki, the Saudi ambassador to London, said the conference was “designed to be a showcase for Saudi efforts to counter terrorism.”

“We want to put terrorism behind us and move forward by the actual fact that the war against terrorism has succeeded and telling the world we have done so,” he added.

During the Feb. 5-8 meeting, delegates will discuss the roots of terrorism, the relationship between terrorism and money laundering, narcotics, and arms smuggling and the structure of terrorist organizations. They will also share techniques to fight terrorism.

The conference comes 21 months after Saudi Arabia began a serious crackdown to root out terrorism after militants attacked three residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003.

Before those attacks, Saudi Arabia considered terrorism a scourge affecting the West. There was a conviction the militants would not risk killing other Saudis or Muslims in strikes inside the kingdom.

Since the 2003 launch of its anti-extremist offensive, 600 people have been arrested. Authorities have recovered weapons caches, false documents and, in some cases, makeup and wigs the militants used to disguise themselves as women.

A report released last month by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said despite the successes and decreasing support for al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, “The terror threat is unlikely to disappear for years to come.”

“Al-Qaida can draw on Saudis in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Central Asia, as well as other members ... who may be able to enter Saudi Arabia,” said the report.

In the last year, the report said, Saudi border guards have detained nearly 1 million people attempting to enter illegally into the kingdom and seized more than 10 tons of drugs and 2,000 weapons. Some 30,000 men were detained in the Yemeni border area in July 2004 alone, the report said. In all, 19,000 smuggling attempts were foiled and 8,000 smugglers arrested, it said.

Rosser said Saudi Arabia should be more open about the precise nature of the threat in the kingdom to help foreign companies manage the risks.

Despite the dangers, predictions that terrorist attacks would drive out foreign workers, especially in key sectors such as oil, have proved false.

The kingdom does not give a breakdown of the nationalities of its foreign workers. Rosser said there has been a decrease in the foreign community but it appears to have come primarily from dependents and some nonessential employees and not from those who actually do the work.