CIS Anti-Terrorist Center presentation in UN

The presentation of the CIS Anti-Terrorist Center (ATC) was held in the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

ATC head Boris Mylnikov, deputy director of Russia's federal Security Service (FSB), told members of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee about the work of the ATC and its plans. In particular, the participants discussed the ATC's technical assistance to CIS security services, including through the research and consultative center and in training anti-terrorism specialists. Mylnikov said about 60 specialists were trained in the FSB special task center for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 2003.

Speaking about the build-up of the anti-terrorism potential of the CIS, the FSB deputy director noted the annual command post operational-tactical exercises. This year, such exercise will be held at railway and air transport facilities in Chisinau on June 27-30.

The ATC head informed members of the UN committee about the new tasks set to the center at last week's session of the heads of security and special services of the CIS in Sochi (a Russian resort city on the Black Sea).

"First, we must complement our specialized databank with information about organizations and persons who display unusual interest in information and electronic databanks of the said security services," Mylnikov told RIA after the meeting. "Second, we must compile a common list of terrorist organizations for the CIS."

"Last year Russia banned 15 organizations, which its Supreme Court judged to be terrorist. The other CIS countries have done nothing of the kind. One of our tasks will be to develop international cooperation, above all contacts with the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC). The ATC should become the link between the CTC and the security services of the CIS countries. We are prepared to establish contacts also with the Security Council's Taliban/Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which keeps a list of persons and organizations involved in terrorism," said the ATC head.

He believes that the ATC must not limit its operation to the CIS countries and that the role of regional organizations in the war on terrorism will grow. "We are only at the beginning of the long road of cooperation between the security services of different countries," said Mylnikov. "We should work jointly to establish sources of information, hold joint operations and render legal assistance to each other."

The ATC head welcomed the decision of the UN Security Council to elect Russia for CTC chairmanship since May 27. "This amounts to a recognition of the substantiated and consistent work of Russia in this sphere, its balanced foreign policy and experience in the struggle against international terrorism," said Mylnikov.

Russia was elected for CTC chairmanship on Thursday. The Committee was set up in September 2001 in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1373 after the terrorist acts in New York and Washington. The CTC helps UN members to improve their anti-terrorist potential. It includes all 15 members of the Security Council. Before Russia, it was chaired by Britain and Spain.