Attorney General Anand Ramlogan says T&T’s co-sponsoring of the United Nations (UN) resolution on foreign terrorist fighters will not invite trouble but sends a strong message that terrorists and their financiers are not welcome in T&T. Ramlogan gave that assurance yesterday as he dismissed concerns that T&T may attract adverse attention from terrorists because of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s decision to co-sponsor the resolution on foreign terrorist fighters.
The PM made the announcement at the UN security council meeting in New York on Wednesday. The AG, in a telephone interview yesterday, said supporting the resolution was an important step for T&T and the Prime Minister did the “right thing for the right reason at the right time.” He said her decision to co-sponsor the resolution, chaired by US President Barack Obama, had sent a signal to all terror groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), that they were not wanted in T&T.
He added: “These concerns are wholly unmeritorious. “To not support the resolution would have put the country at grave risk by promoting T&T as a safe haven for terrorists and their financiers. “By supporting the resolution we have in fact put in place a strong deterrent. “Far from inviting terrorists, supporting the resolution sends a powerful message that they are not welcomed and amounts to a strong deterrent,” Ramlogan said.
He said the UN resolution “codifies and reflects a lot of what is already in our laws and what happens in practice in terms of sharing intelligence with other nations.”
The resolution
The UN resolution calls on member states to co-operate in “efforts to address the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including preventing the radicalisation to terrorism and recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters.” In addition, it seeks state co-operation to "prevent the travel of foreign terrorist fighters from or through their territories," through the sharing of information, assistance with criminal investigations, evidence gathering, as well as financing and capacity-building assistance.