Posted by
Darko Trifunovic on Friday, April 25, 2008 2:20:45 PM
Interpol chief warns of Olympic terror threat
Interpol warned on Friday that China must be prepared for a possible
Al-Qaeda attack on the Beijing Olympics, as well as potentially violent
disruption from pro-Tibet protestors.
"We must be prepared for the possibility that Al-Qaeda or some other
terrorist group will attempt to launch a deadly terrorist attack at
these Olympics," Interpol chief Ronald Noble told an international
conference on security for the Games in Beijing, according to a copy of
his speech.
"The threat is compounded by the very nature of the 2008 Summer
Olympics," the head of the international police organisation, based in
the French city of Lyon, told the gathering.
"China will open its doors to hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors
and journalists and an audience of billions watching on television.
This could provide easy cover for terrorists and ensure any attack
during the Olympics would have an immediate global impact."
"There is no doubt that the biggest threat facing the Beijing Olympics
is terrorism," China's Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu said,
according to a translation of his speech at the conference.
"I hope that all parties will adopt practical and effective measures,
strengthen border controls...to jointly prevent and suppress
international terrorist activities targeting the Beijing Olympic
Games," he said.
Noble told delegates the security "situation has clearly changed" since
September 2007, when Interpol reported it had no specific information
from its 186 member countries on direct terrorist threats to the
Beijing Olympics.
He cited a string of Chinese reports of failed plots to disrupt the
Games which the authorities claimed were linked to separatist groups.
Chinese police announced this month they had cracked two terrorist
gangs, including one planning to kidnap Olympic athletes, journalists
and tourists, in northwest China's Xinjiang region, which has a strong
Muslim population of ethnic Uighurs.
In January, China announced the dismantling of an Islamist terror cell
in Xinjiang, and also claimed to have foiled an attempt by a Uighur
woman to blow up a Chinese airliner on March 7.
Rights groups and exiled Uighurs regularly accuse Beijing of inflating
a terror threat in Xinjiang to tighten its control over the restive and
oil-rich region, and one exiled leader has accused China of fabricating
plots.
The Interpol chief also pointed to the arrest in Indonesia in December
of several suspected Al-Qaeda members believed to have been plotting an
attack during the Games, and who were reportedly in possession of a map
of Beijing and data on various sports venues.
Noble also said the wave of protests over China's crackdown in Tibet
during the global Olympic torch relay had "introduced significant
additional complications to the normal security considerations" for the
Games.
"In light of recent events, all countries whose athletes will
participate and whose citizens will attend the Beijing Olympics must be
prepared for the possibility that the groups and individuals
responsible for the violence during the global torch relay could carry
out their protests at the actual Games."
He said that Interpol had been working with Beijing to assess the
threat of a terrorist attack at the Games, with an Interpol team to
travel to China ahead of the Games to train Chinese officers in crisis
operations.
The Interpol chief said his organisation was working with China to help
it detect lost and stolen travel documents at Beijing airport and other
major border entry points.
"This is absolutely crucial if we want to prevent terrorists or dangerous criminals from entering China," he said.