Regional anti-terrorism conference closes

The US-sponsored East and Horn of Africa Anti-Terrorism conference was in its closing session late Friday as ministers and delegates expressed confidence the talks would enhance cooperation between the 11 states in tackling the threat of terrorism in the region. Uganda's minister for internal affairs, Ruhankana Rugunda, who opened the conference told IRIN: "It has made very good progress - there is no cause for disagreement between any countries in these discussions. On the contrary, there is now consensus on the way forward". Rugunda said the main thrust of the discussions concerns "ways of improving communication between countries in the region". "The essence of this project is to track people using modern methods of keeping tabs on them - such as biometric techniques, including fingerprinting and photographing. We are increasingly using fingerprints as a reliable indicator," Rugunda said. Mark Schlachter, public affairs officer for the American embassy in Kampala said: "The aim is really just to assess how well we've done so far and see where we can do better. That's all". Rugunda told IRIN: "Countries in East Africa have been victims of terrorism. We are therefore working together and we are happy the United States are making efforts to help us". Rugunda reiterated that anti-terrorism procedures did not violate human rights and that cases of abuse by security services were not tolerated. "Ugandan law does not permit torture", he said, "If any human rights groups say they have evidence of such violations, they should report to us". Two weeks ago the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it had documented numerous new cases of torture and harassment of political opponents under the auspices of anti-terrorism procedures by Ugandan security services.