Terrorism Conference Highlights Summit of Americas 2002 Activities

(Agenda includes meetings on trade, environment, trafficking of women)
(750)
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A Washington-based January 28-29 conference on terrorism
highlights the 2002 calendar of events for the 34 countries of the
Western Hemisphere involved in the Summit of the Americas process.

The Organization of American States (OAS), which distributed the
calendar of events on its information network page, defines the Summit
process as a series of meetings at the highest level of government
decision-making in the Americas. The meetings are designed to discuss
issues of shared concern and to seek solutions to problems common to
the countries in the region.

The January conference of the Inter-American Committee on Terrorism
(CICTE), a body established by the OAS, will discuss assistance to
member states to prevent, combat and eliminate terrorism and its links
to other crimes. Those crimes include illicit trafficking in arms,
munitions, explosives, materials, or technology capable of being used
to perpetrate terrorist acts or activities.

At an earlier meeting held on October 15, 2001, CICTE members
expressed their horror at the terrorist attacks that occurred the
previous month in the United States. The members said the attacks
constituted a threat to international peace and security and called
for hemispheric unity to eradicate terrorism.

Also on the Summit calendar is a February 11-12 meeting in Washington
of the Inter-American Committee on Sustainable Development, an arm of
the OAS on issues relating to biodiversity and environmental law.

A draft agenda of the meeting says its objectives are to review
progress on sustainable development during the five years since an
environmental summit was held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Conclusions
reached at this meeting will be sent to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
September. Scheduled speakers at the February conference include David
Pumphrey, the U.S. Department of Energy's deputy assistant secretary
for international energy cooperation.

Meanwhile, health and environmental ministers of the Americas will
meet March 4-5, in Ottawa, Canada, while Trinidad and Tobago will host
the fourth meeting of regional ministers of justice and attorneys
general March 10-13.

The Summit of the Americas Implementation Review Group (SIRG) will be
held March 25-26 in Washington. The SIRG, a U.S.-created group,
monitors Summit implementation and prepares reports for the region's
foreign ministers. The SIRG, which holds about four regular meetings
each year, was created following the first Summit of the Americas in
Miami in 1994. The SIRG will also meet June 2 in Barbados.

A United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development
takes place March 18-22 in Monterrey, Mexico. Organizers say
multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization will discuss ways to
reform the world's financial systems to better serve basic human
needs, such as health care, education, and social services.

The following month a summit of heads of state from the 19 countries
belonging to the Rio Group will meet in Costa Rica. The April 11
meeting will host Latin American and Caribbean leaders discussing such
issues as world trade promotion and how to combat terrorism, which the
Rio Group said represents "concrete threats that affect us all." The
Group said international terrorism, such as the September 11 attacks
in the United States, cannot go unpunished.

Two other major events on the calendar related to the Summit process
are the June 2-4 meeting of the OAS General Assembly in Barbados and
the October meeting of Western Hemisphere trade ministers in Ecuador.
At that latter meeting, trade ministers will discuss progress on
completing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by a
target date of 2005. The FTAA will create a free-trade zone spanning
the hemisphere from Canada to Argentina.

In November, the Inter-American Commission of Women will meet in
Washington to discuss such topics as combating the trafficking in the
Americas of women and children for sexual exploitation.

Also in November, the fifth conference of regional defense ministers
will be held in Chile. At a previous meeting held in Manaus, Brazil,
in 2000, the defense ministers issued a declaration condemning "all
forms of terrorism" and stating that continued regional cooperation on
the problem "should be fostered, keeping in mind that terrorism poses
a serious threat to hemispheric democracy."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)