POLITICS: Fear of More Attacks Sweeps Europe

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Mar 16 2004 (IPS) - European governments have launched a new anti- terrorism campaign as evidence emerged that radical Muslims were behind the March 11 bombings in Madrid.

Fear of more terrorist attacks has reached paranoia levels. The discovery of some packets led to a stoppage of several train services in Paris Monday. Continuous announcements of danger added to the atmosphere of fear.

At Marignane airport in the French Riviera, the police blew up suit cases that lay unclaimed for a while. They were found to contain nothing but clothes.

France has upgraded its anti-terror vigilance programme “Vigipirate” to top level. Troops and special police units have been deployed at metro and train stations, and at airports.

This is despite the lack of any credible threats. “We haven’t found concrete indications of threats against France,” Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Monday.

Similar vigilance has been introduced in all major cities in Europe, particularly in Italy and Poland who were close allies of the U.S.-British alliance in the war against Iraq.

But France and Germany should not feel secure, Jean-Luc Marret, researcher at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Studies told media representatives. “These countries shouldn’t nourish the illusion that they are protected from terrorism only because they opposed the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Europe as a whole is a target of terrorism.”

Much of the media is adding to the terror paranoia. German public television has been broadcasting daily reports asking questions such as “Can we be sure at all?”

Many security officials say Europe should not exaggerate the threats. “We should keep a clear mind, and avoid repeating the U.S. exaggerations of last December,” an intelligence officer told IPS. He was referring to U.S. warnings of threats to commercial airlines around Christmas that led to the cancellation of several flights from France, Mexico and other countries to U.S. airports.

But few governments are taking that view, and are outdoing one another in calling for conferences on anti-terrorism measures, and for the creation of yet more police coordination agencies.

The Irish government agreed to a German demand to call a conference of ministers of the interior to coordinate anti-terror policy. Ireland holds rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) until next June.

German minister of the interior Otto Schilly said such a conference was needed to coordinate European action against terrorism. “If Muslims were responsible for the attacks in Madrid, then the terror threats against Europe would have reached a new quality,” Schilly said in Berlin Sunday after an extraordinary meeting of German security officials.

French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin supported Schilly. “We must come together to coordinate our actions,” he said. He went on to propose a special meeting of the UN Security Council “to deal with the terrorist threat posed by the attacks in Madrid.”

Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt told European Commission president Romano Prodi in Brussels that Europe needs “an information agency to coordinate the works of all national security services in Europe.” But such an agency exists – Europol, modelled on the international police coordination agency Interpol.

Officials seemed to forget that most governments have already passed new laws to strengthen immigration controls, particularly for people of Arab origin. Civil liberties have been curtailed in the name of fighting terror, human rights activists say.

So excessive are some of the new powers that new moves have sought to restrict some of them. Early this month the German Federal Constitutional Court partially annulled a law empowering police to tap private telephones. The court held that private houses are “the last refuge for human dignity” and should remain beyond the reach of the state.

About the same time, the French constitutional court reduced new rights that had been given to prosecutors and police.

But most such laws introduced after Sep 11, 2001 remain in place. In Britain suspected terrorists have been detained in Belmarsh prison for two years now without being brought to trial. The prison has been named Britain’s Guantanamo.

British home secretary David Blunkett has said the Belmarsh prisoners may face secret trials.

Such anti-terrorist policies are being debated at the UN human rights commission in Geneva. The commission is discussing a Mexican proposal to appoint a UN expert to determine whether anti-terrorism laws break international human rights standards.

European governments have not welcomed the Mexican proposal. The right- wing Spanish government voted out of office last Sunday had opposed it strongly. “We have the right to protect our citizens,” former foreign minister Ana Palacio argued.

The outcome of the conference is in doubt now as European governments work with renewed vigour to combat radical Islamic movements.