By VK
Today we often hear the words that without popular support the law enforcement agencies won’t be able to combat terrorism efficiently. Nikolay Sintsov, the official representative of the Information Center of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) told journalists about the most efficient means of fighting terrorism.
“Without popular support the law enforcement agencies won’t be able to combat the terrorism efficiently. The bandits are threatening the whole society, all our people. The state has done a lot to fight them in the recent years. The state-wide counter-terrorist system has been in operation since 2006: the NAC includes representatives of all law enforcement agencies and other governmental bodies that have any connection to the fight against terrorism. Anti-terrorist commissions have been created in all regions of our country, these commissions take preventive measures, while special task headquarters take up combat actions against the bandits.
“Only in 2011 on the territory of the North Caucasian Federal District we’ve conducted 85 counter-terrorist operations, more than 12,000 battle actions in which 343 armed terrorists were neutralized and 618 members of terrorist groups and their accomplices were arrested. Some 500 arms caches were uncovered. 50 people were convinced not to participate in terrorist activities and came out of the woods. We have noticed that recently local people have started to show their desire to help the law enforcement agencies in their fight against terrorism. A lot of people understand that even if the police is really qualified to combat terrorism, they still won’t be able to ensure total safety without the help of common citizens. People started to feel the pain of the terrorists’ victims and truly sympathize with it. We all see that people get in line to donor blood for the injured, etc, so the general civic position has changed greatly.
“In order to efficiently combat terrorism not only the most aware citizens should join the fight, and not only those who were affected by the problem, but the society as a whole. This is what our experience tells us, as well as the experience of many other countries that lead the same struggle for dozens of years. We all should abandon the indifference as soon as possible and turn to the understanding of a simple fact: fight against terrorism is an everyday duty of each and every citizen. In order to make a breakthrough we need to make this fight take place everywhere and at all times. We need to be patient about the preemptive measures in the airports, stations, etc. Terrorists strike where you expect it the least, where the preemptive counter-terrorist measures are weak. There’s no single region that is immune to terrorist attacks. So we need to make the terrorists feel like the ground’s burning under their feet in any part of our country. Bandits try to hide from the police among regular citizens. They try to prepare their bombings is such a way so that no one could detect it. But it is still possible.
“On April, 3 a resident of Nazran reported that members of a terrorist group plan a series of suicide bombings. The FSS managed to uncover their suggested targets. During the special operation 5 of the bandits were killed, and two of them (a woman and a man) were carrying explosive belts 5 kg TNT worth. Terrorists didn’t make these belts for kicks. The bandits make these belts in order to bomb places where a lot of people gather.
“Thanks to the vigilance of the local population last January we’ve prevented two suicide bombings in one of the central cities of Russia. It is advised to pay special attention to suspicious people, objects, deserted cars and any other suspicious things. If you find something that doesn’t belong in this place you should address a police officer, and not ignore it. Of course, you shouldn’t touch or open suspicious objects. You should always remember that it might be not what it looks like. Terrorists hide explosive devices in bags, boxes, even toys or juice cartons.
“We should also attribute special attention to the responsibility of the parents. They should explain to their kids that any object on the street could be potentially dangerous and that it is important not to touch it and report the finding to the police.
“The media could play an important role as the terrorist activities by their nature are aimed at creating panic and a wide public response, so that the public opinion would influence the policy of the government. Terrorists ‘buy’ themselves air-time with innocent blood; they want the media to spread news of their actions.
“Terrorist leaders always care about replenishing terrorist ranks. They recruit young people with the help of pseudo-religious propaganda. These young people become puppets in the terrorists’ hands, and they have high chances to get killed during the special operations, etc.
“Therefore it is very important to conduct preventive work. No one is born to be a terrorist. Those young people who choose to join the terrorists used to be our neighbors, our children’s school friends. Some of them even entered universities, but then took up arms and became suicide bombers. I am sure that some acquaintances of these young people could have noticed the drastic change in their attitude; saw them in the company of suspicious people. If a young person starts exhibiting radical views that contradict state and public values, if they change their company, etc, one shouldn’t ignore these signs. We shouldn’t let this young person become a killer. We have to save his future, his life. And if his parents started suspecting that their child has fallen under the influence of terrorist recruiters, they should share their information with the police at once. This way they can not only save the life of their child, but also of dozens, maybe hundreds of people”.
