Abroad
Terrorism has no right for the future
In Nice was committed another crime against humanity
// Bastille Day // Francois Hollande // "Charlie Hebdo" // ISIS //
Nice has always been associated with the safe and measured life, inherent only to the most famous in the world of respectable and fashionable resort with centuries of traditions. Today it has become a symbol of another terrible tragedy. Luxury hotel "Negresco", to spend a night in which still is a symbol of a certain prestige and a sign of belonging to the "high society" for the time turned into a sort of a field hospital.
A brief chronicle of the events. On the 14th of July during the main celebration of the national holiday of France - Bastille Day - 31-year-old native of Tunisia Mohamed Lahuayedzh Buhlel crashed his rented truck into a crowd of people which gathered to watch fireworks on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Truck wagged from side to side, obviously trying to ensure that the victims had to be as much as possible, and managed to pass 2 km. Although some police experts clarify - 1.8 km. (Apparently, in their understanding 200 m play a fundamental role author editions.). From the truck were also heard gunshots into the people in the crowd. After that, the guards opened fire on the car by shooting the offender on the spot and killed him . However, the windshield, which counted a lot of bullet holes, still survived, which speaks in favor of what were used, probably, standard police revolvers, instead of assault rifles. For some time to the murder weapon nobody dared to come up because of the fear that there might be a big amount of explosives. If there could be such amount of explosive some experts predicted that the zone of defeat could achieve radius for more than 1 km or even more, depending on the type and capacity of the explosives. In this case, there could be much more victims. As a result, 84 people were killed and over 200 were injured with varying degrees of severity. Among them were people from different countries, not just from France.
As written on the same script we hear words of sorrow and sympathy, calls for the consolidation and unification of efforts by French President Francois Hollande. All this was said repeatedly after the shooting of editorial office of the French weekly "Charly Hebdo" on the 7th of January 2015, terrorist attacks on the 13th of November 2015 in Bataklan theater, the stadium "Stade de France" and the streets of Paris. Only a number of victims was changing. In the first case - 12 people died and in the second large-scale attack in Paris – 130 people. It should be also mentioned the blasts on the 22d of March this year in the Capital of Belgium - blasts in the Brussels' airport and subway (sad results - 34 dead and over 340 injured people).
Of course, not everything is clear and with the motives of the crime in Nice. The Minister of Internal Affairs of France Bernard Casenevue said that law enforcement authorities had no reason to suspect Mohamed Buhlel, who has committed a crime in Nice, in links with ISIS organization, which is prohibited in many countries. It was said a lot about the so-called "Loner Excesses ", which is quite difficult to prevent with a systemic practices because a usual "prevention" is not enough for that. Tactic of using ramming cars has long been used by terrorists in Israel, but the victims in such cases are usually less because of timely and prompt police response, but of course it is impossible to exclude all episodes.
At the same time, terrorist organizations are quite capable of conducting such crimes with not attracting many participants, which is easier to calculate. But, on the other hand, they may specifically for the purpose of injecting fear and uncertainty in society to announce its participation to those crimes, in which they did not participate.
We can endlessly blame French secret services in their inability to effectively counter terrorism. It is recognized that these criticisms are valid in many respects, as it appears from recent events, secret-service work was clearly not on the proper level. But it is necessary to take into account the fact that during the Football Championship “EURO-2016” there were no terrorist attacks.
We can talk about the destruction of a single European security system that followed the referendum passed in the UK to leave the EU. But it should be understood that to nullify the established mechanism is simply impossible, because it is impossible to destroy something that had never existed in a fact.
We can endlessly discuss what has been done and what has not, to prevent the abominable crime, discussing the lack of coordination, lack of special tools and related weapons, established system of exchange of operational information, the security measures during mass events. In Moscow, for example, it is impossible to get in people's congestion zone without police inspection . It is also impossible to drive on any kind of private transport in the area of public events, because the streets are blocked in advance by special trucks of communal services and concrete blocks.
However, as all of the above would not have been important, the content of the problem is fundamentally different. It can be solved only on the global international level.
The cause of mold is dampness. If you do not fight with the dampness, but only endlessly try to remove mold, it always will arise again. This statement is absolutely true in relation to terrorism.
We must stop at the root any sources of fueling a worldwide evil - economical, political, religious, ideological, national. And the fight with only one, or even with several causes of large-scale terrorism, will not give the effect. We need comprehensive measures. It is necessary to take a principal position to demonstration of loyalty to the terrorists at the state level, attempts to divide terrorists into obvious criminals and fighters for the faith and other ideas, etc. There are no good terrorists, specifically those who accept violence as a legitimate kind of struggle. Violence creates only violence. This axiom, which is repeatedly declared and recognized from high tribunes, in a fact, is not recognized by all.
Requiring from the special services the flawless performance of its functions, which many people think are limited for two main functions "to catch and to punish" is fundamentally wrong. Otherwise, the size of these special services will have to grow in a direct proportion to the terrorist threat, but the harder it would be for them to cope with this threat. Ultimately, the authorities aimed at combating terrorism, would be like the fire brigade, reacting after the fact to the events, and only trying to minimize its effects. But the main thing is to prevent terrorist attacks. On a global scale, it is needed to create conditions that would not allow terrorism to have a fertile soil. Terrorism must not exist whatever and whoever tries to justify its purposes.
Igor Bondarenko, President of the European Academy
of Security and Conflictology, Doctor of Law, Professor