THE POLICE cooperation in fighting terrorism has increased during the past 13 years. Slovak police officers have, for example, better access to direct contacts to foreign departments that deal with the fight against terrorism, including police and intelligence services.
“When we started in 2001, we were at the zero point when there were no police contacts, only within Interpol,” head of the department of the fight against terrorism of the Police Corps Presidium, who did not want to reveal his name, told the SITA newswire. He added that since then the Police Working Group on Terrorism (PWGT) has been established which secures the exchange of information.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the things have changed significantly and more people started to deal with terrorism, the department head said.
“When it comes to facilities, we are at the level of other countries,” he said, adding that the department of fight against terrorism is not the intervention unit, but the operational department to collect and analyse information.
The head of the department told SITA that Slovak units can monitor the terrorist threats deeper than the units in other countries since the communities of foreigners or radicals in Slovakia are much smaller.
“Compared to other countries we have 5,000-6,000 people coming from risk areas who live here for long or stay here for studies or business-making,” he said.
Slovakia, according to him, is not interesting as a primary target of the terrorists. He, however, stressed that the attack may occur anywhere.
“There are bigger concerns over the attack from the outside than from the Slovak community,” he stressed to SITA.
He mentioned the case of ecologic terrorist Ladislav K. who has been recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for preparing the bomb in waste bin near the fast food restaurant in Košice back in 2011, but stressed this is an isolated case. According to him, he was not meeting any community.
“We try to find people who may encounter the radicals through various indicators,” he said.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
