INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi (left) and Secretary General Ronald K. Noble (right) at the opening ceremony of the African Regional Workshop on Preventing Bioterrorism in Cape Town with INTERPOL Bioterrorism Steering Group Chairman John Abbott.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The first INTERPOL bioterrorism workshop opened in South Africa on Monday with delegates called upon to encourage greater recognition and response development to the threat of bioterrorism in their countries.

More than 90 law enforcement, scientific and legal experts from 41 African countries are attending the three-day event in Cape Town, which is the first of three such INTERPOL regional workshops to be held. The two others will take place in Singapore and Chile in 2006.

In addition to discussions with specialists on issues such as laboratory security, bioterrorism identification and assessment, those attending the workshop will also take part in a table top simulation of a major bioterrorism event to illustrate the need for all stakeholders to think and act on regional, national and international levels in responding to such incidents.

INTERPOL President and Commissioner of the South African Police Service Jackie Selebi opened the workshop, emphasising the need for multi-agency co-operation and communication.

'We as policemen cannot effectively face the problem of bioterrorism or the proliferation of biological weapons without building strong partnerships with scientists, educators and public health practitioners. Combating bioterrorism requires communities unaccustomed to working with one another to learn a common language and a common way of thinking,' said Mr Selebi.

'The African regional workshop aims to strengthen regional co-operation and enable all agencies to immediately identify and work closely with the right partners at the right time to establish a common response against biological weapons and to resolve the consequences of bio-attacks.'

INTERPOL's continued support in developing national bioterrorism prevention programmes was underlined by the announcement of a 'train the trainer' project for National Central Bureaus in the organization's 184 member countries.

'Defence measures against a biological attack are neither well known nor easily implemented, so there is a natural tendency for law enforcement services to put them aside in favour of 'more urgent' problems that they are more comfortable dealing with,' said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

'Political support and funding for security programmes tends to be orientated towards the traditional areas of crime which affect citizens on a daily basis. However, INTERPOL strongly believes that the risks of bioterrorism are so momentous that the police and the public health communities must break down the barriers preventing close collaboration, locally, nationally and internationally.'

INTERPOL's bioterrorism programme was launched in 2004 following a grant of almost one million dollars by the US-based Sloan Foundation.

In March 2005, INTERPOL hosted the first Global Congress on Preventing Bioterrorism, attended by more than 500 delegates from 155 countries, making it the largest-ever gathering of police, senior officials and experts.

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