TUNIS (AFP) — Algeria hit out Thursday at alleged United Nations meddling in its efforts to tackle Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, as interior ministers from 17 Arab countries gathered in Tunis to debate security cooperation.
"Concrete, effective and honest" international collaboration needs "respect for the sovereignty of states (...) without interference in their internal affairs," Algeria's Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni told delegates.
In front of the UN's Under Secretary General for Safety and Security, David Veness, Zerhouni denied allegations that Algeria failed to respond adequately after the December 11 attacks which killed 41 people, including 17 UN staff.
He was responding to UN criticism that Algeria had ignored earlier requests to tighten security around its buildings, and to the setting up of an independent commission to investigate the double suicide-bombing.
Vowing no let-up in the fight against those "who seek to torpedo the process of reconciliation and plunge this nation back into chaos", he said his country was cooperating "effectively" with European nations and the United States.
Zerhouni said the dismantling of a cell behind December's attack on the UN refugee agency offices in Algiers showed the "effectiveness" of his country's security services, with the country moving on from a "black decade".
Veness, the highest-ranking UN official yet to attend the conference, now in its 25th year, warned the UN was working to bring about a "radical" change in its approach to protecting personnel, taking "all necessary measures".
The author of a report to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the December attacks, Veness said the UN needed governments to feed back "in real-time" information or evidence relating to past attacks or threats of attack.
Host Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali called for an "increased mobilisation" on the part of Arab states, with a particular emphasis on border controls, intelligence sharing and cutting out funding sources.
The text of resolutions on sharing information in areas including arms and narcotics trafficking were due to be discussed on Thursday evening for formal declaration.
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