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Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales / Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar
Austria maintained four police instructors at the Iraqi Police Academy in Jordan to help
train Iraqi police. In Afghanistan, Austria temporarily deployed 93 soldiers to the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help provide security for the September
elections. Additionally, Austria committed four liaison officers to the ISAF headquarters in
Kabul and two advisors to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Together with the United States and the EU, Austria operated two counterterrorismrelated
training programs for countries in Central Asia: the Central Asian Border Initiative
(CABSI) and the Vienna Central Asia Initiative (VICA).
Austria pledged a total of US $1 million for the period between 2002 and 2006 to the UN
program to combat terrorism. It is a major donor country to the United Nations’ Viennabased
counterterrorism and anti-drug office, the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP).
Belgium
Overall awareness of the terrorist threat to Belgium increased this past year, partly in
reaction to the London bombings, but also in response to home-grown threats to Belgian
security. The London bombings intensified Belgium's continuing effort to improve
cooperation with foreign security agencies. Belgian police continue to work directly with
such agencies both in neighboring and more distant countries. In addition to longstanding
arrangements with police in Germany, France, and the other two Benelux
nations, Belgium now has cooperation agreements with Spain, Italy, and the United
Kingdom. Cooperation with the United States also continued to improve under the efforts
of Belgian Interior Minister Dewael. Belgian authorities stressed the need for more
information sharing in order to move legally against suspected terrorists.
Consequently, the government was active on a number of fronts, including enforcement,
internal coordination, development of legislation, and consequence management. Belgian
authorities responded more aggressively to activities inside the country’s borders with
investigations, raids, arrests, and use of new counterterrorism legislation. Prosecutors
are also seeking lengthier sentences in ongoing trials under the counterterrorism law.
Belgium is an active partner in the Department of Homeland Security’s Container
Security Initiative for the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, and on port security in
general.
Belgian authorities remained concerned about potential terrorist activities by groups from
Algeria and North Africa. The government targeted investigations against the Moroccan
Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front
(DHKP/C), and a nebulous Islamic extremist network operating out of several provinces,
including Charleroi, that is suspected of connections with the November 9 suicide attack
in Iraq by a Belgian woman. Two leading Kongra-Gel (KGK)-affiliated media production
studios, BRD Corporation Media Production Company and Roj-NV, are co-located in
Belgium.
On November 9, Belgium began the trial of 13 defendants linked to the GICM, using for
the first time its 2003 counterterrorism law criminalizing terrorist acts and membership in
terrorist groups. The trial, expected to last several months, is the result of arrests made
in 2004 by Belgian counterterrorism police. This series of raids throughout Belgium
dismantled a network that is believed to have supported the 2004 bombings in
Casablanca and Madrid and that also is suspected of attempting to recruit fighters to
support attacks against American interests in Iraq.
Arno Tausch, Christian Bischof, Tomz Kastrun, Karl Mueller 376