Russia calls for creating int'l legal body to put pirates to trial.

UNITED NATIONS, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Ambassador to the
United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Wednesday that broad international
participation was necessary to find a comprehensive solution to the
problem of impunity of pirates.
"Russia supports ongoing efforts to strengthen the potential of
national law enforcement systems and appreciates the contribution of
states and international organizations that finance this activity,"
Churkin said in his speech at an open session of the United Nations
Security Council on August 25, Wednesday.
At the same time, Churkin suggested that other options such as the
creation of additional mechanisms of pirates' prosecution should remain on
the agenda.
"Possible steps in this sphere should be measured with the current
measures and will depend on how effective they are eventually going to
be," Churkin said.
In this connection, the Russian side believes that the international
community should regularly assess progress made in holding trials over
pirates in the national courts of regional states and beyond their
boundaries.
In a long-term perspective, Churkin went on to say, "an optimal
solution would be to create an international judicial body at a regional
level whose jurisdiction could supplement the national jurisdiction."
According to Churkin, this will not only help achieving uniformity in law
enforcement and observing procedural guarantees with regards to piracy
suspects but will also cover accomplices to pirate activities whom justice
cannot reach today.
Churkin said that the creation of an international legal body might
cost between 50 and 60 million dollars.
"It's many times less than the aggregate losses from pirate actions
estimated at 15 billion dollars a year," Russia's U.N. ambassador
emphasized.

.SCO security chiefs to meet in Saratov as part of anti-terror
exercise.

SARATOV, the Volga region, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - The key personnel
of the state security bodies and secret services of countries-members of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SOC) will gather in Saratov, in
Russia, on Thursday as part of the "Saratov-Anti-Terror-2010" exercise, a
spokesperson for the National Anti-Terror Committee told Itar-Tass.
"The participants in the meeting will discuss how to fight
international terrorism, will share experience in organizing and carrying
out anti-terror activities and work out proposals to improve cooperation
in this sphere," the spokesperson went on to say.
The joint strategic exercise "Saratov-Anti-Terror-2010" kicked off in
the Saratov region on August 16 under a program of cooperation of
countries-members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the
struggle against terrorism, separatism and extremism for 2010-2012. They
will last until August 26.
The aim of the drill is to learn to coordinate actions of anti-terror
centres (headquarters), security services and the law enforcement agencies
of the SCO member-states in implementing comprehensive measures to prevent
and thwart a terrorist act in a place of mass concentration of people.
Taking part in the exercises are the heads of the state security
bodies and secret services from five SCO member-countries (Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Russia), three SCO observers such as
India, Mongolia and Pakistan as well as representatives of the Regional
Anti-Terror Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the CIS Anti-Terror
Centre.
The exercise was held in two stages. During the first stages that
lasted from August 16 to 23 the law enforcers and security services of
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia learnt to search for and thwart the
activities of presumable terrorists who carry out additional
reconnaissance at a place of a future terrorist act and try to plant
simulants of explosive devices in places of mass concentration of people.
During the second stage, held on August 24-25, units of the SCO
security services worked out effective coordination of measures designed
to prevent terrorist acts. A special anti-terror unit learnt to penetrate
secretly into an area of crisis, conducted a hostage release operation at
an ice palace and in an area built with separate houses in the bottomland
of the Volga River near Saratov.
"The heads of security bodies and secret services of the SCO
member-countries and the observers assessed positively the actions of all
forces, vehicles and equipment. The exercise has reached its purpose.
This format of training exercise helps improving the interaction of all
participants in anti-terror activities of the SCO member states," the
spokesperson of the National Anti-Terror Committee said.

-0-fil/