Terrorism can have an undue impact on corporate decision-making. An examination of twelve of the world's most high-profile terrorist locations.
ALGERIA
The massive Islamic extremist insurgency has claimed up to 80,000 lives since early 1992. Victims come from all walks of life: members of the security forces and government officials, secular politicians, intellectuals, civil servants, journalists, Berbers and unveiled women (even schoolgirls). More than 115 foreigners have been killed since September 1993, including business expatriates, journalists, diplomats, sailors and religious workers. Attacks have occurred most frequently in Greater Algiers and in the Blida Atlas regions.
COLOMBIA
The ultra-leftist Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Co-ordination (CGSB) attacks the security forces and economic targets nationwide. CGSB believes that foreign involvement in the extractive sectors is tantamount to theft of Colombia's natural resources. It consequently sabotages the industries' infrastructure, extorts money from extractive sector companies and kidnaps their employees. Despite these problems, Colombia remains a favoured destination for Western investment.
FRANCE
Algerian Islamic extremists opposed to France's backing for the Algerian regime stage bombings in public places. Extremists carried out high-profile attacks in the Paris and Lyons areas in July-October 1995, including a bomb attack at Paris' Port Royal station in December 1996 and a bomb explosion at the Cit' Universitaire in southern Paris in February 1997. The attacks, in which 12 people were killed and more than 200 were injured, included bombs against the rail network and crowded marketplaces. A network of Algerian-linked Islamic extremists and arms caches is believed to exist in France.
ISRAEL
The Palestinian extremist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad carry out suicide bomb attacks, mainly on buses or bus stops: ten such attacks have taken place in the past three years, with the most serious, in central Tel Aviv in October 1994, killing 22 people. Violence from Jewish extremists (one of whom, Yigal Amir, assassinated President Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995) is also a problem. Jewish extremists believe that the US supports the Palestinian cause, and have occasionally mounted attacks against US diplomatic premises.
PERU
The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) is probably a spent force after the decisive end to the Lima hostage crisis in April. The MRTA has no more than 200 remaining armed members: the group's key members were either killed in the hostage rescue or are in jail. Any retaliatory attacks are therefore likely to be small-scale. The capacity of the extreme leftist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) to wage guerrilla war and intimidate the population has also declined significantly since the arrest of leader Abimael Guzman Reynoso in 1992. SL attacks in Lima are rare and confined to small bombings and shootings in low-income districts.
RUSSIA
Chechen militants stage hijacks and bomb attacks against transport targets nationwide. Since mid-1996, some 60 people have been killed in attacks in Astrakhan, Dagestan, Moscow, Nalchik, Pyatigorsk, Smolensk, Volgograd and Voronezh. Further attacks on transport targets are likely. There could also be a recurrence of large-scale hostage seizures of the kind that happened in Kizlyar in January 1996 and in Budennovsk in June 1995. As Chechen terrorist groups become more experienced, terrorism threatens to be a major security risk in Russia.
SAUDI ARABIA
US military facilities and personnel remain the preferred targets for Islamic extremist attacks. Extremists have staged attacks in Riyadh and Dhahran in the past 18 months, killing 26 people (mainly US soldiers) and injuring hundreds more. However, heightened security around military installations may force the extremists to select 'softer' targets, such as US companies. All US interests should ensure adequate levels of security.
SPAIN
The Basque separatist group ETA stages sporadic gun and bomb attacks. ETA tends to concentrate attacks in Madrid and in northern Spain (including Barcelona), though it may decide to stage bigger, more indiscriminate attacks in a bid to put pressure on the government. Possible targets include transport hubs, commercial areas of cities and infrastructural targets.
SRI LANKA
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) uses terrorist attacks in Colombo and the south as a diversionary tactic to supplement its armed struggle in the north. Large and indiscriminate bomb attacks in central Colombo will remain a key part of the group's strategy. The LTTE generally attacks military and political targets rather than foreign business. With the country facing a long-term power shortage, power stations or power-related installations remain the most likely infrastructure targets for the LTTE.
TURKEY
Turkey suffers from Kurdish separatist and Islamic extremist terrorism. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the 16-year insurgency waged by the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Istanbul is particularly affected: the PKK has staged bomb attacks at popular tourist sites, in upmarket shopping centres and bus stations, outside Turkish businesses, on cross-Bosphorus ferries and at railway stations. Mediterranean tourist resorts such as Fethiye and Marmaris have also been targeted. Most Western embassies have warned their nationals not to visit east and south-east Turkey - the PKK's heartland - unless essential. Meanwhile, the Great Islamic Eastern Raiders-Front (IBDA-C) mounts occasional waves of bombings of secularist and state targets in Istanbul and Ankara and, less often, of historic mosques.
UK
IRA attacks on civilian targets - particularly commercial premises - are designed to cause economic damage and widescale disruption and prompt extensive media coverage. The largest bomb blasts have occurred in city centres and business districts: such attacks include the blast in London's Docklands which marked the end of the IRA ceasefire in February 1996, and the explosion at Manchester's Arndale Centre in June 1996. Other potential targets include shopping and entertainment districts, government-linked premises and personnel, transport facilities, hotels and lightly-protected industrial installations. Iranian-linked Shia Muslim radicals such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad also stage isolated attacks.
US
Actual levels of terrorism remain low, despite several high-profile attacks - most recently at the Atlanta Olympics, when a bomb killed two people and injured 111. The Oklahoma bombing in April 1995, which killed 168 people, focused attention on a burgeoning movement of extreme right-wing, anti-government militia groups concentrated in the Midwest. It has also instilled a greater security awareness. Security at airports, federal buildings and other high-profile locations was heightened after the bombing and will probably not return to the lower levels in place before the attack. Middle East-linked terrorists are also capable of large-scale attacks against high-profile targets in main cities.
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