Force Homeland Defense All Hazards and Terrorism conference at the Ngarachamayong Cultural Center.The terrorism conference and training opened on Tuesday and ended yesterday.Vice President Elias Camsek Chin welcomed the participants and the instructors on Tuesday.The training focus on enhancing the ability of the participants to work cooperatively in mitigating the effects of several scenarios based upon an All Hazard approach that can be applied to other scenarios such as terrorism.The participants engaged in series of discussions based on natural and terrorist threats that requires a multi-agency response.Chin in his speech on Tuesday said that the Joint Task Force is the answer to Palau’s need for preparations in combating terrorism.Chin said the experience of developing an emergency preparedness plan and participating in training scenarios has given him a newfound respect for the difficulty and challenges that Palau will face.“New and emerging threats to the Republic and all democracies require that we continually train and learn how we can combat terrorism. We must know about and use new techniques aimed at not only decreasing the risk of terrorism, but also increasing the effectiveness of our response. Preparedness, however, can only go so far. The resources necessary to handle any sort of a crisis must be given to the brave men and women that are called upon to respond. Those men and women are you.Many serve aboard ships, on land and in the air around the world and many are Palauan. I know that if we had any sort of terrorism problem here in Palau, these brave men and women would be there for us,” Chin told the participants at the opening of the training on Tuesday.The instructors came from Hawaii and discussed policies, plans and procedures with the participants.Participants from Ministry of Justice, Environmental Quality Protection Board, Palau Public Utilities Corp. and various State governments were taught about strategic approach to the management of hazard and terrorism; command and control; key roles of the disaster or emergency response forces and the mission of defeating terrorism.
