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It is time to continue the Tampere Convention
process!
As Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the
International Conference on Emergency Communications 2006 (ICEC-2006) it is
my pleasure to welcome you to Tampere in June 2006.
Three natural disasters - a tsunami in South-East Asia,
an earthquake in Pakistan and a hurricane in the USA - touched the human
race in 2005 in a way we cannot forget. Unexpectedly they killed hundreds
of thousands of people, destroyed houses, property, sources of income and
created uncertainty among nations. We cannot any longer think: It happened
somewhere - far enough. In the global environment the concept of
geographical distance is different.We all are in one way or another touched
by these disasters.
The organizing of effective rescue and relief
operations is impossible without knowing exactly what has happened. That is
why communication is an essential tool in these operations. This all sounds
very simple but the truth is different. E.g. the transportation of
communications equipments from one country to another can still be an
awkward and difficult issue.
The Tampere Convention, solving these problems, was
born in 1998. It is an international tool for ensuring fast communication
in the cases of disasters. The convention came into force just two weeks
after the tsunami when the 30th country ratified it - but the process is
still in the beginning. We need more understanding and cooperation between
governments for starting the implementation of this convention. In
addition, we also need more countries to ratify it.
In June, the ICEC-2006 is going to concentrate on the
implementation of the convention, how to get more countries to ratify it
and how to create a continuing process to support the convention.
I am looking forward to seeing you in Tampere at the
International Conference on Emergency Communications.
Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
Former Secretary General of the ITU.
www.icec2006.com
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