25 September 1998
(International cooperation needed to combat threat) (1360) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- A majority of heads of state and foreign ministers joined with President Clinton at the 53rd General Assembly to highlight the new national security threat of terrorism. On September 21 Clinton urged the international community to put the fight against terrorism at the top of the world's agenda. Stressing that terrorism is not just an American problem, but an international one affecting governments and peoples around the world, Clinton said that terrorism is a new transnational threat and one of the great security challenges of the next 20 years. Clinton pressed the point that terrorism is not a form of legitimate political expression nor an acceptable means to redress grievances. Terrorism is "murder, pure and simple," he said. As more than 100 heads of state and foreign ministers took the General Assembly podium or addressed a ministerial level meeting of the Security Council after Clinton's speech, terrorism remained in the forefront. The overwhelming majority of officials from Suriname and Chile to Mauritius, from Egypt to India highlighted terrorism's threat. They talked of the need for the international community to band together to fight the barbaric crime and supported the call of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Non-aligned Summit in Durban for an international conference in 1999 to develop a collective response to terrorism. France proposed negotiations on a universal convention against the financing of terrorism. Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore suggested a high-level conference on terrorism in the year 2000 with regional preparations beginning next year. French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said that the recently-adopted convention on terrorist bombings is not enough. "We must give ourselves the means of hunting down those who finance and commission terrorist attacks," he said. A financing treaty, Vedrine said, would "define concrete mechanisms for penalties and mutual judicial assistance against those who finance terrorism" such as the seizure or freezing of assets belonging to organizations or individuals that have taken part in acts of terrorism and eliminating bank secrecy in terrorist investigations. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that terrorism is "one threat that affects us all...It is the most vicious among international crimes, the most pervasive, pernicious and ruthless threat to the lives of men and women in open societies, and to international peace and security." Vajpayee urged that negotiations begin on an international convention to provide for collective action against states and organizations which "initiate or aid and abet terrorism." British Prime Minister Tony Blair also told the assembly that the fight against terrorism has "taken on a new urgency" and offered, as chairman of the G-8, to host a high-level conference in London later this year to discuss ways to deny terrorists their funds. "The past year's global roll call of terror includes Luxor, Dar-es-Salaam, Nairobi, Omagh and many others," the prime minister said. "Each one is a reminder that terrorism is a uniquely barbaric and cowardly crime. "Each one is a reminder that terrorists are no respecters of borders. Each one is a reminder that terrorism must have no hiding place, no opportunity to raise funds, and no let-up in our determination to bring its perpetrators to justice," he said. Blair said it is vital that all countries sign the several international conventions that will ensure that terrorists have no safe havens. Argentine Foreign Minister Guido di Tella said that the "resurgence of terrorist attacks comes as a harsh reminder that no state is immune to terrorism." He said his country "firmly supports the initiatives under way to supplement, with new conventions, the network of anti-terrorism rules now in force, leading to enhanced international cooperation and in establishing the obligation of all states to bring justice and punish those responsible for these acts." Argentina is slated to host an inter-American conference on terrorism in November. Declaring that "Terrorism is surely one of the greatest challenges that we face," Colombia's President Andres Pastrana Arango added, "There can be no truce with terrorism. All states must stand shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat it." Saying that his country "absolutely rejects all forms of terrorism," Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister Abdulkader Abdulrahman Bajammal called for "genuine cooperation to combat this phenomenon responsibly." He said terrorism has become "an international phenomenon, and its effects and repercussions are not confined to any one country, people or ideology. There is a pressing need for the international community to respond immediately to the demand to establish a political, intellectual and institutional structure at international and regional levels in order to combat and eradicate this phenomenon and to deal with its negative consequences." Bajammal added that his country "shares the feelings of every member of the international community: fear and concern at the continuation and increase of this inhuman phenomenon." United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Rashid Abdullah al-Noaimi said that "from a standpoint of moral and humanitarian responsibility the international community should intensify its efforts to protect civilians and their rights and to confront the phenomenon of terrorism, whatever its source or form may be." Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas reiterated his government's "condemnation of all acts and forms of terrorism wherever they may occur and whoever perpetrates them" and urged all states "to enhance international cooperation in the fight against terrorism." Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Rojas said that the international community "must make special efforts to prevent and to eliminate international terrorism." He, too, urged nations to sign the convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings. Sri Lanka President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said that the adoption of the UN Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings is "a considerable moral victory for the international community in its fight against terrorism." Kumaratunga, who has long been an advocate for concerted international action to combat terrorism, warned that while legislation is being enacted "we must be eternally vigilant to ensure that terrorists do not find loopholes in our laws or use procedural delays to circumvent the emerging international consensus against terrorism." Describing the activities of the Tamil separatists (LTTE), Kumaratunga said that the group "recruits children as young as 10 years and indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, assassinates the elected representatives of the people, including Tamil political and human rights leaders, and destroys places of religious worship" yet is permitted to operate freely in many countries. The Sri Lankan president, who is also chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), said that "moral and legal sanctions against terrorists are not enough. Laws must be effectively implemented." She added only through "such concerted action would we be able to ensure that terrorists are compelled to renounce violence and enter the democratic process." Condemning the Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam bombings, Ghana's President Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings noted that terrorism has "tragic consequences on the political stability as well as the economic and social development of states." Acts of terrorism, he said, "are totally unacceptable as a means of seeking redress for any grievances, achieving political ends or supporting a cause." Welcoming the treaty on suppression of terrorist bombings, Zimbabwe Foreign Minister I.S.G. Mudenge said that "the international community had long witnessed how ill-equipped member states of the United Nations have been in dealing with international terrorism." In Africa, he noted, "the recent terrorist bombings of the United States embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, which together claimed about 260 lives, brought home to us the vulnerability of developing countries to the sophistication of modern terrorism." Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said that his government "unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism as acts that have no justification on political, ideological, ethnic, religious or any other grounds." Kocharyan called for the accession of all countries to universal conventions against terrorism and supported Russia's proposal for a UN convention for combating acts of nuclear terrorism. "The recent terrorist attacks in Kenya and Tanzania once again show us the necessity of cooperation among all countries to combat that evil," he said.