Posted on 10/09/2004 5:39:36 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -
1008un-terror Facing a surge of attacks around the globe, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to step up its campaign against terrorism but backed away from authorizing a new list of terrorists that could be subject to sanctions and punishment.
The resolution states that hostage-taking and other acts against civilians aimed at provoking "a state of terror" can never be justified on political, philosophical, ideological, racial, religious or ethnic grounds. It calls on all nations to prosecute or extradite anyone supporting, financing or participating in these terrorist acts.
The 15-0 vote ended weeks of negotiations by Russia, which introduced the resolution after militants staged a series of attacks there including the suicide hijacking of two planes and the hostage-taking of a school in Beslan that killed over 330 people. It was adopted a day after a spate of deadly car bombings targeted Israelis in Egyptian resorts in Sinai.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said "the unprecedented escalation of international terrorism" - including recent terrorist attacks in Russia, Egypt, Pakistan and Paris and the beheading of a British hostage in Iraq - prove the need for more decisive Security Council action to develop a global anti-terrorism strategy with "strong practical measures."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the resolution and a separate council statement strongly condemning the latest beheading and attacks in Sinai and Pakistan "sends out a very loud and clear signal to the rest of the world that the United Nations is determined to fight terrorism wherever it comes from and wherever it takes place."
The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism irrespective of their motivation, whenever and by whomsoever committed, as one of the most serious threats to peace and security."
When Russia introduced the draft last month it called for the council to compile a new list of terrorist suspects not linked to Al-Qaida or Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers who would be subject to extradition and possible sanctions.
The council has already imposed stiff sanctions against those groups - requiring all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against a list of those linked to the Taliban or al-Qaida and to freeze their financial assets. But it has not examined what actions to take against other terrorists.
During intense negotiations the resolution was weakened and the only reference to a possible new terrorist list was dropped in order to get Algeria and Pakistan, the only Muslim nations on the council, to support the resolution.
Denisov said repeatedly that to have maximum impact, the resolution needed unanimous support to send a united Security Council message to terrorists - and that was his main aim.
The resolution creates a Security Council group to study measures to be taken against terrorists that are not affiliated with Al-Qaida or the Taliban. It had stated that one of the measures that should be considered is "the possibility of developing an appropriate list," but that was dropped in the final negotiations.
Spain's U.N. Ambassador Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo, the final holdout to keep in the terrorist list, said after the vote he recognized that compiling names "may still involve some difficulties but we are fully confident of the group's ability to take on this task."
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said the resolution "sets in motion a process in which a list is going to be created." Russia's Denisov went further, saying "I am convinced ... that it is (a) list without using word of list."
What is important, said Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, is "that we have agreed in principle to consider measures against terrorists other than those linked to Al-Qaida."
Algeria and Pakistan also opposed language in the resolution which they said would make it a crime to fight in a liberation war. Negotiators settled that issue late Thursday.
In that compromise, the resolution now calls on all countries to prevent or punish specific "criminal acts" against civilians "to provoke a state of terror" which are offenses in international conventions relating to terrorism.
But Danforth insisted that this provision was a crucial statement of policy and principle.
"The statement is that under any and all circumstances the intentional targeting of civilians is wrong - bombing schools, bombing places of worship, car bombs driven into crowds of children, taking hostages, beheading people," he said. "It's criminal ... and it deserves punishment."
The resolution demands broader cooperation among nations to find and bring to justice anyone supporting, participating or financing terrorist acts.
"We cannot allow those who commit, support and finance terrorism to shelter behind a refugee status to which they are not entitled," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president, said. "We should look at ways to ensure the speedier extradition of such individuals."
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Oh yeah!
That'll make 'em quit.
Yessir,
right away.
Sorry governor.
won't happen again...honest.
[Useless stuffed shirt pretenders]
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