The Hindu : Call for stringent laws to combat terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 23, 2003

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Call for stringent laws to combat terrorism

By Our Special Correspondent

The Leader of the Opposition and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, senior party leader, Manmohan Singh, the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, P.M. Syeed, and the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, at the inaugural session of the "International Parliamentary Conference'' to mark the Golden Jubilee of Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI JAN. 22. Parliamentarians from various parts of the world today expressed concern over terrorism, terming it "a crime against humanity" and suggested enactment of stringent laws to deal with it.

Participating in the international conference to mark the golden jubilee of Parliament here, delegates advocated a greater role for the United Nations in tackling the problem.

The President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker made elaborate reference to the theme of the first day's session, `Combating terrorism'. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, called on Parliamentarians to consider strengthening mutual cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The thrust of the Indian presentation was on the active role played by Pakistan in promoting cross-border terrorism, but some of the 24 delegates raised the current stand-off over Iraq. The Samajwadi Party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, said it was time to "expose the double standards of the United States" in dealing with the problem.

The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, K.C. Pant, said developments over the past years had vindicated the Indian position that global terrorism was radiating outwards from the Afghan-Pak. region and that Pakistan played a major role in providing support and sustenance to terrorist groups, both in India and the world-over. While one could not deny that the U.S. had achieved limited success in operations against the Al-Qaeda and that there was some success in dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, India had information that Pak. intelligence agencies were relocating terrorists to Pak.-occupied Kashmir.

"Just as Japan was demilitarised and Germany was de-Nazified so also Pakistan would have to be de-radicalised," Mr. Pant said. He advocated a series of measures to combat terrorism that included tracking down sources of finance and squeezing them out.

Mr. Yadav criticised the U.S. policy on Iraq. Referring to the post-September 11 scenario, he said, the U.S. had promised "the whole world that it would wipe out terrorism totally" but "is now trying to terrorise West Asia in the name of the Iraq crisis... This is the worst example of a powerful nation imposing its will and terrorising the weaker countries of the world." the world community should raise its voice against the increasing interference of the U.S. in the region.

The Speaker of Iraq National Assembly, Sadoon Hammadi, criticised the U.S. policy and said his country had a "bitter experience with American terrorism".

In spite of all the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council affirming Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence, the U.S. and the United Kingdom were attacking Iraq almost daily, he said.

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