U.N. clamps down on terrorist outfits

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 29. The U.N. Security Council acted with unprecedented speed on Friday when it approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution that mandates the 189 member nations to deny support and sanctuary to terrorists and their networks. The legally binding Resolution was adopted unanimously on Friday night.

The resolution forces member states to make ``wilful'' financing of terrorism a criminal offence. It calls for the immediate freezing of terrorists' funds and preventing movement of individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections.

For now the focus of the resolution is on actions by member states to come to terms with terrorism. The Council has not threatened violators of sanctions, but the expectation is that the Resolution will be fully implemented. The U.S. has said that it will work hard to ensure that.

What must be especially gratifying to the Bush administration is that the resolution was drafted, debated and passed unanimously in just a day, a rare feature in the Council's workings. The Republican Administration and other Western members were looking for quick action before the General Assembly started a debate on terrorism on Monday.

The new American Ambassador to the world body, Mr. John Negroponte, called it an ``unprecedented resolution against terrorism in the work of the United Nations''. The consensus among the Western members is that aside from the resolution being historic, there was this urgency by way of an increased danger to international security.

It is significant that for the first time the world body has not named any country or even a group of people. Rather the focus was on an issue that has now come to challenge the international community. The world body, through the resolution, is putting the onus on nations to deny safe havens to terrorists.

Further, the Council has not got itself involved in the process of defining who a ``terrorist'' is. The British Ambassador, Mr. Jeremy Greenstock, while acknowledging that there may be differences as to who is and who is not a terrorist remarked, ``... for most of the time, if something looks like a terrorist and makes noise like a terrorist, it's a terrorist.''

Though there has been some apprehension over the fashion and speed with which some in the Permanent Five sought to work on the resolution, there is also the realisation that if nations were looking for a ``comprehensive'' document, that would literally take months. The accent was on the kind of international action that was needed immediately.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : No foreign troops: Taliban
Next     : Crackdown on SIMI continues