Date:24/09/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/09/24/stories/2003092403501400.htm

International

Annan calls for rational response to terrorism

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS SEPT. 23. The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has stressed that the war on terrorism demands a rational response and not an emotional one and hence the imperative to use "our heads, not our hearts."

"While terrorism is an evil with which there can be no compromise, we must use our heads and not our hearts, in deciding our response," Mr. Annan said at a seminar on terrorism organised by the International Peace Academy.

"The fact that a few wicked men or women commit murder in its name does not make a cause any less just. Nor does it relieve us of the obligation to deal with legitimate grievance," he said. Mr. Annan said that terrorism would be defeated if only political disputes and long-standing conflicts that generate support for it were solved. "If we do not, we shall find ourselves acting as a recruiting sergeant for the very terrorists we seek to suppress," he said.

Mr. Annan also maintained that there could be no trade-off between human rights and terrorism. "Upholding human rights is not at odds with battling terrorism: on the contrary, the moral vision of human rights — the deep respect for the dignity of each person — is among our most powerful weapons against it," he remarked.

The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who participated in the seminar, argued that terrorism was not a new phenomenon; rather that it predated its modern description by centuries but that what was new in the 1990s was the sudden upsurge in militancy and violence. Gen. Musharraf said that after 9/11, terrorism became equated with the Al-Qaeda and its affiliates and by extension, with Islam. "This is an artificial and perilous linkage," he argued.

"Assertions in the Western and Indian media that all terrorism in Afghanistan emanates from Pakistan, or that Pakistan is not doing enough, are baseless and thankless... No nation has done more in the war against terrorism than Pakistan," Gen. Musharraf said.

He argued that there could be no "selective application" of international norms and standards against terrorism and that "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations — including state terrorism — has to be opposed without discrimination." In his description of the "reality of state terrorism" he referred to Palestine and Kashmir.

Gen. Musharraf called for bridging the gulf in perceptions in the West and elsewhere that Islam inspires or endorses terrorism. "There is no such thing as militant Islam; there are only some militant Muslims — as there are militant Hindus, Christians and Jews". The strategy against terrorism, in the view of Gen. Musharraf, must be two-pronged: for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism in favour of "enlightened moderation"; and for the West to join the Muslim nations to help and resolve all political disputes involving Muslims.