International Community Remains United in Fight Against Terrorism
(Security Council reviews year's work to stop terrorists) (680) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- A two-day meeting marking the first anniversary of the Security Council's landmark counterterrorism resolution has shown that the unity of U.N. member states in condemning and fighting terrorism has been fully sustained, the chairman of the council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) said October 8. British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock reported that 174 U.N. member states have submitted reports to the CTC for review during the past year and CTC will now move into a new phase of identifying the gaps in each nation's programs and coordinating assistance where needed. He emphasized that each nation is obligated to take the necessary steps to carry out the requirements of the resolution as well as any of the 12 terrorism conventions it ratifies. Greenstock called the council's discussion useful and encouraging. The broad support shown by the member states is necessary, he said, "because the best way for mandatory obligations to be fulfilled is through active and voluntary cooperation of member states." The Security Council unanimously adopted the counterterrorism resolution -- Resolution 1373 -- September 28, 2001. It established measures to combat terrorism by strengthening national legal institutions and capacities to stop terrorists and focusing on the financial support terrorists need. It requires member states to deny financing, support, and safe harbor for terrorists and expands information sharing among U.N. members. It created the CTC to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the resolution. The resolution requires nations to "freeze without delay funds and other financial assets or economic resources of persons who commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts." Nations are also to "refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists," the resolution says. Nations are also to prohibit their nationals or people in their territories from making funds or services available to those involved in terrorism, and refrain from providing support to people involved in terrorism, take steps to prevent terrorist acts, and deny safe haven to those who commit terrorist acts. Nations should also bring to justice anyone who participated in terrorism and ensure that terrorists acts are serious criminal offenses in domestic laws and punished accordingly. The resolution also says that states should help each other with criminal investigations and criminal proceedings, intensifying and accelerating the exchange of information. They also should prevent the movement of terrorists and terrorist groups by effective border controls as well as through controls on the issuance of identity papers and travel documents and measures for preventing counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents. Nicholas Rostow, general counsel for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., said that resolution 1373 and the CTC "represent a chapter in the history of the Security Council and the United Nations in which we can take pride together while forever recalling the mortal menace and cruelty that has spurred our collective actions." Calling the CTC "an essential front in our common fight," Rostow praised Greenstock; the team from the United Kingdom Mission; the three vice chairmen of the committee -- the ambassadors of Colombia, Mauritius, and Russia; and experts working with the committee for their leadership, efficiency, professionalism, and diligence over the past year. "Effective counter-terrorism requires international cooperation. There simply is no substitute for it, and the CTC has encouraged this cooperation," Rostow said. For the United States, he said, "the one-year anniversary of resolution 1373 is and forever shall be bound to the events of September 11, 2001 when nearly 3,000 persons from over 90 countries lost their lives in the attack we all remember." "It is important that the United Nations has taken key steps in this struggle against terrorism in the future and in the present," he said. "By strengthening international standards and norms through resolution 1373 and the work of the CTC, and by striving to cut off the financial lifeblood of terrorists through resolutions 1267 and 1390, the United Nations and this institution has shown its capacity for important ongoing and indispensable effort on behalf of the international community as a whole." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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