U.N. Chief: World Must Fight Terror
EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the world Wednesday to defeat terrorism by ``acting as one,'' calling for a renewal of the surge of global unity in the days after the Sept. 11 horrors one year ago.
``More than 90 nations lost sons and daughters of their own - murdered that day, for no other reason than they had chosen to live in this country,'' he told a commemoration gathering at U.N. headquarters. ``Today, we come together as a world community because we were attacked as a world community.''
With security exceedingly tight and U.N. headquarters under the highest threat level, Annan and representatives from many of the 190 U.N. member states mourned the more than 3,000 victims - and U.N. staff members from many nations added their eloquent tributes.
One of them, Karen Sholto, urged world citizens to live every day fully, and thus honor those who ``have no more tomorrows to finalize, no more dreams to realize.''
Thanking the nations of the world for their support, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the United Nations rightly recognized that ``the attacks were attacks on civilization everywhere.''
``Great challenges still loom ahead but only a united world can defeat terror, and in solidarity with victims of Sept. 11, 2001, whatever their nationality, we renew our commitment to prevail,'' he said.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council was scheduled to meet later Wednesday to reaffirm its commitment to fighting terrorism. The meeting will have only two speakers - Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
A draft council statement, expected to be read at the end of the session, calls on all countries to fulfill their mandatory obligation to stop supporting, financing and providing sanctuary for terrorists.
``The council affirms that these attacks were an assault on global civilization and our common efforts to make the world a better and safer place,'' the draft said.
``The attacks challenged each member to rise to the task of defeating terrorism, which has claimed victims in all corners of the world,'' it said. ``The threat is real, the challenge is enormous and the fight against terrorism will be long.''
Annan said the terrorist attacks on New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania damaged everything the United Nations stands for - peace, development, health, freedom.
``Everything that we believe in _ respect for human life, justice, tolerance, pluralism and democracy - is threatened by it,'' he said. ``It must be defeated and it must be defeated by a world acting as one.''
More governments are ratifying the 12 terrorism treaties already on the books and a Security Council committee is assessing reports from member states on what they are doing to combat terrorism.
But the drive to adopt a comprehensive treaty against terrorism and a law against nuclear terrorism have been bogged down, primarily over finding acceptable definitions of ``terrorism'' and ``nuclear terrorism.''
Negotiators say they will likely miss the 2002 target for adoption of the new, stronger treaties.
Supporters of a single omnibus terrorism treaty say it would simplify the ratification process for governments, and close gaps among the narrowly focused treaties. Annan had called for completion of work this year, but talks stalled over the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Islamic group in the United Nations wants any definition to exclude actions on Palestinian soil.
The Russian proposal for an international convention defining acts of nuclear terrorism and requiring states to act against them has a similar problem. Some countries want the treaty to describe the use of nuclear weapons by governments as a form of terrorism.
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