Annan calls for global cooperation against terror

Annan calls for global cooperation against terror

Jeremy Page, Reuters, Beijing

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the bloody weekend bomb attack on the Indonesian island of Bali and called for international cooperation against terrorism as he met Chinese leaders on Monday.

Annan also told Beijing it must step up the fight against AIDS or face an explosive epidemic as he began a 10-day visit to China, Mongolia and Central Asia.

Annan's trip was almost canceled due to deliberations over a UN Security Council resolution on Iraq and the issue was high on the agenda in his meetings in China, one of five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

But the visit was inevitably overshadowed by Saturday's car bomb explosion in Bali which killed almost 200 people.

Annan told President Jiang Zemin the attack highlighted the need to cooperate "to defeat the scourge of terrorism".

"It's tragic. It is a brutal and inhuman act and my condolences and deepest sympathies to the families who lost loved ones and are now grieving for them," he told reporters later as he met Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.

"It underscores the importance the work the Security Council is doing and it is important that all of us, all countries, come together to share information, to decide not to support terrorists, not to give them financial support, not to give them safety, not to give them comfort."

Annan said he discussed Iraq with Jiang, just two days before the Security Council opens debate on a resolution that would threaten Iraq if it failed to give full access to UN weapons inspectors.

"Iraq came up, but we didn't discuss resolutions. I think the council will be discussing it this week and I'm sure there will be a resolution," he said.

A U.S. draft would give inspectors more rights and authorize the use of force if Iraq did not comply.

Analysts say Beijing is likely to abstain on that, but could go along with Russia and back France's proposal for a two-step approach, in which a second resolution would be needed to authorise force.

Annan was also expected to urge Beijing to tackle human rights abuses, including those against ethnic Uighurs in the mainly Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang where China says it faces a terrorist threat from Islamic separatists.

But he kicked off his four-day visit to China with a stern message on AIDS delivered in a speech at Zhejiang University in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

"There is no time to lose if China is to prevent a massive further spread of HIV/AIDS. China is facing a decisive moment," he said after receiving an honorary degree from the university.

"For the truth is today, China stands on the brink of an explosive AIDS epidemic."

According to the latest United Nations estimates, between 800,000 and 1.5 million Chinese were infected with HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- at the end of 2001 and about 30,000 have died from the disease.

But the number could soar to 10 million by the end of the decade if there is no effective action, UN officials say.

"Clearly, China has everything to gain if it can stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic now and everything to lose if it fails to do so," Annan said. "Silence is death."

Human rights groups say Annan should press Beijing to protect AIDS activists' freedoms, as well as those of laid-off workers deprived of the right to organize and Uighur separatist groups.