Heat to be turned up on rising terrorism

Heat to be turned up on rising terrorism

UNITED NATIONS (AP): The UN Security Council is focusing the spotlight on the increase in global terrorism, with a fresh call for international cooperation to prevent terrorist acts and to bring perpetrators to justice.

Against a backdrop of recent bombings and killings from Russia and Kosovo to East Timor and Burundi, the council is holding an open meeting on Tuesday to adopt a resolution renewing the UN commitment to combat terrorism.

"We thought that the recent upsurge in terrorist actions, including against United Nations personnel, would warrant a reiteration of the Security Council readiness to contribute to the fighting of international terrorism," Russia's UN Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, the current council president, said Monday.

In recent months, the council has been trying to bring international attention to critical issues as well as countries in crisis. It has held open meetings on children in armed conflict, civilians caught in fighting, and the proliferation of small arms - a problem which Lavrov said also feeds terrorist actions.

The Security Council's meeting on terrorism follows its demand last Friday that Afghanistan's Taleban Islamic movement deliver Saudi exile Osama bin Laden to stand trial in last year's twin U.S. embassy bombings in Africa or face limited sanctions.

The draft resolution which the 15-member council is expected to adopt Tuesday doesn't call for sanctions, but instead focuses on the need for global cooperation to fight terrorism.

It unequivocally condemns all terrorist acts as "criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivation" and calls on all countries to adopt and implement all international treaties against terrorism.

It urges all nations to cooperate in combating terrorism, to prevent the financing of terrorist activities, and to "deny those who plan, finance or commit terrorist acts safe havens by ensuring their apprehension and prosecution or extradition."

The open Security Council meeting is the latest in a series of UN actions on terrorism.

The General Assembly established a committee in December 1996 to consider international agreements aimed at combating terrorist bombings and preventing nuclear materials from falling into terrorist hands.

In 1997, the General Assembly approved an international convention which obligates countries to extradite or prosecute terrorist bombers. The committee is currently working on a treaty against nuclear terrorism and a treaty that would make the financing of terrorist activities a crime.

Russia has called for a UN conference or a special session of the UN General Assembly in 2000 on combating terrorism.

Moscow has become an especially vocal campaigner against terrorism following four recent bombings in Russia, which killed some 300 people, and an escalation of the conflicts in Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan. Russia blames the violence on Chechens and other secessionist-minded Islamic militants.

Terrorists have been making headlines elsewhere as well. Last week, two UN aid workers were executed by Hutu rebels in Burundi, a UN civilian official was beaten and shot to death in Kosovo, and seven UN workers were taken hostage in Georgia.

Last month, Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka massacred about 50 villagers, and pro-Indonesian militias went on a killing, looting and burning rampage in East Timor after its people voted for independence. And leftist rebels in Colombia have stepped up a wave of kidnappings.

The draft council resolution expresses deep concern at "the increase in acts of international terrorism which endangers the lives and well-being of individuals worldwide as well as the peace and security of all states."