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."