Posted on 03/11/2005 12:19:45 PM PST by Mensch
US and Britain in UN secretary general's sights
Jonathan Steele Friday March 11, 2005 The Guardian
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the US yesterday for weakening human rights in the name of the war on terror.
"We cannot compromise on core values," he said in Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital. "Human rights and the rule of law must always be respected."
Addressing a three-day conference which included about 20 heads of state and government as well as terrorism experts, lawyers and journalists, Mr Annan laid out five elements in what he called a "principled, comprehensive strategy" to fight terrorism.
He proposed a UN special envoy to monitor whether governments' counter-terrorism measures conformed to international human rights law.
"Compromising human rights cannot serve the struggle against terrorism," he said. "On the contrary, it facilitates the achievement of the terrorists' objectives by provoking tension, hatred, and mistrust of governments among precisely those parts of the population where he is most likely to find recruits."
Although he did not mention Britain's detention of suspects without trial, the use of torture, or the practices of sexual humiliation and other abuses uncovered at US-run prisons for foreigners, western governments' treatment of terrorist suspects was unmistakably one of Mr Annan's targets.
Human rights law already made ample provision for strong counter-terrorist action, "even in the most exceptional circumstances", he said.
Mr Annan appealed to the world's political, religious, and civic leaders to state unequivocally that "terrorism is unacceptable under any circumstances and in any culture".
Rounding on the argument that oppressed people had a right to resist occupation, he said this could not include the right to deliberately kill or maim civilians.
He said the root cause of terrorism was the belief by certain groups that such tactics were effective and had the support of people in whose name they were used. "Our job is to show they are wrong," he said.
Spain's Socialist party prime minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking at the closing session, called for an international fund to give poorer countries financial help to fight terrorism. He also recommended that a second international fund be set up to compensate victims of attacks.
Since 2001 the UN has been under pressure to do a better job of coordinating and leading the fight against terrorism.
Instead of the 12 treaties that now cover the issue, the secretary general called for a single convention to outlaw terrorism in all its forms. Victims of terrorism should be compensated using the assets seized from terrorists, he said.
The secretary general set out what he called the five Ds: dissuading disaffected groups from terrorism; denying terrorists the means to carry out their attacks; deterring states from supporting terrorists; developing states' capacity to prevent terrorism; and defending human rights.
Calling for a universally accepted definition of terrorism, he endorsed the wording contained in the recent report from the UN High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which he asked to develop broader thinking on the threats to security other than war. The panel defined terrorism as any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organisation to do, or abstain from, any act.
Mr Annan drew an alarming picture of potential catastrophe in the fields of nuclear and biological terrorism. There would soon be "tens of thousands of laboratories around the world capable of producing designer bugs with awesome, lethal potential", he said. Health systems in poor countries equipped to deal with infectious disease barely existed.
Governments must do more to secure and eliminate hazardous material and set up effective export controls, Mr Annan said. Stronger measures were also needed to uncover and stop money laundering by terrorists. Travel and financial sanctions against groups such as al-Qaida were vital.
Nuclear terrorism was still often treated as science fiction, he said. "I wish it were. But unfortunately we live in a world of excess hazardous materials and abundant technological knowhow, in which some terrorists clearly state their intention to inflict catastrophic casualties."
"We cannot compromise on core values," he said in Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital. "Human rights and the rule of law must always be respected."
Oh, this is rich. Maybe he meant: "Human rights and the rule of law must always be respected. . .by everyone but me, the entire bureaucracy of the UN, UN peacekeepers, my son Kojo, dictators and thugs who sit on the Security Council, etc., etc."
Right Kofi, the right of terrorist to kill, behead and maim with international immunity must be maintained. The very thought of the United States and England retaliating for such things as an attack on the WTC is repugnant to the UN.
kofi and UN lost NOTHING on 9/11. their opinions do not matter.
Kofi has taken up the anti-terror banner just so he can slam the U.S. and a back-door fashion, not to actually accomplish anyhting.
Wow sounds allmost as bad as cutting off heads.
Who would listen to the mastermind of the biggest heist in history. OKs abuse of women right under his nose, and avoids taking action on resolutions of his own organization.
Human rights must be respected.
Especially if you are the leader of N. Korea
Especially if you are the leader of Cuba
Especially if you are the leader of Sudan
Especially if you are the leader of Saudi Arabia
Especially if you are the leader of Syria
Especially if you are the leader of Red China
Not so much if you are one of the repressed people in any of those countries.
Human rights must ALWAYS be respected. Unless you are one of the 191 people that died last year in Madrid. Those people's rights don't mean a damned thing.
As always, he and the other UN Leftists are much more concerned with protecting the terrorists, dictators and torturers than the victims, dictated to and tortured.
Funny, Annan didn't complain about Saddam's and Castro's human rights abuses, nor does he mentioned this latest one by China:
China arrests more than 800,000 people for endangering state security (Tibetan monks, etc.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1360363/posts
Tibetan monks, Xinjiang Muslims, but also non violent dissidents, farmers and members of underground religious communities are among those arrested.
Endangering state security is a term China’s communist leaders use to detain people who oppose their rule and ideological control, including peaceful dissidents.
Thousands of dissidents are jailed every year for allegedly endangering state security by engaging in pro-democracy activities or publishing essays on the internet that are seen as subversive.
Tibetan monks and Xinjiang Muslims in northwest China who advocate independence are often targeted by Chinese authorities as terrorists, separatists or religious extremists.
Clergymen and laity from underground Christian communities are also arrested for “endangering public order”.
"The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the US yesterday for weakening human rights"
He's kidding, right?
Looks like we are getting to Coffee. He is bitting back, but has no teeth. I say keep the investigations coming and keep the foot on the gas pedal that is the Oil for Food investigation.
Of course, he cares not much for the rights of Rwandans or Congolese.
Hmmm - I thought this was covered under the usual "Thou shalt not kill" prohibition, or simple laws against murder. Terrorism is different from murder...how ?
Isn't "Famous Anus" from Ghana, where rights are few and far between? Does he chide his paymasters in the jihadist swtates? The UN? FM!
"Annan attacks erosion of rights in war on terror..."
Kofi Annan is an impotent bag of hypocritical wind! Kofi the Effete should shut-up and shop for another silk suit.
Kofi Annan: Please forward your message to the following countries before referring this matter to us.
Syria
Iran
China
North Korea
Burma
Indonesia
Zimbabwe
Sudan
Egypt
Chile
Venezuela
Do I really need to continue here ?
Take the following for example: Mr Annan appealed to the world's political, religious, and civic leaders to state unequivocally that "terrorism is unacceptable under any circumstances and in any culture". Rounding on the argument that oppressed people had a right to resist occupation, he said this could not include the right to deliberately kill or maim civilians.
If I am not mistaken, this is a better, harder line for UN rhetoric and potentially policy.
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