Western Aid Vital to Anti-Terror Drive, OSCE Hears

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The West should do more to tackle the root causes of terrorism in impoverished states, European foreign ministers told an OSCE summit on Monday.

Global efforts to contain terrorist threats had to address the poverty and corruption exploited by extremists, European Union External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said.

"Today's weak states can easily turn into tomorrow's failed states," he told foreign ministers of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, meeting in Romania.

"They impoverish their people but they nourish and enrich terrorists and organized crime. No wonder they attract them like flies around a carcass."

He did not specify the states he had in mind, but said the EU would pay more attention to the states of central Asia, bordering Afghanistan, and planned to double aid to the region.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the West had been wrong to expect peace after the end of the Cold War without constant engagement to secure it, a fact highlighted by the September 11 suicide airliner attacks on America.

"Investments in peace are now more essential than ever in light of the threat from a murderous international terrorist network," he said. "That has to mean greater commitment to human rights and the construction of civil societies."

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the new strategic alliance between Washington and Moscow in combating terrorism had strengthened the OSCE, whose summit last year was derailed by disputes over references to Russia's war in Chechnya.

"The unprecedented challenge from international terrorism has demanded equally unprecedented efforts from all of us in strengthening solidarity and mutual support in the fight against this evil," Ivanov said.

CONSENSUS

A strong consensus is expected from the two-day summit, which opened under the shadow of weekend Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel that killed 25 people and retaliatory strikes on Gaza city on Monday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is due to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell in Bucharest on Tuesday.

Although not an OSCE member, Israel has formal ties to the organization through its Mediterranean cooperation program.

Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, the OSCE's chairman-in-office, said the focus on anti-terrorist measures due to be adopted in a summit action plan on Tuesday would help the organization develop a wider role in the future.

"We can address root causes, namely the political, social and economic inequalities that provide a fertile breeding ground for exploitation by extremist ideologies," Geoana said.

Ivanov stressed that a body grouping Canada, the United States, all of Europe and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia needed to broaden its focus beyond the Balkans and Russia's backyard, where it has been most active in the past.

"We need to make joint efforts to abolish functional and geographic imbalances in the activity of the OSCE," he said.

Ismail Cem, foreign minister of Muslim Turkey, said it was also important to avoid classifying terrorist acts on the basis of the causes they purport to promote, especially religion.

"We must refrain from double standards, which unfortunately continues to be the main obstacle to the fight against terrorism," he said in the text of a speech read by a Turkish diplomat.

Call me a commie, but I think there's a point here. Why not spend a few bucks and buy their votes before they get a job with the OBLs..

You're a commie. The US has sent out billions to countries all over the globe for over a hundred years and the countries that hate us the most seem to get the most.

I think even in the spring of 2001 we sent some 75 million to the Taliban in Afcrapistan for emergency aid.

I know you didn't ask but here's my opinion: Send each country a note: Are you with us in favor of democracy, freedom of speech, religion etc. or not?

Those answering "Yes" would be encouraged to institute reforms including freedom of speech, religion and press and why not ... let's throw in the 'ol 14th Amendment - no discrimination on the basis of race, sex, creed or religion.

Those answering with a "no" by word or deed are off the aid list. Period. Oh and harbor terrorists? I think President Bush has made the consequences of that choice clear.

Giving money to genuine needy people is one thing. Pouring government funds into cesspit nations oppressed by their own governments is another. There's no way that would do a bit of good. The U.S. has been giving away billions for years, and about all it has accomplished is to get the recipients mad at us because it makes them feel patronized.

Genuine missionary aid is another matter, but first of all, it's voluntary. It isn't a bunch of socialists sitting around planning ways of forcing other people to pay for their schemes.

I know what you mean.

We're sort of helpless in that we have to play the wait and see game. Suppose we'll wait till another wave of terror hits us, and then go and fight another war on terror. Maybe we'll get lucky and have to bomb some place where a hundred million people live. That does not sound too appealing either.

I wonder what some other options would be.

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