U.N. and the anti-terror focus

THE UNITED NATIONS Security Council has enthusiastically spelt out a comprehensive framework of do's and don'ts to promote a global-scale campaign to combat terrorism. The Council's latest unanimous resolution is a virtual directive to all the U.N. members on how they should tame the terrorists by starving them of funds and assets and by denying safe havens to the actual and potential perpetrators of terrorist crimes as also the sponsors of such activities. Adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, the resolution is enforceable in respect of all its recommendations. Significant, therefore, is the constitution of a monitoring committee. The Council's call for enhanced international cooperation is suitably aimed at preventing the spread of terrorism across state boundaries. Two other salient features of the arguably historic resolution are no less indicative of a new mood of multilateral determination to arrest the politics of terror in the context of the recent terrorist offensive against America. First, the U.N. members have been asked to treat terrorist acts as criminal offences under their respective national laws. Second, all countries are enjoined upon to refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to the financiers as also the actual and potential perpetrators of the terrorist crimes. However, the moral force of the resolution might make a materially positive difference to the current international clamour for action against terrorism only if a truly global consensus could be generated about the very definitions of various forms of trans-border terrorism.

As the victim of the world's worst episode of terrorist strikes, the United States took the initiative for the latest U.N. Security Council resolution. The U.S. must therefore act, as far as possible, in conformity with the parameters and principles enunciated under all the relevant U.N. resolutions now and later. The U.N. has, over time, considered various facets of international terrorism, while the latest resolution marks a definitive leap forward by the global organisation in addressing the intricate web of connections between the terrorists and their sponsors as also state-protectors. However, the many distortions of the existing international political order may still act as a constraint on the U.N.'s proactive impulses. Overall it is true that the U.N. has not been particularly effective in promoting multilateral coalitions to deal with issues of critical importance to the world at large and not just the U.S. and the other major powers. Yet, Washington can usefully interact with the U.N. as a collective forum before preparing to track down Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect behind the latest terrorist outrage against the U.S., and before planning any other anti- terror operations.

Even as Pakistan agreed to cooperate with the U.S. in its ongoing efforts to get hold of Osama bin Laden and his suspected terrorist network inside Afghanistan, Islamabad pointedly kept the U.N. in focus as the moral authority for possible multilateral operations in this regard. More specifically, Pakistan drew attention to the resolution that the U.N. Security Council had passed in the immediate context of the terrorist attack on America on September 11. An avid non-official interpretation in the West at the time was that Pakistan seemed to suggest that the U.S. was already armed with the U.N.'s authority to wage a war against the terrorists with a global reach. Nonetheless, the relevant question now is how far the U.S. will actually take the U.N. into confidence on intricate aspects of Washington's strategic offensive against terrorism. While the U.N. Security Council has had no difficulty in endorsing the U.S. initiative at this stage, Washington too will do well to explore the possibilities of forming a broad-based international coalition against the politics of terrorism, conforming as much as possible to the framework of a U.N.-led consensus.

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