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by Asoka Weerasinghe

The General Assembly of UN held a debate on terrorism beginning October 1 in which more than 140 nations were invited to speak and amongst them was Sri Lanka.

Before that the UN Security Council was convened several times. During these sessions and through other communications leaders from all over the world condemned this attack without any reservations.

All what was said can be summarised in the words of Dr. Farish A. Noor former secretary general of the International Movement for a Just world. He said `The destruction of the World trade centre building in New York has to rank as one of the worst tragedies of this coming century.

The moral boundary lines should be clear for all to see; this was an act of violence that deserves to be condemned by anyone who regards himself or herself as a member of the human race regardless of political, cultural ethnic and religious differences between us' Robert Fisk who writes for the Independent UK and who is widely regarded as one of the leading commentators of the Middle East stated `Ask an Arab how he responds to 20,000 or 30,000 innocent deaths and he or she will respond as decent people that it is an unspeakable crime.'

Most writers all over the world have expressed these kinds of sentiments.

However the international media showed that some human beings showing the 'less-than-human face' were involved in `victory celebrations'. The media depicted them as enemies of US. These media clippings have been identified as victory celebration of another event many years ago, and analysts say that the media deliberately used these clipping to discredit the Arabs and the Muslims.

Some Sri Lankan writers have also shoed that Sri Lankans in general were happy about the attack and this is indeed a misguided statement. The Sri Lankans are a peaceful community practicing the highest traditions of `Ahimsa' as taught by Buddha and it must be reiterated that they are a nation who would not resort to celebrate such a human tragedy. Media people and writers who convey such ideas much are highly condemned.

Immediate responses

While mourning the death of the innocent people who lost their lives in USA there have been some who have pointed out to certain foreign policies of USA, which have caused them to commit certain atrocities.

The article written by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar President International Movement for a Just world, in the form a letter to the President of the US said'... in many parts of the world while there is so much sympathy for the bereaving people of America there is a great deal of antipathy towards an arrogant superpower.

He quoted Christian scriptures saying "what you sow you shall reap" he also stated `In Islam as in Hinduism and Buddhism there is acknowledgement of the law of requital.' In the context of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the US, nothing is perhaps more apt than that wise Confucian saying echoed in Judaism and other traditions. "Do not do to others what you do not want others to-do to you".

He said that it should be the golden rule of not just interpersonal ties but also interstate relations. There have been many others who have resorted to politicking the event giving a long list of atrocities committed by the USA during the past 50 or more years and they even claim that this was a moral victory for the oppressed or even an act of God.

Even though Robert Fisk stated that any decent Arab will not condone the attack on New York he goes on to say `But they (the Arabs) will ask why we did not use such words that are used to describe the terrible crime committed against the US to describe the sanctions that have destroyed lives of perhaps half a million children in Iraq, why we did not rage about the 17,500 civilians killed in Israel's in 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

What about the Palestinian who die every day in the west bank. Others go further back to 6th August 1945, the bombing of Hiroshima, which obliterated thousands of innocent people from the face of the earth, and about the 3 million people who died in Vietnam and Indochina, and also those who died in Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile and perhaps others from the whole of Latin America.

It has been pointed out during the past fifty years tens of thousands of innocent men women children and had perished as a result of the US policies which claim to be the super power of the world trying to perpetuate its control and dominance through covert operations espionage activities assassination squads economic strangulation and organised political subversion.

UN resolution against terrorism

War against terror is not clobbering defenceless nations or defenceless people but as stated in the UN resolution it involves carefully planned initiatives. For example the Security Council of the UN unanimously adopted a resolution September 28 that established wide-ranging measures to combat terrorism, especially focusing on the financial support terrorist need to carry out their acts. Some of these were.

(1) To encourage member states to cut off the various sources of international terrorism and enlisting the operational cooperation of all the other member states of the United Nations".

(2) To take the necessary measures to suppress financial activities and other forms of support for international terrorism.

(3) "To freeze without delay funds and other financial assets or economic resources of persons who commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts".

(4) "To work together urgently to prevent and suppress terrorist act, including through increase cooperation and full implementation of the relevant international conventions relating to terrorism.

(5) "To refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists,".

(6) To criminalize the wilful provision or collection of funds for such acts.

(7) To prohibit nationals or people in member countries, in their territories from making funds or services available to those involved in terrorism, and refrain from providing support to people involved in terrorism.

(8) To take steps to prevent terrorist acts, and deny safe haven to those who commit terrorist acts.

(9) To bring to justice anyone who participated in terrorism and ensure that terrorists acts are serious criminal offenses in domestic laws and are punished accordingly.

(10) To help each other with criminal investigations and criminal proceedings, intensifying and accelerating the exchange of information.

Sri Lankans have suffered much for more that three decades because of terrorism and violence. Sri Lanka has been trying to bring to the notice of the international community the need to cooperate together in the fight against terrorism for many decades and these only fell in deaf ears of the international community in the past.

However now Sri Lanka can heave a sigh of relief and consider USA to be an ally in the fight against terrorism because they too will understand the pain that we have gone through for the past three or more decades and that they will empathize with us.

Lessons to be learnt

There are many lessons which has been learnt and which has to be learnt in order to face terrorism by USA, by Sri Lanka, as well as the whole world. Firstly terrorism can never be successful and it is always counterproductive

Second reality is that trying to eradicate terrorism using military force is futile because that will only escalate the problem, and cause fanatics to be involved in more terrorist acts. If terrorism has to be eradicated the root causes have to be identified and early steps should be taken to avoid escalation of a conflict to terrorist proportions.

Victims of terrorism must learn to cope with terrorism as the Sri Lankans have done for the past twenty or more years. Sri Lankans have experienced terrorism from the Northern militants, Southern militants, militants from the plantation areas and even from the state. There is a need to have international cooperation to manage and contain terrorism before it can be eradicated as suggested by the UN resolution.

Amnesty International has stated that the terrorist attacks in New York have unleashed a wave of anti Muslim abuse. Anyone unfortunate enough to look like an Arab was also abused and these included Sikhs and Indians. Fortunately Sri Lanka has learnt to be calm in the face of terrorism.

Sri Lankans in the south learnt a bitter lesson by reacting to violence in 1983 and subsequently they have shown marvellous restraint on numerous occasions when terrorists attacked the South. For example the general public reacted to the bombing of the Holy Temple of the Tooth or killing 35 Buddhist monks in Aranthalawa or attacking the Holy Tree at Anuradhapura and finally the recent attack on the airport calmly.

Lacquer in his book on 'International terrorism' further analysing the root causes of terrorism said that terrorism emerges as the only solution to the problem of the society when all other solutions from economic political and social avenues fail. Terrorism is the last option.

In the final analysis the brutality of terrorism which seems to be a very prominent political phenomena in the modern world seem to show that we are still a long way from attaining the goal of enlightenment and peace about which the great religious and social leaders of the world have preached about in the past.

While terrorism and counter terrorism and those who wage war on terrorism rush to cast their stones, the civilised peace loving world should share their thoughts with those who suffer because of terrorism and violence. They should work towards changing political circumstances that shape the lives of people of this world so that a world order could be built giving no space for prejudice, frustrations and hatred to thrive and prosper.

Opening the first working session of the 56th General Assembly September 24, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, 'The social and economic evils in our world are all too real - as is the need to make globalisation work for all the peoples of the world by embedding the new global economy in a global society based on shared global values of solidarity, social justice, and human rights.'

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