Define terror, Lanka tells UN

Lacuna caused contradictory positions:

Darusman report due to absence of such definition:

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

The government yesterday called on the UN to include the definition for ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorism’ in its Charter since the absence of such a definition has led to contradictory positions adopted by the UN system. This has affected countries such as Sri Lanka who had suffered under terrorism.

Amplifying on this, Youth Affairs Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said that UNICEF which is a sister organisation of the UN, on the one hand stressed on violation of human rights by the LTTE in the recruitment of child soldiers while on the other hand the controversial Darusman report describes the outfit as a disciplined organisation.

“Isn’t this a total contradiction?” the minister asked adding that there cannot be two contradictory positions on the same topic in two reports published by the same organisation.

Addressing the media at the Mahaweli Centre, Minister Alahapperuma noted that at present there was no definition for “terrorist” or “terrorism” in the UN Charter even after 65 years of its signing and this was the appropriate time to include this definition in the Charter.

He said Sri Lanka has every right to move the UN to include this definition, being a country that suffered from terrorism for 30 years before finally eradicating it. “Mr Darusman will apologise to Sri Lanka for his report once the definition is introduced,” the minister asserted.

“Sri Lanka is a member of the UN and does not wish to create any conflict with it. We are part of the UN and we respect the Secretary General and consider the UN as a hallowed organisation” the minister added.

He said various countries and organisations call various groups in different names according to their requirements and agendas. This is how a barbaric terrorist organization become the world’s most dangerous and murderous terrorist organization at one time for some organizations and for some countries and the same organization became a group of rebels or freedom fighters at another time for the same organizations and the same set of countries.

This is unacceptable and can be prevented if there is a exact definition for terrorism and terrorists.

When comparing the LTTE and the Al Qaeda, the LTTE carried out 300 very successful suicide attacks during their time and two leaders in two countries in the world, Sri Lanka’s late President R Premadasa and late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were among the victims. Another 600 suicide bombers committed suicide after failing to complete their `missions’. But Al Qaeda never killed world/political leaders. The LTTE killed nearly 75,000 people including children, women, clergy, political leaders, citizens and people from all walks of life. The LTTE and Al Qaeda were world’s most ruthless and dangerous terrorist organizations and the leaders of both organizations were the world’s top terrorists,” the minister observed.