ADRIAN CROFT, Islamabad | Tuesday
A EUROPEAN Union mission will tell leaders of five Muslim countries this week that the war on terrorism involves the whole world and is not a war on Islam, an EU official said on Tuesday.
”We want to make it absolutely clear that the campaign against terrorism…is a campaign for the whole world. It is not a question of America and Europe against Islam,” EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten told reporters aboard the plane flying the EU mission to Pakistan.
Islamabad is the first stop on a five-day tour.
”We want to involve as broad a coalition as possible and we think we have…particularly strong relationships with some countries which will enable us to mobilise that coalition,” said Patten, who was joined on the trip by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the foreign ministers of Belgium and Spain, the current and next EU presidents.
In talks with heads of state and foreign ministers of Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, the EU team will discuss how these countries can cooperate with the EU in the fight against terrorism, EU officials said.
EU officials also believe the trip provides an opportunity to turn a new page in relations with countries in the region, particularly Pakistan and Iran.
EU leaders decided at a Brussels summit last Friday to send the team to the region as an element in its multi-pronged response to the September 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington which have left nearly 7 000 people dead or missing.
The EU’s coalition-building drive mirrors US efforts to build international support for its ”war on terrorism” which is widely expected to include military action.
US strikes would most likely be against Afghanistan whose Taliban rulers have sheltered dissident Osama bin Laden, singled out by the US government as its prime suspect in the attacks.
In talks later on Tuesday with Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, the EU team will voice strong support for his decision to join the US-led hunt for bin Laden and will discuss giving aid to Pakistan to help it cope with a huge influx of refugees from neighbouring Afghanistan, Patten said.
”We understand he (Musharraf) has taken a brave decision, the right decision,” Patten said.
”Whatever the costs of the humanitarian disaster, we’ll be in the front line of trying to meet them,” he pledged, without mentioning any figures.
EU officials on the tour will be at pains to reassure the leaders they meet that the fight against terrorism is not a synonym with a conflict with Islam.
”We know that the fanatics in the last few days have defiled Islam,” Patten said. ”We know there is no way you can judge Islam by these foul acts any more than you can judge, for example, Christianity or the West through the sort of terrorist acts that have been done by (Basque separatist group) ETA or the IRA,” he said, referring to the Irish Republican Army which opposes British rule of Northern Ireland.
”But equally it’s terribly important for all Islamic leaders, and for journalists, scholars and clerics, to make absolutely plain their abhorrence of what has happened, as many of them have done,” Patten said.
The EU officials may face more difficult talks in later stops in Iran and Syria. Both countries are on an official US list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism but have condemned the attacks on New York and Washington.
Asked how the EU team would reconcile this with seeking to enlist Iran and Syria’s support in the fight against terrorism, Patten said the EU would praise Iranian political and religious leaders for condemning the attack.
”We’ll also be saying you really can’t in the medium and long-term — if you are to defeat terrorism — be confused (about) who are good terrorists and who are bad terrorists,” he said.
”What we’ve got to do is end the slaughter of innocent people, whoever does it.” – Reuters