Incitement to terrorism is to be banned worldwide under a United Nations Security Council resolution unanimously adopted on Wednesday and promoted by Britain in the wake of the London bombings.
Resolution 1624 calls on all 191 UN member states to “prohibit by law incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts” and to “deny safe haven” to anyone even suspected of incitement.
Its adoption — against the backdrop of this week’s World Summit at UN headquarters — is a personal coup for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, two months and two weeks after the worst terrorist attack to date on British soil.
“The terrorists have their strategy, and we should have a strategy as well,” said Blair as he took his turn to speak before the Security Council, the UN’s 15-nation core decision-making body.
“Terrorism won’t be defeated until our determination is as complete as theirs, our defence of freedom is as absolute as their fanaticism, our passion for democracy as great as their passion for tyranny.”
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said terrorism “constitutes a direct attack on the values the UN stands for … We must thus be at the forefront of the fight against terrorism.”
The resolution — clearly aimed at hard-line Islamists in Muslim countries — dovetails with legislation introduced by Blair at home that will outlaw incitement to terrorism in Britain.
It also compensates for relatively weak language on terrorism in the draft final communiqué of the World Summit, the biggest gathering to date of world leaders, which winds up on Friday.
Fifty-six people were killed, including four apparent Islamist suicide bombers, on July 7 when three London subway trains and a double-decker bus were attacked during morning rush hour.
Blair was to meet for an hour later on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, with terrorism and Afghanistan topping their agenda.
He was also to join about 40 other leaders, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in signing an international convention — agreed at the UN earlier this year — combating nuclear terrorism.
The 15-page pact, a Russian initiative, codifies definitions for trafficking in controlled nuclear materials and calls on participating states to adapt national laws to tighten controls on unsanctioned use of such materials. — AFP