20 - 26 September 2001
Issue No.552
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 September 2001 Issue No.552 |
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Towards a credible strategy
Ibrahim Nafie outlines the steps necessary to kick start an international coalition against terrorism
Within the space of an hour a terrorist operation has successfully targetted major symbols of US power, causing the death of thousands of innocent people, massive destruction and havoc throughout the international economy. That the perpetrators of this appalling act had succeeded in the most powerful nation in the world has driven home the fact that no nation on earth is safe from the insidious reach of terrorism.
The US and the international community have responded to this harrowing attack by calling for an international coalition against terrorism. Although it will still require intensive international efforts to reach a consensus on the specific goals and activities of any coalition, it has already acquired considerable momentum, and the UN is readying itself to issue the necessary resolutions to create its legal and institutional foundations.
It is important to recall that the notion of an international alliance against terrorism was originally an Egyptian idea. Egypt, itself, has suffered greatly from extremist violence, the most notorious incident being the Luxor massacre in 1997. On the basis of this experience and his observations on the increasing scale of terrorism, President Hosni Mubarak was the first world leader to caution that terrorism had become one of the most pernicious forms of organised crime, a source of danger to domestic, regional and global security, stability and development.
Several years ago, President Mubarak called for a world summit to combat terrorism. It was his hope that this conference, which would take place under the auspices of the UN, would work towards a comprehensive global anti-terrorism pact, comprising a precise definition of terrorism and delineating the mechanisms by which cooperative efforts might be chanelled to combat it. The president's proposal received extensive attention in the UN General Assembly and other international forums, to the extent that the General Assembly placed Mubarak's initiative on the agenda of a special committee for closer study. In addition major powers, such as France, have sought to coordinate with Egypt in order to be able to hold this conference at the soonest possible opportunity. Egypt has cautioned frequently that if such a conference fails to take place terrorism will escalate in scale.
Egypt, therefore, will be in the vanguard of those nations participating in the international drive to combat terrorism. That this is the case is also inspired by a number of religious motives and justifications. Following the suicide crashes in the US, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Mohamed Sayyid Tantawi, vehemently condemned terrorism as "a religious and secular calamity" and stressed that Islam, in common with all other religions, compels us to fight terrorism. The Minister of Awqaf Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, and the Coptic Patriarch Pope Shenouda III, expressed similarly unequivocal condemnations.
Rallying global efforts towards stamping out terrorism will be a complex process. Terrorism is an international phenomenon and there are many political, economic and military resources that must be drawn upon and coordinated in order to achieve our goal. Naturally, it will be necessary to apprehend the perpetrators of terrorist acts, whether those committed against the US or elsewhere in the world. But it will also be necessary to root out the political causes that give rise to terrorism. The US's flagrant pro-Israeli bias and its shortsighted ness on many other global issues merit particular attention, as does the iniquity in the international distribution of wealth.
The US has every right to seek out and punish those responsible for the terrorist acts but it must also realise that this process must be handled with care and deliberation. Above all, any action the US and international community take must be founded upon adequate and thoroughly corroborated evidence. An act of retaliation that targets an innocent party will undermine the credibility of the international coalition and lead to its collapse. It is also important that all actions taken are taken under the UN umbrella, thereby conferring upon them international legitimacy and ensuring that the US acts in coordination with other international powers.
Even should it be proven that Osama Bin Laden is behind the attacks on the US, vengeance should not be taken out against the people of Afghanistan, already crippled by two decades of civil war. All diplomatic efforts must be pursued before embarking on military action. The Taliban should be given a reasonable grace period in which to hand over Bin Laden. Should that fail, any military action must not be motivated by blind vengeance, but be guided by rationally determined objectives that include not only bringing the terrorist masterminds to justice but also ensuring that Afghanistan is quickly restored to peace and stability.
An extensive international counter-terrorist strategy must, of course, reach beyond apprehending the criminals responsible for the death and destruction in New York and Washington. A useful starting point would be to follow through on Mubarak's call for a global conference on combating terrorism with the purpose of devising a comprehensive and binding international anti-terrorist convention. Such a convention would cover all issues pertaining to the financing, methods of recruitment, and networks of terrorist groups. But it will also have to resolve some very thorny issues, foremost among which will be to establish a demarcation between terrorism and national liberation. It is unacceptable, for example, to brand as terrorist -- as Israel has sought to do for its own ends -- members of Palestinian and Lebanese liberation groups exercising their internationally sanctioned right to resist foreign occupation. The convention, too, should clearly formulate what constitutes the right to political asylum since all too often Western nations have used asylum as a pretext to protect and support terrorist groups.
Egypt will undoubtedly be able to play an active and constructive role in the fight against terrorism. Not only is Egypt a pivotal regional power but, also, as a pioneer of the notion of an international alliance against terrorism it has a storehouse of ideas concerning the legal and logistical requirements for organising a global conference to formulate a comprehensive international anti-terrorist convention. Furthermore, Egypt's participation will help ensure that the Arabs have a voice in channeling international anti-terrorist efforts and in formulating the global agenda for the beginning of the 21st century.
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