15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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The issue is definition
Coming up with a comprehensive convention on terrorism was the chief item on the agenda of this year's UN General Assembly session. Soha Abdelaty reviews the Egyptian position
Speaker after speaker, addressing the 56th UN General Assembly session, which began on Saturday, stood up to condemn international terrorism. And despite all member-states agreeing on the necessity of combating terrorism, the process of finalising a draft comprehensive convention faced substantial obstacles.
The majority of nations agreed that such a text is imperative. Some countries, including Egypt, felt it necessary that the draft include a definition of terrorism.
Egypt has offered its own prescription for dealing with the plague of terrorism -- the convening of an international conference as a means of reaching consensus on the issue. But whereas, when it comes to defining terrorism, Egyptian officials are certain of what it does not encompass -- armed resistance against foreign occupiers in the Palestinian style -- it is far more difficult to nail down a precise definition of what terrorism actually is.
"What delayed the convening of the conference since I called for it 15 years ago are differences over the definition of terrorism. Some want to mix the cards and equate terrorists who kill and destroy with those who struggle to free their land from occupation, and this is something that is not right and is not permissible," President Hosni Mubarak told reporters after a visit to Kuwait on Sunday.
The issue of combating international terrorism has been on the agenda of the General Assembly for several years now. There are also twelve conventions dealing with various aspects of terrorism, but none of them contains a definition of the phenomenon.
A draft comprehensive convention on terrorism, as put forward by India, was discussed in previous General Assembly sessions. Now, efforts have been stepped up in the hope of ratifying this convention in the current session. "I wish to propose to all member-states that during the general debate... [it will] be important to obtain agreement on a comprehensive convention on international terrorism," UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan said on 1 October.
Delegates have been working hard on ironing out differences over the convention in order to reach a consensus. One such controversy is the issue of drawing a distinction between terrorism and armed resistance. A case in point is whether certain armed groups, such as Hizbullah and Hamas, should be considered terrorist groups.
"The difference between terrorism and armed resistance is clear, and you cannot mix between the two. People under occupation have the right, according to international conventions and the United Nations Charter, to struggle against the occupying power. But Israel is trying to mix the two [resistance and terrorism], and, therefore, some feel the necessity of reaching a definition of terrorism," Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher explained on Saturday.
Western, particularly US, officials, however, view Palestinian suicide bombings as terrorism because they target civilians, thereby defining terrorism as armed acts against civilians, regardless of whether those carrying out such acts are under foreign occupation. "Being under foreign occupation does not grant individuals, under international law, the right to target civilians. At all times, all parties must respect the provisions of the Geneva Conventions which protect civilians," explained Jean Allain, assistant professor of public international law at the American University in Cairo. However, he added that it is difficult to draw a clear-cut line between the two. "In the Occupied Territories, anything goes -- that is to say, settlers (ie civilians) are a fair target as they are part of the Israeli policy of occupation, settlements being clearly illegal under the 4th Geneva Convention," he continued. "Suicide bombers targeting civilians in Israel proper is illegal, but it is not a state policy -- these are random acts. Yet, when Israel is targeting civilians in the occupied territories as a state policy, it appears that this is part of a true terrorist network."
Western officials at the UN perceive the solution as being to avoid getting into a debate in the first place, by not defining terrorism. "Terrorism is terrorism. It uses violence to kill and damage indiscriminately to make a political or cultural point and to influence legitimate governments or public opinion unfairly and amorally. There is common ground among all of us on what constitutes terrorism. What looks, smells and kills like terrorism is terrorism," said Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the permanent representative of Britain at the UN. He went on to clarify that "there are also wars and armed struggles where actions can be characterised, for metaphorical and rhetorical force, as terrorist. This is a highly controversial and subjective area, on which, because of the legitimate spectrum of viewpoints within the United Nations membership, we will never reach full consensus."
Ahead of the opening of the general debate, Annan met last Thursday with certain delegations from the Islamic and Arab blocs, including the Egyptian delegation, to attempt to reach a compromise on the issue. Mukhtar El-Amin, the representative of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the UN, told reporters after the meeting that the "countries of the OIC opposed the convention, especially the article that deals with defining terrorism, because it does not exclude the national liberation movements and legal resistance against foreign occupation."
The issue will be addressed when the sixth committee of the General Assembly, which deals with legal affairs, meets on 19 November to resume its work on finalising the draft.
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