Poverty is breeding ground for terrorism:
Developing nations tell UN
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11: Declaring counter-terrorism a global fight,
developing nations warned that world poverty and desperate living
conditions were breeding grounds for extremists and their followers.
At the same time, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at the annual UN
General Assembly debate among more than 150 presidents, prime ministers
and foreign ministers, expressed apprehension that the fight against
terrorism would overshadow programmes to combat poverty, disease, and
education.
"The number of people living on less than one dollar a
day has not decreased," since the Sept. 11 attacks against the United
States, he said on Saturday. "
South African President Thabo Mbeki
said it was obvious that the fundamental conflict in the world today is
the deprivation of millions "co-existing side-by-side with islands of
enormous wealth and prosperity."
"This necessarily breeds a deep
sense of injustice, social alienation, despair and a willingness to
sacrifice their lives among those who feel they have nothing to loose and
everything to gain," he added.
Nine Latin American president
spoke, most saying they had direct experience with terrorists, with
Colombia's Andres Pastrana and Peru's Alejandro Toledo having been victims
of kidnappings themselves.
"Unequal distribution causes
frustration and despair ... and generates the conditions that give rise to
conflicts and clashes where different types of fundamentalism are at
work," Argentina's President Fernando de la Rua said.
French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine warned wealthy nations that building up a
just global community "instead of just talking about it or yearning for
it, will mean giving up privileges, sharing wealth and power in new ways,
and rewriting certain rules hitherto held to be inviolable."
US
President George Bush made his first speech at the United Nations, and
then watched speaker after speaker support anti-terrorism measures he
advocated. "The time for action has now arrived," he told world leaders
from all regions..
The assembly session, known as the "general
debate," was postponed in September after the attacks and condensed into
one week of speeches until Friday. Noting the short distance between UN
headquarters and the World Trade Center, Bush said "many thousands still
lie in a tomb of rubble."
A FEW NATIONS UNEASY: Despite the
overwhelming support for counter-terrorism action, the war in Afghanistan
made a few nations uneasy, especially Pakistan and Iran.
Iran's
President Mohammed Khatami cautioned against "unilateral practices
stemming from pride and rage," while all-important US ally Pakistan
advised Washington to develop an alternate strategy if the military option
faltered.
The opposition Northern Alliance, with US help has
succeeded in recapturing Mazar-i-Sharif, near the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan
border.
Russia, the United States and Afghanistan's neighbours
called on the Northern Alliance on Saturday to respect human rights in
newly captured territory and let in relief workers.
In a statement
issued after a meeting of experts in New York, the so-called six-plus-two
group said it welcomed reports that the Northern Alliance had issued a
general amnesty in Mazar-i-Sharif, which it captured from the Taliban on
Friday.-Reuters
Arafat asks UN forobservers
UNITED
NATIONS, Nov 11: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called on the United
Nations on Sunday to send observers to protect his people from Israeli
armed forces.
Arafat told the annual debate of world leaders in
the UN General Assembly that observers were needed "to protect our people
from occupation, terror and ethnic cleansing practised by Israel."
The observers would also help "consolidate the ceasefire" in the
13-month-old uprising which has claimed the lives of 1,800 Palestinians
and wounded another 37,000, some of whom have been handicapped for life,
he said.-AFP
