- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
- Russia offered a blueprint on Friday for an expanded global assault on
terrorism, including a new international law holding nations responsible
if they fail to crack down on terrorists within their borders.
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- ``The land should burn under the feet of those who plan
and commit terrorist acts or support them, who are involved in cross-border
manipulations of mafia groups and drug lords,'' Russian Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov said.
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- ``The evil should be and will be punished. It cannot
be disguised under any political, nationalist or religious slogans.
Terrorism
is nothing but a crime,'' he told the annual high-level session of the
U.N. General Assembly.
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- Russia, grappling with what it views as its own
``terrorist''
problem in the form of Chechen separatists, quickly signed up for
Washington's
war on terrorism after Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked commercial airliners
that killed more than 4,500 people in the United States.
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- Ivanov appealed for international steps beyond what
Washington
had set out, calling, for example, for the establishment of a U.N. center
to help nations resolve terrorist crises.
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- The new agency would provide logistic support and advice
to governments dealing with terrorism, he said.
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- Russia also intended to study the addition of a principle
to international law that would hold states responsible ``for the failure
to take measures against terrorists in their territory or under their
jurisdiction,''
Ivanov said.
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- USE OF FORCE NOT ENOUGH
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- He called for a further bolstering of U.N. peacekeeping
and conflict prevention programs.
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- ``Our common interests will be served if the world
organization
were equipped with a modern arsenal of instruments for improving its
anti-crisis
potential,'' he said.
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- He said a special U.N. focus should be on ``reliably
blocking the channels for outside fueling of a conflict.''
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- He also urged the United Nations to press for global
economic reforms aimed at closing the gap between the world's rich and
poor, saying poverty, misfortune, illiteracy and unemployment ``provide
the breeding ground for terrorism.''
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- While not specifically mentioning the U.S.-led military
campaign in Afghanistan, he said the U.N. Charter authorized the use of
military force against terrorists.
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- ``Similarly,'' he added, ``it is evident that the threat
cannot be overcome by forceful means alone. The comprehensive approach
to eradication of terrorism implies the use of the whole range of
political,
economic, financial and humanitarian measures.''
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- The U.S. raids on Afghanistan, launched on Oct. 7, were
aimed at toppling Afghanistan's ruling Taliban for sheltering Osama bin
Laden and his al Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for masterminding
the Sept. 11 attacks.
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- Ivanov said dealing with terrorism was the central topic
of discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush
at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, which ended on Thursday without
resolving
their differences over the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
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