UN s Anti-terrorism Resolution

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a comprehensive anti-terrorism resolution on 28 September 2001 which authorizes use of force against terrorists and their political and military supporters. It makes it mandatory on all 189 member states to crack down on the financing, training and movement of terrorists. But the very fact that it came in the wake of the terrorist act of 11 September 2001, called 9/11, it is primarily to satisfy the revengeful Americans. The attack was indeed a most deplorable act in which thousands of innocent lives were lost, but had such terrorism hit a lesser country, would the UN have reacted in a similar decisive and firm manner? Probably not. There lies the moral of the tragedy. Part one of the moral is the manner in which the whole world has been mobilized to punish a tiny, poor and war ravaged country along with threats of victimization to other nations forcing them to toe the American line. Part two of the moral is the magnitude of death and destruction heaped on Iraq and Afghanistan. Punishment too has its limits. It only means that since the sensibilities of a super power were violated the entire humanity could go to dogs but the pride of American people must be uphold. Such irrational, unbalanced and wild counter-terrorism by the state is not likely to eliminate terrorism but is sure to boomerang in a big way in the days to come. It was declared to be war on terror to root it out once for all. It should have been realized that without addressing the causes that promote terrorism, it would be unrealistic to expect that the goal could be achieved with any degree of success.

Dr. Cohn S. Gray, Professor of International Politics at the University of Hull, England, writes in the Parameter’ the US Army War College Journal, that the end of the cold war in 1991 ushered in the era of New World Order. This concept implied that henceforth this world would be considered a global village and people all over the world will form one international community. This dream was shattered with the bombing of the world Trade Center in New York on 26 February 1993. The attack of 11 September 2001 was the second attempt on the Centre. During the cold war days it was the Soviet Union and its client regimes that provided financial support and safe havens to the terrorists. With its collapse this option was closed to the terrorists. However, meanwhile many new ethnic and nationalistic hatreds cropped up. Weaponry of all kinds was freely available. Interstate relations became sour for different reasons. Wave after wave of terrorism started hitting the innocent civilians. The activities of Kashmiris, Sikhs, Tamils, Irish Republicans, Palestinians, Bosnians, Ethnic Albanians etc increased due to unsettled conflicts. Most of these were freedom movements but were branded as terrorism by the governments against whom they were directed. Consequently the misdirected military actions taken against them proved unsuccessful.