UN: Killing is 'unacceptable'

25/07/2005 21:31  - (SA)   
New York - Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged world leaders on Monday to agree on a definition of terrorism at a United Nations summit in September that says the maiming and killing of civilians is unacceptable regardless of the cause. 
He said recent terrorist attacks from London to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik gave added reason to getting a definition with moral clarity and to follow-up with UN approval of a comprehensive convention against terrorism. 
Annan said: We know what we are living with and the whole world is now standing together in the fight against terrorism, and the UN and its general assembly must lead in that fight. 
Annan said terrorism was not limited to any part of the world, and authorities should not generalise to a group of people coming from one region or the other. 
Political definition of terrorism 
He said that Britain had been able to avoid such profiling in the past and I hope it will maintain that policy. 
A revised blueprint for UN reform issued on Friday for world leaders to consider at the September summit included a political definition of terrorism for the first time. 
If approved, it could break the impasse over a comprehensive treaty against terrorism, which had been stalled for years over the question, who was a terrorist? 
That debate had focused especially on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the issue that one nation's terrorists were another's freedom fighters. 
'Killing is unacceptable' 
Annan said: A simple, clear statement bringing in moral clarity that maiming and killing of civilians is unacceptable regardless of one's cause I think will satisfy all of us. 
The blueprint issued on Friday would commit world leaders to adopting a comprehensive convention against terrorism by September 2006. 
Negotiations were expected in the general assembly's legal committee, which would have to turn the political definition into legal language. 
A comprehensive treaty, first proposed by India, would incorporate key elements from a dozen anti-terrorism conventions already on the books. 
'State terrorism' 
The aim was to raise worldwide standards for fighting terrorism. 
Annan had urged world leaders in March to set aside the debate on so-called state terrorism and endorsed the definition of terrorism proposed by a high-level panel that he created. 
It said any action intended to harm civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating people, or compelling governments or international organisations to act or abstain from action constitutes an act of terrorism. 
The initial blueprint issued in June by general assembly president Jean Ping used similar language - but left out the words constitutes an act of terrorism. 
The revised draft issued on Friday would have world leaders affirm that the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and non-combatants cannot be justified or legitimised by any cause or grievance.