Anti-Terrorism Resolution Is Adopted in U.N.

By Colum Lynch
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, September 29, 2001; Page A1

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 – The U.N. Security Council tonight unanimously adopted a U.S.-authored resolution compelling all U.N. member countries to sever financial, political and military ties with terrorist groups and freeze their assets.

The speedy passage of the resolution, which U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte introduced Wednesday, underscored the large degree of support at the world body for the United States as it embarks on an anti-terrorism campaign.

While the resolution stopped short of authorizing the use of military force, it essentially invested the Security Council with the unprecedented power to determine who is a terrorist and to impose sanctions on countries that refuse to cooperate.

"Most of the time, if something looks like a terrorist and makes noise like a terrorist, it's a terrorist," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock.

The vote came after President Bush's call on Monday for other countries to support the U.S. effort to crack down financially on suspected terrorists after he announced the freezing of terrorist assets in the United States.

Even countries that traditionally oppose U.N. interventions, including Russia and China, embraced the resolution.

A committee of 15 members, established by the Security Council, will monitor compliance. The Security Council will have to decide how to punish nations that do not comply. The committee will seek the advice of banking and other experts to determine if a country is supporting terrorists.

The measure forces countries to toughen their counterterrorism laws, share intelligence with other U.N. members and freeze the bank accounts of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is blamed for this month's attacks on New York and Washington, and other suspected terrorists.

It also would compel states to deny haven to terrorists and their financial backers, refrain from providing political, military or diplomatic support to terrorists, and impose stricter customs regulations to increase the prospects for nabbing terrorists when they cross international borders.

U.N. member countries would be obligated to report every 90 days to a council committee that is to be established to monitor compliance with the resolution. The committee would also draw on the expertise of a broad range of specialists from the bankers to law enforcement officials.

"This is an unprecedented resolution against terrorism," Negroponte told reporters after the vote. "It obliges all member states to deny financing, support and safe harbor for terrorists."

Diplomats who supported the resolution acknowledged they had not considered its full implications, including the impact on U.S. organizations that raise funds for armed elements from Macedonia to Northern Ireland.

Delegates sought to remove U.S. language that would erode long-standing international protections for asylum seekers and refugees. A final deal was struck after the United States agreed to remove a phrase that invited countries to ensure that anyone involved in any terrorist act "receives justice." Some delegations, including Ireland and Britain, expressed concern that it could lend U.N. legitimacy to extrajudicial killings. The phrase was changed to "brought to justice."

Council diplomats conceded that countries challenged by ethnic and religious separatists, including China, Russia and India, would likely invoke the council's resolution to justify crackdowns on their own internal dissidents.

"It's a problem deferred in the interest of getting everyone to do all they can in the clear-cut cases of international terrorism," a council member said. "And al Qaeda is at the top of the list."

Arab diplomats privately expressed concern that the resolution would be used to increase pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to rein in Palestinian suicide bombers who attack Israeli civilians.

Diplomats said the United States is seeking to head off a bitter debate over the implications of the resolution for the Middle East when the 189-nation General Assembly begins a two-day debate on terrorism Monday.

In a move that may deflect charges that it is targeting Muslim countries, the United States today dropped its opposition to lifting a U.N. travel ban on Sudanese diplomats to reward Khartoum for cooperating with U.S. counterterrorism officials. The council voted today 14 to 0, with a U.S. abstention, to lift the ban.