January 6, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 21, 1422

KATHMANDU, Jan 5: South Asian leaders opened a summit here Saturday all backing the international coalition against terrorism, but with some calling for a careful study on the root causes of “de-humanising” violence.

The seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) urged concerted action to combat terrorism, but nuclear powers India and Pakistan appeared to differ on the definition.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said “some countries” had not taken action to implement a 1987 SAARC convention on suppressing terrorism.

“We in South Asia have to recognise that our cooperative future will be significantly influenced by the way in which we can tackle terrorism together,” Vajpayee said.

President Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism and vowed to fully implement the 1987 SAARC convention on suppressing it.

“A concerted campaign against terrorism must also identify and examine the causes that breed terrorism, that drive people to hopelessness and desperation,” Musharraf said, in a clear reference to India’s oppressive security apparatus in Kashmir.

“We cannot address only the symptom and leave the malaise aside,” Musharraf said. “It is equally important that a distinction be maintained between acts of legitimate resistance and freedom struggles on the one hand and acts of terrorism on the other.”

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the outgoing head of SAARC whose country has faced a Tamil separatist insurgency for three decades, called for a more “honest” approach to deal with terrorism.

“We have to join our hands, at least now, more honestly and with more dedication, to fight the wave of terroristic politics that is sweeping across our region,” Kumaratunga said.

She said it was insufficient to say that terrorists will be hunted down without an understanding of the causes.

“We must attempt to understand the deep-rooted cause of this most unnatural, de-humanising phenomenon very specific to the 20th century — that is terrorism,” Kumaratunga said.

Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk condemned the December 13 attack against the Indian parliament and called for “collective efforts of the international community” to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“The reality of terrorism as an organised evil that will continue to haunt us and ravage our societies must be recognised,” Wangchuk said.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said his country, which is battling an uprising by Maoist rebels, was forced to divert money to contain the militants.

“To root out the growing menace of terrorism, we should collectively and resolutely fight against this crime and should block drug trafficking and organised crimes that finance and support it,” Deuba said.

The 1987 SAARC convention allows for the extradition of suspects between member states and sharing of intelligence and freezing of assets of designated terrorist organisations.

The summit heard support for the United Nations resolution against terrorism that followed the September 11 attacks in the United States.

A high-level meeting of SAARC member states is due in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, most probably by April, to agree on mechanisms to implement the UN anti-terrorism resolution and regulations in the region, diplomats said.

Cross-border terrorism has strained relations between members countries of SAARC which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The summit brought the seven heads of state and government of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka together in a summit after a lapse of three and half years.

The seven nations comprise the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which, with a combined population of over 1.3 billion people, is the world’s most populous, and about the poorest, regional grouping.

The other leaders at the summit, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Lynpo Khudan Wangchuk of Bhutan and President Mahe Maldives stressed the need to alleviate poverty in the region.—AFP / dpa