21 October 2004	Thursday	06 Ramazan 1425

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20: Pakistan on Tuesday called upon the UN's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) to broaden the strategy to fight terrorism and focus on the root causes of terrorism such as political injustice, non-resolution of long-standing disputes.

Such a strategy should also consider the denial or violation of human Rights, including the right of self-determination and pervasive poverty and socio-economic injustice, which provide a fertile breeding ground for terrorism, said Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram while addressing the UN Security Council meeting on Threats to International Peace and Security.

Mr Akram emphasized that the increase in terrorist incidents in different parts of the world in recent months, including terrorist attacks in several Pakistani cities, shows that the terrorist threat was pervasive and real.

Saying that the the fight against terrorism needed to be sustained effectively and with dynamism," Mr Akram said it required a consolidated and wide-ranging multinational response."

He said that the counter terrorism measures to be considered by the Working Group of CTC should be in conformity with principles of international law, human rights and international humanitarian law.

"Measures, in our view, could be considered and imposed on a case by case basis, on those involved in terrorism."

"A legal and internationally-agreed definition of terrorism still needs to be evolved and this we hope will be done by the United Nations General Assembly," he noted.

"As the UN has decided in the past, a distinction should be maintained between terrorism and right of peoples to self-determination. The United Nations should not, and cannot, reverse its historical support for peoples and nations struggling for liberation from foreign occupation and alien domination," Pakistan's chief delegate maintained.

Mr Munir Akram called for establishment of a close relationship with the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) while noting that the Chairman of CTC, Javier Ruperez, is holding consultations with interested regional and international organizations, adding such cooperation would be mutually beneficial.