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| January 26, 2007 | Friday | Muharram 06, 1428 |
Root causes need to be addressed: Aziz on counter-terrorism measures
DAVOS (Switzerland), Jan 25: Security measures alone cannot rope in the spectre of terrorism on a sustainable basis. The world needs to do more to address the immense sense of hopelessness amongst deprived people, particularly those living in regions afflicted by long drawn conflicts.
A durable solution to the problem of terrorism requires a holistic approach in which the security efforts must be accompanied by measures to resolve the root causes of terrorism, which are connected to a sense of deprivation, injustice and frustration in places such as Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pakistan is committed to eliminating this scourge, has achieved significant successes in its campaign and will continue to cooperate and coordinate with regional and global partners in this campaign.
These views were expressed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at a panel discussion just a day after the news of a new US legislation calling to make future military assistance to Pakistan conditional to weakening of Taliban resistance in Afghanistan appeared in the press.
The panellist at the World Economic Forum discussion session included senior diplomats David Cameron, Leader of the British Conservative Party, and Gijs M. de Vries, Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Council of the European Union, Brussels. The session was moderated by David Rothkopf, president and chief executive officer, Garten Rothkopf, USA.
The discussion highlighted divergence more than convergence in the views of the key players in the war on terrorism. All participants stuck to their respective positions showing no signs of flexibility. While Pakistan called for what the prime minister termed a ‘holistic approach’, David Cameron insisted that the current wave of terrorism was different from all earlier world experiences with terrorism and needs to be dealt with more effective security measures at a global level.
David Rothkopf reiterated the US position that the world needed to impose consequences on those countries that failed to sign or honour anti-terror agreements. He said that tough measures against hardliners should co-exist with dialogue with moderates on how to define the struggle against terrorism.
Gijs de Vries of the EU said that fighting terrorism required strong coordination between local and international law-enforcement agencies and intelligence networks. He, however, felt that extrajudicial acts such as torture, illegal detentions etc., could not be allowed at any pretext and needed to be checked. “The EU has been trying to break down barriers to cross-country cooperation in the fight against terrorism. We need to fight terrorism globally as it’s a global threat,” noted Gijs de Vries.
During a panel discussion on ‘stopping the spread of nuclear weapons’, Prime Minister Aziz said sanctions had not proved to be an effective tool and there was a need to engage with Iran. Use of power against Iran in an already turbulent region would prove to be catastrophic not only for the region but also for the whole world. The panellist included Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of the Government, Harvard University, Mohammad M. ElBaradei, Director-General, International Atomic Energy Agency, James L. Jones, Commander, US European Command, and Abdul Aziz O. Sagar, Chairman, Gulf Research Centre.
Mr Aziz said that Pakistan was a responsible country and had a very effective command and control regime in place. He said that we should be watchful of the fact that nuclear weapons did not go in hands of irresponsible non-state elements
Mohammad ElBaradei repeated the IAEA position that the agency had no credible evidence indicating development of nuclear weapons in Iran. “Iran is at least five to 10 years from development of weapon and use of force would prove to be counter productive,” he said.
As for the perception of Iranian know-how to develop a bomb, he said: “We cannot bomb the knowledge.”
Graham Allison expressed his reservation over the view that sanctions had proved to be futile and mentioned the case of Libya where it helped in persuading the country to role back its programme.
Commander James Jones said that currently there was no strategic coherent policy to deal with the issue of proliferation. He said that Nato had failed to transform itself to the demand of the changed world and it was still essentially planted in the last century. He said that Nato would need to respond to asymmetric threats by adopting a proactive approach to security issues that the world is faced with.
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