UNITED NATIONS, Jan 20: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned a top-level meeting of the Security Council on Monday that human rights, democracy and the rule of law were at risk in the fight against terrorism.

“Internationally, we are seeing an increasing use of what I call the T-word — terrorism — to demonize political opponents, to throttle freedom of speech and the press, and to de-legitimize legitimate political grievances,” he said.

“Any sacrifice of freedom or the rule of law within states — or any generation of new disputes between states in the name of anti-terrorism — is to hand the terrorists a victory that no act of theirs could possibly bring.”

Annan was speaking in the presence of 13 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, who presided over the meeting. —AFP