The General Assembly’s Sixth (Legal) Committee opened its debate on international terrorism this morning with remarks by delegates from Saudi Arabia and Sweden, preceded by an introduction by the committee chairman, Prof. Eric Suy, a counsellor in the Belgian Foreign Ministry. The debate was adjourned until Monday following a statement by Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
The debate was prefaced yesterday with a 40-page report by the Secretariat, headed by Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, that asserted that “There is a present need for measures of international cooperation to protect (innocents’) rights as far as possible.” It said at another point: “As violence breeds violence, so terrorism begets counter-terrorism, which in turn leads to more terrorism in an ever-increasing spiral….The precise chain of causation of particular acts cannot be traced with scientific exactitude. Nevertheless, the General Assembly may wish to identify types of situations which, if a remedy could be found to bring them more into accord with justice, will cease to contribute to the spreading terrorism which has shocked the world.”
Suy said the problem was in “defining the concept of international terrorism, which all delegations are in principle prepared to condemn.” He said the discussion should be “removed from the political arena” so that “a constructive solution could emerge very rapidly.” He welcomed what he said was the various delegations’ willingness “to hold this debate in a sober, clear atmosphere.”
BAROODY DISPUTED BY SWEDISH MINISTER
Ambassador Jamil M. Baroody, the Lebanese who represents Saudi Arabia, condemned terrorism for “greed, ambition or notoriety,” but saw justification for terrorism that “emanates from the struggle for freedom and self-determination.” Baroody complained that the strong American draft resolution would “suppress anyone who is trying to regain his country if he believes it is under colonial rule.” He said the solution was to “remove the cause of the trouble.”
Carl Lidtom, Swedish Minister-Without-Port-folio, disagreed with Baroody’s contention that terrorism could not be stifled until all wars were. There is an immediate need, he said, to protect innocents’ from revolutionaries’ lack of “restraint,” epitomized by recent “indiscriminate violence against innocent civilians” that has “caused very deep emotions.” He agreed with Baroody, however, that the situation was “complex,” that there were “great difficulties” in defining international terrorism, but contended that “cooperation has already begun.”
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