Two resolutions have been introduced in the House urging the United States to take the lead in seeking international cooperation in stamping out airline hijackings.
Seventy-three Congressmen from 18 states joined in co-sponsoring a resolution introduced yesterday by Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat Edward Koch, both of New York, which urges President Ford to initiate negotiations for an international treaty which would eliminate sanctuaries for terrorists and provide for enforceable sanctions for countries that give asylum to hijackers.
The other resolution introduced Monday by another New York Republican, Benjamin Gilman, urges Ford to seek formation at the United Nations of a permanent international commission which would define international terrorism and propose methods to deal with it. The resolution also asks the President to renew efforts begun at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting in Rome in 1972 to establish an international convention providing aviation sanctions against countries that “refuse to punish or extradite persons responsible for unlawful acts against civil aviation.”
Noting that more than 800 persons have been killed and 1700 injured by terrorist incidents since 1968, Kemp declared that “We shall be a long way from stamping out terrorism unless it is possible to penalize countries harboring terrorists and to achieve some kind of unanimity in the treatment of terrorists.”
Kemp said he believes that Ugandan President Idi Amin would never have provided sanctuary for the terrorists who held the hostages on the Tel Aviv-to-Paris Air France plane if he knew that this would have resulted in Uganda’s loan privileges at the International Monetary Fund being suspended.
The three New York Congressmen hailed the U.S.-British resolution in the Security Council last month which called on the Council to condemn terrorism and called on all governments to prevent and punish “all such terrorist acts.” The resolution failed to be adopted but Kemp said the “issue is far from being over” in the Council.
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