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UN nudges Pak on law for 26/11 trials
New York, July 4: Pakistan has been repeatedly urged to enact laws to punish its citizens who engage in terrorist acts, such as the 26/11 attacks, outside its borders, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview.
Ban said Pakistans Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, had told him during a visit to Islamabad less than three months after the attacks on Mumbai that Pakistan lacked legislation to punish its citizens who engaged in terrorism outside its borders.
I have been discussing continuously the need for such laws and will continue to do so, Ban said in the interview after being sworn in for a second five-year term to lead the world body.
The secretary-generals statement is of tremendous significance in the light of Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Raos assertion during the weekend that the prism through which they (Pakistanis) see this issue (terrorism) has definitely been altered. I see that as an outcome that we must take note of, that we must take cognisance of.
Referring to her own recent visit to Islamabad, the foreign secretary had revealed that the Pakistanis speak of the fact that non-state elements in this relationship of terrorism within Pakistan need to be tackled.
Without directly referring to the secretary-generals efforts, Rao said: It is not just the aim of India. I think it applies to the whole global community; the strategic link between the Pakistani state and militancy and terror needs to be broken.
Bans efforts are typical of this secretary-generals style of functioning, not as a sprinter aiming to cross the finishing line ahead of others but as a firm believer in the Confucian theory that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
During his first term in office, Ban spent a third of his time on the road, engaging in personal diplomacy through visits to trouble spots instead of using the UN as a bully pulpit to hold forth on the burning issues of the day.
He is up at 4am on many days in deference to the International Date Line to make phone calls to heads of state and government around the world as part of his style of personal diplomacy and often continues to burn up the telephone lines until midnight.
Bans influence on Pakistan is often underestimated like the secretary-general himself. He rushed to Pakistan during its catastrophic floods in August last year.
He came back to the UN headquarters and penned an op-ed article in The New York Times, not a verbose treatise on disaster management but in words ordinary readers can relate to.
Soon after issuing an appeal for $460 million on behalf of the UN for Pakistan, the secretary-general translated that appeal in common sense terms in his op-ed. He wrote that the appeal amounts to less than $1 a day per person to keep 6 million people alive for the next three months including 3.5 million children.
Within a week, the UN was past the halfway mark in raising the money although it was a time of intense pressure on global resources for disaster relief because of several calamities, including the earthquake in Haiti. India contributed $20 million to Bans fund-raising appeal for Pakistan.
Bans interest in seeing a resolution to India-Pakistan disputes was underlined when he expressed optimism the day after his second swearing-in about a forthcoming meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
I am aware of the positions of both India and Pakistan. And the Indian and Pakistan government leaders they have been discussing this matter among themselves and foreign ministerial-level meetings have taken place. I understand that there is going to be one soon. I hope that all these issues should be resolved peacefully through dialogue between the two governments, he said.
He hoped to have more opportunities in his second term to promote dialogue between India and Pakistan. As in the past, I will discuss this matter with leaders of both India and Pakistan how we can help or how this issue could be resolved peacefully, through dialogue.
Ban feels that a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that denies terrorists and their sponsors safe havens, funds and weapons is absolutely necessary in the fight against terror.
A Korean who believes the oriental adage that all rivers start with a single raindrop, Ban said the UN has shown great leadership in the campaign to fight against terrorism when it unanimously adopted a global counter-terrorism strategy in December 2006.
He pointed out that the Security Council too had established a counter-terrorism task force. Besides, Indias permanent representative to the UN, Hardeep Singh Puri, is the current chairperson of a counter-terrorism committee that was established by the Council to freeze terrorist funds and curb the provision of safe havens to terrorists, among other tasks.
But the secretary-general regretted that the international community had been unable to agree on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism so far. That will be our continuing priority.
Describing Osama bin Ladens death as a watershed in the fight against global terrorism, Ban said we have to do more in terms of institutionalising our common efforts to mobilise resources and strengthen solidarity among countries in creating effective instruments for counter-terrorism.
The secretary-general categorically reject(ed) any misunderstanding that he was unhelpful in bringing about reforms to the Security Council, where India is seeking a permanent seat.
Bans native South Korea has been opposed to initiatives by the Group of Four nations, including India, to expand the permanent membership of the Council, efforts that have made considerable headway this year.
But Ban said that because he presided over South Korean policy in this matter in his previous job as Seouls foreign minister, and because of the potential for misperceptions, he had taken a very impartial and principled position on the important matter of Security Council reform.
He claimed to have spoken more than 100 times calling for reform of the Council. I believe that considering the significant changes in the international political scene, the Security Council should be reformed and adapted to such changes in a democratic and representative way.
He regretted that more than 15 years had been wasted in a process under an open-ended working group for recommending such reform, but expressed optimism that negotiations based on an actual text for expansion since March this year would bring about forward movement to these efforts. I urge member states to accelerate the pace of their negotiations. But he cautioned that the final decision on Security Council expansion was not up to him but would be determined by members of the UN.
He conceded that the negotiations had got speed and were going on at an accelerated pace, adding that he would continue to advocate reforms.
The secretary-general paid tribute to Indias role in the Security Council, to which it was elected from January 1 this year and whose presidency New Delhi will acquire next month for the first time in almost two decades.
He also praised India for reducing child mortality, improving the condition of women, and its HIV/AIDS initiatives, all issues close to Bans heart, and on which Indias best practices are to be emulated by the rest of the world.
UN nudges Pak on law for 26/11 trials
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