UN condemns terrorist attacks and executions
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has strongly condemned terrorist attacks in Israel and Russia and the gruesome murder of 12 Nepalese civilians in Iraq. The UN Security Council condemned the Israeli suicide bombings and “all other acts of terrorism”.
In separate statements, the UN’s leader and most powerful body denounced those who take innocent lives.
“The secretary-general strongly condemns all hostage-takings and killings of innocent civilians, which no cause can ever justify. He calls once again for the immediate release of all hostages in Iraq and appeals to all parties to adhere strictly to the fundamental precepts of human rights and respect for human life,” said a statement from Annan’s spokesman issued after the Nepali murders.
Following a bombing of two buses in the Israeli desert city of Beersheba that killed 16 passengers and wounded more than 80, Annan called on the Palestinian Authority ”to do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice and to put an end to such heinous crimes,” UN associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The Security Council, taking note of Annan’s statement, ”denounced the escalation of violence in the Middle East and called on all the parties for the continuation of the Middle East peace process”.
Council members “also condemned all other acts of terrorism”, said a council statement read by the current president, Russia’s UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov.
US deputy ambassador Anne Patterson told reporters the US would have liked “something stronger” on the Israeli bombings.
“We would like to have seen an unequivocal condemnation,” she said, indicating that Palestinian supporters blocked tougher language.
But Denisov said he didn’t think there was any way to measure the degree of condemnation.
“It was as strong as possible because there was no other way,” he said. “That was a tragic event and all of us were unanimous in condemning it, as well as other acts of terrorism.”
Speaking as Russia’s envoy, Denisov cited a recent spate of “brutal attacks” by terrorists including last week’s explosions on two Russian planes that killed 90 and were claimed by a group linked to al-Qaida and the car bombing of a security company in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed 10 people.
He spoke before a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station last night, killing 10 people and injuring more than 50.
