Working Group on International Terrorism

Statement by Mr. Narinder Singh, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York on September 27, 1999 in Sixth Committee (legal)

Mr. Chairman,

I take this opportunity to join other delegations in congratulating you and other members of the Bureau on your unanimous reelection.

I have the pleasure of informing you, Mr. Chairman, that my country has signed and ratified the International Convention on Terrorist Bombings, 1997, which was adopted by the General Assembly on the recommendation of this Working Group. India’s instrument of ratification was deposited with the Secretary General by H.E. Mr. Jaswant Singh, the Minister for External Affairs on the 22nd of this month. Earlier, the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations had signed the Convention on 17th September.

Mr. Chairman, as the External Affairs Minister of my country had emphasised in the General Debate in the General Assembly last week, terrorism is the great global menace of our age, it is the very anti-thesis of all that the United Nations represents and stands for, and violates the very basic precepts of democracy. It also constitutes a grave threat to international peace and security, particularly when terrorists are armed, financed and backed by Governments or their agencies, and benefit from the protection of State power. For well over a decade, my country has been subjected to a sustained campaign of cross-border terrorism, sponsored from across our borders, which has taken the lives of thousands of our citizens, and ruined those of countless others. Detailed information in this regard has been submitted to the Secretary General in response to his request for information on implementation of the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, annexed to General Assembly Resolution 49/60 of 9th December 1994.

Mr. Chairman, several Heads of State and Foreign Ministers, speaking in the General Assembly, referred to terrorism as the scourge of mankind and emphasised the need for international cooperation to combat, limit and eliminate it. The threat posed by terrorism to the lives and well-being of ordinary peoples world-wide and to the peace and security of all States, was also recognised in the Statement of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the five permanent members of the Security Council, issued on 23 September 1999, which called on all States to strengthen international cooperation, under United Nations auspices, to fight terrorism in all its forms, including through denial of safe havens, and to prevent and suppress in their territories, the preparation and financing of any acts of terrorism.

Mr. Chairman, the recent spate of terrorist incidents in the territory of the Russian Federation which have taken the lives of hundreds of innocent persons and caused massive destruction of property, only serve to highlight the importance of the need for early entry into force and effective implementation of the Terrorist Bombings Convention, and we hope that it will receive the remaining 14 ratifications required for its entry into force at an early date.

Mr. Chairman, coming to the topics for consideration before us at this session of the Working Group, we hope that we would be able to make substantial progress and complete our consideration of the draft Convention against financing of terrorism and recommend it for adoption by the General Assembly. We also hope that, at this session, we would be able to resolve the outstanding issues regarding the Draft Convention against Nuclear Terrorism.

The completion of work on these drafts presently before us would enable the Ad hoc Committee and the Working Group, at its next session, to take up consideration of the proposal for a comprehensive convention on terrorism submitted by India at the 51st UNGA session. At the last General Assembly session in 1998, a revised draft has been circulated informally to delegations for their views and we are ready to work with all delegations and will present a revised text, taking into account the views of all concerned delegations, which we hope would be able to form a suitable basis for reaching consensus.