| Date | 8 December 2005 |
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Agenda item 108
Measures to eliminate international terrorism
Report of the Sixth Committee (A/60/519)
The President
The General Assembly has before it a draft resolution recommended by the Sixth Committee in paragraph 10 of its report.
We shall now take a decision on the draft resolution. The Sixth Committee adopted the draft resolution without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?
The President
I call on the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who wishes to speak in explanation of position following the adoption of the resolution.
Ms. Taj El Dine (Venezuela)
The Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela joined the consensus on the resolution. However, we would like to make a statement with regard to certain points in that resolution.
Where the fourth preambular paragraph recalls the 2005 World Summit Outcome, we are in fact recalling the result of negotiations that took place behind closed doors and that excluded at least 170 countries. That was the only way possible to reach agreement -- in addition, of course, to the imposition of elements and to authoritarianism. Elements such as State terrorism or the difference between the concept of terrorism and the legitimate right of peoples to free self-determination were ignored. That could be accomplished only with the representatives of 16 States in a room -- that is, it made it impossible to demonstrate to the international community the genuine differences that exist with regard to this subject. Even worse, we presented to the world's peoples the concept of terrorism from the contemporary Western perspective. A much better example can be found in the failure to reach agreement at the recent Euro-Mediterranean summit. There, the differences within the international community on the subject were obvious.
The term "terrorism" began to be used at the end of the eighteenth century, mainly to refer to violent acts carried out by Governments to ensure the people's submission. Those who practice State terrorism control the system of thought and expression, working in tandem with the media. In general, they use selected incidents of terrorism, exploiting terrorism as much as possible and using it as a pretext for Western violence. The cynicism is astounding, to the point of proclaiming transparent lies, such as that they do not torture, but only use innovative information-gathering methods. Therefore, they have sought to have us abandon the original meaning of the term "terrorism" so that the term will be applied mainly to retail terrorism.
For all those reasons, this delegation has reservations about the resolution's fourth preambular paragraph, because we are referring to a discredited document that, needless to say, is null and void and of no effect for the Republic.
There are other elements that led us to examine the concept of this resolution -- for example, the sixth preambular paragraph, which recalls all General Assembly resolutions on this subject. That pleases us, because it includes resolution 39/159 of 1984, which vigorously condemns terrorist policies and practices as a method used by States to deal with other States and peoples. Furthermore, in this resolution, we recall two resolutions that are extremely important for my country: Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1624 (2005). In that way, the international community is appealing to the United States of America to stop protecting the terrorist Luis Clemente Posada Carriles and to extradite him to Venezuelan territory or, failing that, to prosecute him on its own territory. This resolution also requests that Government to take the measures necessary to prohibit and prevent conduct such as that of its Reverend Pat Robertson, who urges the commission of terrorist acts.
I wish to conclude this statement by expressing our fervent hope that, on 27 February 2006, the Special Committee will meet once again to conclude, by consensus, the elaboration of a comprehensive convention for the elimination of international terrorism. That convention must -- and this is very important -- respond to the demands of the world's peoples. Let us avoid creating a new legal order that protects the strong and condemns the weak. In other words, let us protect the peoples of the world.
The President
The General Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda item 108.
