New York Mayor addresses global terrorism forum

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was stepping on to the global stage today at the start of a week-long United Nations debate on international terrorism, which will hear the views of more than 150 countries.

The General Assembly meeting in the city will be the first global forum on terrorism since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon which claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people from over 60 countries.

Mayor Giuliani, who has been praised worldwide for leading a massive search and rescue effort and later a clean-up at the site of the collapsed World Trade Centre towers in New York, will speak before the plenary meeting is formally opened.

He will be the first New York City mayor in nearly 50 years to address the General Assembly, assembly spokesman Jan Fischer said.

Mayor William O’Dwyer addressed United Nations delegates in 1949, when the cornerstone for the present UN headquarters was laid, and Mayor Vincent R Impellitteri spoke at the first General Assembly meeting in the new 39-storey building in 1952.

The General Assembly is meeting three days after the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution requiring all 189 UN-member nations to deny money, support and sanctuary to terrorists.

It was introduced and approved in just over 24 hours by the often-plodding Security Council, reflecting Washington’s wide support as it leads a global campaign to pursue those responsible for the attacks, and any nation that harbours them.

Under the resolution, all countries must make the ‘‘willful’’ financing of terrorism a criminal offence, immediately freeze terrorist-related funds and prevent movement of individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections.

Nations must also deny terrorists any ‘‘safe haven’’ and speed the exchange of information, especially on the actions and movements of terrorists.

In his speech, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will emphasise that terrorism is a universal challenge which the United Nations is uniquely positioned to help address, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Annan has called for international co-operation to fight what he contends is an attack on all of humanity.

Since 1963, the General Assembly has adopted a dozen legal instruments to fight terrorism.

But only five have been ratified by more than 100 countries and the newest - to cut off the financing of terrorism - has not taken effect because it has not been ratified by enough countries.

The Security Council resolution adopted on Friday night incorporated key elements from these dozen legal instruments, which means they are now legally binding on all countries, whether the protocols and conventions have been ratified or not.

Eckhard said Annan would urge all nations to sign and ratify the anti-terrorism conventions ‘‘as a matter of urgent priority.’’

The secretary general will also warn against the even more dangerous threat of terrorists using biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and call for action to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction, Eckhard said.

The General Assembly postponed its annual ministerial meeting because of the attacks, so the speakers at the terrorist debate will be primarily UN ambassadors, although a few foreign ministers are still expected to attend.