By Arul Louis,
United Nations : India’s UN Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukerji has asked the UN Security Council (UNSC) to enforce without exception its resolutions on countering terrorism in order to stave off “an ever-widening spiral of violence and destruction”.
“The Council must seriously and transparently take measures available to it under the Charter to require member states of implement its resolutions on countering terrorism without exception,” he said Thursday.
Therefore, the UNSC should incorporate a “mandatory time-bound reporting” to the wider UN membership of how the anti-terrorism resolutions are implemented.
Mukerji suggested that for a start, UNSC give its assessment of implementation of the provisions for international cooperation in the resolution on countering terrorism it passed last month.
One of these provisions called on member states to assist in criminal investigations or proceedings relating to the financing or support of terrorist acts and foreign fighters.
Others were on improving cooperation among nations to take steps to stop the travel of foreign terrorists and to share information to identify them, and on acting on preventing terrorists from using technology to incite support for terrorism.
Mukerji warned that “to condone the use of terrorism on account of perceived political purposes is counterproductive, and will engulf more and more member states in an ever-widening spiral of violence and destruction”.
Turning to UN peacekeeping operations, he crticised the UNSC saying it was “enforcing the will of a small privileged minority within the Council to look at peacekeepers as instruments to wage war”.
He cited the UNSC’s disregard of the UN Charter requirement for nations contributing troops “to participate in the decisions” of the UNSC on their deployment.
“India, for example, has not been so consulted,” he said. “This despite the fact that India is the single largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping operations, having contributed more than 170,000 troops in 43 of the 69 peacekeeping operations mandated so far by the Council.”
Currently, India has 8,108 personnel under the UN’s blue flag, 7,053 of them troops and 999 police.
A consequence of not involving nations contributing troops in the decision-making process “is an increasing demand for more and more resources, military and financial, and experiments with new technology,” he said.
This has been “at the expense of a politically brokered peaceful settlement of disputes”.
Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan also called for closer consultation by the UNSC with countries contributing troops so that mandates were adapted to actual situations.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected])