billionaire George Soros agreed at the gathering that the
international community had to pull together.
"Terrorism takes many forms and has many causes but there is a
commonality in that terrorism takes away innocent lives and that is
a violation of human rights. Taking life is a crime against
humanity," US financier Soros told the conference's plenary
session.
"Consensus is emerging here on how to address terrorism," said
Soros, who said the correct way forward was emphatically not the
United States' declared 'war on terror'.
"We have a different and more constructive way of looking at
terror," said the investor, who spent millions of dollars last year
trying to block US President George W. Bush's reelection.
"In combating terrorism we must be careful not to fall into the
trap of violating human rights and creating innocent victims.
"The way President Bush has waged war on terror has violated (that)
principle because war by its nature creates innocent victims.
"They have violated international law by using torture," said
Soros, who nevertheless welcomed recent signs that Washington
wanted to make the spread of democracy a major strut of Bush's
second term agenda.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was due later Thursday to outline
the world body's strategy for combating terrorism to the gathering
here of 20 current and former heads of state and 200 experts.
He was expected to call for a multilateral approach that would
uphold human rights.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also addressing the session here,
urged the international community to unite to eradicate terrorism,
as it had done to free his country from Taliban rule.
"Afghanistan has proved that when the international community wakes
up and joins hands it can defeat any menace," Karzai said,
regretting that for too long the world had "unfortunately
neglected" Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in
1989.
"Afghanistan was incapacitated by years of war" which gave way to
the rise of the Taliban, finally ousted in 2002 by a multinational
force with a United Nations mandate.
The absence of such a mandate poisoned relations between the
international community and Washington when it came to the conflict
in Iraq.
"When the help of the international community came (Afghanistan)
was freed immediately," Karzai, elected last autumn, told
delegates.
"The election wrought a massive transformation in the minds of the
people," he said.
This week's summit has been marked by criticism of the US war on
terror and the invasion of Iraq, but it has also seen hope that the
recent Iraqi election and Bush's reaching out to Europe may signify
some progress towards eventual stability.
Javier Solana, EU foreign policy coordinator and former head of
NATO, said respect for democracy had to be paramount.
"In the struggle against terrorism we should be the first to uphold
democratic values. It would be our first defeat if we resort to the
methods of the terrorists," he told the assembly.
- AFP
Ah, the wonders of democracy. May she live forever. 