China's Position Paper against International Terrorism |
2001-09-25 00:00 |
I. Terrorism, which endangers innocent lives, causes losses of social wealth and jeopardizes security of States, constitutes a serious challenge to human civilization and a serious threat to international peace and security. II. The Chinese Government opposes and condemns all forms of terrorism and is against using terrorism as a means of achieving political objectives. III. The fight against terrorism calls for protracted and concerted efforts of the international community. It is imperative to strengthen international cooperation at all levels and establish an international anti-terrorism mechanism under the auspices of the United Nations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, relevant Security Council resolutions, all conventions against international terrorism as well as documents adopted by the UN General Assembly in this regard. IV. China supports all efforts aimed at strengthening anti-terrorism conventions within the framework of the United Nations, including the early completion of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. China encourages all States to become parties to the existing international anti-terrorism conventions as soon as possible and to effectively implement such conventions. V. In their cooperation to fight international terrorism, all States should faithfully fulfill their responsibilities and obligations, including: -- condemning all acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations as criminal and unjustifiable; -- taking necessary measures, in accordance with their national laws and international obligations, to cut off any financial, material and military support to terrorists; -- desisting from engaging in activities of organizing, abetting, assisting, financing or participating in terrorist acts in the territories of other countries, or acquiescing in or encouraging activities within their own borders that facilitate acts of terrorism in other countries, or sheltering, harboring or conniving at international terrorists, or supporting or tolerating for whatever reason or in whatever form and by whatever means, perpetrators of terrorist acts; -- taking appropriate measures to ensure that their territories are not used as terrorist training camps or to prepare or organize acts of terrorist activities against other countries or their nationals; -- arresting, prosecuting and extraditing perpetrators of terrorist acts in conformity with their domestic laws and provisions of relevant international treaties; -- making efforts to conduct international cooperation through bilateral, regional and multilateral agreements and arrangements, particularly by promoting all forms of information exchange helpful to the fight against terrorism, providing legal assistance in terms of investigation, evidence-collection, arrest and prosecution procedures involving acts of terrorism, and extraditing or handing over by other means criminals to relevant authorities of countries concerned, in accordance with domestic laws as well as obligations provided for in international treaties. Developed countries should provide to other Member States upon request necessary anti-terrorism technologies, financial assistance and training and help the latter to strengthen their anti-terrorism capacity building. VI. The United Nations and its Security Council should play a leading role in the fight against terrorism. It is recommended that the Security Council should establish an anti-terrorism mechanism to explore and formulate and conduct concrete programs for the fight against terrorism. VII. It is recommended that UN Secretariat strengthen its capacity of information-collection and analysis in the field of counter-terrorism and report to the Security Council periodically. VIII. The fight against terrorism should be conducted in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and other established norms of international law. There should be a comprehensive approach, involving political, diplomatic, economic and other means, to address both the problem of terrorism and its underlying causes, in an effort to eliminate the root causes of terrorism. |