New York, Sept 22 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman criticised the world community for insufficient activity in fighting international terrorism in his speech at the 71st U.N. General Assembly session on Wednesday night.
He called for a military operation against terrorists and recommended the activation of some articles of the U.N. Charter, including Article 47 that supposes the establishment of a military staff to assist the U.N. Security Council.
“This article is called, in the U.N. terminology, the sleeping article…Let’s awake it!”
Zeman called for a coordinated action against terrorism to be launched by all permanent members of the Security Council.
Nothing has happened in this respect so far, he said, adding that India proposed the establishment of a U.N. permanent platform for fighting international terrorism in 2000 already.
“After sixteen years, there is a lasting discussion about the definition of international terrorism,” he said.
“I am not an international lawyer and that is why for me, the terrorist is everybody who kills intentionally innocent people,” Zeman said.
He said six countries were hit by terrorism several years ago, compared to 35 countries now. He mentioned the past year’s terrorist attacks in Paris, Dhaka, Istanbul, Orlando, Nice and elsewhere.
Zeman compared international terrorism to a spreading tumor.
“Many cancers have metastases which are more dangerous than the tumour itself. That is why we can observe the spreading of radicalism, terrorism and fanaticism. And we must ask: how long are we to wait, how long are we to convey condolences only, how long are we to express only declarations of solidarity?” Zeman asked.
He said a military intervention is needed that would focus on the command structures of terrorist organisations, not on occupying countries, which turned out to be a wrong path in the past. In this connection he mentioned the ground military operations in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
“We have to attack the brain, not the body,” he said.
Terrorism threatens to continue spreading unless the international community intervenes, Zeman said.
There will be new murders, new collapses of states, he said, assessing as critical the situation in Afghanistan where, he said, threatens the victory of Taliban after the reduction of NATO troops’ presence. Taliban may become the same terrorist threat like Islamic state, Al-Qaeda or the Boko Haram group, Zeman said.
At the close of his speech he quoted, in Latin, ancient Roman statesman Cato the Elder’s sentence “Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.”
In this case, the object in focus in not Carthage but terrorism, Zeman said.
He used the We shall overcome song lyrics to voice his conviction that terrorism will be defeated one day.
