UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL
Statement by
H.E. Mr David Stuart Charg� d'Affairs of the Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations
Counter Terrorism
15 April 2002
Mr President
Thank you for convening this timely and important meeting on an issue of deep interest and continuing concern to member states. We would like to use the opportunity to summarize for the Council Australia's own efforts to strengthen our counter-terrorism capacity and enhance our cooperation with other countries, particularly in our own region. Before doing so, I wish to acknowledge, and express our appreciation for, the sustained effort by the members of the Security Council and the Secretariat staff working with them to establish the Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee. Sir Jeremy Greenstock deserves many accolades for this but we are also aware that many other colleagues have worked hard and well to develop the important role that the CTC is now playing in strengthening international counter-terrorism efforts.
The 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States demonstrated in stark, tragic terms the current weaknesses in the international counter-terrorism regime. Existing counter-terrorism instruments, while enjoying wide adherence, did not provide sufficient accountability or verification of their implementation. Other weaknesses were insufficient information exchange and the lack of assistance for capacity building.
Mr President
Security Council Resolution 1373 provides a comprehensive framework for international action against terrorism. It is a blueprint for addressing current weaknesses, particularly in relation to suppressing the financing of terrorism. A key aspect of SCR1373 is its requirement for all member states to report on the national and regional implementation of counter-terrorism efforts. Australia encourages all members states to implement fully the provisions of SCR 1373.
Even before 11 September, Australia had in place substantial measures to combat terrorism. As host to the Year 2000 Olympics, we had recent experience in addressing the terrorist threat.
Since the submission of Australia's first report to the Counter-Terrorism Committee in December 2001, the Australian Government has introduced to Parliament comprehensive new laws specifically directed to:
- strengthen the capacity of law enforcement to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorist acts;
- strengthen measures to detect, freeze and seize terrorist assets and eliminate terrorist financing;
- and enable Australia to become a Party to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings.
These efforts reflect Australia's firm resolve to further strengthen its domestic counter-terrorism laws and practices.
Mr President
As outlined in SCR1373, counter-terrorism activity cannot be limited to efforts at the national level. Bilateral, regional and international cooperation is essential to effectively combat terrorism, in all its forms and in all its locations. At the bilateral level, Australia is pleased to report that we signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Combating International Terrorism on 7 February 2002 with Indonesia. The MOU provides a framework for bilateral cooperation to prevent, suppress and combat international terrorism through the exchange and flow of information and intelligence. It also provides for cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the strengthening of capacity building through networking, training and education programs, visits, and joint operations. We are currently considering initiatives to implement the MOU.
In our own region, Australia is actively contributing to promoting cooperation against terrorism. From 25-27 March, Australia, with the United States, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, co-hosted a Pacific Islands counter-terrorism workshop in Honolulu. The workshop successfully raised awareness among Pacific Island Countries of the nature and threat posed by international terrorism and of the measures needed to combat it. It produced a report that will serve as a guide to Pacific Island Countries in giving effect to SCR 1373 and in implementing the counter-terrorism conventions. The workshop emphasised the importance of preventing terrorist financing, strengthening border controls, and developing and implementing appropriate domestic counter-terrorism legislative regimes, with a focus on the Pacific Island regional environment.
Australia also participated in an ASEAN Regional Forum workshop on financial measures against terrorism, held in Honolulu from 24-26 March. This workshop emphasised the need to coordinate international measures to suppress the financing of terrorism, and the role the ASEAN Regional Forum and other regional groups can play in developing mechanisms for informationsharing. Australia sees both the Pacific Islands Forum and the ASEAN Regional Forum as regional bodies with a significant contribution to make to counter-terrorism.
Mr President
Although Australia has been active at the national and regional levels, we recognise that further steps and a long-term committed effort are required. From 17 to 19 April in Bangkok, Australia will co-host with Thailand an ASEAN Regional Forum workshop on the prevention of terrorism.
The Bangkok workshop will enable ARF participants to obtain a greater understanding of practical measures to prevent terrorist activity, with a focus on border control, security measures for international events, measures to detect explosive materials, and aviation security. More generally the workshop will examine means of preventing terrorism and enhancing security through improved information flow and intelligence exchange. It will be the second in what is developing into a series of ASEAN Regional Forum workshops focused on achieving concrete and practical outcomes to improve security and regional cooperation in counter-terrorism.
Australia strongly supports the work done in the United Nations to ensure there is a broad international front against terrorism. As stressed by the Prime Minister of Australia when he addressed the Council on 30 January this year, in implementing the important resolutions recently agreed in New York, we are looking to the Council for action rather than rhetoric.
Thank you Mr President.