The Definition of Terrorism

16th September 2005

The United Nations failed this week to agree a definition of terrorism. The difficulty echoes what happened in the US after 9-11, where various federal agencies were themselves unable to agree on a definition. In the case of the UN, the main sticking points were between the West and Developing Countries, in particular:

• Developing countries wanted to exclude national liberation movements from the definition.
  
  
• Western countries wanted to include any violence against civilians for political purposes.

Agreeing a definition matters because, as the WorldTribune.com article points out, the lack of a definition can impair progress in fighting terrorism.

Agreeing a definition is difficult because the moral issues are complex, hence the cliche: 'one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist'. Eg: could economic sanctions be classed as acts of terrorism if the intent of the sanction is to hurt the regime, and innocent civilians and children die in the process?

In time of war, the Geneva convention makes the rules clear and what is/is not acceptable. There is no equivalent charter for national liberation or attempts to change the behaviour of governments. Yet such a charter is sorely needed because even the Western countries support national liberation movements under differing circumstances - the liberation of Iraq was one of the justifications used for the US-led invasion. What rules there are (eg: the illegality of regime change) have largely been disregarded by the US and UK.

I hope that the United Nations will continue to strive for an agreed definition of terrorism, and make clear what is and is not acceptable when dealing with tyrranical governments.

Fuel Protest Postscript

To follow up my blog of 13th September on the fuel protests, I filled up my car at the garage today. The forecourt was deserted. I guess most people are driving around with full tanks in their cars, so don't need to visit the petrol station.

Taking a retrospective look at the whole debacle, the fuel protests had no impact whatsover on wholesale supplies of petrol. There were no blockades at the refineries, and the tankers kept delivering petrol to the stations.

However, there were many fuel shortages, according to news reports. These were created solely by panic buying.

Background

WorldTribune.com

"The U.S.-led war against terrorism has been stymied by the failure of federal agencies to agree on what exactly terrorism means..."