All-Party Roundtable Conference and Parliamentary endorsement on
Malaysian consensus on national and international response to Sept. 11
US terrorist mass murders and terrorism
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): The
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that
while Malaysia supports the United States' war against terrorism, it opposes
plans to attack Afghanistan or other nations in the US pursuit of
terrorists, as the battle would not solve terrorism and would
inflict sufferings on the innocent public.
The time has come not only for a government position on the horrors
and crimes against humanity in the Sept. 11 United States terrorist mass
murders but for the convening of an all-party roundtable conference for
a Malaysian consensus on the proper national and international response
to the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon, which should
comprise some of the following key elements:
-
deliberate, just and humane response to the horrific carnage
in the United States on Sept. 11 to ferret out and punish the perpetrators
of the heinous and unspeakable crimes against humanity;
-
recognition of the barbaric holocausts in New York and Washington on Sept.
11 as international terrorism and international crimes rather than
an act of war and that the rules of law rather than the rules of war
should guide international response;
-
that the perpetrators, whether individuals, organisations or countries
should be accurately identified;
-
no targetting of innocent civilians which would become the war of one terrorism
against another;
-
all forms of military action should be taken only with the permission,
and under the auspices of, the Security Council as international
law does not recognise any right of retaliation or vengeance (Chapter 7
of the United Nations Charter, which governs the use of force, provides
the only exception of self-defence against imminent attack
which does not include vengeance for past attacks).
-
Without being apologists for the Sept. 11 US terrorism, recognition that
in the modern world, terrorism comes in many forms, not just hijackers
or car-bombers or kamikazes, but also governments that bomb rebel or enemy
towns and villages, enact sanctions that rob children of food and medical
supplies, starve citizens, abet drug traffickers or torture political
opponents and the urgent need for a global initiative to end such a horrible
cycle of violence by addressing the political and economic root causes
of terrorism.
A roundtable conference of all political parties in Malaysia should
be convened next week to reach agreement and announce to the world a Malaysian
national consensus transcending political parties, race, religion and culture
on national and international response to the Sept. 11 US barbaric
mass murders and international terrorism.
This all-party roundtable conference on the Malaysian consensus of national
and international response to the Sept. 11 US barbaric mass murders
and terrorism should be followed up with the unanimous adoption of a Parliamentary
motion supported by MPs from all political parties, whether in government
or opposition, embodying the Malaysian national consensus on terrorism
on the very first day of Parliament when it reconvenes for the long budget
meeting on Monday, October 8, 2001.
(29/9/2001)
*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman