Press Briefing Held on "Re-vitalizing the United Nations Efforts against Terrorism"

UNIS Vienna organized a press briefing today with Javier Rupérez, Executive Director, Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), United Nations Security Council. Eduardo Vetere, Chief of Division of Treaty Affairs at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), joined Mr. Rupérez at the press briefing, which was chaired by Janos Tisovszky, Information Officer, UNIS Vienna.

Mr. Rupérez came to Vienna to meet with UNODC officials dealing with counter-terrorism efforts in the Terrorism Prevention Branch. The aim of the visit was to discuss ways and means of  enhancing cooperation and work-sharing between the two key counter-terrorism bodies of the United Nations. The Executive Directorate was recently established by the Security Council as part of its efforts to restructure and re-vitalize its Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), which was established in 2001 by resolution 1373. The new body is to assist the CTC in strengthening the monitoring and implementation of the counter-terrorism measures decided by the Security Council. Executive Director Javier Rupérez was appointed to head the new Directorate in May 2004.

In his opening statement, Mr. Rupérez pointed out that the United Nations should provide the terms of reference for combined efforts against terrorism and the main purpose of these efforts was to save lives.

Mr. Vetere welcomed Mr. Rupérez in Vienna, who managed to come despite his very busy schedule, which included an address to the Security Council only yesterday. Mr. Vetere reiterated Mr. Rupérez's statement that the basic purpose of the United Nations efforts against terrorism was to save as many innocent lives as possible.

Responding to Iraq-related questions during a question-and-answer session, Mr. Rupérez said that what was happening in Iraq was terrorism, and those engaging themselves in this activity even called themselves terrorists and followers of Oussama bin Laden. Mr. Rupérez refrained from commenting on the pull-out of Spanish troops from Iraq following the Madrid bombings.

He stressed that as the Executive Director of CTED he would try to act pre-emptively; once a terrorist act had been committed, there was no turning back. 

In response to a question whether the United Nations would be able to combat the problem of terrorism or should it be tackled by someone else instead, Mr. Rupérez said that the Organization would be able to do whatever the 191 Member States wanted it to do. He added that the United Nations was borne out of the need to respond to the great problems facing humanity, which terrorism certainly was. Therefore, the Organization could not avoid getting involved. Mr. Rupérez said it was clear that terrorism killed people, and there was no justification for that. The United Nations had no police of its own, therefore, the Organization had to stop terrorism through the rule of law and the Security Council.

Asked about nuclear terrorism, Mr. Rupérez replied that he was going to meet with representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency during his visit to Vienna to discuss nuclear proliferation.

In response to a question about CTED becoming another diplomatic talk shop, he said that he would try to be as clear and open in the language he would use, yet also diplomatic when addressing sensitive issues. Questions regarding information exchange were also raised during the press briefing; Mr. Rupérez stressed that he considered this a crucial task, given both the legal and the financial implications of information sharing. He explained that the United Nations itself does not gather information, and it would rely on the information submitted by the Member States.

On the Organization itself becoming a target, Mr. Rupérez said that he never believed in neutrality, because in the end, everyone needed to take sides, both individually and collectively. Those who wanted to destroy the Member States, wanted to destroy the United Nations as a whole. Mr. Rupérez concluded by saying that the terrorists were trying to destroy the world we believed in, the world of tolerance, understanding and co-existence, the world that the United Nations stood for.

  The briefing was well attended by local and international media (Die Presse, Reuters, Austrian Press Agency, EFE, BBC Arabic Service, Wall Street Journal, Al Hayat, ANSA), permanent missions and United Nations staff members.

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