"United States Should Not Extend War to Somalia"

Soon after the collapse of the Afghan Taliban regime, the United States sent five officers to Somalia and strengthened its military presence in the Middle East, in preparation for extending the anti-terrorism war to Somalia.

Paul Wolfowitz, the hawkish US deputy defense secretary of the Pentagon, said that the United States has the ability to destroy all governments of the world supporting and harboring terrorist organizations. Afghanistan is not the only haven for terrorists.

The US pretext for its attack against Somalia is: There are signs that some "al-Qaida" members might have fled Afghanistan, and Somalia is the most ideal haven for them.

 

This US argument is in violation of the UN Charter and international law. By US logic, the United States can wage a war against a certain country to which it suspects terrorists have escaped. Such a move will reduce the UN Charter to nothing, since every small country can be attacked and invaded at any time by a superpower without national dignity and sovereignty. At present, the United States does not have sufficient evidence to prove that "al-Qaida" members are hiding in Somalia, and that the Somali Government harbors and supports the "al-Qaida" organization.

The United States cannot take military action unless it has adequate evidence to demand Somalia hand over terrorists, Somalia takes an antagonistic attitude, and the United Nations empowers the United States to use force. Without UN authorization, the United States proclaims itself an international judge and plays the role as world policeman to brazenly strike at sovereign states, undermining international order. If this precedent is set, other powers will also follow suit and wantonly use force under the pretext that terrorists might have fled to a certain country. Once a war breaks out, how can the human rights and existence rights of the people of invaded countries be safeguarded?

Counterterrorism is the common undertaking of mankind; it is not a patent for a small minority of countries. To get twice the result with half the effort, antiterrorism action should be jointly taken by all countries of the world in accordance with the UN Charter and international law after they reach consensus through consultation. Counterterrorism should not just focus on eradicating certain terrorist organizations. More importantly, it should eliminate the social causes of terrorism. Just as UN Secretary General Annan said, counterterrorism counts on long-term cooperation among all countries, and war will only cause regional tensions.

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All countries of the world have concluded international conventions on opposing terrorist activities. Since these conventions are still binding, all countries must strictly observe and safeguard their authoritativeness and strictness. If certain countries abide by them only as they please, and reject and arbitrarily trample on them whenever they find them make things inconvenient for them, it will simply disrupt international order, violate the antiterrorism consensus, and eventually split up the antiterrorism coalition and bring detrimental consequences. In view of the justice and rationality of antiterrorism action, the watershed lies in the effect. Is it aimed at combating terrorist acts jeopardizing the lives and property of innocent people, or is it instead to bring the greater disastrous consequences of endangering the lives and property of innocent people? If the answer is the latter, this is not antiterrorism action but national terrorism action.

In the Afghan war, all countries have seen the inhumane scene of the bombardment of residential areas, wanton slaughter of innocent civilians, and massacre of prisoners of war with their hands bound. They are contemplating how to reduce senseless barbarous acts of massacre. Yesterday [December 11] coincided with the three-month anniversary of the September 11 incident. While commemorating this incident, American people should halt their military action, cool down, and reflect on themselves. They should not rush headlong into another war against other countries, so as to avoid impetuously killing more innocent people.

This is because the United States is not waging a ground war but a war of indiscriminate bombing; it has dropped 5,000- and 10,000-pound large-size bombs of mass destruction from a height of 38,000 feet. In recent years, all countries of the world have banned weapons of mass destruction because this type of weapons can easily wound civilians and cause human tragedies. On the one hand, the United States prohibits other countries from using weapons of mass destruction, but on the other, it has adopted double standards and has repeatedly killed and injured large numbers of innocent civilians, before the people of the world.

This cannot but arouse resentment and opposition from the peace-loving peoples of all countries. If the United States attacks Somalia with bombing, it will bring another Afghan disaster. The United States should not play with fire.

 
Article Id: CPP20011212000056

Document Id: 0gobywe03xt9j8

Insert Date: 12/14/2001

Purge Date: 12/28/2003

Publish Date: 12/12/2001

Publish Region: China

Lines: 117

Title: Wen Wei Po Urges US Not To Extend War Into Somalia  

Document Number: FBIS-CHI-2001-1212

Document Type: Daily Report

Document Title: PTS Translated Text for FBIS 

Document Region: China, Sub-Saharan Africa, Near East/South Asia, The Americas 

Document Date: 12 Dec 2001

Division: Hong Kong & Macao, China, East Africa, South Asia, North America 

Subdivision: Hong Kong, China, Somalia, Afghanistan, United States 

Sourceline: CPP20011212000056 Hong Kong Wen Wei Po (Internet Version-WWW) in 

Chinese 12 Dec 01 

AFS Number: CPP20011212000056 

Citysource: Hong Kong Wen Wei Po (Internet Version-WWW) 

Language: Chinese 

N/A

Subslug: Editorial:  "United States Should Not Extend War to Somalia" 

[PTS Translated Text for FBIS]

[Description of Source: Hong Kong Wen Wei Po (Internet Version-WWW) in 

Chinese -- Internet version of PRC-owned daily newspaper.   Root URL on 

filing date:   http://www.wenweipo.com] 

 

 

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