India on Wednesday gave clarion call to the world community to support an Indian-sponsored convention on terrorism and reaffirmed its readiness to take on the responsibilities of a permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council. “We have proposed the draft of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism. I urge all members of the United Nations to give their total support to this initiative,” External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told a UN General Assembly's ministerial debate. Taking New Delhi's campaign for global support on the comprehensive anti-terrorism convention to the floor of the General Assembly, Singh, without naming Pakistan, said, “terrorism is the most flagrant human rights violation and threatens international peace and security especially when terrorists are armed, financed and backed by governments or their agencies.

“Terrorism is the global menace of our age and India has been the object of state-sponsored, cross-border terrorism, in its most inhuman manifestations, for more than a decade. Even as the international community works together to curb, control and stamp out illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, we need continually to focus our attention on the users of such weapons -- the terrorists,” Singh said. Stating that today's Security Council is a hangover from the colonial era, Singh reaffirmed India's readiness to take on the responsibilities of permanent membership in an expanded security council.

Bureau Report