PM wants terrorists' havens dismantled

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday stressed that terrorists and those who abet them must be brought to justice, and proposed a comprehensive convention on international terrorism at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit here.

Addressing leaders from 118 countries that comprise NAM at the 15th summit of the movement here, Singh said in recent years terrorist groups had become “more sophisticated, more organised and more daring. Terrorists and those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice. The infrastructure of terrorism must be dismantled and there should be no safe havens for terrorists because they do not represent any cause, group or religion. It is time we agreed on a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.”

The convention will bind countries to an internationally accepted definition of terrorism and abide by a code of conduct in dealing with the issue of trans-border terrorism.

The prime minister will meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday on the sidelines of the summit in an effort to bring talks with Islamabad, derailed after the Mumbai terror attacks, back on track. He said “extremism, intolerance and terrorism are our antitheses; they seek to destroy us and our movement.”

Pressing for the inclusion of the developing world in multilateral bodies, he said:
“Decision-making processes, whether in the United Nations or the international financial institutions continue to be based on charters written more than 60 years ago, though the world has changed greatly since then.

“Developing countries must be fully represented in the decision making levels of international institutions if they are to remain effective.”

Recalling the first NAM summit of 1961, when one of the movement’s founding fathers Jawaharlal Nehru had spoken of the “moral force” of the grouping, Singh said the words hold true even today.