UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned world leaders today the war against terrorism must go beyond simply fighting extremists but also hold out the promise of a "better and fairer world."
Mr Annan opened an international conference on terrorism only hours after UN headquarters in Baghdad was attacked for a second time, wounding 19 people, including two Iraqi UN workers, and killing a security guard. The first attack on August 19th killed 22 people, including senior staff.
"Terrorism will only be defeated if we act to solve the political dispute and long-standing conflicts which generate support for it," Mr Annan said. "If we do not, we shall find ourselves acting as a recruiting sergeant for the very terrorists we seek to suppress."
He told more than 20 heads of state at the conference that human rights violations, like targeted assassinations, which Israel has carried out against Palestinian militants, as well as civilian deaths from off-target bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq ran the risk of winning over converts and spurring new terrorist acts.
"Paradoxically, terrorist groups may actually be sustained when, in responding to their outrages, governments cross the line and commit outrages themselves - whether it is ethnic cleansing, the indiscriminate bombardment of cities, the torture of prisoners, targeted assassinations or accepting the death of innocent civilians as 'collateral damage," Mr Annan said.
"These acts are not only illegal and unjustifiable. They may also be exploited by terrorists to gain new followers and to generate cycles of violence in which they thrive," he added.
The summit at a New York hotel was scheduled on the eve of a two-week high-level session of the 191-nation UN General Assembly, which is due to open tomorrow and is expected to focus on terrorism and post-war Iraq.