United Nations (AP) – The UN’s counter-terrorism chief warned on Tuesday that terrorists are exploiting the COVID-19 epidemic and appealing to new “racially, ethnically and politically motivated violent extremist groups.”
Vladimir Voronkov on the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council to fight terrorism adopted after the 9/11 attacks in the United States and six days after the violent attack by a pro-Trump mob in the US Capitol Talked about.
He said that in the last two decades, “the threat of terrorism has persisted, developed and is spreading.”
Voronkov said al-Qaeda, responsible for the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people from 90 countries, is still proving resilient despite the loss of many leaders. The Islamic State extremist group, which lost its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, is still carrying out attacks in both countries “and wants to restructure an external operational capability.”
Voronkov, who heads the United Nations Anti-Terrorism Office, said the militants have tried to take advantage of the COVID-19 crisis by “riding a wave of polarization and speeches that are pandering to the epidemic.”
Terrorists have quickly adapted to exploiting cyberspace and new technologies, engaging with organized crime statistics, and finding regulatory, human and technological gaps in countries.
“Their strategy is appealing to new groups across the ideological spectrum, including racially, ethnically and politically motivated violent extremist groups,” Voronkov said.
United Nations Secretary-General Michele Konsinks called the US Council of Anti-Terrorism Resolution on September 28, 2001, the adoption of the Security Council “an integral moment at which the Council and the international community acknowledged the seriousness of the threat posed by international terrorism.” “
The proposal mandates all countries to finance terrorist acts and ban criminal recruitment, travel and safe havens.
It also established an anti-terrorism committee to oversee the implementation of the resolution. Connex is the head of the executive directorate of the committee, which implemented the anti-terrorism measures of 193 United Nations member states in 2004, recommending ways to address gaps, facilitate technical assistance, and analyze counter-terrorism trends Was established to evaluate.
In recent years, Konsinks said, Islamic State affiliates have emerged in many places, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and many regions of Africa – the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin and the south and east of the continent.
“The spread of extremist terrorism is also a cause for concern,” he said, adding that it includes racially and ethnically motivated violence.
Britain’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, James Cleverley, urged more attention to “terrorist abuse of social media and other new technologies” and the “dynamic of terrorism” over the long-term impact of COVID-19.
More specifically, Estonian Defense Minister Juri Luik warned, “We are facing new complex security challenges to cyber and hybrid threats and drones-like capabilities that range from terrorists to civilian populations and our men on operations and missions around the world And increase the real danger for women. “
Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, welcomed the committee’s efforts to assess the impact of the epidemic and stressed that “addressing the growing threat from politically motivated violent extremism and terrorism, particularly the far-flung The increasing number of attacks is part of our responsibility, ”too. “
US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills made no mention of the Capitol attack but said that “the United States takes threats from racial or ethnically motivated terrorist attacks very seriously, and we take action to deal with that particular form of terrorism.” Continue. “
“Last year, for the first time, the State Department designated a white supremacist group as a specifically designated global terrorist,” he said.
The mills also weighed on the dispute between Western members of the Council and Russia and China over the importance of human rights in combating terrorism.
It began by pointing to China’s “severe and disgusting measures” against Britain’s ostensibly Muslim minority Uygars, which are being used as examples of counter-terrorism measures “such as human rights violations and oppression To justify. “
He said that Beijing’s detention of 1.8 million people without trial and other well-documented measures runs counter to China’s obligations under international human rights law and the requirement of the Security Council, which pursues counter-terrorism measures .
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun dismissed Cleverley’s comments as “baseless attacks”, calling them “purely politically motivated” without any basis in the facts.
“As a victim of terrorism, China has taken concrete measures to fight terrorism and extremism vigorously,” Zhang said. “Our action is fair, based on law, and in line with the prevailing behavior of countries in the region.” He said that its actions protect minority rights.
Without naming China, Mills said that the United States “forcibly used population control to force religious minorities and members of other minorities to engage in mass detention, engage in repressive surveillance and mass data collection, and force Will continue to object to countries’ actions. ” Sterilization and abortion. “
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia called the terrorist threat one of the biggest challenges today. But he said that the operations of the Security Council and the Anti-Terrorism Committee “paid extra attention to aspects of the right to combat terrorism.”
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