A rchive Date
[ 25-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1750553
U.S. policies on terrorism, Iraq criticized at global conference
Knight-Ridder Tribune News
Jan. 24, 2003, 10:03PM
DAVOS, Switzerland - Attorney General John Ashcroft clashed with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad on Friday at a global conference marked by sharp and widespread criticism of U.S. policy on terrorism and Iraq.
Many of the sessions at the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of corporate and political leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, have turned into impassioned debates over what many non-American participants see as a dangerous U.S. tendency to go it alone on foreign policy, including a possible war in Iraq.
Turkish ruling party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan added his skepticism about U.S. intervention, telling reporters that Turkey wanted a U.N. Security Council decision before his country decides on participating in a war against Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell will seek to stem the tide of resistance when he addresses the conference Sunday.
Mahathir, who lashed out at U.S. policy in the opening session Thursday, argued in a panel appearance with Ashcroft that counterterrorism should include addressing terrorist grievances.
Referring to the Sept. 11 hijackers, he said: "They were incensed over something. We have to find out what moves them."
Ashcroft, the first senior Bush administration official to appear at the conference, instead urged that foreign intelligence services cooperate against terrorists. "Prevention must be a priority," Ashcroft said.
He agreed that root causes of terrorism should be examined, but argued that acquiescing to terrorist demands would be appeasement.
Swiss President Pascal Couchepin argued passionately against war on Iraq in his welcome address to the conference, and many invited speakers, including foreign policy experts and both Muslim and non-Muslim religious leaders, criticized the United States for its aggressiveness.
Gunnar Stalsett, the bishop of the Church of Norway, said the hawkish approach of the United States is harming U.S.-European relations and obscuring such pressing concerns as poverty and disease.
Former Australian Prime Minister Gareth Evans told another panel that the Bush administration's reluctance to push more aggressively for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement has hurt the war on terrorism by souring public opinion in the Muslim world.
Several participants also warned that a new U.S. policy of singling out visitors from Muslim countries for registration is further inflaming Muslim opinion. It requires adult male visitors from those countries, but not others, to submit to in-person Immigration and Naturalization Service interviews and to report promptly any change of address.
The move may make non-Muslims feel safer, but it is generating ill will in immigrant communities and their home countries, said Ellen Laipson, a former senior State Department official.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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