Muslims condemn focus on Islamic attacks

Robert Orr, chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force at the United Nations, facing criticism from journalists from Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for focusing on Islamic terrorism and excluding Palestinians as "victims of terrorism."

UNITED NATIONS – Muslim members of the United Nations are protesting the focus on Islamic terrorists at the Secretary-General's Symposium on Supporting the Victims of Terrorism, as well as the exclusion of Palestinians from a list of victims of terror.

Robert Orr, assistant secretary-general and chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, noted the absence of Palestinians on the list of victims but insisted the symposium looked for victims "across culture, religion and geography."

Despite some 13 universal anti-terrorism conventions, the U.N. does not have an agreed-upon definition of terrorism. There are only guidelines.

Victims were identified using the guidance of the "13 universal anti-terrorism conventions and three protocols that define acts of terrorism," said Orr.

However, Pakistan's U.N. mission issued a statement critical of the symposium, with Pakistani officials reiterating what they see as "the need to make a distinction between terrorism and the exercise of [the] legitimate right of people to resist foreign occupation. …"

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The Egyptian U.N. mission also condemned the lack of transparency of the process of selecting the victims to speak and the "deficiency" of "limiting the membership of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. …"

While speakers and terrorism experts at the symposium mostly were related to victims of acts carried out by Islamic terrorists, there are some exceptions.

Ingrid Bertrand, a former Colombia senator, was held captive for six years. Colombia has waged war against an insurgency of drug traffickers who typically use kidnapping and targeted killings as a means of terrorizing Colombians.

Journalists from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan attending the U.N. press briefing criticized the lack of information and transparency of the selection process and the absence of governments responsible for genocide.

Orr insisted that the U.N. symposium sought as much diversity as possible in the type of victim invited to the symposium, but he insisted that members of the press "weigh the selection against any criteria, culture and geography. The statistics do speak for themselves."

The symposium is taking place during the same week as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Orr said there was no intention of relating one event to the other, but he reminded attendees the 9/11 attacks were among the most prominent in the history of terrorism.

Other guests at the symposium included the survivors and witnesses to the attacks in Bali, London, Madrid and Beslan, where hundreds of Russian schoolchildren were the victims of a horrific armed siege.

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