UN reaffirms terror fight

Kofi Annan says terrorism can be defeated if the world unites

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations Security Council has used the September 11 anniversary to remind member governments that they had a "mandatory obligation" to fight terrorism.

At a brief meeting to mark the anniversary in New York Wednesday, the council issued a statement reaffirming its resolve to combat "the terrorist menace until it is eradicated."

"The threat is real, the challenge is enormous, and the fight against terrorism will be long," the statement said.

The council said last year's Resolution 1373 made the fight against terrorism a mandatory obligation of all governments.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed Americans' "abiding gratitude" to other governments for what has been done jointly in the anti-terrorism campaign.

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"Every day somewhere in the world, terrorists are being arrested, their cells are being broken up, their financial bloodlines are being severed, their plans are being disrupted, their attacks are being foiled," The Associated Press reported Powell as saying.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the past year had raised hopes that terrorism could be defeated, "if the international community summons the will to unite in a broad coalition."

Underscoring this, the UN announced it had added another organization and an individual to its list of alleged associates of the al Qaeda terrorist network or Afghanistan's Taliban movement, groups and people whose assets must be frozen by UN members.

A Muslim separatist group in western China, the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, was added to the list at China's request and with U.S. backing, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Movement members were reportedly found associating with the Taliban or al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

An individual identified as Wa'el Hamza Julaidan was also added to the sanctions list at Saudi Arabia's request.

Speaking earlier, Annan told a memorial service that more than 90 nations lost citizens in the September 11 attacks, saying they had been murdered "for no other reason than they had chosen to live in this country."

"Today, we come together as a world community because we were attacked as a world community," Annan said.

He said everything that the UN worked for was damaged by the horror of the attacks.

"Everything that we believe in -- respect for human rights, justice, pluralism and democracy -- is threatened by terrorism, " Annan said.

"It must be defeated -- by the world acting as one."

The morning ceremony on the UN lawn in New York was attended by hundreds of ambassadors, officials and workers.

The memorial began with the annual UN interfaith prayer service, dedicated this year to "victims of violence everywhere," The Associated Press said.

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