(As delivered)

STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. SHINICHI KITAOKA
DEPUTY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF JAPAN

AT THE PUBLIC MEETING OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL
ON COUNTER-TERRORISM-RELATED ACTIVITIES

26 October 2005

Mr. President,

At the outset I would like to welcome the Chairs of the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and the 1540 Committee, and express my appreciation for their briefings.

Since our last public meeting on 20 July, we have had no respite from acts of terror, committed one after another, in Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Bali, Indonesia. My delegation would like to express its sincere condolences to the victims and their families and hopes for early recovery to those who suffered injuries in those attacks. Whatever the purposes of terrorists may be, terrorism must never be condoned, and my government strongly condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

In adopting the 2005 World Summit Outcome, Member States debated for long hours over the counter-terrorism measures to be pursued by the United Nations. Although those negotiations were difficult, they are now being followed up by negotiations on the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the hopes of reaching an agreement. My government places high value on the efforts of all of the Member States. We believe that, as stated in the briefings of the three Chairs today, it is essential that the Security Council also continue to develop an effective counter-terrorism policy by deepening the cooperation among the counter-terrorism-related committees.

Mr. President,

There are three points I would like to focus on today which may help to ensure further effectiveness in the work of the three committees.

First, as I emphasized on the occasion of the last briefings, there can be no question about the importance of establishing counter-terrorism prevention measures. From that perspective, it is worth mentioning that Security Council resolution 1617 adopted on 29 July strongly urges all Member States to implement the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering and the FATF Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing. On the basis of resolution 1617, we also have seen progress in the cooperation between the International Criminal and Police Organization (Interpol) and the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee, with the Interpol General Assembly recently approving this matter. We expect that information accumulated by Interpol can thus be further utilized in order to prevent terrorist activities. In addition, resolution 1617 encourages further improvement in the consolidated list of the Sanctions Committee. It is therefore vital to ensure that the list be utilized effectively within each Member State. We also find it of great significance that Security Council resolution 1624 aiming at the prevention of incitement to terrorist acts, an area which was not covered previously, was adopted by the leaders of the Security Council member states on 14 September.

Second, in order to build the counter-terrorism capacity of Member States, it is crucial to accelerate the efforts to strengthen the role of the CTC. We need to devise ways to facilitate the provision of technical assistance requested by Member States through the CTC, aiming at building their counter-terrorism capacity. At present, with the assessment of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the CTC is working to identify the technical assistance needs of Member States, and we expect that the needs information will be relayed to the donor community in a systematic manner, so as to ensure that technical assistance is actually provided to the States requiring it. Specifically, we believe that it would achieve more efficient provision of assistance if, with its information gathering and analytical capacity, the CTC could provide additional information on what kinds of assistance donors should focus on for cases in which donor States and organizations are at present identifying through individual efforts. With enhanced effectiveness in the activities of the CTC, it is clear that States requesting assistance will be able to receive more efficient and effective assistance. Japan would like the CTC to devise ways and means leading to a situation where the analysis of the CTC becomes clearer to the donor community, so that closer coordination becomes possible between donors and recipients, and as a result strengthens the implementation of resolution 1373 by Member States. In this connection, establishing a structure for closer contact with the Counter-Terrorism Action Group (CTAG) and international, regional and sub-regional organizations would be an effective step. We also expect that, during the State visits which are now in their second round, contacts with regional organizations and others in addition to the governments of the States visited will be enhanced.

Third, in the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 1540, the examination of national reports is in the final stage, and we welcome that second reports are being submitted by some Member States. It is our view that the committee should focus more from this point forward on the issue of technical assistance. The mandate of the Committee is expected to expire at the end of April next year, but there still remain many tasks to be accomplished by the Committee. It is critical that we have an efficient work programme, bearing in mind the limited time remaining.

Mr. President,

We need to enrich the activities of the three committees, and from that standpoint, in addition to the experts working for the 1540 Committee, we welcome that the experts and new members of both the Monitoring Team of the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee and the CTED are now operating in full force, and we look forward to their active role.

My government will continue to extend its full cooperation for the work of the three committees, so that the Security Council will be able to further strengthen its activities in the fight against terrorism.

Thank you.

Related Information (Counter Terrorism)
Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations Official Web Site