Terrorism Must Be Combated Under Un Auspaces, Say Russian Parliamentarians

The mobilization of the forces of the international community for the fight against terrorism must take place under the aegis of "the only legitimate body for all" - the United Nations. This opinion was expressed on Monday by the head of the permanent delegation of the State Duma (the lower house of Russian parliament) in the Assembly of the Western European Union, Andrei Kokoshin. Speaking at a joint conference of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (parliament) and the Assembly of the Western European Union, Andrei Kokoshin admitted that at the present time the United Nations is "far from ideals and, unfortunately, weakened its influence in the 1990s, because the necessary reforms have not been made in this organization." "However, we do not have anything better than the UN, and the United Nations and its Security Council are the only legitimate bodies for the whole international community," said the parliamentarian. In connection with this, Kokoshin urged that all the efforts should be aimed at the observance of the UN Resolution which was taken immediately after the terrorist attacks committed in the United States on September 11. Apart from that, he came out for completing the construction of the international security system which must be based on "the international law which has been recognized by all civilized states." Another participant in the conference, former first deputy chief of the general staff and at the present time a member of the Federation Council from the Maritime Territory, Valery Manilov, spoke out in favor of fully equal partnership of Russia and the European countries in the fight against terrorism. "Double standards have to be done away with, otherwise this fight will not be fruitful," he is convinced. The conference is devoted to the European security in the 21st century. One of its organizers is the Assembly of the Western European Union which is an inter-parliamentary consultative organization of nine member countries of the Western European Union. The Western European Union has been existing since 1954 and at the time it consists of ten European countries as its full members.