States are more willing to work together against terrorism, but loopholes remain: UN

Member States are now more willing than ever to “band together” to prevent the movement of terrorists and their supporters across borders, but unpoliced frontiers and forged documents still allow such travel, a United Nations team said in a new report released today.

The 51-page document is the fifth report by a team of experts set up to monitor and support sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities, and it covers a wide range of measures, including travel bans, an arms embargo and financial restrictions set up following various Security Council resolutions on the issue.

“The Team has seen an increasing willingness of States to band together to prevent the movement of terrorists and their supporters across borders, and these efforts have made a difference. But at the same time, there is no doubt that listed persons continue to travel and the problems of unpoliced borders, and widely available stolen, falsified or forged documents remain persistent and difficult to address,” the report states.

“The Team continues to believe that the arms embargo should take into account the evolution in terrorists’ tactics in order to address the threat posed by listed individuals and entities. States need a clearer definition of their obligations under the arms embargo in order to better implement this sanction and to make it more effective.”

Another widespread frustration among States, the report highlights, is a lack of proper knowledge and understanding of the nature of the threat and the best way to deal with it, citing in particular the “transnational nature of Al-Qaida and the subversive appeal of its message leave many States at a loss.”

To counter this, the Team, which undertook various field visits for the report, brought together groups of very senior intelligence and security officials and also contacted many others to try to identify new measures and actions that the Security Council Committee dedicated to this issue could consider.

A list of individuals and entities that the Committee agrees are members of or associated with Al-Qaida, Usama Bin Laden and the Taliban is at the centre of the sanctions regime and its efficient distribution is vital to successful implementation, the report stresses. As of the end of July, this list – known as the Consolidated List – had 478 entries: 142 individuals and one entity associated with the Taliban, and 213 individuals and 122 entities associated with Al-Qaida.

As well as focusing on the need to make the various sanctions more effective and relevant to the threat, the Team’s report also calls for improving procedures for adding and removing names from the Consolidated List, as well as the need to increase the involvement of as wide a range of UN Member States as possible.

“Over the last six months Al-Qaida, Usama Bin Laden and the Taliban have made some gains and suffered some losses. The violence in Afghanistan has increased considerably, and there has been no let up in Iraq, with Al-Qaida’s contribution remaining disproportionate to its size.”

“But there have also been deaths and arrests. Ahmad Fadil Nazal Al-Khalayleh (also known as Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi), killed in Iraq in June, and Shamil Basayev, killed in Ingushetia, Russian Federation, in July, both on the Consolidated List, were key leaders… There have been many arrests and disrupted plots, only some of which have been announced publicly. Despite warnings by Al-Qaida of major imminent attacks against Western countries, none has occurred, at least not yet.”