Media Statement 
by DAPSY National Secretary and International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) Vice President for Asia Pacific, Hew Kuan Yau 
in Petaling Jaya 
on Thursday, 13th June 2002


The Rhetoric of Anti Terror and The Struggle for Global Peace and Justice – Resolutions from IUSY Presidium Meeting in Helsinki, Finland – 7th -9th June 2002

The attacks of 11th of September have drastically changed the global geopolitical environment. For example, in a previously unthinkable realignment, The United States, China and Russia have forged a close alliance under the banner of anti-terrorism. The long-term impact of this change will surely be felt for years to come. 

However, this new era has been cynically manipulated in order to advance very old agendas. Many complex conflicts originating before the 11th of September have been simplified and subsumed under global division of terror and anti-terror. Both US foreign policy and politics throughout the world have seen this trend: 

The irresponsible black and white rhetoric of George W. Bush has been used by authoritarian regimes in order to strengthen their power and to alienate or suppress opposition. The fight against terrorism is important enough to be prosecuted carefully and decisively. 

The Bush Administration, in its effort to draw in allies to support its war against terrorism has changed its priorities drastically and even toned down its criticism against many authoritarian regimes worldwide. This includes regimes they once condemned. 

In Pakistan, for example the US and its allies have seen the Musharraff regime as a useful tool in the fight against terrorism. Such “realpolitik” casts aside the facts about the undemocratic nature of his regime. 

These trends are truly global. 

In the Asia Pacific region, we have seen many undemocratic regimes use the new anti terrorist vocabulary to justify their repressions of civil liberties. We are also concerned about he rapid expansion of US military power in the region. The US military presence in Malaysia is most worrying as this represents another step by the US to strengthen the military bases in South East Asia. IUSY stands in opposition to any unilateralist global military hegemony. 

‘In Latin America the fight against terrorism has been used as a pretext to combat the Colombian guerrillas, avoiding a peaceful solution for the conflict. This political framing has repressed disagreement against military action, both in Colombia and the US itself. Results include the election of Alvaro Uribe, the candidate with ties to both drug cartels and the paramilitaries, and the overwhelming passage of Bush’s expanded intervention plan through the US Congress. This militarization of the Andean region is a threat to the entire hemisphere. 

In Europe, many countries have implemented sweeping anti-terror laws that undermine civil liberties and bringing back practices of law and order. In addition, migration and asylum policy have been restricted in the context of anti-terror. 

Therefore, IUSY declared the following resolutions: 

· IUSY centres its hopes for a just, Human Rights based system of global governance on a stronger, more democratic United Nations. We are alarmed that the UN s most important Human Right instrument, the UN High Commission for Human Rights has been structurally weakened after the events of the 11th of September. 

· We uphold the need for member states to take action in regards to security, however, it is doubly important in a time of insecurity to uphold the status of the UNHCHR to act as a watchdog for Human Rights. 

· We envision and fight for a new global order in which such instruments are impervious to the changing of the whims of the time. 

· IUSY reaffirms its strong belief that the legitimate organisation to carry out the fight against terrorism is the UN. 

· IUSY condemns all attempts to return to a unilateralism pushing aside the UN.