UN Calls Terror Attacks 'Crimes Against Humanity' By Jim Burns CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer September 25, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - The United Nations Tuesday toughened its position in response to the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States and paralleled President Bush's call for global unity in the war on terrorism, calling the assaults "crimes against humanity."

Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a news conference in Geneva, "every country would owe a duty to work with the United Nations, and to work with the United States, to bring the perpetrators to justice."

The human rights commissioner said the attacks "crossed a line," from terrorism to something else. "To us, the line that was crossed brought those acts into what we would characterize as crimes against humanity."

Robinson's recent remarks eclipsed those of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said Monday that the terrorist attacks demanded a "vigorous response," from the international community.

The declaration of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks as crimes against humanity come one day after the U.S. House voted unanimously to approve $528 million in back dues to the U.N.

Before attending the Geneva conference, Robinson visited "ground zero" in New York, and said that without being there, it was difficult to appreciate the "suffering, trauma, dislocation and disruption that the attacks have caused within the United States," according to a U.N. statement.

She also praised the response of Americans, saying anyone who saw part of Sunday's prayer service at Yankee Stadium in New York "would have been left in no doubt of the resilience of the American people."

Back at United Nations headquarters in New York, Annan Tuesday urged the world community to help ward off a potential humanitarian disaster involving civilians and refugees from Afghanistan.

"Innocent civilians should not be punished for the actions of their government," Annan said in a statement released at UN Headquarters in New York. "The world is united against terrorism. Let it be equally united in protecting and assisting the innocent victims of emergencies and disasters."

The secretary general noted that more than two decades of conflict, seven years of rule by the Taliban regime and three years of severe drought have left more than five million people dependent on foreign aid for their very survival.

Aid to Afghanistan from the U.S. has totaled more than $117 million so far this year, making the U.S. the biggest single source of humanitarian aid for that country.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001