CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Since September 11, 2001 terrorist attack directed at
the United States of America, the issue of terrorism has attracted more than
ever before, a global attention. This is so because the scale of damage, which
accompanied the attack and the attendant loss of human lives. More important,
the victim of the attack is a major power and player in world politics, coupled
with the fact that
foreign nationals from different countries also perished in
the attacks. Equally important is the fact that the global nation suffered a
great setback and many countries whose economies were inextricably tied to
American were badly affected. Unfortunately, acts of terrorism have increased
over the years with a total of 392 in 1999,a-43% increase from that of
1998(usIs,2000) there was also sharp surge in significant terrorist acts from
175 incidents that killed 625 in 2003 to 651 attacks that killed 1907 in 2004
(GTS,2005). The frequent suicide bombings that continue to occur throughout
Israel, the attempted cyanide gassing and bombing of the world trade center in
1993, the united states embassy bombings and in
Kenya and Tanzania in (8August, 1998) and the kamikaze attacks of
September 11, 2001, demonstrate the profound threats posed by individual who
commits terrorist acts (ciampi,2005). The London July 7 bombing, the Jordan
attack, the India market bombing, all in 2005, are still fresh in memory.
Therefore international terrorism is a social- political disorder that has
grown to the detriment of the international security system and global economy.
In view of the above, many nations
both developed and developing that never consider terrorism as a serious social
and political issue began to do so after the September 11, 2001. Nigeria is not
left out even prior to September 11 attack, Nigeria has been signatory to
international convention and protocols relating to terrorism, and has signed
the convention for suppression of the financing of Terrorism after the 9/ 11
attack(Mbanefo, 2005);unlike Nigeria in Africa USA has remained committed to
the global War against terrorism and has continued diplomatic effort in both
global and regional forums concerning counter-terrorism issues. In addition to
this, Afghanistan has been helping to monitor threat to US citizens and other
national living in the country an has co-operated in so many circumstances with
the use tracking g and freezing terrorist activities and exchange of security
information.
To further demonstrate, in practical
sense, US commitment to the fight against terrorism, the country’s highest
law-making body has under US law congress passed the authorization for use of
military force against terrorists resolution, authorizing the US president to
use “necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organization or
persons” he determines were involved in the war against the US, endorsed a
draft bill armed at preventing and combating potential terrorism. This and the
subsequent bombings in Casablanca, 1stambul, Rijadh, Madrid, London, Mumbai and
every where intensified concerns about the terrorist threat and renewed calls
to better understand the concept. The trauma of the attack on the world trade
center moved former President George Bush to articulate his response as the war
on terror” invoking visions of a crusade. Terrorism over the past decade has
come to constitute the most serious thereat to global peace, security and
development. This development and all its evil manifestations around the world
and particularly in Africa, undermine the most cherished values, fundamental
principles of the 21st century including development, human right
and other developing countries in the world. From the Sherifan dynasty of the
Alawites Filali in Morocco to the regencies of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya under
the effete Suzerainty of the sultan of Turkey, the Berber Arab population of
North Africa experienced one form of terrorism after another even before
colonial rule. The French invasion of Algeria in 1830, the establishment of
French rule in morocco in 1900s and their occupation of Tunisia in 1880
were all characterized by one terrorist
acts after another. The journey of
independence of most African countries and of Asian countries was also Strawn
with one act of terrorism and the other.
In countries of East Africa most especially Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda,
international terrorism resulted into bombing of US embassies in 1997. In south
Africa, notably South Africa,
Botswana, Rhedesia, and Zimbabwe,
apartheid orchestrated terrorism as important stage policy. In West
Africa, Nigeria is lately experiencing
terrorism in dimensions that other
countries in Africa, Asia, middle East and Europe have and experiencing presently. It was reported that Nigeria witnessed at
least 187 ethnic religious conflicts between May 1999 and April 2006.. This is as a result of the outbreak of violent
extremism evidenced in the growing audacity of Boko Haram sect and the spate of
bombing across the country which is assumed to be terroristic in dimension.
Unlike Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Soviet
Union etc, Afghanistan is not an exception as this research paper is focused on
Afghanistan thus examines the threat of terrorism in US by the talibans. Terrorism is an act which has quite a number
of ramifications; surpass political, diplomatic and even legal issues. The
United Nations has had its fair share of challenges narrowing terrorism down to
a number of acts. But the general Assembly of the UN agrees however that
terrorism involves “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of
terror in the general public, a group of
person or particular persons for
political purposes and are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the circumstance of a political,
philosophical, ideological, radical, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to
justify them”.
Thus, the UN Security Council made the
fight against terrorism a global one by ordering every UN member state to
implement a wide range of measures to prevent terrorist activities. An
avalanche of resolutions from the United Nations security council, especially
1373 which called on all members of the
UN and all peace loving nations of the world to enact or amend their existing legislations
to criminalize all manifestations or acts of terrorism and prescribe
appropriate punishment. The United States of America swiftly enacted the
patriot Act 2001 and engineered the globalization of Anti-terrorism legislation
around the glob African countries, the Asians, canbians etc were therefore,
under the intense pressure through diplomatic and security necessity, to enact
or amend their existing criminal laws to punish act of terrorism. This was made
pertinent by the establishment of a counter terrorism committee by the UN
Security Council. The counter terrorism committee was establish by security
council resolution 1337
(2001) which was adopted
unanimously on 28 September, 2001 to
monitor the implementation of the
resolution by member states.12
According to the chairperson of the African Union13,
terrorism violates international law, include the
charter of the United Nations and
the principles and values enunciated in the constitutive Act of the African union and the protocol relating
to the establishment of the peace and security to the establishment of the peace and security
to the establishment of the peace and security council (PSC). African countries have
espoused the imperative needs to combat
and eradicate the phenomenon of terrorism through a comprehensive approach that addresses its
root causes. Unlike other countries in the world, Africa in their collective
resolve and determination to deal with a
common threat, members of the
union have adopted instruments and decisions creating a common
framework for the prevention and combating of terrorism in Africa. They have also signed and 2ratified and
acceded to international counter terrorism instruments particularly those in the
annex to the 1999 Organization
of African Unity (OAU now AU) convention on the prevention and combating of terrorism. Members of the
union have established, in Algiers, Algeria an African Centre for the Study and
Research on Terrorism (ACSRT) as an institution of the AU commissioned to boost
the capacity of the union in the prevention and combating of terrorism in
Africa as directed by UN.14