World Leaders Call for Tougher Stand on Terrorism

The pipe bomb exploded on U.S. soil but was felt in each of the 197 countries with athletes in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games.

World leaders, horrified and angry, called for tougher, united action against terrorism after the blast early Saturday during a rock concert in Centennial Olympic Park.

“This repugnant violation of the spirit of the Olympic Games must be denounced around the world,” U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said in a statement. “The joy and global brotherhood engendered by the Olympic Games can never be vanquished by the actions of a despicable few.”

Israel, the target of an attack that left 17 people dead at the Munich Games of 1972, when Palestinian terrorists seized Israeli athletes, sent its condolences to Americans.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “terrorism has no borders and must be fought without compromise.”

The Palestinian Authority sent “condolences to the families of the victims and to the American government.”

“We completely condemn any kind of terrorism against civilians anywhere,” said the authority’s planning and international affairs minister, Nabil Shaath.

Pope John Paul II spoke of an “act of senseless violence” and expressed his “deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims.”

British Prime Minister John Major said the British people “will share the anger of the American people at this dreadful desecration of the Olympic spirit, but they will also share their determination not to be deterred by this evil act.”

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Walter Veltroni praised the International Olympic Committee’s decision to continue the Games, telling state TV that “to interrupt the Games would be, in some way, an act of surrender to terrorism.”

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s spokesman said the Atlanta explosion shows once again how important it is for countries to work together against terrorism.

“Russia is ready for that,” presidential spokesman Sergei K. Medvedev said.

So is France, according to President Jacques Chirac, who is hosting an anti-terrorism conference of the Group of Seven industrialized countries and Russia this week, bringing together top diplomatic and security officials.

President Clinton had requested the conference soon after the June 25 truck bombing of a dormitory at a Saudi-Arabian air base that killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel and injured hundreds.

The possibility that a bomb caused TWA Flight 800 to crash July 17, killing all 230 aboard soon after taking off from New York for Paris, gave further importance to the conference.

Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said he will call for joint anti-terrorism efforts at Tuesday’s conference.

In an Iranian radio broadcast monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp., Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmud Mohammadi condemned the Atlanta bombing. He said the Olympics, where Iran is competing, are a symbol for human relations between nations and constructive rivalry between athletes. Such acts of terrorism against innocent people are inhuman and unjustifiable, he said.