Nuclear Terror Pact Advances

After seven years of negotiations, the U.N. on Friday finalized a convention to prevent nuclear terrorism, paving the way for a broader international agreement to fight terrorist groups.

The Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism is meant to stop rogue groups from using nuclear weapons. It criminalizes individuals’ possession of radioactive material or devices, requires nations to prosecute or extradite those who threaten others while possessing such materials, and calls for exchanges of information and assistance among governments.

The treaty does not, however, prohibit a nation from using nuclear weapons militarily.

“Nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent threats of our time,” said Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had made the completion of the treaty one of the goals of his U.N. reform program, which he introduced last month. “Even one such attack could inflict mass casualties and change our world forever. That prospect should compel all of us to do our part to strengthen our common defenses.”

The General Assembly is expected to endorse the convention and open it for signature in September during a summit of world leaders. It needs ratification by at least 22 members to become law, and would be the 13th such global treaty on terrorism. Annan has called for an umbrella treaty, the Comprehensive Convention on Terrorism, to be finalized in mid-2006.

Russia introduced the nuclear terrorism treaty seven years ago to keep “loose nukes” from falling into the hands of terrorist groups. At the time, former national security chief Alexander I. Lebed estimated that there were about 100 suitcase-sized Russian nuclear weapons unaccounted for. Last year alone, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed nearly 100 incidents of trafficking in nuclear and radioactive material, and sounded the alarm after unguarded nuclear facilities in Iraq were looted after the U.S.-led invasion.

Although the world’s five major nuclear powers -- France, Britain, the United States, China and Russia -- have pledged to curb the proliferation of the deadly weapons, they have not agreed to eliminate them from their military arsenals. All five countries also are veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

India and Pakistan are known to have tested nuclear weapons. North Korea has stated that it also possesses such weapons, and Israel is widely assumed to be a nuclear power. Though Iran denies it, there are suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons, and Libya agreed last year to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Discussions over how to curb the broader problem of terrorism have stumbled over how to define it. Annan defines terrorism as “any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do, or abstain from, any act.”

The proposed definition was not included in the “loose nukes” convention because of objections from Arab countries that it constrained national liberation movements and ignored state-sponsored terrorism.

At a recent terrorism conference in Madrid, Annan said that governments must do more to secure and eliminate hazardous material and set up effective export controls. Stronger measures also were needed to uncover and stop money laundering by terrorists, he said, adding that travel and financial sanctions against groups such as Al Qaeda were vital.

Nuclear terrorism is no longer science fiction, he said.

“I wish it were,” he said. “But unfortunately, we live in a world of excess hazardous materials and abundant technological know-how, in which some terrorists clearly state their intention to inflict catastrophic casualties.”