Coolum (Australia), March 2
Commonwealth leaders agreed at their summit today to expel any member state that aided, financed or harboured terrorists.In the first major announcement of their four-day meeting, the leaders said they had agreed on a “terrorist action plan” under which members would also act to stop abuse of financial systems and freeze and confiscate the assets of terrorists.
They said money laundering was a major problem for many Commonwealth countries, the majority of which were small nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and offered to help prepare laws and guidelines for members to follow.
“We all need to be updating our legislation to deal with terrorism, particularly with issues like financing and decimating terrorist organisations,’’ New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark told reporters.
The biennial summit of 54 countries, mostly former British colonies, was postponed last year after the September 11 attacks in the USA and is now being held under fortress-like security at a beachside resort on Australia’s Queensland coast.
“Heads of government agreed that any member state that aided, supported, instigated, financed or harboured terrorists, or permitted such activities within its jurisdiction, violated the fundamental values of the Commonwealth and should have no place in it,’’ the leaders said in a statement.
The group committed itself to joining international measures to freeze terrorist assets and curb money laundering.
“Commonwealth heads of government committed themselves to preventing the use and abuse of their financial service sectors by fully cooperating with the international community in the tracing, freezing and confiscation of the assets of terrorists, their agents, sponsors and supporters,’’ the statement said.
The summit was the first meeting of the heads of the Commonwealth states — ranging from the UK, Canada, India and Malaysia to tiny island states like Vanuatu and Tuvalu — since September’s suicide airplane attacks on the USA.
Reuters
