OSCE Chairman calls for international code of conduct on dealing with hostage-taking

NEW YORK, 20 July 2004 -The OSCE's Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, called on the international community on Tuesday to develop a code of conduct for responding to hostage-taking.

"We have seen from our own bitter experience that taking hostages has become the weapon of preference for terrorists in recent years," he said in an address at a United Nations Security Council meeting with regional organizations.

"Exploiting the human drama, they blackmail governments, pressure societies, manipulate public opinion and devastate innocent families."

The OSCE Chairman said this deplorable gambling with human life required a coherent and unified response.

"I am convinced that the international community can go further than condemnation and criminalization of hostage-takings," he said.

"A discussion by the international community on a code of conduct, setting the standards governments should follow when they become victims of terrorist threats and attacks, is overdue. Concerted action, with an active role for the United Nations, will send a clear warning and decisively discourage terrorists from using human lives as a weapon of horror and devastation."

Minister Passy stressed the valuable role which the 55-nation OSCE and other regional organizations can play in supporting the UN and the Security Council in particular in response to global threats.

"The UN cannot and should not do everything by itself. It is my strong belief that regional organizations are becoming an indispensable complementary tool on which the UN can rely."

"The OSCE can give substantive support to the UN and take the lead role in conflict prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation in its region, assist in crisis management and stabilization processes and promote implementation of UN principles, conventions and other instruments," the Chairman-in-Office added.

The Chairman-in-Office also held a bilateral meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, at which they discussed a possible contribution by the OSCE to election monitoring in Afghanistan and co-operation between the UN and the OSCE in Kosovo.

The UN Secretary-General stressed the importance of the OSCE in maintaining security and stability in its region.