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 c
omprehensive 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
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