UN votes to outlaw nuclear terror

The treaty, which governments will begin signing at the General Assembly session in September, criminalizes the possession or use of radioactive material or a nuclear device ‘‘to cause death or serious bodily injury.’’

It also makes it a crime to use a nuclear device to damage property or the environment or to attack a nuclear facility. It requires governments that ratify the treaty to amend national laws to prevent terrorists and their supporters from financing, planning or participating in nuclear terrorism.

It also calls on governments to share information, ease extradition proceedings and pursue criminal prosecutions of suspects linked to such terrorist acts. The nuclear treaty, which places no new restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons by states, will become law after it is ratified by 22 states.

The vote ended seven years of negotiations that began when former Russian President Boris Yeltsin proposed a treaty to prevent rogue terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear material in Soviet Union. An agreement on language was struck after members of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference were assured that the treaty would not be used to impose a generic definition of terrorism.

Defining terrorism has been an intensely controversial issue at the UN, where Islamic governments have argued that anti-Israel national liberation movements that have targeted civilians should not be considered terrorists. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has pressed the UN membership to adopt another convention by the end of next year that would provide a simple, universal definition of terrorism and outlaw all forms of terrorism against civilians. —LAT-WP