In the shadow of the 11 September attacks on the United States, terrorism and the question of Afghanistan loomed over the Security Council's agenda in 2001. Throughout the year, however, the Council also focused on a global range of unstable situations, notably the long-term conflicts in Africa and the continuing violence in the Middle East. In addition, the significant progress in Kosovo and East Timor was closely monitored.
On the day after the terrorist attacks, members broke tradition by standing in unison to adopt a resolution condemning them, expressing sympathy with families of the victims and the host country. Council members also expressed their readiness to combat all forms of terrorism in accordance with Charter responsibilities.
On 28 September, the Council adopted a wide-ranging and comprehensive resolution –- 1373 (2001) -– with steps and strategies to combat international terrorism and established a Counter-Terrorism Committee to monitor its implementation.
Before 11 September, the Council had met twice on Afghanistan, mainly to strengthen sanctions on the Taliban. On 13 November, during the first Council meeting on Afghanistan after the attacks, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the country was one of the United Nations’ greatest challenges and that challenge was now at its “most urgent stage”. The subsequent plan for a broad-based political reconstruction of the country, presented to the Council by his Special Representative, Lakdhar Brahimi, had progressed to its second stage by year's end.
In Africa, where numerous conflicts had led to a worsening humanitarian situation, the Council stressed the complete implementation of hard-won ceasefire agreements, control of the illicit trade in resources and arms, and development for peace-building. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council emphasized compliance with the Lusaka Peace Agreement in an effort to stem violations in the east and effect the withdrawal of foreign armies.
Discussing the resurgent violence, including an attempted coup, in the Central African Republic, the Council looked at persistent economic and social tensions. After the Council strengthened the peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, that country was able to move towards stability, but with continued rebel activity the Council applied new sanctions on Liberia, in an attempt to cut off the illicit trade it said supported them.
The Council sent missions to West Africa and the Great Lakes region, among others, in 2001, continuing to recognize the regional nature of many conflicts. For that reason, it lent its full support to the establishment of an Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to West Africa, along with new cooperation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In Kosovo, despite constant ethnic tension and flare-ups of ethnic extremism, province-wide elections were held in November with the multi-ethnic participation that Council members emphasized as essential in discussions that preceded the event. Speakers in the Council noted, however, that many factors in its final governance remained unresolved by the elections.
The situation seemed clearer, in Council meetings, after elections in another area recently devastated by violence and administered by a United Nations mission -- East Timor. After its vote for a Constituent Assembly and its plans for 2002 independence were endorsed by the Council, United Nations operations in the territory were hailed as a model for peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building. Council members and other speakers warned, however, that a hasty or ill-planned exit could allow accomplishments there to unravel.
A lack of progress was highlighted in other tragic situations. For one, no agreement was reached on the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, as the death toll continued to climb in the cycle of violence that began in September 2000. Open Council debates heard more than 40 speakers each, with most speakers criticizing what they called illegal and inhumane acts by Israel, with some condemning all acts of lawlessness and terrorism. Two draft resolutions that proposed the establishment of an observer force and a monitoring mechanism, respectively, failed to be adopted in separate meetings, due to the negative vote of the United States.
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