Ban Ki-Moon Cautions of Tackling Extremism through Right Abuse Actions

Local Editor

UN chief Ban Ki-moon cautioned on Wednesday against tackling violent extremism through military means alone and urged governments to avoid counter-terrorism responses that could lead to rights abuses.

Ban told a special Security Council meeting on counter-terrorism that the United Nations [UN] was looking at ways to address violent extremism by working with communities "at the grassroots level."

"We must continue to think more deeply into the fundamental conditions that allow extremism to thrive. Looking at these challenges solely through a military lens has shown its limits," he said.

Furthermore, he warned against targeting Muslim communities in the name of counter-terrorism and said "such abuses are not only immoral, they are counter-productive."

The council was meeting to follow up on a resolution adopted in August aimed at choking off the flow of foreign militants and financing to extremist groups who now control vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop chaired the meeting to ramp up international efforts to confront the threat from the so-called "Daesh" ["ISIL"] extremist group in Iraq and Syria and from the so-called "Al-Nusra Front", al-Qaida's Syrian branch.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team