By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- President George W. Bush will open the annual general debate -- which usually marks the start of the UN General Assembly each September -- on November 10 just two months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center shut down New York City, altered the way the nations go about their business, and changed the dynamics of the United Nations itself.

In the two months since the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania the United Nations and its host city has struggled to resume normal business activities while squarely facing down terrorism. When President Bush t
akes the podium in the General Assembly Hall, he will be addressing a United Nations that acted quickly after the attacks by adopting hard hitting, uncompromising resolutions against terrorism and those who support terrorists in both the General Assembly and the Security Council.

While the President is at the United Nations, he will meet with other heads of state including Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who will address the assembly later in the day. He will also meet with the Presidents of Uganda, Congo, South Africa, Colombia, and Argentina.

A main goal of the United States at the General Assembly is to advance international cooperation through a key United Nations role in the fight against terrorism, a senior Bush Administration official said November 7. "In our view, the ideals of the United Nations and those of terrorism are exactly contrary, and this is something that will be covered when the President speaks to the General Assembly.

"It is not an accident, surely, that...the United Nations is labeled as a 'tool of crime' and the Secretary General is called 'the criminal Kofi Annan' by (Usama) bin Laden within a week of the time that the United Nations and its Secretary General receives the Nobel Peace Prize," said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The administration official pointed out that the United Nations "is not just coming to the issue of terrorism. It didn't discover (terrorism) on September 11th. There are 12 conventions and protocols that the UN and specialized agencies had adopted prior to then dealing with various aspects of terrorism and terrorist financing. The question of terrorism and countering terrorism has been on the General Assembly agenda since 1972."

Even before September 11, the Security Council had passed three resolution sanctioning the Taliban for its harboring of bin Laden and members of his al Qaeda organization wanted for the bombing of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa in August 1998. Those sanctions included an arms embargo, a travel ban, and the freezing of al Qaeda assets, the official said.

On September 12 the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution defining terrorism "a threat to international peace and security" along with calling on all states "to work together urgently to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these terrorist attacks." The Council stressed that "those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held accountable."

Most important, the senior official noted, has been Security Council resolution 1373, passed on September 28, which compels UN member states to take action to freeze terrorist assets, criminalize terrorist acts, limit the ability of terrorists to cross borders and acquire weapons. A committee has also been established to monitor and assure compliance with the resolution.

Secretary General Kofi Annan has also provided "very strong leadership," the official said. He has taken every opportunity "to make clear his own very strong views on the need for the United Nations and for the entire world community to take a strong stand."

In addition to President Bush, 42 heads of state and government and more than 100 foreign ministers will speak during the weeklong UNGA debate. Because of the large number of decision makers in one place, other key meetings will be taking place regarding terrorism and Afghanistan. The Security Council will hold a ministerial level meeting on counter-terrorism on November 12 and a meeting on Afghanistan on November 13. There will also be a ministerial meeting of the so-called "6+2 group on Afghanistan" with the Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

The 6+2 group is composed of the six nations bordering Afghanistan along with the United States and Russia.

The United States is particularly interested in what Brahimi has to say after a trip to the region in early November as well as working with UN humanitarian agencies such as the World Food program (WFP) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the official said.

"The United States is committed to helping those agencies work on the current relief needs and the future reconstruction needs in Afghanistan," the official said. "The humanitarian situation as you know, is very bad as a result of two decades of civil war, four years of drought, and the actions of the Taliban, which have been directed not only against the people of Afghanistan but against international relief workers."

"We have many reports of Taliban officials stealing UN and NGO supplies and equipment. We have reports from several cities of Taliban military officials using that equipment, driving around in UN vehicles. We know that the Taliban forces are taking refuge in relief facilities, including UN facilities," the official said.

In addition to Afghanistan, the senior official pointed out, the United States is concerned and involved in many issues on the UN agenda including human rights, the fight against AIDS, questions of debt relief, and peacekeeping operations.

"We are committed to an effective and capable United Nations. We're trying to demonstrate that by our presence and activity in the UN, a certain amount of leadership in UN activities, and, not least, by paying our bills," the official said.

"This General Assembly was to have been dedicated to the goals of the millennium declaration of last year," the official noted. "And in a sense, it certainly still is, because those goals are, in our view, the antithesis of terrorism. They are freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility for the world community. Those are still the goals of the UN and certainly the goals of US actions within the UN."