19 September 2001

Chirac Brings Condolences to People of New York

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Touching New Yorkers with his heartfelt concern for the city and its people in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, President Jacques Chirac of France September 19 visited the site of the devastation and then talked with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan about the need for a strong international fight against terrorism.

Touring the site with New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Chirac said "I am very, very moved today as I have been over the last week. All the French people have been terribly shocked and traumatized by what happened here, such a drama which nobody could have imagined."

The president expressed France's concern and admiration for what the people of the city have done with "such efficiency, ability and heart."

"We really, really admire what has been done here and the calm of the population just after the attack, all the efficiency of the response to the attack," Chirac said. "I ask Mayor Giuliani to say to all his people around him -- including all the volunteers -- how we admire them."

"I have a special thought for the firemen -- so many of them paid with their life -- and also the police and the people of the different emergency services," he said.

"The French population and Paris, which had been also in the past attacked -- not so strongly, but still attacked -- feels very, very close to the New York population and the New York authorities," the president said. "I say that with heart and from the bottom of my heart."

"Bravo, you did that for the New Yorkers, but also for all the free world, for the dignity of mankind and we know that and we are beside you," Chirac said.

Later at a press conference at U.N. Headquarters, Chirac described his emotions touring the destruction.

"You feel like crying," he said, "when you imagine all those men and women, perhaps children, who perished and who will not be found again ... and it will be impossible to pay a final tribute to them -- that is a funeral."

"It goes beyond imagination. History has seen human tragedies, violence, selfishness. Here we have gone beyond the limit," the president said.

"When you fly over (the devastation) you are much more struck by the reality than when you see pictures," he said. "I myself did not realize how poignant it was and how we've gone so far beyond what we call a crime, beyond the height of human foolishness."

The president noted that a poll showed that 96 percent of France "felt at one with the United States."

"I cannot recall any other such national agreement," he said.

Asked if France will go along with U.S. plans to fight the terrorists, Chirac said that France "will not stand aside in a fight against a scourge that defies all democracies. Today it is New York tragically struck, tomorrow Paris, Berlin or London."

He said that the U.S. response is still being defined and France will determine the ways and means it will contribute in cooperation with other European nations and the Americans. But he added that the action against terrorism "far transcends the military" and will require "genuine long-term action."

"The ability of some fundamentalist terrorist fanatic groups to use both the most modern technology and also all the facilities given them by democratic regimes is a danger we should become aware of. It requires a gathering of all people and nations to acknowledge certain values and human dignity," he said.

Chirac emphasized that the fight against terrorism "has become an absolute priority in the world today" and said that United Nations is the best forum to mobilize energies to use all the police, justice, and information gathering abilities of all nations.

"There is a two-fold action: One of identifying the terrorist groups and doing everything possible to neutralize them -- in other words, finding them, bringing them to justice, doing everything possible for that purpose. Secondly, to make this possible, it is necessary to implement new concerted norms in the long-term concerning all countries. Hence, the irreplaceable role of the United Nations," he said.

"There is also the struggle against the dirty money that finances terrorism, measures to be taken in the technical field ... so there is a coordinated policy making it possible to find out what action might be taken, identify those groups, and having identified them neutralize them," the president said.

"That means a considerable increase in our resources, an increase in our determination, and above all, in our working together," Chirac said. "It is not just the fight of one country. It is the fight of the entire international community which is committed to human rights and human dignity."

But the French leader also stressed that "above all, (we) should not confuse these fundamentalist terrorists with the Muslim world. This would be falling into the trap that is being handed out to us and that would be profoundly unjust."