UN General Assembly
1972

14. In our view, neither criminal acts such as the Munich outrage nor military retaliatory actions can advance the search for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East. In general terms I wish to emphasize the urgent need for the prevention of acts of international terrorism, wherever they occur. I am grateful to the Secretary-General for his initiative to discuss this subject during the session of this Assembly. In the last few years we have tackled one aspect of terrorism, namely, the hijacking of airplanes. The Netherlands has ratified the Tokyo Convention and the ratification procedure for the Conventions of Montreal and The Hague is well under way. We urge other Governments to speed up, too, their ratification procedures. When studying measures against terrorism in its different forms, we will have to look, too, at the underlying causes, and the possibilities of eliminating them. We will have to look at the whole problem, without political bias and in the spirit of a common effort to stop the wanton killing of human beings and the resulting deterioration of international relations. In this spirit my delegation will give its full support to the search for a sensible solution of this intricate problem.