"Bound to Encourage Others"

"There is a real danger that a new cycle of hijacking will start up again," warned a French security expert. Said a British foreign relations scholar: "The surrender is bound to encourage other terrorist groups." Concluded the Paris daily Le Monde: "The hijacking and its 'happy' outcome are heavy with menace."

Such widespread outcries of dismay and indignation were provoked by Syria's and Pakistan's apparent violation of the cardinal rule of international antiterrorism procedure: do not surrender to blackmail.

The spirit of this rule has found its way, to one extent or another, into several international conventions and agreements. The Tokyo Convention of 1963, for example, committed the 88 signing countries to take "all appropriate measures to restore control of the [hijacked] aircraft to its lawful commander." The Hague Convention of 1970 called for the prosecution of captured hijackers. An agreement in Bonn in 1978 attempted to go a step further: the country that accepts hijackers must either prosecute or extradite them--or else face the cutoff of commercial air traffic by the other countries.

Neither Syria nor Pakistan are Bonn signatories. But some experts feel that such sanctions should be imposed against them, anyway. If Syria gives the Pakistani hijackers sanctuary, says the University of Aberdeen's Paul Wilkinson, "the signatories of the Bonn declaration* should invoke its provisions for severing all air links with any country that gives haven to skyjackers." Adds Wilkinson: "We must make governments in high-risk areas painfully aware that they and the terrorists will pay a heavy price."

Some experts argue that the best deterrent to the seizing of hostages is a demonstrated willingness to fight fire with fire. Successful examples: the Israeli commando raid on Entebbe in 1976, the Dutch army's storming of a hijacked commuter train in 1977, the West German assault at Mogadishu, Somalia, four months later and the British commando rescue at the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. Says U.S. Antiterrorism Expert Robert Kupperman: "Right after Mogadishu and the Dutch train incident, the world became convinced that Western governments would risk killing everybody if they have to."

Many Third World countries lack the military expertise for such operations. Kupperman suggests that Pakistan, for instance, might have used outside mercenaries. Wilkinson goes further, calling for an "international hostage rescue force" that would counter terrorists round the globe.

*The U.S., West Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Canada and Italy.

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