Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

166 • EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISMAccording to findings by Ted Robert Gurr, presented in an addressto the April 1994 convention of the International Studies Association,during the period 1987–1994 there have been more than 50serious ethnopolitical conflicts under way in which more than fourmillion people have perished and at least 26 million people beendisplaced. Most of these conflicts have involved civil wars, insurgencies,or war between states, but much of the low-intensity conflictassociated with ethnonationalist causes has involved terrorismby antistate groups or state terror against targeted minorities. TheIrish Republican Army and the Basque Fatherland and Libertygroups are examples of antistate ethnonationalist terrorists. Theanti-Hutu genocides conducted in Rwanda and Burundi in 1994and the ethnic cleaning directed against Albanians that occurredin Kosovo in 1998–1999 are examples of state ethnonationalistterrorism.EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON THE SUPPRESSION OF TER-RORISM. This regional convention, which came into force on25 October 1978, seeks to reduce the use of the political offenseexception in cases of terrorism involving planning or carrying outair piracy, attacks on diplomats or other “internationally protectedpersons,” kidnapping or hostage taking, use of explosives to harmlife or limb, or being an accessory to any of these actions. The conventionallows a state to refuse extradition if it has reason to believea suspect is truly being persecuted for his or her race, religion,nationality, ethnic affiliation, or political opinion. In cases whereextradition is refused, Article 7 of the Convention requires thatthe state refusing jurisdiction must submit the case for prosecutionto its own competent authorities. Until 22 May 1989, Ireland hadrefused to sign the convention, claiming that it violated the right ofpolitical asylum implicit in Article 29 of its constitution. Ireland’saccession to the Convention was enabled by the amendment to theSuppression of Terrorism Act of 1978 (Order 1989) that specifiedthat the criminal actions described in the convention that requiredthe extradition of suspects were not to be regarded as being of apolitical character.EUROPEAN NATIONALIST FASCISTS (FNE). The FaisceauxNationalistes Européens was a French neo-Fascist group thatsought to harass and intimidate Jews, North Africans, and black