THE GOVERNMENT of the USA is surely to be congratulated on freezing the assets of those charities suspected of aiding terrorists.

If the world is to be free of terrorism, then cutting off the sources of their funding will prove much more effective than military action.

Money plays a very significant role in the terrorist game. To be effective, they need funds for arms, for training, and for their covert operations.

But when President Bush talks of this as a clear fight of good versus evil, then he is on much more shaky grounds. In the past, the United States has itself funded guerrilla warfare.

In Central America in the 1980s, the Americans funded the Contra rebels that sought to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans had a literacy and healthcare programme that was decimated by the need to fight the war against these rebels.

America funded the rebels, it trained the rebels. The war brought Nicaragua to its knees and then the American government poured in millions of dollars to weight the ensuing election in its favour.

The Americans hailed the election as proof that democracy had prevailed. But, when you have brought a country to its knees and rigged the election with money, what kind of democracy is that?

We can't excuse the terrorism of September 11 because America has a dubious foreign policy. But if we don't raise the foreign policy issue now, we will never understand the feelings of some of those in the Middle East. Surely we have to agree with those who point to the fact the America's hands are not clean when it comes to funding terrorists.

The trouble is that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. The only hope for the world is for the strengthening of the United Nations and the strengthening of international law. We can't have one superpower deciding who to brand as terrorists and who to brand as freedom fighters. We need more independent judgement on such matters.

I realise that the cry for better international justice will be regarded by some as idealistic, even naive. But without it there can be no peace for the world, only the survival of the fittest.

All the world's religions, as well as humanists and other people of goodwill, place the value of justice above every other value. We should strive to build truly international organisations which can enshrine it in law.

Michael Williams

Vicar of Bolton Parish Church.