Correspondents' Correspondence Inviting Trouble

...Inviting Trouble United Nations?Have we created a dangerous precedent that may return to haunt this Assembly''" Ambassador John Scah asked the question in his statement following the General Assembly vote to give a UN platform to the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) The answer should not be long m coming Now that the representative of the PLO has spoken from the UN rostrum, a veritable torrent of other separatist movements may be expected to demand the same privilege It would be appropriate if the first application came from France, where the Breton Liberation Front-Breton Revolutionary Army is demanding a Breton state on Breton soil So far the group has not murdered any French Olympic athletes or hijacked any Air France jets But since the PLO has successfully shot its way into the UN, the Bretons can be counted on to heat things up a little The claim m Spam comes mainly from the Basques, who are seeking to re-establish the ancient Basque nation, divided at present between Spam and France Their modus operandi has been to kidnap wealthy Spanish industrialists, all of whom they release unharmed after their demands for ransom and the rehiring of dismissed workers are met Despite the relative gentleness of their approach, this organizationknown by the initials ETA (which stand for Basque Nation and Freedom)?has been outlawed by the Franco regime It is not believed likely, though, that Spain's General Assembly vote to seat the Palestinians portends any change in the ETA's estimated time of arrival at Turtle Bay Canada may have had its own Quebec nationalists in mind when it decided to abstain in the Assembly vote The French-speaking Canadian separatists, who have the endearing nickname of "Pequimstes" (short for Parti Quebecois), argue that Quebec has a history and culture of its own and sufficient territory, population and wealth to form an independent state Their insistence on using constitutional methods, however, has not convinced anybody they mean business Great Britain was another abstainer-apparently on similar grounds Recent demands by the Scottish separatists cast doubt on the very name United Kingdom The Scots, whose most violent act was stealing the Stone of Scone out of Westminster Abbey some years ago, are another peaceful independence movement that hasn't gotten anywhere Clearly, these dissident and separatist movements (to name but a few) must change their strategies They might, for example, blow up jetliners m mid-air, as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine did in February 1970 in the case of a Swissair plane with 47 passengers and crew aboard Or assassinate an American ambassador (or any ambassador) as Black September did m March 1973 m Khartoum Or send terrorist bands into states they seek to overturn with instructions to murder mothers and children and old men, as Al Fatah did last June in the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya And now that the General Assembly has chosen to confirm the effectiveness of indiscriminate terror, there is little reason to doubt the same methods of murder that worked for the PLO (plus further refinements) will be taken up by others Indeed, the Puerto Rican freedom movement has already demonstrated the point Less than two weeks after the 105-4 vote opening the United Nations' door to the PLO, the FALN-the "armed forces" of Puerto Rican "national liberation"set off bomb blasts at five New York banks Surely, Puerto Rican independence will soon be taken seriously It won't be the same old UN when the separatist honchos start swaggering down the corridors with their submachine guns slung over their shoulders Nor will it be the same old world when political assassins are not merely tolerated but encouraged Still, you can't stop progress Richard Cohen...