Jewish group asks pope to lead anti-bomber campaign

VATICAN CITY - A Jewish human rights group met yesterday with Pope John Paul II, launching a campaign to urge the international community to treat suicide bombing as a "crime against humanity."

Calling suicide bombing "the crime of the 21st century," delegation members from the Simon Wiesenthal Center said they will begin lobbying governments for a UN resolution so that those who plan the bombings can be brought to justice.

"The world turns to you, Your Holiness, to declare such acts as both crimes against God and crimes against humanity," the center's founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said in a speech to the pope.

In brief remarks released by the Vatican, John Paul said, "In these difficult times let us pray that all peoples everywhere will be strengthened in their commitment to mutual understanding, reconciliation and peace."

The pope did not mention the group's proposal, but Hier later told reporters: "I believe he will take it into consideration." He said the delegation sought the pope's support because of his role as a "moral force" in the world.

Hier said that the use of suicide bombing, a tactic used by Palestinian militants against Israel, has now spread, cutting across national and religious lines. He noted that recent suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Iraq have killed Muslims.

In his speech to the pope, Hier also raised the problem of the "proliferation" of anti-Semitism in Europe and the world, calling it a "malignancy that must be challenged."

The Los Angeles-based group presented John Paul with its humanitarian award for his "lifelong friendship to the Jewish people."