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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
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A
publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
Editor: Pritam K.
Rohila, PhD asiapeace@comcast.net
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Volume
XII, No. 7:
______________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
*Peace & Violence, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.
BOOKS
*Peace
Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution, Saleem H. Ali (Ed), 2007
CROSS-BORDER TRAVEL
EXPERIENCES OF INDIANS & PAKISTANIS
*Pakistani-Hindustani
Bhai-Bhai, Literally Up in the Sky! Yoginder Sikand
EDUCATION & TRAINING
*August 14 & 15, Blue
Ash,
EVENTS
*August 9,
*August 23
to 26,
*September
26-October 2,
*October 4-7, Koach,
*
Religions
EVENT REPORTS
*July 8,
2008, Washington, D.C., USA: ANTI-MUSLIM RIOTS IN GUJARAT.
JOBS, INTERNSHIPS & VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON
GOOD)
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
INDIA & PAKISTAN
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
SOUTH ASIA
UPDATE: KASHMIR
UPDATE: PAKISTAN
UPDATE: SRI LANKA
*Taking responsibility
is essential to find solutions, Jehan Perera
_____________________________________________________________________________
EDITORIAL
*Peace & Violence, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.
Anger, hate, greed, and lust, which can lead to violence, are natural human emotions. There is hardly anyone who has not experienced them some time in his/her life. Of course some people experience them more often than others.
But the way in which someone expresses these emotions is in that person’s control. Some people experience them internally, and do not do anything about them. Others find a non-violent way to express them. And some others engage in violence to express these emotions and to resolves situations to which these emotions lead them.
Choice of violence is a decision made by the individual concerned. In some cases, the decision to use violence is the end product of a thoughtful deliberation. But often, the decision is sudden, resulting from an acquired habit.
Many individuals acquire the habit of violence, in their childhood, from influences in their homes, neighborhoods, or from other role models in their social milieu.
Most of us, however, do not realize that violence does not solve any problem.
Violence may provide the perpetrator with temporary relief from tension. But it has negative consequences for the perpetrator as well as the victim.
In the perpetrator it tends to reinforce tendency to solve problems with violence. In the victim it tends to instill fear, which may motivate the victim to comply in the presence of the perpetrator. Also, the victim may become conditioned to not respond in the desired way, until the perpetrator engages in violence.
Violence is a bad habit, and like other bad habits it can also be unlearnt.
Peace results from renunciation of violence as a method of expressing negative emotions or of resolving situation to which they lead.
BOOKS
*Peace
Parks: Conservation
and Conflict Resolution, Saleem H. Ali (Ed),
MIT Press, September 2007, 7 x 9, 432 pp.,
20 illus., $29.00/£18.95 (PAPER), ISBN-10:0-262-51198-3, ISBN - 13:978-0-262-51198-8
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11250
Although the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded
to a Kenyan environmentalist, few have considered whether environmental
conservation can contribute to peace-building in conflict zones. Peace Parks
explores this question, examining the ways in which environmental cooperation
in multijurisdictional conservation areas may help resolve political and
territorial conflicts. Its analyses and case studies of transboundary peace
parks focus on how the sharing of physical space and management
responsibilities can build and sustain peace among countries. The book examines
the roles played by governments, the military, civil society, scientists, and
conservationists, and their effects on both the ecological management and the
potential for peace-building in these areas.
Following a historical and theoretical overview
that explores economic, political, and social theories that support the concept
of peace parks, and discussion of bioregional management for science and
economic development, the book presents case studies of existing parks and
proposals for future parks. After describing such real-life examples as the
Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor in Africa and the Emerald Triangle conservation
zone in Indochina, the book looks to the future, exploring the peace-building
potential of envisioned parks in security-intensive spots including the
U.S.-Mexican border, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and
the Mesopotamian marshlands between Iraq and Iran. With contributors from a
variety of disciplines and diverse geographic regions, Peace Parks is
not only a groundbreaking book in International Relations but a valuable
resource for policy makers and environmentalists.
CROSS-BORDER TRAVEL EXPERIENCES OF INDIANS
& PAKISTANIS
*Pakistani-Hindustani
Bhai-Bhai, Literally Up in the Sky! Yoginder Sikand ysikand@yahoo.com , Jun 18, 2008
We have a three-hour
stop over at Lahore airport on our way back to Delhi from Islamabad. I am
excited about going back home, but, at the same time, am sad at the thought of
leaving Pakistan. I don’t know when, if at all, I can come back here, if I can
ever again meet some of those wonderful people whom I almost instantly bonded
with in my short week-long visit to the country. I wonder if I will again be
fortunate enough to get a visa to visit Pakistan.
After all, this, my
second visit to Pakistan, was made possible only after great effort and because
of having friends who had the right contacts in the right places. After my
first visit, three years ago, my applications for a visa to return, to attend
conferences and meet friends, were repeatedly turned down. The reason, so I
heard: Upon my return from that visit, some articles that I wrote on certain
aspects of life in Pakistan—the problems of Dalits and other rural poor in
Sindh and the crisis of intellectuals in the country generally—were not quite
liked by someone in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, who, so I
gather, assumed that this somehow made me highly suspect. So, he made it a
point to make sure that I was to be refused to enter the country again by
putting my name on a particular ‘list’ of unwanted elements. Of course, this
someone did not care to notice the good things that I had written about
Pakistan as well, and the fact, as I had mentioned in my writings that he had
seen, that we in India face similar problems—observations which firmly
contradicted the opinion that he had formed about me.
But, somehow, I am
back now in Pakistan and I feel wonderful about it (after all, this was the
home of half of my ancestors!) and this week-long visit to Islamabad has been
overwhelming in every sense of the term. This trip has afforded me an
opportunity to see a different side of Pakistan, in many respects quite in
contrast to what I observed on my first visit.
Islamabad is certainly
the cleanest and most organized city in all of South Asia, and the friends that
I’ve made on this trip have been exceptionally interesting: social activists,
religious scholars, journalists, NGO workers and documentary film makers. All
of which makes me feel a sense of loss and a heavy sadness deep down inside at
the prospect that now that I should be in Delhi in four hours’ time and not
knowing if I can ever come back.
I spend my remaining Pakistani money at the Government handicrafts’ shop,
picking up onyx vases and ashtrays and a brightly-hued tapestry. ‘I really wish
I could stay on in Pakistani longer’, I tell the friendly shopkeeper as he tots
up my bill. He smiles, and says
as he shakes my hand firmly, ‘Inshallah, you will be back soon’.
I walk over to the
cafeteria. A young handsome man hands me a cup of tea and I repeat the same
phrase about wishing that I could stay in Pakistan longer, meaning ever word of
it. And he answers in an identical fashion. ‘Inshallah, you will come back
again’, he assures me. We get chatting. His name is Habib. He has just joined
this job, having previously worked in a local band. He has composed over a
dozen songs, he says, and on my pleading he sings his latest composition: a
Punjabi song about the pangs of separated lovers.
A voice comes over the microphone, announcing the imminent departure of
Pakistan International Airlines’ flight to Delhi. A line forms around a
counter, and I join it at the end. ‘I really wish I could stay on longer’, I
tell the lady who checks my boarding pass
before I head for the gate leading to the plane. ‘Inshallah, you will be here
soon’, she says coyly.
We have now taken off, and within five minutes we are out of Pakistani
territory, having crossed an imaginary frontier into the Indian Punjab.
Forty-five minutes later, as the plane begins to descend, we are above Delhi,
flying over an urban jungle that extends till the horizon. And just then, the
plane begins to quake like a leaf in the face of a terrifying typhoon.
It violently heaves up
and down, this way and that. We have been caught in a furious storm. Menacing
black clouds swell up outside the window, the darkness broken by massive bolts
of lightening. The plane feverishly resists this sudden assault, and, I, in my
panic, imagine it is all in vain.
An elderly woman next to me seems on the verge of fainting. Her eyes are shut
tight, her face contorted in terror. She buries her head in the lap of her
daughter, who is repeatedly taking the name of Allah, exhorting Him for
protection. I hear similarly desperate cries to God and Ishwar buzz around me.
We all believe that this is the end. I have never come so
close to possible death before. Being a horribly nervous air-traveller, this
experience is grueling. My heart is in my mouth, and I stomp my feet violently
on the floor as the plane furiously tilts from side to side uncontrollably.
Death has come, I imagine, and my mind seeks to focus on God, begging for
forgiveness of sins and for His acceptance. If a violent death in an air-crash
is what He has decreed, then so be it, I scream to myself. All this while,
appeals to Allah, Ishwar and God become louder and more desperate, all of us,
Indians and Pakistanis, Hindus and Muslims finally united before the Creator in
the face of what we think is imminent death.
The ordeal lasts for
almost twenty minutes. I do not know how I survived that long. As we appear to
be crashing below through the blinding blanket of clouds a desperate voice
crackles over the microphone. I fear for the worst. The airhostess announces
that due to ‘very bad’ weather over Delhi we are forced to fly back to Lahore.
The plane then veers around suddenly, as if retracing its steps. Wisely, the
pilot takes a slightly different route back, skirting the rain-swollen clouds.
But till we touch down in Lahore an hour or so later we are all shocked into an
eerie silence in our seats, whispering our prayers to the one God with multiple
names.
‘See, I told you that
you would come back soon’, beams the keeper of the handicrafts shop in the
airport when we pile out of the plane, seeking to pacify me. Habib, the young
singer-turned-waiter at the airport restaurant, welcomes me with a firm hug and
an identical reply. Yes, it is good to be back, to be back on terra firma, to
be back in Lahore, to be back in Pakistan, to be back alive.
The passengers of the
aborted flight are directed to a PIA counter in the departure lounge. There we
are informed that there is no scheduled flight from Lahore to Delhi for the
next four days. We could wait till then, we are told. I wish I could avail that
option, for it would give me four extra days in Pakistan. But, I cannot, since
my visa expires tomorrow.
We are advised to take an alternate route: to fly to Karachi the next evening,
and from there to Delhi, obviously an arduously long journey. I hear noises of
protest. Frankly, I would not mind this option either. That way, I could get to
see a bit of Karachi, at least its airport, said to be the swankiest in
Pakistan. But the grumbles of protest grow louder and more aggressive.
A hefty Pakistani man
and two angry Indian women surround the counter, threatening to go on virtual
strike and demanding that PIA arrange a special flight to take us to Delhi
directly. I think their brusqueness is entirely uncalled for, considering the
valour of the intrepid PIA pilot (a woman, it turns out) who steered us safely
through what could have been a deadly killer storm. But, now that most of the
other passengers have joined the chorus demanding a special flight, I decide to
keep shut. So, finally, it is decided by our strike leaders that we, a bunch of
some fifty Pakistanis and Indians, roughly equal in number, shall refuse to fly
to Karachi and, instead, shall press on with the demand for a special flight to
Delhi immediately. I quietly submit to what I think is an entirely unreasonable
demand.
Three hours later, the
PIA officials relent and graciously announce that they have arranged for a
craft to take us to Delhi tomorrow evening. We are informed that arrangements
have been made for us to stay at the nearby Airport Inn. Meanwhile, the three
white passengers have left the group, probably planning to cross over into
India through the Attari-Wagah border crossing point, thirty miles away, which
we Indians and Pakistanis ironically cannot do because our visas permit us only
to fly to India and not cross overland.
We file into vans
waiting outside and are driven to the inn—which turns out to be a modest
privately-owned lodge and not the fancy, government-owned five star hotel that
some passengers were obviously expecting, judging by the angry clicking of
tongues that I hear when we arrive at the reception desk. The lodge is short of
rooms, we are told by the receptionist, and so are to be put two to a room.
This is done in an entirely random fashion, which is, I feel, all to the good,
because most Indian and Pakistani passengers find that they are forced, whether
they like it or not, to share rooms with a person of the other nationality.
Rehan, a businessman
from Gujranwala, and I have been assigned the same room, which is barely large
enough to accommodate the bed that occupies almost all the available space. We
introduce ourselves to one another, and, as all the other passengers seem to be
doing, talk about the harrowing experience on the flight and about how glad we
are to have been saved from impending death. We walk up to the room together and,
after a quick wash, lunge into the bed and earn some very well deserved sleep.
It is late evening
when we wake up. Rehan insists that I join him for dinner at a nearby eatery
and refuses to budge when I plead that we share the hefty bill. In less than
three hours, the panic that gripped all of us on the flight in the face of the
near-death experience has bonded Rehan and me together in a strange,
unexplainable way. He’s now ‘Yaar’, ‘Bhai’ and ‘Baba’, and I slap him on the
back and he does the same to me. I already know much about his wife and his
three children, about his income and his passion for travel and good food, and
I’ve told him likewise about myself. It seems that I’ve known Rehan for as long
as I can recall.
And this seems to be
the case with most of the other Indian and Pakistani passengers who have been
herded together in shared rooms in the Airport Inn. By now, I am on first-name
terms with at least half of the passengers. So, I know about Nathu, the Hindu
trader from Sukkur in Sindh And his
passion for Sufi music. And Najma, a corpulent Shia woman from Lahore, who is
on the way to visit long-lost relatives in Lucknow. And Haji Shams, a learned
maulvi from Sargodha, who has been invited to a conference in Delhi on ethics
and biotechnology. And Hussaini, a frail, elderly woman from Hyderabad in Sindh
who is heading for a city with the same name in India for a medical operation.
And so on. And, likewise, the numerous Indian passengers whose addresses I have
noted and whom I hope to meet once we get back to India, Inshallah.
The next day is spent in the confines of the Airport Inn, for we have no idea
when the special craft that we have been told would be arranged for us would
depart. Rehan and I sit on the steps of the entrance to the inn, watching the
traffic pass by—cars, gaily painted buses (each a work of art), Chinese-made
tempos and donkey-carts. This part of suburban Lahore could easily pass for any
north Indian town. Ayub Khan, the hefty, amiable armed Pakhtun guard, keeps us
regaled with stories about his village nestled in the mountains near the Afghan
frontier. Some passengers (Indians, I am ashamed to report) interrupt our
reverie with frantic shrieks hurled at the receptionist for badly functioning
air-conditioners, taps which do not work and tea that has been served cold.
At three in the
afternoon, we are told that PIA has arranged for a plane to take us to Delhi
and that it would depart at six thirty that evening. I react to that
announcement with relief, mixed with sadness at the thought of imminent
departure.
When we reach the
airport we are told that the special plane arranged for us is a forty-seater
craft that flies with the help of propellers. That sends me into a spasm of
agony. Surely, I tell myself, this tiny craft that I think uses outmoded
technology will not be able to weather a storm over Delhi, if we are again
stuck in one. And the timing of the flight is another major cause of
trepidation. It is scheduled to arrive in Delhi in the late evening, when, at
this time of the year, fierce squalls have a nasty habit of breaking out.
I ascend the ladder
leading up to the tiny plane with a deep sense of fear. I wish there was some
other way of getting back to Delhi. But, there isn’t, since our visas strictly
require us to return to Delhi by air from Lahore, and so, I tell myself, there
is no point in fretting. The friendly steward guides me to my seat, which is
next to Rehan’s. Rehan isn’t making things easier for me, as he talks about how
diminutive the plane seems, how feeble the propellers might be in the face of a
storm. Najma, the corpulent Lahori who is heading for Lucknow, tries to make
light of the situation. Surveying the miniscule aircraft, which looks like a
slightly oversized toy plane, she jokes, ‘It’s as if we are all going on a
family picnic!’.
I struggle to smile.
And, then, in a short
while, we are airborne and I whisper my prayers to God. The sky is remarkably
clear, a brilliant cloudless blue. The plane sails majestically like a swallow
in spring. The friendly steward assures me, when I tell him that I am already
missing Pakistan, that I shall, Inshallah, return soon.
Barely half an hour
later, plane begins to descend, and the airhostess informs us that we should be
reaching Delhi in a short while. My mind goes to Pakistan, which we have left
just thirty minutes ago, and I also think of India, where we should be touching
down in half that time. How near the two countries are, and yet so distant!
Then an idea strikes
me. I grab a scrap of paper—actually, half of the airsickness bag kept in the
pocket before me—and I scribble down the following lines:
“Dear Friends,
Yesterday’s near brush with death has brought all of us, Pakistanis and
Indians, so close together. If in the face of death, our common destiny, we can
be so close, then why not in life, too? In order to celebrate the close bonds
that we all have established in this one day, I propose that the moment the
plane touches down in Delhi, Allah/Ishwar willing, we should raise the
following slogan: Pakistani-Hindustani Bhai Bhai! Please read this note and
pass it around.”
I hand over the note
to the passenger sitting behind me, and it gradually weaves its way around the
plane. Just to make sure that everyone gets the message, after a while I stand
up and announce what the note is all about. Aware that we have two feminists on
board—who had attended the same conference as I in Islamabad—I add that the
phrase “Bhai-Bhai” can be substituted by “Behen-Behen”, if the need is felt.
A panic-stricken
airhostess, hearing my impassioned speech, rushes to my seat, wondering what
has happened. ‘I’m doing my politics’, I tell her with a chuckle, and she
breaks into an approving smile when I explain what my declamation is all about.
Five minutes later,
the little plane gracefully touches down at New Delhi airport and I hear a loud
chorus repeat after me, “Pakistani-Hindustani Bhai-Bhai!”
EDUCATION
& TRAINING
*August 14 & 15, Blue
Ash, Ohio, USA: SCHOOL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR TEACHERS is an
offering of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management in
partnership with Wilmington College Peace Resource Center and the Ohio Resource
Network to help “create a school environment that fosters prevention and
de-escalation of conflicts and that establishes procedures for the effective,
nonviolent resolution of conflicts that occur in school settings,” at 9:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m., at Wilmington College Cincinnati Branch. The cost including a 500+ page Curriculum
Guide on CD-ROM and lunch both days is $30. More information is available
from Sue Ellen Hodgson at 1.800.341.9318 ext. 365 and at shodgson@wilmington.edu.
EVENTS
*August 9, Portland, OR, USA: LIVE CRICKET (Pakistan-India vs. Portland XI),
an offering of Pakistan Association of Greater Portland in celebration of Pakistan's 61st Independence
Day, at Portland Community College Rock Creek campus. Gates open at 3:00 p.m. More info from www.pakportland.com and 360-695-6550
*August 23 to 26,
Agra U.P., India: 19TH INTERNATIONAL SOUTH ASIAN FUNDRAISING WORKSHOP
(SAFRW). The South Asian Fund Raising Group (SAFRG), India and PAIMAN (Pakistan)
are organizing this workshop at Jaypee Palace, Hotel & Convention Centre,
Agra, for leaders and fundraisers of non-profit organisations from all over
Asia on the theme of "Building Relationships for Sustainability". The
workshop will provide a unique opportunity for the international community to
exchange ideas and develop a common vision and strategy of resource
mobilization for fund raising on sustainable basis. For details visit www.safrg.org
*September 26-October 2, Chandigarh, India: 3RD ANNUAL
INDO-PAK STUDENTS PEACE CAMP, to promote peace between Pakistan and India, is
being organized at Chandigarh, by CYDA, the Centre for Youth Development and Activities, Sadikabad,
Pakistan (www.cydapakistan.org). Intended for youth
of age 15-26, the program will include a number of mixed group activities and excursion
trips in and around Chandigarh.
Registration must be completed by July 10. To request a
registration application and additional info contact info@cydapakistan.org. A welcome pack with more details will be sent to the
applicants upon confirmation of their registration.
*October 4-7, Koach, Kerala,
India: SPIRITUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT is theme of the World Fellowship of
Inter-Religious Councils (WFIRC) Assembly 2008, at the Renewal Centre,Azad Road, Koach-682017 in Kerala,
India. Registration fee is Rs. 500 to meet the expenses, in part, of boarding
and lodging. More info from Justice P.K.Shamsuddin, President WFIRC,
S.R.M.Road, Kochi-682018, Kerala, India, Tel. 0484- 02993/9446572993, pkshamsuddin@rediffmail.com, and Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil
cmi, Secretary General, WFIRC, Upasana,Thodupuzha-685 584, Kerala,
India, Tel 04862-223286/9446131173, upasanadr@dataone.in & Upasana_dr@satyam.net.in
*December 3-9, 2009,
Melbourne, Australia: The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, will bring together the world’s religious and spiritual communities,
their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and
sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious
understanding and cooperation.
Parliament
participants will work with others and within their own traditions to craft
faithful responses to:
More info from http://www.parliamentofreligions2009.org/home.php
EVENT REPORTS
*July 8, 2008, Washington, D.C., USA: ANTI-MUSLIM RIOTS
AND JUSTICE IN GUJARAT.
Amnesty
International of Washington region organized a public awareness
meeting about anti-Muslim riots and justice in India (Gujarat) last Tuesday,
July 8th, 2008 at their Washington office. A ten-minute
documentary film highlighted the carnage perpetrated by hate-mongers and
continued callousness of Modi government towards the pogrom victims.
Teesta Setalvad spoke, in detail with facts, about the
possible involvement of the Gujarat government operatives in planning and
systematic execution of the carnage. She lamented the impotency of the
central government and callousness of Gujarat judiciary in bringing justice for
the victims. In my sincere opinion, Ms. Setalvad is a one courageous
lady, who has given her life for this missionary work and is exposed to
constant life-threatening attacks by hate-monger gangs.
Mr. Sreekumar described behind the scene activities of
functionaries in organizing the events that led to pogrom. He told how he was
transferred from his sensitive and important position because did not succumb
to the plans of Gujarat political leaders.
Nishrin Hussain spoke about the organized brutality of
attackers, who disfigured and burned alive her father (the late Ehsan Jafri,
then sitting Member of Parliament of India) and many other residents of the
colony. She said she was proud to have born in Independent India and is still
hoping for justice that is evading Muslims of Gujarat. Recounting brutal
description of her father’s death was not easy and emotions overtook her.
Teesta Setalvad helped in providing some details regarding gruesome massacre of
residents of the colony.
The meeting was attended by a large number of people
representing diverse groups of Indian community namely, the Aligarh Alumni
Association (AAA), Association of Indian Muslims in America (AIM), Association
for India’s Development (AID), Gujarati Muslims, Hyderabad Association, and
Sadbhav Mission, etc., and a number of people of non-Indian origin interested
in human rights issues.
Mr. T. Kumar, Advocacy Director for Asia &
Pacific, Amnesty International USA, thanked the speakers and audience. He
mentioned that the idea of arranging this meeting was to educate people about
human rights issues and try to get justice for the victims of Gujarat victims.
JOBS, INTERNSHIPS
& VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON GOOD)
http://www.graduationpledge.org/jobs.html
MEMBERS CORNER
*Dr. Jimmy Dhabi’s (jimmydabhi@gmail.com) paper, “Imagine A New South
Asia” was published in the January-June 2008 issue of the Indian Journal of
Youth Affairs (Vol 12, No. 1, Pp. 5-15).
*Zaman
Khan zk0003@yahoo.com interviewed Professor Niaz Zaman, who was born a Punjabi in 1941, Lahore. She
married Qazi Siddiquz Zaman, a Bengali, and now lives in Bangladesh. Equally
fluent in Urdu, English and Bangla, she prefers to express herself in English.
The interview was published in The News www.thenews.com.pk, on June 15, 2008.
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA
*http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia
UPDATE: KASHMIR
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KashmirSolutionsForum/
UPDATE:
PAKISTAN
*Beena Sarwar updates http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beena-issues/
*http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/
UPDATE: SRI LANKA
*Taking responsibility is essential to find solutions, Jehan
Perera jehanpc@sltnet.lk
(Executive Director, National
Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Colombo, July 6, 2008)
With reports coming in on a daily basis of
military progress in the battlefields of the north and of the destruction of
LTTE bases, it is to be expected that the government’s military strategy would
be generally perceived as a successful one. Although concerns are
sometimes expressed that the costs of this strategy are high, conclusive
evidence to buttress this claim is hard to come by. The presentation of the
military campaigns in the present time is in contrast to the previous phases of
the war when reports of reversals and high human and military costs frequently
undermined the impression of success.
Nearly all reports to be found in the media today are indicative of military
success with little of the costs being incorporated into them. This
is partly on account of the voice of dissent in the media being virtually
silenced in the face of repeated assaults and threats of violence. In
this context, the interview to the media given by army commander Lieutenant
General Sarath Fonseka is particularly important. He has said that the
Sri Lankan armed forces have effectively eliminated the LTTE’s capacity to
engage in conventional warfare as they had in the past. He also said that
another year may be necessary for the LTTE to be made to lose the territory it
now controls.
The mission of the Sri Lankan military appears to be to recapture the territory
controlled by the LTTE and to dismantle their administrative and political
apparatus, as was accomplished in the east. Unable to face the onslaught by the
Sri Lankan military, this territory is already much less than what the LTTE
controlled two years ago, having lost the entirety of the east, and some parts
of the north. However, it is also significant that the army commander
gave a warning that the LTTE could continue as a guerilla force of a thousand
cadres for another two decades, and that the armed conflict might even last
forever, though in a different form.
In his interview General Fonseka said, “There are people who believe in Tamil
nationalism. The LTTE might survive another even two decades with about
1000 cadres. But we will not be fighting in the same manner. It
might continue as an insurgency forever.” Implicit in this responsible
observation is the acknowledgement of an ethnic conflict between the forces of
competing nationalisms that requires a political solution. The experience
of conflicts in other parts of the world suggests that military solutions
cannot suppress the nationalistic impulses of people.
Tamil nightmare
It is nationalism, or love of one’s own people and their history and culture,
that leads people to make immense sacrifices, even of laying down their lives
for the cause of their nation. This suggests that if a lasting solution
to the problem of nationalism is to be found, it cannot be limited to one that is
imposed by force. There is only one alternative to a military solution
and that is a negotiated solution. But the problem in Sri Lanka is that
so long as the LTTE is determined to wage war against the government, the
government will respond in kind. The nature of government is to wield the
monopoly of armed force, which is vested in it by both international law and
dominant concepts of state sovereignty.
There is a large school of thought at the present time in Sri Lanka that those
who call on the government to negotiate a political solution with the LTTE are
being unrealistic at best and traitors at worst. This school of
thought has grown in strength after the failure of the peace process of
2002-2005. During that period, the two governments, one headed by Prime
Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and after his dismissal the one headed by
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, went farther than any other previous
government to avoid war as the path to a solution. But the LTTE rejected those
efforts as insufficient, and finally acted with inflexible determination to
provoke the return to war.
As a result there is today an increasingly nightmarish situation in the
country, especially as it affects the Tamil people. Supporters of Tamil
nationalism and the LTTE need to re-think their stances if they wish to ease
the sufferings of the Tamil people whose basic rights they must surely wish to
uphold. The counter-productiveness of supporting a war that is destroying
the Tamil people needs to be considered. Heightened security measures
have meant that thousands of Tamils living in Colombo were recently forced out
of their homes in the early hours of the morning, along with their aged, infirm
and children, to be interrogated, investigated and video filmed. Disappearance
and abductions are also reportedly taking place, although the government denies
this, and says that most have either been legally arrested or are absconding
from their homes.
In the north, Tamil people flee from the LTTE-controlled areas, either to
escape the remorseless forced recruitment of the LTTE or to escape the
bombardments of the military engagements that are taking place. It is
reported that the LTTE does not give permission to people living within the
areas they control to leave those areas, and keep them as virtual human shields
and pools for recruitment. It is also reported that those who do succeed in
fleeing, often at risk to their lives, end up in welfare camps in
government-controlled areas, where they are virtually confined without being
given the freedom of further movement. This is on account of the government’s
fears that LTTE cadre may also have sought to infiltrate in with them.
Some of the especially stringent security precautions being taken by the
government at this time could be on account of the SAARC Summit that is to be
held at the end of the month in Colombo. This summit will bring together
the heads of all the eight South Asian countries, and is major public relations
exercise for the government which looks to these countries for friendship,
military assistance and economic partnership. The LTTE may be planning
for terror attacks, but needs to realize that these attacks have not dissuaded
the Sri Lankan government from going ahead with its own military strategy, as
outlined by the army commander. Terror attacks by the LTTE only convince
the people and the international community, that the LTTE is part of the
problem to be eliminated, rather than a party that is fit to be made a part of
the solution.
Responsible governance
Unfortunately, the government’s present approach to the ethnic conflict, and in
particular to the challenge posed by the LTTE, is also not solution oriented
either. The government’s democratic credentials are being constantly
eroded by the reports of ongoing human rights violations and violations of the
constitution such as the 17th Amendment. The government
appears to be engaged in an effort to forcibly impose its own version of a
solution on the multi-ethnic and plural society of Sri Lanka, in which
competing forces of nationalism have the upper hand, and are being further
fueled by government actions.
The continuing assault on journalists, especially those who have been defense
correspondents, is a serious indictment on the government. The most
recent such attack that caused injury to a journalist working for the Sri Lanka
Press Institute got international coverage, largely on account of the presence
in the victim’s vehicle of a local staff member of the British High Commission,
who also got assaulted. It is likely that the latter victim was an
inadvertent target of the attackers. But this incident, which took place
in the heart of Colombo, serves as a warning of how abuse of power, if left
unchecked, can spill over and claim more groups of victims.
The response of the government to this attack, as well as to previous ones, has
been disappointing. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is the Commander in
Chief of the Armed Forces, alleged that the government was the victim of a
conspiracy to discredit it. Other senior government officials made claims
that these attacks may be staged, as journalists benefit from them by being
granted asylum in foreign countries. Ironically some of these
attacks have taken place in high security zones. The reluctance to take
responsibility suggests that the government is prepared to countenance further
such attacks.
An extreme example in the opposite direction comes from France. The Army
Commander there recently resigned following an incident in which a soldier
fired live bullets instead of blank ones at an exhibition. A developed
society is one in which the lines of command are intact and work with
precision, where responsibility is taken at the very highest level and
mistakes, and certainly abuses, are discontinued. Only in such a society
will citizens trust the government to solve their problems and lead them to a
better future. It is democratic processes, a sense of honour and
universal values that alone can restore the government’s credibility with its
multi ethnic and plural population.