[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (27 dec.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2.
27 December 1999
[with appologies to all if you have already read some of the stories posted
below]
_______________________
#1. Sri-Lanka: No such thing as a war for peace
#2. Bangladesh: Editor of Meghbarta arrested, and released
- The Plane Hijack & a new bout of Indo-Pak Cold war -
#3. India: The Tragedy of Flight IC-814
#4. India: Resolving the Hijack Crisis
_______________________
#1.
[From the Centre for Justice & Peace in South Asia's cjesa List | 27 Dec.199=
9]

NO SUCH THING AS A WAR FOR PEACE
(Mon Dec 27, 1999 )

By: Qadri Ismail

President Kumaratunga: I was relieved on the 18th night when the news
disclosed only minor injuries to your person. I was happy in the early
hours of the 22nd, when the news revealed your re-election. My joy
evaporated when I heard your remarks upon being sworn in. These words
come from the conviction that you are still opposed to racism. But that
you are, at least, misguided. Because, if you execute the course
outlined in your victory speech - war by another name - the consequence
won't be the peace you ostensibly desire.

Rather, this country will become a battlezone for the Tamils and a
permanent checkpoint for the rest of us. The first thing you've got to
understand is very, very difficult. I know this may sound crazy, but
the assassination attempt wasn't personal.

Velupillai Prabakaran has killed every consequential Lankan politician
in the recent past. By targetting you, he merely followed established
Tiger policy. So, you musn't take it personally. You cannot seek
revenge. War, whatever name you call it, would be revenge. Point two:
you surely know by now that the battle is unwinnable? Your soldiers
don't have the will to fight and they can't hold territory.

You could multiply the military budget, but this will only magnify
Tamil misery and further damage the economy. Three: the Tamil people
voted against you. Overwhelmingly. In Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Colombo,
Nuwara Eliya, Badulla - and Jaffna, too, despite the official results.
They believe you are against them: because of your deeds - as opposed
to your words - over the past five years. You can make them forsake the
LTTE. Indeed you must. But that won't happen by merely proclaiming your
anti-racism. You must actually do things to prove it.

=46our Sri Lankan governments tried to militarily defeat the Tigers.
We've seen the results. Three tried negotiations. We know the results.
The pragmatists - those people without imagination or ability to read
the evidence - will insist you talk again. Others will insist you
fight. These are false choices. Both. The war cannot be won. And,
really, the Tigers only want to talk about the transfer of power to an
independent state.

The challenge before you is truly daunting: to produce a new,
innovative and non-violent strategy, some things never tried before, to
win back the Tamils and eventually solve the problem. It will take
time, four to five years at least. Some aspects of such a policy may
appear unrealistic, if not way-out; but when business-as-usual has
demonstrably failed, then one must damn the pragmatists and attempt the
unusual.

=46or a start, stop fighting. There is no point trying to gain ground if
you can't keep it. Consolidate the defences around your major camps,
close down the others and launch attacks solely against identified
Tiger bases. You will lose territory, but not many troops; and ordinary
Tamils will realise, slowly, that you are not attacking them.

Especially if you never bomb or shell civilian areas. The nationalist
segments of the military will object. So, sack Srilal Weerasooriya. (He
commanded Jaffna during the Chemmani murders and should have been
court-martialled a long time ago.) Recommend the other racist brass to
retire (and join the Veera Vidhana if they are so inclined). Many
professional officers know this war cannot be won. Listen to them - not
to those who advice you out of ideology or personal aspiration. Boot
Anuruddha Ratwatte. Nobody takes him seriously - including the Kandy
voter. (I presume you know the official count was somewhat
exaggerated.) Promote him to Field-Marshal as compensation. While you
are about it, dump Lakshman Kadirgamar as well. He accepted the foreign
ministry hoping it'll lead him to the U.N. secretary-generalship. He
can start his campaign early. Replace him with someone credible,
passionate and articulate who'll conceive his task not as justifying
the Sinhalese to the world, but as explaining the Tamil cause to the
Sinhalese. Your cabinet desperately needs a Tamil motivated by
conviction rather than ambition. On this subject, stop backing Douglas
Devananda. He represents only his bank account.

If you are genuinely committed to a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka, you would
insist that the Sangha restrict its public pronouncements to matters of
religion. If you truly want to stop hatred, you must make them stop
meddling in politics. These actions will send a message to the Tamil
people, but they are not enough. Stop the restrictions on essential
items to the Wanni.

Using food as a weapon is truly base. Stop requiring civilians to get
permission to travel to and from the north. Requiring passes is
reminiscent of apartheid South Africa. Yes, LTTE cadre will then find
it easier to get to the south. (Though they don't seem to find it
difficult now.) So, enhance security at checkpoints.

To prevent abuse of Tamil civilians, a human rights official should
monitor every point; actually, one should be attached to every military
encampment and police station in the country. If there aren't enough
Sri Lankan volunteers, get them from Norway or the Quakers. Other
initiatives are also necessary on this front. The Prevention of
Terrorism Act must be repealed. It is a truly obnoxious piece of
legislation - and nobody can claim it has prevented terrorism these
past twenty years.

Release all Tamil political prisoners. Some Tigers will go free - but
they don't have a problem with recruitment, anyway - and the bulk of
the emancipated would be innocent. This is one gesture the Tamil people
will certainly appreciate. In the short term these moves will
strengthen the LTTE. But, in the same short term, you have lost the
Tamils. It is the medium term one is fighting for. All this would be
useless, of course, without a new, federal constitution - one that
conceives of Lanka as composed of equal social groups, not of a Sinhala
majority and Tamil, Muslim and Burgher minorities.

This means starting from your original proposals of 1995; this means
everything, including the so-called national anthem and flag, are up
for negotiation. But your victory speech, disturbingly enough, made no
mention of devolution. If Gamini Lakshman Pieris has no stomach for
this fight, put Mangala Samaraweera in charge. Tell him, in addition,
to actually pass legislation outlawing hate crimes and enabling equal
opportunity and ethnic harmony. Then make sure these acts, and similar
ones like on official language, are implemented.

If the Tamil people could forgive the UNP and vote for Ranil
Wickremesinghe, they could come to forgive you, too. But you have to
give them reason to believe. If you do, and if their feelings change,
this will have an impact on the LTTE's fundamentalist commitment to
Eelam. In the medium term. Right now, that remains only a slim
possibility, a fantasy even. Right now, their vote is evidence that
ordinary Tamils found your first term a disaster. If you want this to
change, so must your policy. Your victory speech only promised more of
the same. It's about time you realised that there ain't no such thing
as a war for peace.

Courtesy: The Sunday Leader, December 26, 1999
______________
#2.

Daily Star report
Sun, 26 Dec 1999

EDITOR OF MEGHBARTA ARRESTED, AND RELEASED.

Professor Anu Muhammod editor Meghbarta, Bangladesh's first webzine
(www.megbharta.net) and a teacher of economics at Jahangirnagar University,
was arrested earlier today, but later released. He was unhurt. Muhammod was
part of a group of ethnic nationalities, political leaders, intellectuals,
writers, teachers, feminists, students, and other activists who had
gathered in Chittagong city to take part in a conference which was
scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m today (26th December 1999). The conference,
which was organised to mark the one-year founding of the United Peoples
Democratic Front (UPDF), aimed at strengthening the democratic process in
the Chittagong Hill Tracts, was scheduled to open today in Chittagong
city's Laldighi Maidan. The conference was routed by the police and
government-sponsored attackers.. The UPDF organisers had sought and
received the Chittagong city mayor's permission to hold the conference.
However, permission to publicise the meeting through announcements made
over the mike, as is usual in Bangladesh, had been denied. Hints of
government surveillance and intentions of using informal means of state
violence to sabotage the conference were partially confirmed last night
when the pandal (raised platform) in the meeting grounds was destroyed by
unknown men. Men who had been hired to prepare the conference grounds were
attacked. In the morning the organisers and conference-participants changed
the venue of the meeting to the Chittagong city Shaheed Minar. At the
Minar, the UPDF and all others were subjected to lathi and bayonet charges
by police and state-sponsored attackers. The police arrested many of the
conference participants, both hill-people and Bengalis. The arrested
included Anu Muhammod and Rumi (Bangladesh Chhatra Federation) who were
later released, according to eyewitnesses.

Forty four people are known to have been arrested and taken to the
police-station (BBC report).

Today's attack follows the attack by armed gunmen, belonging to the ruling
Awami League's student wing, who yesterday vandalised and fired shots and
ransacked the podium of a convention called by freedom fighter Kader
Siddiqui. At least 50 people including four journalists were injured in the
clashes. People later attacked and injured four policemen for turning a
blind eye to the government sponsored attackers. The convention, called by
Kader Siddiqui who recently left the Awami league, marked the launch of his
new party Krishak Sramik Janata League (Farmers, workers, people, league) .
______________
#3.
THE TRAGEDY OF FLIGHT IC-814.

Vijay Prashad
(26 December 1999, ZNET).

No one can guess the horror of Ms. Rachna Katyal as she sits aboard the
Indian Airlines plane (IC-814) in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Recently married,
Ms. Katyal was on her way home to Delhi from a honeymoon in Kathmandu when
her plane was hijacked for a horrifying ride across southern Asia. Because
her husband Mr. Rippan Katyal looked too long at one of the hijackers, he
was killed and his body thrown from the plane. A few hours ago, Mr. Katyal
was cremated while his wife was denied permission to leave the plane by
those who still hold it and most of its passengers hostage.

After a period of speculation, reports now confirm that the hijackers
demand the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani who has been in an
Indian jail since 1994. This is at least the fourth attempt by Mr. Azhar's
organization, the Harkat-ul-Ansar, to spring him from jail (a previous
attempt, in July 1995, resulted in the death of several foreign tourists).
Mr. Azhar, a professor at Karachi's Jamia Uloom-i-Islami, came to India on
a Portuguese passport to coordinate the activities of two bands of
extremists. First, those under the command of Sajjad Khan (or Afghani), a
Pakistani with the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, and, second, those with
Nasarullah Mansur Langaryal of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami International
(founded in 1980 by the Jamaat-ul-ulema-Islam and the Tablighi Jamaat of
Pakistan with the blessings of the US). The Indian security forces
arrested all three in a fortuitous operation.

New Delhi Television now reports that one of the hijackers is Mr. Ibrahim,
a brother of Mr. Azhar. The hijackers asked for the release of the
Pakistani extremist (along with 160 associates), and their act has once
more raised the question of Kashmir for the world. The <Washington Post>
offered the following comment: 'Focused as it is on a Kashmiri separatist
leader, the incident again highlighted the trouble that continues to
plague the Indian subcontinent because of the conflict over the majority
Muslim region. Most Indians are Hindus, and controversy over control of
Kashmir has sparked intense border skirmishes with the neighboring Muslim
state of Pakistan" (Howard Schneider, 'Jet's Hijackers Demand India Free
Pakistani,' <Washington Post,> 26 December 1999, A1).

Once more the US mainstream media fails its readers, but goes along the
grain of US strategy in the region. To say that 'most Indians are Hindus'
and to speak of Pakistan as a 'Muslim state' adopts the kind of ethnicist
rhetoric of the right wing chauvinists in both India and Pakistan. India
is a multi-ethnic state despite the shenanigans of the ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party, and the Islamicists in Pakistan face a civil society
uncommitted to their bigotry. Furthermore, 'controversy over Kashmir' is
hardly the reason for the border war of June-July 1999, since that
violence was fomented principally by the instability occasioned by the
nuclear tests of May 1998. The trials of Kashmir will not be solved by its
absorption into Pakistan or by its formal independence (a position dropped
by most former secessionists).

The US's idea of 'democracy' in such places is to preach Balkanization
along ethnic lines, a racist notion that does not even allow for the
multi-religious and multi-linguistic character of Kashmir. If
Balkanization was a bad word until recently, Madeline Albright and the
State Department seem to have adjudged it to be a worthwhile strategy in
the Balkans itself. The military-feudal government of Pakistan uses
Kashmir as a political wedge with which to create instability along its
border with India. The bourgeois-landlord government in India, meanwhile,
fails the Kashmiri people whose own voice is given no place in the
discussions over its future. While India and Pakistan sit at a table and
talk about Kashmir (in circumlocutions, no doubt), the Indian government
refuses to talk to disaffected and alienated Kashmiris. The Left movement
in India has as one of its principal demands the re-creation of trust
amongst the people and the provision of 'maximum autonomy within the
Indian Union' (from the Communist Party of India-Marxist). Religion is not
as much a wedge in Kashmir as the lack of structures for political power
and socio-economic development in the region.

People such as Mr. Azhar see the Kashmir struggle as an opening for an
Islamic jihad rather than for the liberation of the Kashmiri people
themselves. In 1994, Mr. Azhar told Pakistani Television that 'soldiers of
Islam have come from twelve countries to liberate Kashmir. Our
organization has nothing to do with politics. We fight for religion. We do
not believe in the concept of nations. We want Islam to rule the world.'
While once the Kashmir-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front fought for
the development of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistan-based (and latterly
Afghanistan-based) Islamicists fight without a program for Kashmir itself.
Their struggle is already alienated from the people. However, the
hideousness of the Hindu Right produces insecurity amongst many Muslim
youth, some of whom turn to these well-funded Islamicist organizations to
ease their own fears within their own land. This is the tragedy of
Kashmir, caught as it is between the vise of competing, but still
relatively marginal, reactionary forces.

The US now has Mr. Azhar's group on its terrorist list. Those notorious
cruise missiles that struck Afghanistan in August 1998 killed HUA
militants in Khost, as they trained for their various jihads. However, the
activities of Mr. Azhar's group allow the US to further its strategy in
Southern Asia, which is to ensure that the states there remain weak and,
therefore, open to penetration by US capital. On 6 October 1999, Karl
Inderfurth (Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs) told the
School of Advanced International Studies that US attention was focused on
South Asia for, principally, 'the economic potential of the regionI the
South Asian region is potentially one of the world's largest markets, and
commercial opportunities are growing. Liberalization is improving the
investment climate for US business throughout the region. India is one of
the ten major emerging markets, especially for the high-tech sector.' As
the militants, the right wing and the US officials seem eager to keep the
pot of Kashmir on boil, this will facilitate an active US entry into
matters of state in South Asia (as it latterly has done so). Strong South
Asian solidarity might block the will of the US, and it may even ask that
the Seventh Fleet withdraw from the Indian Ocean and its Diego Garcia base
(on which, more in a separate commentary).

Meanwhile IC-814 sits on the tarmac in Kandahar. The Indian foreign
minister is recalcitrant to negotiate with the hijackers, since 'our
position on terrorism is well-known.' The Pakistanis allege that the
hijackers may be Indian secret agents whose mission is to embarrass
Pakistan. The Taliban asks the UN to intervene, and Erick de Mul of the UN
in Afghanistan frets about the situation. Images of the incident travels
across the world. Reports of dangerous 'Islamic terrorists' revisit the
kinds of stereotypes made common during the 1991 Gulf War. Context
vanishes, as the US media speaks with a mixture of condescension and
concern for the region. There is little concern for the alienated
Kashmiris, for the failure of partition as a solution to the problem, for
the production of more such crises through the failure of capitalist
development that side of the imperialist curtain. The Katyars join a long
line of the victims of the insurgency over Kashmir, one that will continue
as long as the right rules the destiny of South Asia.
____________
#3.
RESOLVING THE HIJACK CRISIS

S. P. Udayakumar

It is quite unacceptable and in fact condemnable that the Indian Airlines
=46light 814 hijack crisis overshadows the peaceful and hopeful holiday
season of
not just Indians or South Asians but the entire humanity. The relatives and
friends of the passengers, the crew, and the hijackers deserve our special
sympathies and support.

They are understandably upset and even angry that their loved ones among the
passengers and the crew have to undergo this horrendous terror and trauma f=
or
no personal mistake of theirs. These people=EDs resolve of getting their
relatives and friends out of the plane safe and sound must be the top priori=
ty
in any of the crisis resolution schemes the concerned parties may come up wi=
th.

On the other hand, the political ground reality in the subcontinent makes on=
e
mutter helplessly: "If only things were that straight and simple!" In a
complicated and protracted conflict such as the Kashmir issue which is
mired in
history, religion, ethnicity, myths, traumas, and international political
intricacies, things cannot be simple and straight forward.

Moreover, one cannot overlook the fact that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Part=
y
and their ideological mentors are full of ideas when it comes to perpetuatin=
g
and creating conflicts in order to advance their own political agenda. As f=
ar
as satisfactory conflict management/resolution is concerned, they are
pathetically out of ideas and imagination. Toeing the traditional position =
of
the Indian and most other governments the world over, the Vajpayee governmen=
t
has made it clear that they would not yield to the demands of the terrorists=
=2E
And they do not seem to have any other alternative plans also. If they
actually
did, they would have tried to talk to the terrorists when the hijacked plane
was in Amritsar for refueling, or they would have dispatched a negotiating
team
to Lahore, Dubai or Kandahar with a plan or proposition as fast as they coul=
d.

In the final analysis, however, it is only fair to acknowledge that the
involvement -direct or indirect, real or imagined- of Pakistan and
Afghanistan,
the two countries New Delhi has been having poor and no relations with,
complicates the matter enormously and rules out simple solutions.

The contradictions involved in the hijack crisis are clear. New Delhi does
not
want to release Maulvi Masood Azhar and his cohorts from Indian prisons. Th=
ey
want the hijackers to let the passengers and crew of IC Flight 814 and the
A-300 aircraft go free. In all probability, they would also want the
hijackers
to surrender to the Indian authorities and face the legal consequences of
their
own terrorists activities.

On the other hand, the hijackers who seem to include Ibrahim Azhar, the
brother
of Masood Azhar, want the Islamic cleric and his cohorts out of Indian jails
and borders. If that condition is met, it is understood that they would fre=
e
the passengers and the crew as well as the plane. They would obviously
want to
go scot-free after all their dastardly acts.

The major bone of contention is, of course, who would have Masood Azhar and
his
cohorts. There has been a precedence in India of swapping imprisoned
terrorists and a high-profile hostage. In December 1989, five Kashmiri
militants were let go in order to gain the release of Dr. Rubia Sayeed, the
daughter of the then Indian Home Minister Mr. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
=46urthermore, the continued detention of Masood Azhar is not going to solve=
the
Kashmir issue and he and his fellow terrorists are only a liability for the
Indian people and government right now. But then these are not the sufficien=
t
reasons for New Delhi to let go one of the most wanted terrorists.

Releasing Azhar as much as his cohorts could have been a bit more
negotiable if
he were an Indian citizen and he was going to be under the control of the
Indian state. The facts that he is a Pakistani citizen and these terrorists
are
part of the protracted cross-border terror campaign do not augment an easy o=
r
swift release or swap. It is not just the security of the Indian state whi=
ch
is at stake but it is India=EDs international prestige and the established
position that we would not succumb to terror tactics and demands. The age-o=
ld
Indo-Pakistan rivalry and distrust, and the BJP=EDs unfavorable disposition
toward Islamabad and Kabul and anyone who is not an upper-caste Hindu do not
make the task any easier either. Having set out to prove the virility and
masculinity of the Hindus to the larger world, the BJP=EDs =EBproud=ED=
nuclear India
cannot just afford to yield to the pressure of a few Muslim men and Islamic
countries.

Nonetheless, the passengers and the crew of IC-814 have to be rescued also.
Already Vajpayee regime is fast becoming unpopular in India with people
disrupting the Foreign Minister=EDs press conference and confronting a junio=
r
minister at the funeral of the hijack victim, Rippan Katyal, with anger and
frustration.

What are the options for the Indian government? Both the extremes of not
doing
anything and Entebe-type commando attack can result in heavy human casualty.
New Delhi cannot readily accept the terrorists=ED demands as they do not=
want to
send out wrong signals to the various militant outfits that operate around t=
he
country. One possible way out of this crisis could be the following. If bot=
h
New Delhi and the hijackers want Azhar and his cohorts, let them both not ha=
ve
them. These men could be sent to a third country, say South Africa for
instance, for a fair and speedy trial on the basis of international law for
the
crimes they are accused of having committed. The hijackers can also hand ov=
er
the hijacked plane along with its passengers and the crew to Pretoria and
surrender themselves to the authorities there. Their passage to wherever th=
ey
came from could be determined by the South African officials in accordance
with
the international law also.

Having put this ugly episode behind, South Asians could start addressing the
larger issues earnestly and meaningfully. As the Chinese characters for the
word =EBconflict=ED denote both opportunity and creativity, India and Pakist=
an
together with other state-parties such as Afghanistan and China and all the
non-state parties involved in the Kashmir conflict should take a hard and bo=
ld
look inward. They should meditate particularly on the futility of militaris=
m,
terror and violence in resolving the issue. More importantly, New Delhi and
Islamabad should open up the public space to discussion of all possible
solutions to the Kashmir issue. Needless to say that the people of Kashmir
themselves should not be objectified in such discussions as if they were her=
d
of cattle who India or Pakistan owned. After all, they have the right to
decide their own political destiny.

The timing of the IC-814 hijack crisis portends several things. Striking at
the season of peace and goodwill and shaking the entire humanity out of its
slumber, the crisis highlights the need to face and address militarism,
terrorism, violence and unimaginative conflict management/resolution methods=
=2E
This is a momentous opportunity to leave the largely violent twentieth centu=
ry
behind and welcome the twenty-first century with the hopes of continuous
dialogue, accommodation, nonviolence, peace and development. And finally, w=
hy
should India be the theater of this message? The land that has given the
humanity Buddha, Ashoka, Mahavir, Guru Nanak, Mahatma Gandhi, Khan Abdul
Gaffar
Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mother Teresa and many other votaries of
nonviolence and peace, has an historic role to play in the future of
humankind.
It is this peace and conflict resolution heritage that the world is so
keen to
take from us. It is our turn now to decide what to do. <end>

(S. P. Udayakumar is Research Associate and Co-Director of Programs at the
Institute on Race and Poverty, University of Minnesota. He is also on the
board of TRANSCEND, a conflict resolution network.)

__________________________________________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.