[sacw] SACW #2. (04 Oct. 01)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | Dispatch #2.
04 October 2001
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

------------------------------------------

#1. Aliens R Us (Peter Waterman)
#2. Forward Into the Past: US War Aims (Vijay Prashad)
#3. India: SIMI and the Constitution (V. R. Krishna Iyer)
#4. In the aftermath of Sept 11 Terror attacks: A break between the=20
far Right & the centre Right in Jammu & Kashmir is in the making

________________________

#1.

Aliens R Us

Aliens / Us
=DD(not to mention U.S.)

Peter Waterman

(Global Solidarity Dialogue
http://groups/yahoo.com/group/GloSoDia )

Back in the days of the 'War Against Communism' in Vietnam, a US cartoon
character called, I think, Pogo, said, 'I have seen the enemy and he is
us'.

Why does Pogo have no monument in Washington DC?

Because the enemy always is, or has to be imagined to be, a not-us. And,
for the US, a not-US. In this case 'we' are those who salute the flag,
become Hyphenated-USAmericans, worship the Golden Calf and eat it, minced,
spiced and grilled, under the Golden Arches. 'We' have our names on a
beautiful monument to the thousands of our dead, designed by a
Hyphenated-USAmerican, a monument that fails to record the millions of
their dead, the fact that 'we' were the invaders and 'we' (or some
weak-kneed un-American wimps amongst us) lost the war.

On TV and cinema screens across what passes for the Civilised World (or,
wherever, so long as they worship and eat the same calf as we do) we are
increasingly confronted with the aliens so beloved of the US media industry
=F1 and the passive, thrill-seeking, public it both feeds and creates. The =
US
media is devoted to the genres of threat, disaster, the serial
killer/bomber, violence from 'aliens' (whether within or without).
USAmerican pages on the World Wide Web are devoted to the Black Helicopters
of =F1 guess? =F1 the New World Order and the United Nations (a zillion ent=
ries
on Google. I stopped, exhausted, at 835)! These Non-White Helicopters are,
the sites scream, threatening to turn us into slaves or zombies - as if the
sponsors of this populist and nativist myth do not bear the traits of both.
All this must be due to an underlying and unacknowledged sense of
insecurity or inferiority, if not of collective hubris and nemesis
(Overweening Pride inviting Overwhelming Fall). Somewhere within the
national psyche, and that of Western Civilisation As We Know It, there is a
nerve that twitches, telling us we are living with risk, creating dangers,
and that we are thus tempting an unmentionable fate. Also an unimaginable
fate, actually, because in the movie, there was only one Towering Inferno.

Maybe this is a more general expression of the social relations of
individualization, dog-eat-dog, rat-race competition, and fanatical
Progress Through Technology that accompanies the development of capitalism.
After all, the genre goes back to at least H.G. Wells and The War of the
Worlds. Or to John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids. The latter provided
me with some strange sense of familiarity and comfort as I read it in
Prague during the sleepless night following the Invasion of the Soviet
Triffids, August 20, 1968. In the good old, innocent, days of the genre,
the Aliens were, I seem to recall, eventually affected by some banal Earth
disease, to which we had fortunately become immune. Civilisation, As Only
We Know It, continued its usual course, if somewhat chastened.

Occasionally these alien forces get political names: 'The Yellow Peril',
'The Evil Empire', 'The Backward, Envious, Devious and Irrational Islamic
Fundamentalist' (who has the added advantage of looking like a Jew out of
an illustrated version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). But the
enduring figure, outlasting the rise and fall of mere politicians, states
and blocs, is that of the Other-Worldly Alien (Alien I, II and so ad
infinitum). In Ecuador, following one of a series of 'Indian Invasions' in
its capital (briefly their capital), a book about the matter was entitled
The Martian at the Corner. Here a parenthesis is in order: 1) Indians, Dear
Columbus, are a couple of oceans away, going East from Europe; 2) Quito is
in the middle of the Andes, full of Andin@s..., some working
at computers, whilst expressing their quite irrational disregard of
back-to-front-baseball-hat-wearing Triffids, by displaying long plaits and
traditional Quechua traje; 3) Manhattan is not only in the USA, but also in
Johannesburg, Bombay and even in that most-isolated and poverty-stricken of
Latin American cities, La Paz (where, provocatively, it can be seen,
literally downtown, from the slums a half kilometer above).

Therefore (or however), I have to declare, in solidarity with Pogo, that I
have seen the Alien - and he is quite indubitably us.

The Alien is equipped with the most advanced technology. He is warlike and
imperial. He has a devious intelligence. He has no familiar human emotions.
He wishes to either destroy us or to bring us the benefits of his superior
civilization: failure to recognize and accept this is punishable by the
most-advanced electronic or chemical means of incineration or vaporisation.
He considers others as means to his own ends. He is, in appearance, both
recognizably human and frighteningly foreign. He can suck out of us or
otherwise transfer to himself our bodies, hearts and minds (alien Hearts
'n' Minds are things which We, in the West of our imagination, only wish to
win over).

There is, fortunately, nowadays, a Saviour at hand. He is not noticeably
either meek or mild and bears an enormous phallic weapon of punishment
rather than a cross of reconciliation. He is, as you may have guessed, the
Identikit WASP, but either one who has had all his brains transferred to
his bipodial-vacular-truceps, with the latter pumped up to =B8bermensch
proportions, or a clone, or a cyborg, who nonetheless has the same warm
feeling for us weakly earthlings (earthly weaklings) as a series of
square-jawed Presidents (Nixon, the second-hand car salesman who proves the
rule, must, surely, have been of Levantine descent?).

Alienation - the deprival or denial of human capacity and potential =F1 was
related by the somewhat eurocentric Marx not to the 'nations without
history' at the periphery but to the dynamic and internationally-expanding
capitalism at the centre. (Marx had, perhaps, not heard the widespread
African saying that 'I am who I am because of other people' but would
surely have considered it superior to the liberal capitalist notion that 'I
am who I am despite other people'). Alienation was the condition,
prototypically, of the modern wage-worker rather than the craftsman or
peasant (who were presumed, at that time, to still have some property over
the means of work and livelihood). Psychology and philosophy have
generalized this as the human condition under modernization/
westernization. Alienation was related by Marx to the replacement of all
earlier and other human sentiments and ties by the cash nexus. This is a
vision of the Other in terms only of individualized competition, of profit
and loss. Man's estrangement was, thus, also from his fellow (working) men
- not to speak of women.

September 21 (WTC+10), I heard an alien speak on the BBC World Service. He
had adopted the voice of a commentator from the ultra-right (I hope) US
journal, National Review. He declared that the cause and responsibility for
the September 11 Outrage rested with Islamic Fundamentalism, envious of the
US because it was Rich, Powerful and Good. This, it appears is the Holy
Trinity of the Masters of the Universe (who until recently viewed the rest
of us from the secure and distant heights of the World Trade Centre). This
new Three-in-One is, apparently, GloboMan's alternative to the French
Revolution's Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (we would nowadays say
Solidarity).

The logic and morality of this Alien American's message to the increasing
number of the world's Others is somewhat puzzling to myself (in my perverse
Pogo propensity to see things from the standpoint of the Other). Which came
first, the chickens (Riches and Power) or the egg (Goodness)? Or are they
dialectically inter-related, mutually dependent and self-evidently
inalienable >from USAmericanism? In so far as Riches and the Power are
relative, and therefore dependent (increasingly under International
Monetary Fundamentalism) to the poverty and powerlessness of the Other, has
all Goodness been sucked out of the Other, too? Has it been privatised,
copyrighted, registered and deposited in Fort Knox?=DD =A9Virtue Inc=C6?

I note that the relationship between Liberty, Equality and Solidarity is
one of mutual dependence, in that each is part of the meaning of the
others. Also that this secular trinity is universalistic (except for the
Fraternity bit) and therefore in principle universalisable - at no Other's
expense! I can find no such universalism or mutually-determining relation
between Wealth, Power and Virtue, since the first two must, of their
nature, be unequally spread. And how could Goodness be considered - in
anything other than the self-serving PR morality of the greedy and
hegemonic - to be concentrated amongst the Rich and Powerful? (If you don't
know either, take out a subscription to National Review).

My Masters of the Universe come from Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of >the Vanities.
This is a savage satire on New York, on Wall Street wheeler-dealers, on
WASP privilege and superiority over the streets, the slums, and those who
live in or on them. His anti-hero is alienation on limo wheels =F1 alienate=
d
from everyone outside his ethnic-class (also within it), from his work
(which he cannot explain even to himself though it nets him millions) and
particularly from those who live in the Jungle. This is his word for the
underworld of New York =F1 'underworld' not as in crime, but as in a place
inhabited by animals, or untermenschen. (I guess some of them would have
flipped hamburgers or cleaned floors in the WTC, as one of them cleaned
shoes in Sherman's office). The people of this particular abyss are, of
course, quite alien to Sherman McCoy, until he gets lost in the Jungle, is
involved in the death of one of its Black inhabitants, and is hauled in
front of a venal criminal justice system and flayed by a trivializing and
sensationalist media. Tom Wolfe's satire and ridicule runs out of the
required wit and spleen when Sherman is finally reduced to jeans, sneakers
and prison. Not being much aware of the French Revolution, Sherman's sense
of human solidarity is not markedly touched by the leveling down,
particularly since his fellow prisoners appear to share certain vengeful
features with less-secular communities of the humiliated and dispossessed.
At this moment class, race and breeding tell: confronted by the
multi-coloured mob (not, again, of the particularly criminal kind),
Sherman, uncaring of life or death, confronts them with his bare, if
shackled, fists. Out of the jaws of anti-heroism, Wolfe snatches=D6a hero!=
=D6an
Anglo-Saxon one, confronting the Wogs and the Fuzzy-Wuzzies. Here the genre
becomes that of the 19th century British Boy's Own adventure yarn. The
crowd retreats before his righteous anger. Sherman is no longer Rich and
Powerful. But he is still, or now, Good. The Real McCoy. If the thesis is
hubris and the anti-thesis nemesis, there is no sign here of an integrating
and surpassing synthesis. Humanism? Compassion? Forgedaboudit!

So is the alien really out there? Is he only around us, in place, space,
and ether? Or is it we, in here, who are alienated from our Others and our
Selves? Or at least from our possible Other Selves, who could live in a
relationship of increasing dialogue, cooperation and trust with Them?

The Martians are at the corner, armed now with neither arrows nor nuclear
devices, but with the instruments we have fashioned for our daily work,
travel, residence and pleasure, taking advantage of the freedom that
commoditisation and capital accumulation require, using the morality of the
Old Testament. And the Old West: 'Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive' says George
bin Bush, Cowboy President of the Universe. These barbarians are
determined, it seems, to add to their Good some of our Wealth and Power.
Though most of them would be grateful for any significant reduction of
poverty and powerlessness made available to them.

Recognising that Aliens "R" Us, that We Are the Enemy, could, surely, be a
first step toward surpassing our own alienation, and the self-isolating and
- today - self-destructive idea that we only know who we are as the enemy
of our very own self-created alien.

The Hague
25.9.01

_______

#2.

Forward Into the Past: US War Aims.

Vijay Prashad
3 October 2001.
ZNET Commentary.

The US State Department-Pentagon has a bad record on war aims. During=20
the lead-up to the Gulf War, the Bush administration, Part 1, argued=20
that the US was needed to liberate Kuwait. The invasion of a state of=20
2.2 million people, in which only 28% earned the right to citizenship=20
and a part of the oil wealth, was to be liberated by the full force=20
of the US military. As ships and aircraft went toward the Gulf, those=20
of us in the peace movement wondered about the size of the deployment=20
and the war aims of Bush I: will it really take so much firepower to=20
dispatch the Iraqi army from Kuwait, and does the US really need to=20
amass such a broad coalition for this purpose?

Indeed, the war aims of Bush I transmuted from the liberation of=20
Kuwait to the overthrow of the Ba'athist regime led by Saddam Hussein=20
from Iraq. Even as he addressed the nation two hours after US planes=20
unloaded their payloads on the Iraqi people, Bush I did not talk of=20
the removal of Hussein from power. "We are determined to knock out=20
Saddam Hussein's nuclear bomb potential," he said on 16 January 1991.=20
"We will destroy his chemical weapons facilities. Much of Saddam's=20
artillery and tanks will be destroyed." On 26 February, the Iraqi=20
forces left Kuwait; on 6 March, Bush I told Congress that "the war in=20
Iraq is over"; by 7 April the Alliance established the northern=20
no-fly zone and began the intermittent bombardment of Iraq (and the=20
major bombing of December 1998), in effect continuing the war till=20
this day. The war aim now is the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The war aims in retaliation to 9/11 transmuted faster than they did=20
in 1991, but in a most expected fashion. With no firm proof, and=20
reminiscent of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Bush=20
administration, Part 2, put its finger on Osama bin Laden. In 1998,=20
the Clinton administration bombed Sudan and Afghanistan without=20
warning for the bombings at the eastern African embassies by a=20
network that may be linked directly to bin Laden. This time, Bush II=20
was interested in a comprehensive solution and not a symbolic=20
bombardment. "Infinite Justice" was the first name of the campaign=20
(since renamed to "Enduring Peace" after criticism from the oil=20
sheikhs who said that only the divinity can be infinitely just).

The White House approached Pakistan and offered the false choice of=20
being part of the bombardment or being a recipient of it. Pervez=20
Musharraf agreed to join the alliance, but only for bin Laden to be=20
brought to book, and not to threaten the Taliban regime in=20
Afghanistan. After all, the Taliban are an old Pakistani ally and=20
Pakistan was then only one of three countries to recognize their rule=20
(it is now the only one, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE abandoned ship).=20
Within days it became apparent that the war aims have shifted: the US=20
government will not be content with bin Laden, but it now seems to=20
want the demise of the Taliban. The New York Times reports (3=20
October) that the Pentagon is rethinking its Pakistan strategy,=20
mainly because the shift in war aims has compromised Musharraf and=20
set the stage for a coup there.

And to replace the Taliban we are bringing out old Zahir Shah from=20
his Roman suburb and the remnants of the notorious Northern Alliance,=20
the same cast of characters who were fated to take office in 1980.=20
Zahir Shah has lived in Rome since 1973, and he has over the years,=20
most recently in November 1999, tried to convene a Loya Jirga, or an=20
elders meeting, which would include the brigands who remain locked=20
out of Kabul. Shah, a pensioner of an unnamed Gulf State, is=20
apparently an unwilling protagonist, but those who have funded him=20
for three decades are perhaps eager to see him back in power - to=20
give them title, perhaps, to the Turkmenistan-Pakistan natural gas=20
pipeline.

Just as the US joined hands with and funded the unpleasant Iraqi=20
National Congress, it now appears that the Trojan horse for US=20
imperialism will be the Northern Alliance, a rag-tag bunch of=20
fighters who have spent most of their time fighting each other after=20
the retreat of the Soviet army, and whose short-lived reign in Kabul=20
was well-known for its ferocity.

The roots of the Northern Alliance can be traced to the defection of=20
General Abdul Rashid Dostam with his Uzbek militia from Najibullah's=20
side in March 1992 - with this act the decimated People's Democratic=20
Party of Afghanistan's days were numbered. The mujahidin entered=20
Kabul and, in mid-April, they circumvented an immediate continuation=20
of the war with a Peshawar alliance headed by the Jamait-i-Islami=20
boss Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani (who is still the recognized head=20
of the country).

By August of 1992, the war began again, as Gulbuddin Hikmatyar's=20
Hezb-i-Islami took on the Professor's regime, and the ensuing=20
instability resulted in the final demise of Najibullah's government=20
in December. In March 1993, the factions conducted the Islamabad=20
Accord so that Rabbani continued as President, while Hikmatyar became=20
Prime Minister.

But Hikmatyar was a poor ally, because he continued his terror, in=20
alliance with the Hezb-i-Wahdat and in opposition to Rabbani (whose=20
troops remained in the command of the late Ahmed Shah Masood, but who=20
worked in cooperation with the ex-communist, Dostam). In January=20
1994, Hikmatyar formed an alliance with Dostam, and so the musical=20
chairs continue until this day. Hikmatyar, with Dostam, then with=20
Masood, then Rabbani in the background - all the while the Taliban=20
consolidated power, took Mazar-i-Sharif in 1997 and then finally=20
Kabul.

As the civil war unfolded the Northern Alliance inflicted massive=20
pain on the Afghan population. In January 1997, Dostam's forces=20
ruthlessly bombed Kabul and Masood's forces continued to do so, even=20
the day after 9/11 in retaliation for his assassination three days=20
earlier. An interested reader may study Amnesty International's=20
reports published in 1995 on major abuses by Rabbani's=20
Jamait-i-Islami, Hikmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami, Dostam's Junbest-i-Melli=20
Islami and Hezb-i-Wahdat: (1) Afghanistan: International=20
Responsibility for Human Rights Disaster [AI Index ASA 11/09/95] and=20
(2) Women in Afghanistan: A Human Rights Catastrophe [AI Index ASA=20
11/03/95]. When the Taliban entered Kabul, this history was=20
re-written by the powers mainly because the Northern Alliance now=20
appeared as a reasonable alternative to the loss of control over the=20
Taliban. That many of the Northern Alliance cultivated Iran was not=20
to be a stumbling block, particularly after the slow, but steady=20
US-Iran rapprochement.

US war aims, then, are simultaneously as brutal and unfocused in=20
Afghanistan as they are in Iraq - to overthrow one corrupt regime and=20
put in place another, but this time friendly with the US. The US Left=20
needs to speak out not only against the war, but also against the=20
slowly formulated war aims, and certainly against the restoration of=20
"stability" in the name of capital. The Northern Alliance is not "at=20
least better" than the Taliban, as liberals want to believe: they are=20
as bad for the people of Afghanistan.

What are the alternatives? The mujahidin, mainly Hikmityar's crew,=20
have killed much of the intelligentsia during its reign of terror in=20
the 1990s, and it led to the exile of a huge number of reasonable=20
Afghans, many of whom took shelter in New Delhi (and do not wish to=20
return to a place that has given their families such nightmares).=20
Organized refugee groups, like RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the=20
Women of Afghanistan), the Afghan Women's Network, and other such=20
people's organizations have been at work for years trying to restart=20
a progressive dynamic among Afghan refugees, but also to spill over=20
into the besieged country. These groups will not be party to the=20
types of corrupt capitalist deals already being worked out in Roman=20
suburbs and in Uzbekistan: a moratorium on the exploitation of=20
Afghanistan is perhaps in order, with the profits from a potential=20
natural gas pipeline drawn into the redevelopment of the country's=20
productive base and democratic institutions rather than toward Unocal=20
or Bridas. These are our fights, against the war aims of the US and=20
their new, yet old, allies, but in support of those popular agencies=20
that oppose the Taliban from within the contradictions of Afghan=20
life, both in diaspora and at home. It is time to move on the=20
contradictions.

_______

#3.

The Hindu | Thursday, October 04, 2001 | Opinion

SIMI and the Constitution
By V. R. Krishna Iyer

Preventive detention of a person is subject to Articles 19, 21 and=20
22. Associations of citizens enjoy the collective human right under=20
Article 19 as a fundamental freedom of association. Arbitrary action=20
against it is violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21. Discrimination in=20
application offends Article 19. The right to form an association can=20
be denied or suspended by the State only in the interest of=20
sovereignty and integrity, public order or morality. Article 21,=20
guaranteeing personal liberty, can be curtailed only if the=20
conditions relied on are `just, fair and reasonable'.

All these propositions have Supreme Court support regardless of=20
person, parties, religions and regions. The simple issue that springs=20
from the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is=20
whether it can stand constitutional scrutiny, if violative, it is=20
void, apart from the judicial invigilation provided for in Article 22=20
by other law.

SIMI is prima facie communalist organisation with strong Islamic=20
slant in its utterances. This vice, by itself, cannot validate a=20
total ban without being guilty of totalitarian and ultra vires..=20
Fundamental rights are fundamental and cannot be wished away by=20
governmental displeasure. Otherwise, the existence of all=20
organisations will be precariously dependent on the whim of the party=20
in power. The validity of subjecting SIMI to a banishment is liable=20
to challenge from day one if personal liberty and associational=20
freedom, which are paramount values, are flouted. Assuming that any=20
one in power totally disagrees with the Islamic genre or propensity=20
of SIMI, can it be put down? No, unless just, fair and reasonable=20
grounds exist, coming within the mischief of the restrictive=20
provisions.

Every person has a right to know why a group is governmentally=20
suppressed since freedom of information is itself implicit in Article=20
19. In short, the reasons for clamping down a functional prohibition=20
on SIMI is justifiable provided they rest on offending grounds and=20
the grounds are brought within the ken of the public, which has the=20
right to be informed about the `why' of the negation of the group=20
right.

I do not defend in the least the SIMI. Nor do I, in the least,=20
approve of its communal postures, if any. I am opposed to organised=20
communalism in politics, but because I dislike it I cannot use State=20
power to rob it of its right to existence unless its operations fall=20
within the vice of Article 19 (3). Indeed, democratic disposition is=20
tested by our tolerance of what we hate, if it does not breach=20
constitutional bounds.

However, if SIMI poses a clear and present danger to national=20
integrity, public order or offers other moral menace, it may attract=20
the `prohibition' power of the State. A blanket ban blindly imposed=20
is incompatible with constitutional liberalism. Since the Central=20
Government, so far as I know (I may be wrong) has not through=20
appropriate publicity to the public or the affected organisation,=20
made out sufficient cause falling within the constitutional clauses,=20
my juristic conscience protests. The proper thing for a fair=20
administration, before exercising the extreme imposition, is to=20
reveal the grounds sufficient to convince society that there is a=20
case of violent or violative activity, which desiderates a death=20
sentence on the freedom of association. SIMI may deserve complete=20
manacle if it become a clear and present danger, not otherwise.

Moreover, SIMI is an organisation of the minority community and=20
should not be blocked or blacked out unjustly lest there be panic=20
based on minority discrimination. In such matters, an explanatory=20
memorandum, not kept secret but publicly announced comports with=20
constitutionalism. Human solidarity of a billion and odd Indians is=20
of utmost gravity today and, therefore, anything done which is apt to=20
disrupt the unity of the people, unless compelled, must be obviated.=20
If the impugned body falls foul of the constitutional limitations, it=20
deserves no compassion, whatever its communal or political colour. If=20
the grounds fall short of the mandatory conditions, any ban by the=20
authority will be authoritarian and bad in law.

______

#4.

Frontline
Volume 18 - Issue 20, Sep. 29 - Oct. 12, 2001

Cracks on the Right
A break between the far Right and the centre Right in Jammu and=20
Kashmir politics appears imminent in the aftermath of the terrorist=20
attacks in the United States.

PRAVEEN SWAMI
in Srinagar

SHOPS and offices across Srinagar were shut down on September 21,=20
marking another performance of the quasi-ritual protest strikes that=20
punctuate urban life in Jammu and Kashmir. But this shut-down was, in=20
key senses, unique. It originated not in some atrocity committed by=20
the Indian state, real or imagined, but in the events unfolding in=20
the United States and Afghanistan. The strike itself was called not=20
by politicians, but by terrorist groups based in Pakistan. And, most=20
important, it was held in defiance of the wishes of the=20
self-proclaimed sole representative of the people of Jammu and=20
Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP
Security forces patrolling a street in Srinagar during a day-long=20
strike on September 21, called by some terrorist organisations.

It is impossible to miss the many ways in which the terrorist attacks=20
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have transfigured Jammu=20
and Kashmir's political landscape. The attacks and their fallout=20
have, for one, pitted the APHC against many of the terrorist groups=20
on whose power its political influence is premised. Fissures have=20
begun to emerge among political formations of the Islamic Right too,=20
sundering those committed to the extreme positions represented by=20
Osama bin Laden from the less ardent fanatics. However as events in=20
Afghanistan and Pakistan play themselves out in the months to come,=20
it appears probable that a fateful break could come about between the=20
far Right and the centre Right of politics in Jammu and Kashmir.

At its September 20 meeting, the APHC executive committee=20
specifically asked residents of Jammu and Kashmir not to support the=20
strike called for September 21 by terrorist organisations, notably=20
the Jaish-e-Mohammadi, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the=20
Lashkar-e-Toiba. The strike was to express solidarity with the=20
protests in Pakistan against General Pervez Musharraf's decision to=20
collaborate with the U.S. in order to secure Osama bin Laden's=20
arrest. Eight days earlier, the organisation's chairman, Abdul Ghani=20
Bhat, had spoken for the APHC centrists, condemning the attacks and=20
asserting the need to "learn to live as decent human beings". At its=20
meeting, the APHC also expressed its support for Musharraf's=20
"pragmatic conduct".

Terrorist organisations have not so far responded to the APHC's act=20
of defiance. However, some confrontation seems imminent. After a=20
September 14 meeting with other terrorist organisations based in=20
Pakistan, the Lashkar expressed "grave concern'' over Musharraf's=20
offer to the U.S. of cooperation in action against terrorists. The=20
Hizbul-Mujahideen, generally supportive of Musharraf, condemned the=20
terrorist attacks but noted that "America had been fully involved in=20
all terrorist activity against Muslims all over the world". The=20
Harkat, for its part, asserted that "any support to the Americans=20
against terrorists would amount to supporting the Satanic forces".=20
America, a Harkat spokesperson noted, "had reaped what it had sown in=20
the past."

SHOULD a break come about between the centrists in the APHC and the=20
extreme Right, it could have enormous consequences for mainstream=20
politics in Jammu and Kashmir. This summer has seen steady progress=20
in shaping political alignments for the next Assembly elections,=20
which observers believe will be held early next summer. The National=20
Conference (N.C.) has been seeking to secure its ranks by poaching on=20
potential Opposition figures. On September 8, two top aides of former=20
Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed joined the N.C. Ghulam=20
Qadir Pardesi and Ghulam Nabi Mir, who have considerable influence in=20
the Pulwama and Lasjan areas, claimed that Sayeed's People's=20
Democratic Party (PDP) had "surrendered completely to the Hurriyat''.=20
The leaders also took much of the PDP cadre in south Kashmir with=20
them.

A weakened Sayeed has responded by initiating efforts to put together=20
an anti-N.C. coalition. Efforts to build such a coalition were first=20
initiated by Rajya Sabha member Saifuddin Soz, who had opposed the=20
N.C.'s decision to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and=20
the Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Mohammad Yusuf=20
Tarigami. Initially, the PDP resisted these efforts, but it has now=20
assigned its powerful Tangmarg-area leader, Ghulam Hassan Mir, to=20
negotiate with Soz and Tarigami. Both the CPI(M) and the PDP have=20
some pockets of influence in southern Kashmir. Together, they could=20
provide a formidable challenge to the N.C. Although Soz has no=20
organised cadre or apparatus, he wields considerable moral influence.

However, the most interesting one among the emerging alliances is a=20
possible combination of anti-N.C. mainstream politicians and elements=20
associated with the secessionist platform. Informed sources told=20
Frontline that the PDP's Ghulam Hassan Mir had met the once-prominent=20
Shabbir Shah for a series of lunch meetings. What was discussed was=20
not known, but Shah had recently said he would fight the elections if=20
they would help address the problems of Jammu and Kashmir. However,=20
he modified his statement shortly afterwards, claiming that he would=20
only do so if other secessionist politicians, like the APHC=20
centrists, joined the effort. Politicians like Abdul Ghani Lone have=20
told party confidants that they would be willing to contest=20
elections, but only after the Union government announces a major=20
autonomy package for Jammu and Kashmir, granting at least the Kashmir=20
valley something approaching quasi-independent status.

It is unlikely that the Bharatiya Janata Party would be able, or=20
willing, to grant such autonomy. However, should Lone and other APHC=20
centrists come under pressure from the Islamic far Right, they could=20
well drop their preconditions. Indeed, there are some signs that=20
Pakistan's intelligence establishment apprehends such a development.=20
In August, figures within the People's League had sought to replace=20
their head and representative in the APHC executive, Sheikh Aziz, who=20
is close to the Jamaat-e-Islami political chief and prominent=20
hardliner, Syed Ali Shah Geelani. People's League leader Bashir Ahmad=20
Tota, sympathetic to the centrists, had demanded fresh organisational=20
elections, claiming that Aziz was incompetent. However, Aziz returned=20
from an Islamabad trip in May with the support of Pakistan. Tota,=20
informed sources say, was told in no uncertain terms to drop his=20
efforts to replace Aziz. Aziz has now been jailed, again reopening=20
the issue of leadership.

TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP
Women shouting pro-Taliban slogans outside Kashmir's main mosque in=20
Srinagar on September 21.

HOW plausible is the prospect of a break in the existing structure of=20
secessionist politics in Jammu and Kashmir? Geelani's silence on the=20
attacks in the U.S. and Musharraf's conduct of affairs, has not=20
passed unnoticed. Many believe the revanchist leader, increasingly=20
isolated within the APHC, will seek support elsewhere. His=20
endorsement of the Lashkar-e-Jabbar's threats to attack women who do=20
not wear veils, an action condemned across the board in Jammu and=20
Kashmir, may provide some insight into the shape of things to come.=20
The little-known Lashkar-e-Jabbar, investigators believe, has been=20
put together by former Jamait-ul-Mujahideen operative Ashiq Hussain=20
Fagloo. Fagloo is the husband of Asiya Andrabi, whose extreme=20
right-wing women's organisation, the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, supported=20
the Lashkar-e-Jabbar's acid attacks on women who were not veiled.

While there are few signs of mass support for this kind of=20
fundamentalism, the Right has demonstrated through the veil issue its=20
ability to intimidate civil society. In the wake of the September 11=20
attacks in New York and Washington, it has also become increasingly=20
vocal. For instance, an article which appeared in a mainstream=20
Srinagar newspaper, Greater Kashmir, on September 21 suggested that=20
"the Jewish lobby' had carried out the attacks. "Jews can go to any=20
extent in taking revenge from Muslims, their betes noirs throughout=20
history," the article stated. "They have a hold on the media. They=20
have the capability to mould opinions and pervert minds." The article=20
proclaimed that "the octopus of Western civilisation relishes the=20
blood of Muslims". The appearance of this kind of language in a=20
mainstream newspaper illustrates, if nothing else, the hardening of=20
opinion on the Islamic Right in Jammu and Kashmir, which until=20
recently was asking for U.S. intervention to solve the conflict in=20
the State.

An axis involving Geelani, Fagloo and Andrabi could attract the=20
extreme-Right from Pakistan-based terrorist groups as well.=20
Intelligence officials who spoke to Frontline rebutted claims of the=20
Jammu and Kashmir Police that some terrorists of Afghan and Pakistani=20
origin had begun to return to their respective countries. "There has=20
not been a single communications intercept since September 11 that=20
bears out this proposition," a senior intelligence official said.=20
However, available intelligence does suggest that there is a great=20
deal of confusion among the ranks of terrorist groups on the issue.=20
Within the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, opinion is polarised between those=20
supportive of the organisation's supreme commander, Mohammad Yousaf=20
Shah, and others further to the Right, who disapprove of Musharraf's=20
course of action. In the event of a prolonged U.S.-led combat in=20
Afghanistan, such fissures could deepen.

IN the weeks to come, as the first bombs of Operation Infinite=20
Justice fall, the full impact of September 11 on Jammu and Kashmir=20
will begin to become clear. Many believe Musharraf will indeed be=20
able to secure some degree of support from the U.S. on Jammu and=20
Kashmir in return for his compliance with operations against=20
Afghanistan. However, such pressure may not be enough to placate=20
Islamic revanchists in both Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir who are=20
certain to be incensed by the military action to come. "Kashmiris=20
don't need bin Laden," the APHC's Bhat had said in September 1999,=20
"we can sustain the struggle on our own." Now that he has been=20
foisted upon them, the APHC centrists will, inevitably, have to=20
consider their course of action. For months they have waited in the=20
wings, listening out for some call to take their place on Jammu and=20
Kashmir's political stage. But if they wait too long, the play could=20
end without them.

Copyrights =A9 2001, Frontline.

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