South Asia Citizens Wire | August 9-10, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2549 - Year 10 running
[1] The Nagasaki Peace Declaration 2008
[2] U.S.-India nuclear deal weakens nonproliferation (Philip White)
[3] Pakistan:
(i) Polio Campaign Stops As Violence Spreads (Ashfaq Yusufzai)
(ii) Musharraf Benazir Tapes Uncovered (Umar Cheema)
[4] The Games They Play in Burma (J. Sri Raman)
[5] India: D D Kosambi: The Scholar and the Man (Meera Kosambi)
[6] What Talibanisation? (Nadeem F. Paracha)
[7] 27 US Lawmakers want Modi's visa ban
extended; Coalition Against Genocide gets support
from more congresspersons
[8] Announcements:
Talk by Malathi de Alwis: 'Disappeared':
Political Community in the Wake of Atrocity in
Sri Lanka (Bombay, 11 August 2008)
______
[1]
THE NAGASAKI PEACE DECLARATION 2008
We will not forget the atomic cloud that rose into the sky on that fateful day.
On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m., a single atomic
bomb dropped by a United States military aircraft
exploded into an enormous fireball, engulfing the
city of Nagasaki. Unimaginably intense heat rays,
blast winds, and radiation; magnificent cathedral
crumbling; charred bodies scattered amongst the
ruins; people huddled in groups, their skin
shredded by countless glass fragments, and the
stench of death hung over the atomic wasteland.
Some 74,000 people perished and another 75,000
sustained terrible injuries. Those who somehow
survived the blast suffered from poverty and
discrimination, threatened even today by the
physical and psychological damage caused by
radiation exposure.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the
birth of the city of Nagasaki's first Honorary
Citizen, Dr. Takashi Nagai. Despite sustaining
injuries in the atomic blast while at work at
Nagasaki Medical College, Dr. Nagai devoted
himself as a physician to the relief of the
atomic bombing victims, and broadly conveyed the
horror of the atomic bomb through written works
such as 'The Bells of Nagasaki', even as he
himself continued to suffer "radiation sickness".
Dr. Nagai once said, "There is no winning or
losing in war; there is only ruin". His words
transcend time in reminding the world of the
preciousness of peace and continue today to sound
a warning to humankind.
The reverberations of a written appeal entitled
"Toward a Nuclear-Free World" are being felt
around the world. The authors of this appeal are
four men who promoted nuclear policy under
successive American presidents: former US
Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George
Schultz, former Secretary of Defense William
Perry, and former Senate Armed Services Committee
Chairman Sam Nunn.
These four men now promote their country's
ratification of the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and demand that
the U.S. keeps the promises it agreed to at the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review
Conference, calling for the leaders of all the
countries in possession of nuclear weapons to
work intensively to reduce nuclear weapons with
the common aim of creating a world without
nuclear weapons.
These appeals mirror those that we have been
making repeatedly in Nagasaki ? the city that
suffered the fate of an atomic bomb.
We made even stronger demands to the
nuclear-weapon states. First of all, the U.S. and
Russia must take the lead in striving to abolish
nuclear weapons. These two countries, which
together are said to possess 95% of the world's
nuclear warheads, should begin implementing broad
reductions of nuclear weapons instead of
deepening their conflict over, among others, the
introduction of a missile-defense system in
Europe. The United Kingdom, France, and China
should also fulfill their responsibility to
reduce nuclear arms with sincerity.
We also demand that the United Nations and
international society do not ignore the nuclear
weapons of North Korea, Pakistan, and Israel, as
well as the suspicions of nuclear development by
Iran, but take stern measures against these
countries. Furthermore, India, whose nuclear
cooperation with the U.S. is a cause of concern,
should be strongly urged to join the NPT and CTBT.
Japan, as a nation that has experienced nuclear
devastation, has a mission and a duty to take a
leadership role in the elimination of nuclear
weapons. To ensure the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Government must
cooperate with international society to
forcefully demand that North Korea completely
destroys its nuclear arsenal. Moreover, based on
the ideals of peace and renunciation of war
prescribed in the Japanese Constitution, the
Japanese government should realize the enactment
of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles into law and
seriously consider the creation of a "Northeast
Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone".
In Nagasaki elderly victims of the atomic bombing
tell the story of their experiences even as they
continue to endure physical and psychological
pain, while young people continue to present
petitions calling for the abolishment of nuclear
weapons to the United Nations under the slogan of
"humble but not helpless". As guides for peace,
the citizens of Nagasaki stand at the site of
nuclear devastation and convey the terrible
realities of the atomic bombing. Medical workers
respond sincerely to the health problems suffered
by atomic bomb survivors over a lifetime.
Next year, the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
will join together to host in Nagasaki the
General Conference of Mayors for Peace, which has
a membership of more than 2,300 cities worldwide.
Banding together with cities around the world, we
will undertake activities to promote nuclear
disarmament in the run up to the 2010 NPT Review
Conference. The city of Nagasaki is also strongly
encouraging municipalities throughout Japan that
have made anti-nuclear declarations to join us in
widening the circle of these activities.
The use of nuclear weapons and war also destroys the global environment.
Unless nuclear weapons are abolished, there is no
future for humankind. We ask that the people of
the world, young people and NGOs, shout out a
clear "No!" to nuclear weapons.
Some 63 years have passed since the atomic
bombing and the remaining survivors are growing
old. We also demand that the Japanese government
hastens to provide atomic bomb survivors,
residing both in Japan and overseas, with support
that corresponds with their reality.
I pray from my heart for the repose of the souls
of those who died in the atomic bombing, and
pledge to work untiringly for the elimination of
nuclear weapons and for the achievement of
everlasting world peace.
Tomihisa Taue
Mayor of Nagasaki
August 9, 2008
______
[2]
The Japan Times
August 9, 2008
U.S.-INDIA NUCLEAR DEAL WEAKENS NONPROLIFERATION
by Philip White
Special to The Japan Times
On Aug. 1 the Board of Governors of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
endorsed a "safeguards agreement" with India that
would allow inspections of nuclear facilities
that India designates as "civilian."
The safeguards agreement is one of the key steps
in the implementation of the U.S.-India Nuclear
Cooperation Agreement. The remaining steps are a
unanimous decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) to exempt India from its nuclear trade
rules and acceptance by the U.S. Congress of the
U.S.-India bilateral agreement.
The safeguards agreement is unprecedented in that
it was endorsed by the IAEA without India
providing an official list of facilities to be
covered. The agreement includes exceptional
clauses that raise questions about India's
commitment to the permanence of safeguards and
gratuitously recognizes India's possession of
nuclear weapons, even though India is not
recognized as a nuclear-weapons state under the
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
The agreement doesn't cover facilities that India
designates as "military" and it allows India to
decide which of its nuclear facilities are
"civilian" and which are "military." If
safeguards are applied according to schedule, 14
of India's 22 nuclear reactors will be covered by
2014, but the facilities most relevant to India's
nuclear-weapons program, including fast-breeder
reactors, reprocessing plants and
uranium-enrichment facilities, will not be
covered.
The U.S.-India nuclear deal creates an exception
to the international norm of "full-scope
safeguards" on all nuclear facilities as a
condition of supply of nuclear material and
technology. Furthermore, it has been estimated
that it will enable India to increase its
production capacity of weapons-grade plutonium
from the present rate of seven weapons worth a
year to 40-50 weapons worth a year. Pakistan has
expressed concerns about the prospect of the
nuclear balance in South Asia being destabilized
and has threatened to expand its own nuclear
stockpile, which would accelerate the arms race
in South Asia.
The U.S.-India nuclear deal is not just about the
U.S. and India. An exemption from NSG rules will
enable India to engage in nuclear trade with
other countries, including Russia and France,
both of which have expressed a keen desire to
export nuclear-power plants to India. In the
future Japanese companies will no doubt seek to
engage in nuclear trade with India too, but even
if they do not export directly, they hope to
profit through overseas subsidiaries, such as
Toshiba-owned Westinghouse.
The question arises, how could the 35 countries
represented on the IAEA Board of Governors have
accepted such a safeguards agreement and why
would the 45-member NSG contemplate making a
consensus decision to grant an India-specific
exemption to its rules? Indeed, the NSG was
established in response to a nuclear test carried
out by India in 1974.
Those who claim that the IAEA Safeguards
Agreement will be a bonus for nonproliferation
give no rationale for their claim and those who
are pressuring the NSG to exempt India from its
rules have failed to extract any meaningful
concessions from India. India continues to
produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium,
and retains the option of testing nuclear weapons
again in the future.
The U.S.-India nuclear deal effectively grants
India the privileges of nuclear-weapons states
(NWS), without requiring India to accept the NPT
obligations of other states: the above-mentioned
full-scope IAEA safeguards for non-NWS and a
commitment from NWS to negotiate in good faith
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Japan proclaims its status as the only country to
have been attacked by nuclear weapons. The
question now facing the Japanese people is will
they allow the core principles underlying the
nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament system
to be gutted by this ill-conceived deal? The
Japanese government can veto the deal in the NSG.
It is incumbent on the Japanese people to demand
that it do so.
Philip White, an Australian, is international
liaison officer of the Tokyo-based Citizens'
Nuclear Information Center. He can be contacted
at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
______
[3]
Inter Press service
August 7, 2008
PAKISTAN: POLIO CAMPAIGN STOPS AS VIOLENCE SPREADS
by Ashfaq Yusufzai
TTP's Maulvi Omar (left) insists there is no ban on polio immunisation.
Credit:Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
PESHAWAR, Aug 7 (IPS) - The polio eradication
campaign has ground to a halt in the Swat Valley,
in northern Pakistan, with the breakdown of a
peace agreement with a hardline militant group.
In fact, violence has escalated in recent weeks
in the entire North Western Frontier Province
(NWFP), except the Peshawar Valley, and the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with
the Pakistan Taliban (Islamic fighters)
tightening control of the border region and now
threatening to attack the southern port city of
Karachi.
On Tuesday, Maulana Faqir Mohammad, the central
vice-chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) and
Maulvi Mohammad Omar, the spokesman, told a joint
press conference in Anayat Kalley, some 8 kms
from Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur Agency in
FATA, that a suicide squad would be unleashed
unless the government stops the military
operations in Swat, NWFP.
Four new cases of polio have been reported from
Swat, the northernmost district of NWFP. The oral
polio vaccine (OPV) campaign was resumed after
more than a year in end-June following a peace
agreement between the provincial government and
the TTP.
However, on Jul. 28, the first day of a second
round of immunisation since June , at least 10
health workers were severely beaten up in the
Hazara locality of Matta, confirmed Shaukat Ali,
the district coordination officer.
He told IPS in a telephone interview that the
boxes in which they were carrying the vaccine
were broken, and their documents torn by
supporters of Maulana Fazlullah, an Islamic
cleric-turned-leader of the Swat Taliban.
The campaign has again been suspended, and a
curfew clamped by district authorities.
The peace deal in Swat and Malakand was brokered
on May 21 by the NWFP government, after several
rounds of negotiations. In clause 9 of the
agreement the TTP agreed to support the oral
polio programme in Swat. Pakistan is one of only
five countries in the world -- including
neighbouring India and Afghanistan -- where the
polio virus still exists.
The TTP kept their word in the first round of
immunisations, from Jun. 10 to 12. More than
250,000 children under five years were
administered the OPV in Swat, many of them for
the first time. Health workers stayed away from
nine areas including Matta because of security
concerns.
According to Dr Waheed Khan, the top polio
officer in the NWFP, this time 41 of the 65 union
councils in Swat were partly covered. Health
workers were again not allowed entry into nine
union councils, he said.
Eight-month-old Wajeeha Bibi is from Matta, where
vaccinators were roughed up and turned away. On
Jul. 21, she tested positive for polio at the
National Institute of Health, Islamabad.
"Doctors have said that the paralysis will stay
for life," said her heartbroken father Mujahid
Shah, a petty shopkeeper. "I wanted to administer
OPV to my daughter but I feared Taliban reprisal.
I knew this much that the vaccination was good,"
he told IPS at the Paraplegic Centre in Peshawar
where he has brought his daughter.
Maulana Fazlullah, the group's charismatic
leader, had deemed the immunisation campaign a
U.S. conspiracy to make people impotent and
infertile, vituperative propaganda that he
unleashed over his popular FM channel
Elsewhere in Matta locality on Jul. 15,
seven-month-old Tanzeela Bibi tested positive for
polio.
"The virus detected in them is P1 (a highly
virulent strain), which has put the lives of
children in the nearby villages at a razor's
edge," warned Dr Khan, the chief polio official.
Children have not been immunised against polio
for two years in parts of this troubled border
area including Matta.
According to figures issued by the World Health
Organisation (WHO), by Aug. 1, 896 polio cases
were reported worldwide as against 1,315 during
the corresponding period last year. Pakistan with
22 cases is among the top four endemic countries,
including India (331), Nigeria (483) and
Afghanistan (13).
Two polio cases were detected in Bajaur Agency on
the border with Afghanistan on Jul. 22 and Aug. 3
respectively.
"Parents have never been barred from
administering OPV to their children," the Swat
Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar, said over the
phone.
Muslim Khan, spokesman for the TTP in Bajaur,
told IPS, "We support the campaign wholeheartedly
and won't ask any body to refuse vaccination of
their children." He insisted that it was the
government-imposed curfew that has stopped the
polio drive and not the Taliban.
In Bajaur Agency, one-year-old Fatima Bibi tested
positive on Aug. 3 in Nawagai locality where
5,200 children had been without OPV for two
years. The first case of polio in the area was
16-month-old Mehran Khan who was detected on Jul.
22.
The federal health authorities had to suspend the
OPV campaign in Bajaur Agency in August last year
after armed men beat up the vaccinators in the
Charmang area. On May 25, 2007, FATA's chief
surgeon, Mohammad Habibullah was killed in a
roadside blast while coming from a polio-related
meeting in Bajaur Agency. (END/2008)
o o o
(ii)
The News International
9 August 2008
MUSHARRAF LINKED BENAZIR'S SECURITY TO HER TIES WITH HIM
The Pulitzer Prize winning US journalist has
released the recorded conversations of Benazir
Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf, Dick Cheney and
Condoleezza Rice in his book
by Umar Cheema
NEW YORK: The US intelligence agencies taped
Benazir Bhutto's phone calls, prior to her
arrival in Pakistan, in a bid to "play
under-the-table, cut-throat games more
effectively", a new book has revealed.
"The Way of the World" authored by a Pulitzer
Prize winning US journalist Ron Suskind, is full
of disclosures, with its fair portion about
Musharraf-Benazir conversation including
Musharraf's quote "You should understand
something, your security is based on the state of
our relationship".
Suskind writes that Benazir Bhutto's case of
returning to Pakistan was strongly backed by
Condoleezza Rice-led State Department and equally
opposed by Vice President Dick Cheney who
considered Bhutto "complicated and unpredictable".
The book said whenever Benazir Bhutto went harsh
on Musharraf, the US ambassador in Islamabad
advised her to "tone down any criticism of
Musharraf". The author said Bhutto often
regretted that Vice President Cheney never called
Musharraf asking him to "behave" and instead kept
her pressing for coming to terms with him.
As Musharraf, during telephonic conversations,
refused entertaining her demand of revoking
provision barring her becoming PM for third time,
Bhutto said: "What you can give me (then)? May be
some real reform in election commission".
Musharraf said: "She should not be hoping for
much there (reforms), either". The book revealed
US intelligence once intercepted Bhutto's
conversation with her son, Bilawal. "They've been
listening to her calls for months, including an
earlier call she made to her son."
In that call, the book said, she told him
(Bilawal) about the secret bank accounts that
hold the family's fortunes that investigators
have long suspected are ill-gotten. Therefore
when Bhutto once floated the idea of freezing
foreign accounts of "key people around
Musharraf", a US official let her understand that
the United States could, if need be, "constrain
her assets" just as she was now suggesting they
do to Musharraf.
According to the author, Bhutto's representative
started approaching the State Department, in
spring 2006 to work out a plan for her return,
but White House began taking her seriously after
the widespread demonstrations in backdrop sacking
of Chief Justice. And this plan was aimed to
shore up an embattled Musharraf, a single-issue
ally.
Bhutto would consider, the book said, the lawyers
and especially Iftikhar Chaudhry were a "problem"
and that they owned the "high ground of
principle. While she was sprouting democratic
rhetoric, the book said, she was caught in the
deal room - a position in which she came close to
mirroring the "say one thing but do another"
behavior of the United States.
The book also discloses details of Bhutto's
meeting with US Senator John Kerry requesting for
her security and his reply that "United States is
generally hesitant to ensure the protection of
anyone who is not a designated leader".
The notable excerpts from the book related to Pakistan have been given below:
Telephone tapes:
Author said the US National Security Agencies
(NSAs) were doing this job. Regarding Bhutto's
conversation with Bilawal, he writes: "The NSA
was listening. They've been listening to her
calls for months, including an earlier call she
made to her son, Bilawal. The subject of the
secret is often aware that evidence has been
collected that may be used to drive judgments and
may be even destructive actions...The NSA,
meanwhile, has harvested a number of portentous
conversation of Benazir Bhutto. This should help
the United States play its under the table,
cut-throat games more effectively. The intercept
will be cited inside the US government as
evidence of Bhutto's unfitness, her corruption.
It will be used as part of a wider "carrot and
stick" programme in which the United States let
Bhutto know they were happy to work with her in
setting up a marriage with Musharraf, but they
could make her life difficult if she started to
improvise and freelance. What they'll overlook is
the context and her tone in the many calls they
eavesdrop or overlook the fact that she's scared
and preparing for the possibility of imminent
death... Bhutto didn't know about the NSA's
intercepts, but a US official let her understand
that the United States could, if need be,
"constrain her assets," just as she was now
suggesting they do to Musharraf."
Telephonic conversation with Musharraf:
Referring to conversation that took place three
weeks before her return when she was meeting US
lawmakers at Capitol Hill, including John Kerry,
and State Department officials, he writes:
"Suddenly the couple (Bhutto-Zardari) turns. One
of Bhutto's aides is rushing towards them, saying
he's just gotten a call from one of Musharraf's
aides. The aide says that Musharraf can't support
Bhutto on a key demand - the repeal of the
provision prohibiting a third term for the prime
ministers - and he wants to talk to her... Bhutto
takes the call from Islamabad. "The twice-elected
provision is important to me," she tells
Musharraf. "If you're retreating from that, what
can you give me? May be some real reform in the
election commission?" He says she shouldn't be
hoping for much there, either. In their many
calls, he's been surprisingly cordial, often
quite reasonable. But something has changed. His
voice is harsh, almost mocking her. She asks if
the US officials have had conversation with him
that makes it clear that her safety is his
responsibility. "Yes, someone has called",
Musharraf says, and then laughs. "The Americans
can call all they want with their suggestions
about you and me, let them call," he tells her...
He finishes the call with a dose of fair warning.
"You should understand something," Pervez
Musharraf says, finally to Benazir Bhutto. "Your
security is based on the state of our
relationship." She hangs up the phone feeling as
though she might be sick.
Regarding Musharraf's call to Bhutto after
assassination attempt on her arrival in Karachi,
the author writes: "By the next day, Musharraf
calls Bhutto at her estate near Karachi. She
accepts his sympathies reluctantly. "I'm not the
enemy, Bibi." She says little. She knows the
lines are tapped. It's a new hand and she is not
showing her card."
Conversation with Senator John Kerry:
As Bhutto met John Kerry in Washington, three
weeks before going back to Pakistan, author
writes: "The priority of this trip is to get
Bhutto the security support she lacks. October 18
is only three weeks away. Kerry is swift off the
mark: "This is a volatile situation you're
walking into, Benazir." The United States, he
says, is generally hesitant to ensure the
protection of anyone who is not a designated
leader, a provision to prevent US forces from
becoming embroiled in the internal disputes of
sovereign nations. "Senator Kerry, I want
Pakistan to provide me with the security I am
entitled to under the laws of my country. I'd be
grateful if you would talk to the Musharraf
government and tell him the US expects he will
fulfill those obligations." Kerry sighs. Of
course, he, a senator, can't conduct unilateral
foreign policy. "Well, Benazir, I will certainly
talk to the State Department about that point
being made to Musharraf," he says as forcefully
as credulity will allow... Her current fortune,
however, are in hands of a half-a-dozen people
beyond her orbit: a tight circle of policy makers
in senior posts at the State Department and in
the Vice President's Office. All official
contacts with Pakistan on Bhutto's behalf must be
channeled through this small group, overseen, in
essence, by Cheney and Rice, a duo with a long
history of internecine combat. Most of it
dominated by the vice president."
Condoleezza Rice Vs. Dick Cheney:
"The initiative to reinsert Bhutto into Pakistan,
was, in fact, launched and led by Rice and her
State Department. Cheney's position, expressed to
the president on several occasions, was 'don't
mess with this,' according to one of his senior
foreign policy advisers. 'Our feeling,' said
Cheney's adviser, summing up the view of the vice
president, "was that arranging this marriage can
only backfire on us. Bhutto is complicated and
unpredictable. It's best to just support
Musharraf, give him whatever he wants or needs to
stay in power.' 'Our position,' the advisor
added, 'is that this whole thing with Bhutto is
being run out of state. Let them fly or fall on
their own."
Rice-Bhutto telephone talk:
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher,
who's been handling the Bhutto-Musharraf talks,
falls ill and needs to be hospitalized. Condi
Rice tries to step in. She calls a London hotel
where Bhutto is meeting Pakistani supporters.
Bhutto does not take the call. "Someone said that
Condi Rice was on the phone," she (Bhutto) said
later, I thought they were joking"... She and
Bhutto talk several times through a long night
and into the next morning, ironing out some
sticking points with Musharraf. Bhutto tells her
she's concerned about her security... She's
suspicious that the United States sees her value
mostly as a means to shore up Musharraf - rather
than as a champion of democratic ideals - and to
describe her exchange with the general would show
just untenable a couple they would make.
Musharraf's visa denial to security firm:
Two days before she boards the plane, Bhutto is
concerned. Her team has been frantically trying
to beef up her security... Mark Siegel and Larry
Wallace, Bhutto's American advisers, have been
working the problem with Blackwater. In
September, representatives from the firm flew to
meet with Bhutto at her home in Dubai and laid
out several security plans, each costing about
$400,000 per month. They intended to work in
conjunction with affiliated firms inside of
Pakistan, because Musharraf had blocked visas
from being issued to imported Americans security
personnel for Bhutto... She turns the firm down.
She knows that the United States has accepted
Musharraf's assurance that he had her security
under control, but she does not trust him and
sends an "in the event of my death" note,
identifying various hard-line Islamist officials
in his orbit who should be held responsible in
the event that she is killed.
* Refused to remove ban on third time prime minister
* Benazir asked for EC reforms but Musharraf said
do not hope for much there either
* US talked with Benazir seriously only after
protests against sacking of deposed CJ to bail
out the president
* US ambassador advised her to tone down criticism of Musharraf
* Dick Cheney declared Benazir a complicated and
unpredictable personality and advocated continued
support to Musharraf
* US threatened Benazir with constraining her
assets when she talked about freezing foreign
assets of Musharraf aides
* Benazir did not trust Musharraf and identified her killers in a note
______
[4]
truthout.org,
07 August 2008
THE GAMES THEY PLAY IN BURMA
by J. Sri Raman
photo
A protester in Burma suffers from tear-gas.
August 8 is the commencement of the Chinese
Olympics, but also marks the anniversary of the
3,000 Burmese people who were killed by a
repressive military regime in 1988 during an
uprising demanding democracy.
(Photo: National League for Democracy-Liberated Area / AP)
On August 8, a small team of six athletes
from Burma is scheduled to participate in the
opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Very few back home, however, may be wondering on
this occasion about the team's fortunes in the
field, track, swimming, archery, rowing and
canoeing events to follow. To millions of
Burmese, the day will only bring agonizing
memories of a defeated uprising for democracy.
An estimated 3,000 fell to the bullets of a
brutally repressive military regime, as the
Burmese people rose in revolt on August 8, 1988,
remembered since then as 8.8.88 or simply as
8888. A large number of protesters fled the
country, to survive as refugee populations in
neighboring countries ranging from Thailand to
India. On the 20th anniversary of the uprising,
the Beijing pageantry will be blurred for many,
many families as they tearfully recall the time
they were torn asunder.
Burma had been under jackboots for 26 years
at that time. In the two decades since then, many
have professed and proclaimed support for the
country's pro-democracy movement. The Burmese
people, however, have only witnessed an
ever-worsening situation.
We hear much talk in the media about the
glaring contrast between Beijing's glittering
sports show and its backing for Burma's junta. We
have even heard calls for a boycott of the
Olympics, which were bound to go unheeded. Very
little, however, is heard of what proud
democracies have done to help Burma's
pro-democracy movement. What is the record of the
US, the West and, last but not least, India,
especially after forging a "strategic
partnership" for the cause of democracy, in this
regard?
On the eve of the anniversary, of course,
President George W. Bush was himself present in
person in close neighborhood, in Thailand, to
provide the Burmese comfort and confidence. First
Lady Laura Bush, whose heart has been bleeding
for Burma though not for Iraq, has already made a
well-publicized visit to a Burmese refugee camp
on the border.
Neither her mission nor Bush's tribute to the
"treatment of refugees by the government of
Thailand," deemed his democratic ally despite the
military's control over it, has stopped the
reported official swoops on Burmese slums and the
dispatch of refugees to the border over the past
few days.
From August 3 on, according to rebel sources,
the Burmese junta has been reinforcing "security"
along the border. Over 10 battalions or 10,000
troops, along with artillery, are said to have
been deployed in these areas. The junta would
appear to have acted on its anticipation of a
more serious show of resistance here than inside
Burma on the anniversary.
Within the country, too, the well-known
Generation 88 group has called for renewed
protests. Indications are that the call is
already finding a response on the university
campuses, with students putting up prohibited
posters and distributing pamphlets. While the
junta cannot stop Burmese expatriates from
raising the pro-democracy banner everywhere, it
is trying its utmost to prevent a repetition of
last year's rebellion.
The 2007 uprising, which began on August 15,
was of a much smaller scale than 8888. But it was
serious and significant enough to shake the army
rulers. A big increase in junta-fixed fuel prices
sparked off the revolt, in which hundreds were
killed (though the official tally of the toll was
only 13.) Sounds of solidarity emanated from
Washington and Western capitals, but these have
spelt no real succor to the Burmese people.
The junta has gone ahead with a fake
"referendum" to foist a constitution on the
country, which bars legendary Aung San Suu Kyi
from contesting the elections promised to be held
in 2010, on the ground of her marriage to a
foreigner.
She and her National League for Democracy won
a landslide victory in the last elections
conducted in 1990. She has been under house
detention for most of the time since then. The
detention was extended last in May 2008, after
all the Western proclamations in support of the
pro-democracy movement.
No one is suggesting for a moment that Bush
should have attempted a "regime change" here
though no such vital stake as the Middle East oil
was involved. But the junta may have just
listened a little better if Washington and the
West had sounded more sincere about their
sanction.
Despite all the pro-democracy fervor of the
First Family, for example, the US Senate approved
new trade sanctions against Burma in the third
week of July - only after excluding a provision
that would have eliminated a large Chevron tax
break. Burmese activists had supported the
provision to pressure Chevron to sever its ties
with the junta. Nyunt Than of the Burmese
American Democratic Alliance did not mince words:
"Unless Chevron is out of there, the United
States doesn't have the moral authority to tell
other countries to get out."
As for the rest if the West, the case of
French oil company Total S. A. provides a
convincing testimony to a callous policy that
puts profits over the pro-democracy movement. In
February 2006, when the company proudly announced
that, by exploiting high oil prices, it had
raised its fourth-quarter profits by 62 percent
to $5.2 billion, protesters in London pointed out
that the performance must really be attributed to
exploitation of the Burmese people.
By its involvement in Burma's Yadana
pipeline, Total is "involved in what is
essentially the single largest foreign investment
project in Burma, the single largest source of
hard currency for the regime," according to Marco
Simons of the Earth Rights International.
As for India, which had once conferred its
highest civilian honor on Suu Kyi, it has been
competing with others in collaboration with the
junta. In July 2007, just before the last
uprising, India's plans to sell advanced light
helicopters (ALHs) to Burma were leaked. Outraged
rights activists then pointed out that this made
a mockery of the European Union's official
embargo on sale of military goods to Burma. This,
they said, was because the ALHs included "rocket
launchers from Belgium, engines from France,
brake systems from Italy, fuel tanks and
gearboxes from Britain."
Trade between India and Burma is said to have
expanded from $87.4 million in 1990-91 to over
$600 million now. New Delhi is particularly proud
of a project envisaging creation of a link
between ports on India's east and the Sittwe port
in western Burma. The $100 million Kaladan
Multi-Modal Transport Project is expected to
provide an alternative route for transport of
goods to northeast India, where New Delhi faces a
long-festering problem of insurgency.
The 20th anniversary of 8888 promises only a
tough and lengthy struggle for the people of
Burma, one in which they cannot hope for real
assistance from the world's best-advertised
democracies. Whether the Burmese athletes win
medals in Beijing or not, the pro-democracy
movement can only look forward to the loneliness
of the long-distance runner.
A freelance journalist and a peace activist in
India, J. Sri Raman is the author of "Flashpoint"
(Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular
contributor to Truthout.
______
[5]
Economic and Political Weekly
26 July 2008
D D KOSAMBI: THE SCHOLAR AND THE MAN
by Meera Kosambi
D D Kosambi enjoys a unique international
identity as a brilliant, profound and original
scholar who straddled many fields of knowledge
where he made multiple scholarly contributions.
This essay outlines the vastness of his
intellectual canvas, provides a short
biographical sketch and also describes some
facets of a fascinating personality.
Full Text at: http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12477.pdf
______
[6]
Sunday Magazine / Dawn
August 10, 2008
Smoker's Corner: WHAT TALIBANISATION?
by Nadeem F. Paracha
"Will it also surprise you if I told you that I
have read the Bible, the Torah, the Bhagvad Gita,
Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto and Hitler's
Mein Kampf?"
It was 1991. I'd just quit the University of
Karachi and joined a weekly magazine as a feature
writer. My office was on the fourth floor in a
building on I. I. Chundrigarh Road. I headed down
to get myself a pack of cigarettes and a
saada-khushbu paan. The moment I stepped out, my
way was politely blocked by three young tableeghi
jamaat recruits.
"Aslaamulalaikum," said one of them in a
swallowing Arabic accent. "Walaikum," said I.
"Jinaab," he said, ever so courteously, "it is
time for Asar prayers. Why aren't you at the
mosque?"
"Well, why aren't you?" I asked.
"We will be, but we are already doing a naik kaam (good deed)," he said.
"I see. What makes you think that I am not doing
a naik kaam as well?" I asked, equally politely.
"I'm sure you are," he said. "Par lagta hai aap
namaz kum parh tey hein," (it seems you do not
pray much).
"How do you know that?" I replied, "Kya
namaazioon key parr hotay hain?" (Why, do praying
people have wings?).
"Janaab, if you don't want to go to the mosque,
why not give some charity to it," he said, still
smiling.
"Charity for a mosque?" said I. "Merey bhai,
mosques are all that Zia-ul-Haq ever built in
Pakistan. I think you people will please Allah
more if you gathered charity for schools and
hospitals instead!"
The guy smiled again, "woh tou bohat hain (there are more than enough).
"Acha. Yeh kab hooah? (Really? When did that happen?)" I laughed.
He shook his head, smiled, half-closed his eyes
and said, "Allah aap ko hidayat dey aur ."
I interrupted: " Aur aap ko aqal!"
He didn't look very pleased, and without shaking
my hand, walked away. Not smiling anymore.
* * * * *
It was 1994. I was an assistant editor and
columnist for an English daily in Karachi. On a
visit to our Lahore office, I took a break to
check out a book store at Liberty Market. There I
was approached by a kid in his late teens.
"Hello. You are NFP, right?"
"Err yes."
"I am Danish."
"Hello, Danish."
"I read your stuff,"
"Great."
"It's very interesting. Keep it up"
"Thank you, Danish."
"Okay. Nice meeting you Mr Paracha."
"Nice meeting you too Danish."
(Danish turned, paused, and then turned to face me again).
"Mr Paracha?"
"Yes, Mr Danish."
"Have you read the Quran?"
"Err yes Danish I have."
"In English?"
"Yes, Danish, in English."
"How did it change you?"
"Why Danish, do you think I should change?"
"I was just wondering."
"I see. Are you surprised that I have read the Quran?"
"Actually, yes."
"Well, Danish. Will it also surprise you if I
told you that I have also read the Bible, the
Torah, the Bhagvad Gita, Karl Marx's The
Communist Manifesto and Hitler's Mein Kampf?"
Danish was still. Almost expressionless. Then
chuckled: "Mr NFP. Always trying to be different."
"Yes, Danish. And so should you," I said, handing him a Batman comic.
* * * * *
It was 2002. I was working as a creative group
head at an advertising agency and sitting with
the Creative Director who was a woman. A young
female employee came into her office and
complained that a male colleague of hers, a
bearded man in his 30s, was constantly advising
her to wear a duppata.
The Creative Director kept her cool, sent the
lady back to her seat and called the man.
"Why are you going around saying this to women?"
she asked him. He remained quiet.
She continued: "I'm sure a lot of people do not
like your beard, but has anyone over here ever
told you to shave it off?"
The man was shocked. He looked at me and then at
the Creative Director. Then a weepy, squeaky
"sorry" appeared from deep down his throat.
"End of jihad," I thought.
* * * * *
It was 2006. I got a call from an agitated man on
my cell. He was angry about a few articles of
mine.
"How can you defend France's laws banning hijabs
in public schools?" he asked, agitatedly.
"They've banned Sikh turbans and the wearing of
Christian crosses and the Jewish Star of David as
well," I told him.
"Yes, but the law is really against the Muslims!" he insisted.
"No," said I. "The law is against exhibiting
overt religious symbols in public. France is a
secular country and it has every right to do so.
What if a European woman appears in a mini-skirt
on Zainab Market? You will say, since you are an
Islamic republic, you have the right to ban such
attire in public, wouldn't you. I think they
tolerate a lot more hijabs and turbans in their
country than we can ever tolerate crosses, shorts
and skirts in ours!"
"You are just against Islam!" Saying this, he simply dropped the line.
* * * * *
It was 2007. My apartment building had run out of
water. I accompanied the building's President to
check the situation. The President called the
chowkidar, saying "Yaar, ever since you have
come, we have started to have this water problem."
The President then turned towards me and in all
seriousness announced: "Nadeem sahib, this
chowkidar of ours does not pray regularly."
I nodded.
"You know," the President continued in all
earnest, "the chowkidar we had before him used to
pray right here over the water tank and
ma'shallah we used to have tons of water!"
"Aab-i-zam-zam?" I asked, jokingly.
But the President remained serious. "This guy should start praying here!"
"Right!" said I, slightly irritated. Then turning
towards the embarrassed chowkidar I told him,
"You better start praying over the water tank.
Who knows, this time we might strike oil!"
______
[7]
27 US Lawmakers want Modi's visa ban extended;
Coalition Against Genocide gets support from more
congresspersons
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 9, 2008
Washington D.C.: Coalition Against Genocide (CAG)
which is widely campaigning on Capitol Hill has
bagged support from 27 more US lawmakers in
urging the State Department to continue the ban
on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from
entering the United States.
In an important rebuke to Mr. Modi, twenty seven
prominent lawmakers led by Congressman Joseph
Pitts (R-PA) have urged the State Department to
once again reaffirm its decision to keep Mr Modi
from entering the United States. It was reported
earlier that the Gujarat Chief Minister might
apply for a visa to attend the World Gujarati
Conference in New Jersey from August 29th - 31st
2008 on the invitation of Gujarati businessmen
with strong ties to extreme Hindu nationalist
ideologies.
Congressman Joseph Pitts and twenty six
co-signers urged the State Department, in the
letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to
take note of the serious human rights violations,
persecution of minorities and total disregard of
religious freedom practiced in direct
contravention of International Human Rights norms
and treaties by the BJP Government in Gujarat.
They drew specific attention to the plight of the
100,000 victims of genocide unable to return to
their homes, followed by the continuous attempts
to obstruct a legitimate and fair trial to bring
the perpetrators of the 2002 communal genocide to
justice. "Mr. Modi and his administration closed
the files on over 2,000 police cases where the
victims filed reports of rapes, killings and
destruction of their property" noted the letter.
Earlier last year, in an exposé by the
investigative magazine Tehelka, the Gujarat state
prosecutor appointed by Mr. Modi was captured on
video confessing to protecting the perpetrators
of the 2002 violence. Further, one of the accused
involved in the killings, detailed the favor from
Modi's office to have several court judges
transferred to protect him from any convictions.
The letter also drew attention to the State
Department Report on the Gujarat Government's
promotion of Nazi Ideology "The role of Chief
Minister Narendra Modi and his government in
promoting attitudes of racial supremacy, racial
hatred and the legacy of Nazism through his
government's support of school textbooks in which
Nazism is condoned. For example, in a high school
social studies textbook, the "charismatic
personality" of "Hitler the Supremo" and the"
achievements" of Nazism are described at length.
The textbook does not even acknowledge Nazi
extermination policies or concentration camps
except for a passing reference to a policy of
opposition towards the Jewish people and
[advocacy for] the supremacy of the German race".
This letter comes close on the heels by similar
letters written by Congresswoman Betty McCollum
(D-MN), Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) and the
United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urging similar action
against Mr. Modi, who has been characterized as
the architect of the pogroms in 2002 against the
Muslim community by several Citizens' panels and
Human Rights organizations in India and abroad.
The Coalition Against Genocide includes a diverse
spectrum of organizations and individuals in the
United States and Canada that have come together
in response to the Gujarat genocide to demand
accountability and justice.
CONTACT:
Dr. Hari Sharma
Phone: 604-420-2972
Dr. Hyder Khan
Phone/Fax: 443-927-9039
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://coalitionagainstgenocide.org
REFERENCES:
Did this letter stop Modi?
Text of the previous letter written in 2002 by
Congressman Joesph Pitts and 21 others urging the
US State Department for Modi's visa denial.
Rediff.com, March 18, 2005
http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/mar/18pitts.htm
Five years on - the bitter and uphill struggle for justice in Gujarat
Amnesty International Report, published on March 2007, 19 pages.
http://amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/007/2007/en/dom-ASA200072007en.pdf
India: A pattern of unlawful killings by the Gujarat police
Amnesty International Briefing, published on May 24, 2007, 15 pages.
http://amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/011/2007/en/dom-ASA200112007en.pdf
'Nazi' row over Indian textbooks
Human rights campaigners in India's Gujarat state
have condemned school textbooks which they say
praise Hitler.
BBC News UK, July 23, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4711475.stm
India: Gujarat Chief Minister Endorses Unlawful Killings
Human Rights Watch, December 7, 2007
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/12/07/india17510_txt.htm
Devil's Advocate
(Transcript of Gujarat Advocate General Arvind
Pandya confessing to protecting the perpetrators
of 2002 Gujarat massacres, captured on a hidden
camera by Tehelka Magazine in a recent expose)
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107DEVIL.asp
VIDEO CONFESSION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9KlevWeYrE
"After Killing Them, I Felt Like Maharana Pratap"
(Transcript of Babu Bajrangi's confessions caught
on a hidden video camera by Tehelka Magazine in a
recent expose)
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107After_killing.asp
VIDEO CONFESSION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfnTl_Fwvbo
______
[8] Announcements:
The Centre for Media & Cultural Studies, TISS
would like to invite you to a talk:
Tracing the 'Disappeared': Political Community in the Wake of Atrocity
Speaker: Malathi de Alwis
Date: 11 August 2008, Monday
Time: 4 pm - 6 pm
Place: Classroom: IV, TISS Old Campus, Deonar, Mumbai
Abstract:
Forced disappearance is one of the most insidious
forms of violence as it seeks to obliterate the
body and indefinitely extends and exacerbates the
grief of those left behind. In this paper, I
consider how such chronic mourners 'reinhabit the
world' in the face of continuously deferring
loss, and seek to theorise what might be its
political outcome(s). Arguing that this
re-inhabiting is a constant tracing of traces
given the ambiguous nature of the disappeared's
status of absence, and thus presence, I explore a
particular 'identification with suffering' that
is embraced and embodied by Sinhala women whose
children were 'disappeared' during the second
People's Liberation Front (JVP) uprising
(1988-1993). In such a context, visual and
tactile objects such as photographs and clothing,
I suggest, become especially meaningful by
reasserting the presence of the disappeared. In
conclusion, I engage Judith Butler's contention
that grief is a tie that binds and thus enables
the imagining of alternative political
communities to reflect on how such a
conceptualization might be helpful to
re-invigorate political communities in Sri Lanka.
About the Speaker:
Malathi de Alwis is a Senior Research Fellow at
the International Centre for Ethnic Studies,
Colombo, Sri Lanka and also teaches in the
Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of
Colombo. She is the co-editor, with Kumari
Jayawardena, of Embodied Violence: Communalising
Women's Sexuality in South Asia (1996) and of
Feminists under Fire: Exchanges Across War Zones
(2003), with Wenona Giles et al. Her current work
explores how people re-inhabit their worlds in
the wake of extraordinary violence and
devastating loss.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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