| OPPOSITE EDITORIAL | ||||||
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A
rightful role for Thailand in historic Govt-LTTE talks The government
has suffered from withdrawal symptoms as it has not shown any further
commitment or understanding of the complexity of the upcoming peace
negotiations. Recent arms
seizures in the South have raised questions regarding the lack of
the government's seriousness in dealing with illegal arms smuggling.
This month alone police have seized a large cache of arms that were
destined for abroad in two separate raids in Satun and Phuket. In Phuket,
police seized a shipment of rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47 bullets
and hand grenades heading for Tamil Tiger fighters in northern Sri
Lanka. If these trends
continue unabated, prospects for the planned peace process could
be threatened. For one thing, under the February 22 cease-fire agreement,
neither Colombo nor the LTTE are supposed to engage in arms shipments. It is an open
secret that the coastal provinces along the Andaman Sea in southern
Thailand have become popular trans-shipment routes for arms smuggling.
Apart from Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi are two other popular spots
for easy access to international waters. Similar arrests
were made in past years but the Thai authorities have not given
any serious thought to stopping these activities. The prevailing
feeling among officials is that as long as these arms shipments
are not targeted at Thai people, they should be treated as ordinary
arms heists. Few Thai officials know that the LTTE has been declared
a terrorist organisation in the United States and is on anti-terrorism
lists in Canada, Britain and Australia. Without a serious investigation, it will be difficult to establish whether the arms shipment to the LTTE was made before or after the February agreement. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which oversees the cease-fire, has accused the LTTE of truce violations when its two monitoring officials were held temporarily for trying to inspect the LTTE, raising suspicions of arms smuggling. Fortunately, this incident and others have not been used so far by either side as a pretext to derail talks. Thailand, which
prides itself as having been the host to several peace talks in
the past, has yet to understand the implications of having LTTE
agents operating on its soil. With its extensive financial networks
here and the country's well-known loose immigration rules and corruption,
the LTTE has been able to establish cells and procure arms both
in Thailand and neighbouring countries and ship them to their fighters. During the
Cambodian conflict, Thailand played an active role in persuading
warring factions to converge in Pattaya to work out a cease-fire
agreement and a settlement plan that subsequently led to the withdrawal
of Vietnamese troops and the restoration of peace in Cambodia. But
for the Sri Lanka peace talks, Bangkok does not have any knowledge
of the decades-long ethnic conflict, which has killed 64,000 people. For instance,
the Thai attitude towards UN resolution 1373 - passed by the UN
Security Council 17 days after the September 11 terrorist attack
- is that of negligence. This resolution
requires UN member states, under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, to
take concrete steps to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist
acts, including the criminalisation of the wilful provision or collection
of funds for the carrying out of terrorist acts. Although Thailand has enacted an anti-money laundering law, it is primarily aimed at combating drug smuggling, prostitution rings, and money laundering by transnational crime syndicates, without specifically targeting terrorist networks. Talks between Colombo and the LTTE will take a long time. Both sides realise that they have to give peace and dialogue a chance. It is in their mutual interests to keep stop fighting and look beyond. So far, the cease-fire agreement has survived almost five months. The peace talks were at first scheduled to be held in May, but were delayed to June and then much later still. Accusations of violating the cease-fire and disagreements over the agenda were the main reasons. The LTTE insists that the talks must zero in on deciding the administrators of the disputed areas. It has demanded the exclusive control of the interim administration for the northeastern province. Colombo argues that elections should be the key factor to decide who will eventually control the areas. Therefore, it
is imperative that Thailand changes its mindset and plays its rightful
role for the historic talks, apart from providing hospitality. Bangkok
should encourage both sides to engage in the peace process and provide
incentives as necessary. It should send a strong signal to the LTTE
that its full cooperation and reconciliation in the upcoming talks
will be rewarded, and that its networks inside Thailand will not
be affected and could be put to good use. The
forgotten war In the last
decade, Tamil suicide bombers, many of them women, have killed some
1,500 people, including an Indian Prime Minister and a Sri Lankan
President. And in a bizarre twist, the Tigers filmed many of their
suicide bombings to show and motivate their troops. But since last
December a ceasefire between the Tigers - who have been militating
for a separate state for Sri Lanka's Tamil Hindu minority in the
Northeast - and the government, which is dominated by the Buddhist
Sinhalese majority, has halted all suicide bombings. No one can
be sure whether it will last, after 18 years of civil war. But it's
still worth examining how suicide was defused here, and whether
any of this might apply to Palestinians and Israelis. To begin with, one of the key factors in halting Tamil suicide bombings was the Tamil diaspora, living in North America, Europe and India. This Tamil diaspora had been the main source of funding for the Tamil Tigers. But the Tamil diaspora is made up largely of middle class merchants and professionals, and when in the late nineties the US, Britain and India all declared the Tigers a "terrorist" group, not freedom fighters, the Tamil diaspora became embarrassed by them and started choking off their funds. "The Tamil diaspora started out as a force encouraging Tamil radicalism, but eventually it evolved into a source for moderation," said Suresh Premachandran, head of a Tamil rights party in Sri Lanka. "September 11 changed that even more. People here knew after that there would never be any sympathy for any suicide bombers." Unfortunately, in West Asia Arabs and Muslims continue to indulge, justify, praise or provide religious legitimation for Palestinian suicide bombers, even after 9/11. The Palestinians have convinced themselves, with the help of many Arabs and Europeans, that their grievance is so special, so enormous that it isn't bound by any limits of civilised behaviour, and therefore they are entitled to do whatever they want to Israelis. And Israelis have convinced themselves that they are entitled to do virtually anything to stop it. Second, Sri Lankans had to pay retail for their extremism. They had no oil or foreign powers to finance their war. And because so much domestic savings was diverted to the war, Sri Lanka's roads and infrastructure today are decrepit. It is not surprising, therefore, that the peace movement, which blossomed in the last two years, was led by the business community - particularly after the Tamil Tigers blew up Colombo's airport in July 2001 and sent the country into an economic tailspin. "The business community finally said, 'enough is enough,' " said Mahesh Amalean, chairman of MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka's leading apparel maker. "That turned the tide. Our motto became 'Sri Lanka first.' " Israelis and Palestinians, by contrast, got to buy their extremism wholesale. Palestinians could engage in suicide bombings without becoming destitute because the Arab states are always ready to pass the hat for them. Israelis have been able to build insane settlements in the heart of the West Bank, because the US was ready to provide aid with no limits attached. Third, in Sri Lanka the government realised it had no military solution for suicide bombers - that the only way they could be stopped was if the Tigers themselves could be induced to turn them off. The Tigers, meanwhile, realised that while they could terrify the government with suicides, they couldn't even hold their own ethnic capital, Jaffna. So they both finally opted for negotiations. Unfortunately, the Palestinians abandoned a peace offer and opted instead for the delusion that suicide bombing will get them more, and Ariel Sharon has opted for a purely military response. Finally, while Jews and Arabs have carried out their war with all the world watching - and often meddling in ways that prolonged the conflict - Sri Lankans have conducted their war, in which 64,000 people have died, with almost no coverage. "Ours has
been a forgotten war, and we've had to live with our mistakes and
to find our own way out," said Milinda Moragoda, one of the
government's peace negotiators. "It had its disadvantages,
but also its advantages." 'Osama
bin Laden will strike back'
Mir
has since interviewed Bin Laden three times as editor of Daily Pakistan
and Daily Ausaf. His last meeting took place in November last year,
even as American bombs rained down on Afghanistan. Now working
on Osama's biography, he says it's unlikely the Americans will ever
take Bin Laden alive. In an interview with Ashish Kumar Sen from
Islamabad, Mir says it's not difficult to find Osama bin Laden,
but the Americans lack the necessary strategy and intelligence. Q: Is Osama
bin Laden still alive, and if so, where could he be hiding? A:
I think he is alive. I went to Kabul in April to interview Afghan
President Hamid Karzai. I talked to many senior Afghan officials
there, all of them were sure Osama is alive but they did not know
where he might be. He was seen by many people in March in the eastern
Afghan city of Khost. According to some reports, he attended the
wedding of a local tribal leader's daughter. That's why US troops
bombed many marriage ceremonies in Afghanistan. Where is Osama?
That's the 25-million-dollar question. But it is not difficult to
find him, all you need is good strategy and good intelligence. The
Americans lack both. Q: Do you
believe Bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks? A:
Before my last meeting with him in November 2001, I was not ready
to believe that he could have anything to do with 9/11. But after
spending three days in Al Qaeda network during the war in the first
week of November, I feel he is responsible. He is dangerous, and
he can plan more operations. Q: General
Pervez Musharraf told the New Yorker recently that he doesn't believe
Bin Laden masterminded the attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. Any comment? A:
Gen. Musharraf is underestimating him. The Inter-Services Intelligence
and the Central Intelligence Agency have no proper understanding
of Al Qaeda. They lack human intelligence. They are firing in the
air most of the time. Q: Some months ago, the US government released a videotape showing Osama bin Laden talking to friends at a private dinner. From his conversation, it appeared he had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks. Do you believe this tape was genuine? A: I think that video was genuine because Osama even recorded my interview with him on camera. I can recognise his voice, his way of talking, eating and smile. Q: Did you go out seeking Osama bin Laden, or did his people come to you with his story? A: I never contacted him. Every time his people contacted me. Q: Bin Laden seems to have a lot of trust in you. How would you describe your relationship with him? A: Three times he gave interviews to British journalist Robert Fisk and three times to me. Fisk was the first to interview him in Sudan in 1996. When I first met Osama in 1997, he gave me an example of Fisk and told me if I reported properly like Fisk, he would meet me again. So I followed Fisk in professionalism. Some western journalists who interviewed Osama misreported him, so he never gave them more chances. Osama trusts my professional honesty. He told me in our first meeting, "I know you interviewed Shimon Peres, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Narasimha Rao, and I know everything about you. Don't try to play a game with me because you are living very close to us. If you escape to the US, we can catch you there, be careful." Whenever I interviewed him again, he reminded me the first meeting and said that he will not meet me if there is any misreporting. He knows that I criticised him many times on international television channels, but criticism is not his problem. He needs accuracy in reporting. Q: Could
you describe your first meeting? A: It was in Jalalabad. Me and my photographer faced a lot of problems when they searched our bodies; they put their hands in our underwear. We were very angry with them and shouted at them, and suddenly Osama appeared and apologised. He was smiling all the time. He was playing with his son Ali who was sitting in his lap. I took pictures with his seven-year-old son. Q: Did you also meet Mullah Omar at this meeting? A: I met Mullah Omar once, separately. Q: You have interviewed Osama many times. Has he turned more radical or bitter over the years? A: He has changed a lot. He was more radical in 1998, he said that he wants to kill all Americans. In 2001, he told me that all Americans are not bad, that there are some good people who opposed the American bombing of Afghan civilians. In 1998, he was only demanding the expulsion of American troops from Saudi Arabia, now he is trying to exploit the situation in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. His agenda is expanding. Q: Has his health deteriorated? A: His health is okay. He told me last year: "I can ride my horse 70 kilometres without any stop." He is not a kidney patient, I am sure, because he ate a lot of butter in front of me. Q: What was your impression of the man? A: He was very confident, not scared of death. But he is not a leader, not a scholar, he can fight but he cannot guide a nation. He lacks political and religious knowledge. People from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Arab countries and other parts of the world joined Al Qaeda because they don't like American policies. He cannot attract them with his personality, he is a hero for them by default. Q: How does he justify his bitterness towards the West, and America in particular? A: He says America is sitting in his country just to control oil. He says America is supporting Israel and Jews are killing innocent Palestinians with American weapons, so we will kill Americans. He says UN resolutions on Palestine and Kashmir were not implemented because we are Muslims. He tries to exploit contradictions in US policies. Q: What brought about this resentment? A: Saudi interior minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz misbehaved with him in 1989 when he delivered a speech against Saddam Hussein. Osama was against Saddam. When Saddam attacked Kuwait, he offered his services to the Saudi government, but they invited US troops to fight Saddam. That was the turning point. He decided to confront the US and the Saudi royal family because he thought that the presence of US troops in the holy land was against the teachings of Islam. Q: What does Osama hope to change through this "jihad?" A: He wants to establish an international Islamic government (khilafat). He wants to topple all monarchs in the Arab world. Q: Have you come under any pressure - from either the Americans or the Pakistani government - to reveal your sources? A: I faced a lot of pressure after my last interview with Osama in November. The ISI investigated me. The Intelligence Bureau investigated me, but it was confirmed that I did everything without breaking any law, without violating journalistic ethics. If you go through my interview with Osama you'll see I asked very straight questions. Actually that interview established that Osama is a dangerous person who is claiming to have nukes. When CNN telecast Osama's statement, a lot of pressure was lifted off me. Most western journalists congratulated me on my scoop because I risked my life for it. Unfortunately, many Pakistani journalists were jealous. They created a lot of problems and that's why I left the print media. Q: Have either the Americans or the Pakistani administration sought your help in trying to track down Osama bin Laden? A: I was offered a huge amount of money by some western television channels to provide them information. Maybe some secret agencies were behind these offers. I told them that I have already written about all I know. One Egyptian diplomat even offered me US citizenship. I told him the US is more unsafe than Pakistan. The real price is life, and nobody can pay for a life. Q: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the success of the US war in Afghanistan? A: The US war has been a five per cent success. Al Qaeda is damaged, not finished. They are like wounded snakes, they will retaliate. Q:Could you describe the morale within Al Qaeda? A: Morale was up. Everyone was praying for martyrdom in November 2001. Q: How much actual damage have the US forces inflicted on Al Qaeda? A: The actual Al Qaeda network is working in the US, Europe and West Asia. All of them have not been captured. They have their targets and most of them must be planning for more attacks. Q: Do Mullah Omar and Osama tend to stay together, or have they parted ways since the war erupted? A: I think they met many times after December 2001. The Taliban is divided on the Osama issue but a majority of the Talibs support Omar. Q: Are the Taliban upset with Osama that it was his alleged involvement in the attacks on the US that drew America into this war and eventually resulted in their loss of power in Afghanistan? A: Many Talibs were upset but they were overruled. Now Osama is more popular among the Pashtuns than last year. Q: Do you believe the Americans will ever manage to capture Bin Laden? A: They
can kill him, but it will be difficult to capture him. I am also
waiting for his end, it will be difficult for me to publish his
biography in the current situation. 9/11
Lesson Plan Lesson #1: Who are they? This lesson would emphasize that while most people in the world are good and decent, there are evil people out there who are not poor, not abused - but envious. These extremists have been raised in societies that have failed to prepare them for modernity, and the most evil among them chose on Sept. 11 to lash out at the symbol of modernity - America. As the Egyptian playwright Ali Salem put it in Time magazine, "Beneath their claims . . . these extremists are pathologically jealous. They feel like dwarfs, which is why they search for towers and all those who tower mightily." Their grievance is rooted in psychology, not politics; their goal is to destroy America, not reform it; they can only be defeated, not negotiated with. Assigned reading: Larry Miller's Jan. 14, 2002, essay in The Weekly Standard: "Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying 'We're good' doesn't mean 'We're perfect.' Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see 'The Producers.' . . . So here's what I resolve: To never forget our murdered brothers and sisters. To never let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this." Lesson #2: Who are we? We Americans are not better than any other people, but the Western democratic system we live by is the best system on earth. Unfortunately, in the Arab-Muslim world, there is no democracy, too few women's rights and too little religious tolerance. It is the values and traditions of freedom embraced by Western civilization, and the absence of those values and traditions in the Arab-Muslim world, that explain the main differences between us. Assigned reading: "An Autumn of War," by the military historian Victor Davis Hanson: "Our visionaries must be far clearer about the nature of our struggle. In their understandable efforts to say what we are not doing - fighting Islam or provoking Arab peoples - they have failed utterly to voice what we are doing: preserving Western civilization and its uniquely tolerant and human traditions of freedom, consensual government, disinterested inquiry and religious and political tolerance. . . . We must cease the apologetic tone we have developed with the Arab world, and make it clear that their ministers who hector us are not legitimate without elections, their spokesmen are not journalists without a free press, and their intellectuals are not credible without liberty. The right to admonish Americans on questions of morality is not an entitlement, but something earned only through a shared commitment to constitutional government." Lesson #3: Why do so many foreigners reject the evil perpetrators of 9/11 but still dislike America? It's because, while we have the best system of governance, we are not always at our best in how we act toward the world. Because we want to drive big cars, we support repressive Arab dictators so they will sell us cheap oil. Because our presidents want to get votes, they readily tell the Palestinians how foolishly they are behaving, but they hesitate to tell Israelis how destructive their West Bank settlements are for the future of the Jewish state. Because we want to consume as much energy as we please, we tell the world's people they have to be with us in the war on terrorism but we don't have to be with them in the struggle against global warming and for a greener planet. The point, class, is that while evil people hate us for who we are, many good people dislike us for what we do. And if we want to win their respect we need to be the best, most consistent and most principled global citizens we can be. - Thomas
L. Friedman, New York Times |
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