C'wealth cannot shirk responsibility now

Last week's Mumbai massacre should shake some of the Commonwealth countries that still take a rather benign attitude toward the dangers of modern terrorism out of their complacency.

If it does not alert them to the transnational nature of the phenomenon and they delude themselves that their societies make no contribution to the growing trend, then the only thing that will wake them from their supine slumber is a similar occurrence on their own soil. One should never wish such a tragedy even on one's worst enemy. Still it requires some dramatic event on their own soil or against their national interests to stir them out of the complacent belief that they can continue to sit on the sidelines or stymie the efforts of others to control the menace of modern terrorism.

It is also a lesson for the Commonwealth Secretariat that making pro forma noises of condemnation is not enough. It must play a more active role as it has a moral responsibility to do so. The Mumbai massacre had two aspects to it that are immediately relevant to my purpose here. At first sight it is difficult to believe that this tragedy was intrinsically home grown. Even if those who carried out the simultaneous attacks were Indians, the nature of it, the well-coordinated attacks on multiple targets, the sophisticated quality of the weapons etc, seem to suggest some external involvement.

Immediate reports indicate there were 15-20 attackers. Are the weapons they were armed with freely available in India or were they smuggled in? Were the attackers trained in India as were the Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups in the 1980s? In the case of the Tamils such training and arming were sanctioned by the Indian government or state governments with the knowledge of the central authorities.

The Mumbai operation smells of external assistance of some sort even if it was not put together outside India. Indian sources have been quick to point the finger-directly or obliquely- at Pakistan which, again, is quite common. Even if the Pakistan government is not complicit-and why should it be when the two sides are trying hard now to mend fences- it could well be any of those well- armed militant groups that generally operate out of the tribal areas and along the frontier with Afghanistan. The other fact is that the attackers were trying to identify nationals of the US and UK, the latter a key Commonwealth country.
It is these two matters- the very probable external help in mounting this well-orchestrated attack on the soil of a prominent Commonwealth member state and the search for British nationals- that makes what happened last week very relevant to the Commonwealth. In different ways two major Commonwealth countries have been targeted. If there is evidence to indicate elements in Pakistan is involved, then this tragedy makes it still more relevant to the 53-nation organization as Pakistan is now in its fold again. In a sense, therefore, the Mumbai terrorist killings encapsulate the problem facing the Commonwealth. It is a responsibility that it must not and cannot shirk.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma in a statement condemned the "despicable" attacks and the killing of innocent civilians. He said that the strongly- held values of the Commonwealth such as democracy, rule of law, tolerance and respect for the views of others, will not be shaken by such cowardly acts. Such stirring words, probably drafted by some official, emanating from a palatial building in London will not end terrorism nor will the world not witness similar tragedies again. Words are hollow if not followed by concrete action. In this regard the Commonwealth has more than a moral responsibility. It has set in motion a course of action that seems to flounder because of the attitude of some of its member states.

Galvanised by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the then Commonwealth chief Don McKinnon appointed a 10-member group headed by Australia, called the Commonwealth Committee on Terrorism. Among its members are, besides Australia, Canada, the UK, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and South Africa. This committee was to be at ministerial level. But from the inception Australia and Canada, seemingly egged on by the UK, were trying to downgrade it to officials-level. Fortunately McKinnon stood firm and refused to budge.

Though the committee did come up with a plan of action, it has been in the doldrums and has not met since Nov 2003. While the menace of terrorism is hovering over several Commonwealth states-the UK for the first time since the IRA bombings experienced real terrorism a few years back- some of the leading Commonwealth countries have been lackadaisical about it and are even now trying to undermine a ministerial conference on terrorism welcomed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government last year, by raising spurious arguments about duplicating the work of the UN.

Canada is the leading culprit in this regard. First it tried to sabotage the McKinnon committee by trying to downgrade it and so place bureaucratic barriers in the path of the committee. Now it raises red herrings about duplicating UN work when there are several areas in which the Commonwealth and the UN work side by side on the same issue such as the Millennium Development Goals, global warming, reform of the UN, reform of international financial institutions and others. The Canadian opposition to a ministerial-level conference on terrorism in Colombo based on the argument of duplication is, to put it mildly, silly. Moreover the Canadians cannot forget their own contribution to the flourishing of terrorism elsewhere. The Canadian law enforcement authorities have cracked down on front organizations which are raising funds in Canada for the LTTE and its citizens have been involved in attempting to purchase arms for terrorist activities. Apparently fundraising for other militant organizations banned in Canada is also going on.

The same is happening in Australia and UK where monies raised in the two countries are said to be funding the LTTE's activities in Sri Lanka. Both have been lax in treating the disease at its roots- the voluntary and forced collection of funds for illegal activities elsewhere and permitting the espousal of terrorist causes in the name of civil liberties. Even worse UK has just allowed a known LTTE supporter in India, Tamil Nadu politician Vaiko to come to London and participate in the LTTE's Heroes’ Day commemoration last week. While UK looks the other way with regard to LTTE activities probably because it does not affect UK society (it actually does) and it respects civil liberties, when it concerns Britain directly there is scant respect for such liberties. Just a few days ago the police arrested a Conservative MP for making public information received from a Home Office whistleblower, which he clearly had a duty to do. It clearly embarrassed the Home Office but why employ nine anti-terrorist police officers in the process when terrorist were actually meeting elsewhere in London?

The fact that Commonwealth countries that directly or indirectly contribute to sustaining terrorism which surely is transnational as events constantly prove, have absolutely no moral right to try and block a high level terrorism conference that aims to strengthen the Commonwealth's plan of action and map out means of closer coordination and exchange of intelligence. Equally the Commonwealth which set up the Committee on Terrorism has the duty to urge its member-states to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation not undermine it. It cannot be lukewarm about it.