From child abuse to terrorism
Shades of perverse, low-intensity war
By Manju Gupta
This is the latest in the series of journals brought out by the Institute for Conflict Management to focus on various sources and aspects of existing and emerging conflicts in the Indian sub-continent. Terrorism and low-intensity wars, communal, caste and other sectarian strife, political violence, organised crime, policing, the criminal justice system and human rights constitute the central focus of the journal. The past year was witness to extraordinary and ambivalent developments in the South Asian region in the context of terrorism and other patterns of sub-conventional conflict and warfare. In Jammu & Kashmir, terrorism continued unabated. In the first article, Dr Thomas A. Marks, who is a professor of insurgency, terrorism and counter-terrorism at the School of National Security Executive Education in Washington, begins by tracing the events in Kashmir right from the time of Partition till Pakistan'ssustained efforts to internationalise the issue.
Says the author, ?Islamisation in Pakistan, the increasingly successful effort of powerful elements within the state to remould it along Islamic lines, has solidified the campaign to wrest J&K from India. Second only to the ?holy war? (jihad) in Afghanistan during the Soviet intervention (1979-89), the Kashmir campaign moved to a paramount position in Pakistani foreign policy after Moscow'sdefeat.? He adds that ?events took a dramatic turn when, in the second half of the 1980s, mis-steps by India culminated in popular upheaval as a result of tampering in the 1987 state elections. Increasing militancy, centred in the Kashmir Valley, saw a temporary loss of government authority, both state and Central. Led by the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the internally generated insurgency demanded independence. Training, weapons, and equipment were increasingly secured in PoK, but the movement remained an internal phenomenon until Islamabad moved decisively from 1989 to support rival elements that sought not independence but union with Pakistan.? The author concludes by saying, ?Ironically, determined to scuttle any moves towards peace, the jihad has moved periodically to up the ante. Hence, the relative escalation in violence against civilians. This, however, may mark as much a turning point in the insurgency as any hitherto seen.?
In the second article on ?The Supreme Court on Confessions?, the writer Solil Paul, who is a senior fellow at the Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi, says that lack of a consistent policy backed by serious research and public debate remains a crucial drawback with counter-terrorism legislation in India. In the case of the now-defunct POTA, the article says ?The debate about POTA'snecessity reveals that not many critics of the government are considering the larger issue?it is not whether there is need for POTA, but what is missing in POTA is that could make it work, to make it more useful and successful than the ordinary law in prosecuting terrorists in accordance with democratic norms.? After discussing the various points in favour and against the POTA, the author says, ?Unfortunately the present government appears to be oblivious of the essentials of the debate. With the repeal of POTA and the enactment of the diluted Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act, it has lost out on the advantage so painfully achieved over the past years. No country with a record of as prolonged and lethal terrorist attacks as India can really afford to be without any special and effective anti-terrorist legislation.?
In the article entitled ?Child Abuse: The New Islamic Cult of Martyrdom?, Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer from Israel, speaks of the young teenagers who are initiated to become suicide bombers as seen in Kashmir and Palestine. The author addresses the following questions: How pervasive is this form of child abuse in the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How is it inspired? Can it be justified within the context of the current international law? What will be the consequences of ?education for hate? on the upcoming generation, and for the possibility of peace in the region?
The authors suggest that the young teenagers who indulge in such activities have to be re-educated to value life more than death. ?The culture of martyrdom and its pervasiveness in the lives of Palestinian children must be understood and urgently addressed.?
In the article ?Nagaland: Insurgency and Factional Intransigence?, the writer Dr Sashinungla from the Institute for Conflict Management, says that for a solution to the Nagaland problem in India, the different factions involved need to cast off their primordial and narrow loyalties. He suggests that these factions should first try to provide the answers to the following questions before hoping for a solution: ?Is violent factionalism a justifiable means for a cause, however noble it may be? Can extortion be a necessary part of the struggle? Do human rights include only the rights of a particular group or community? Is it ethical for the group to use terror to fight terror? Is it not necessary for the different factions to first establish against whom their fight is directed? And finally, does the fight have the mandate of the Naga people??
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