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| Kathmandu, Saturday December 14, 2002 Mangshir 28, 2059. |
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Condemn terrorism, but ignore
its causes
By RAMZY BAROUD
Blinded by slogans: So do you condemn terrorism
or not?" a young, immature journalist asked me with a mix of agitation and sarcasm.
I refused to answer.
I told him that I hated the pretentious, tainted
term "terrorism." He thought it was a poor attempt to escape the ritual
condemnation of terrorism that is necessary for all who wish to be accepted into civil
societies, especially in the West.
But of course I condemn terrorism, if terrorism
means the murder of innocent people for the sake of gaining political influence, or for
inflicting punishment or simply to advance an argument. I condemn all kinds of terrorism -
that of a nation-state, no matter how mighty, as much as that of a solitary sniper gunning
down innocent men and women. But in practice, it is only the powerless who receive
retribution for it.
"Terrorism" is seen only in one
context: the effect, but never the cause, as though suicide bombings, the Moscow theater
hostage crisis, the Kurdish rebels’ frequent attacks on the Turkish army and more
were all born in a vacuum.
On National Public Radio two months after Sept
11, 2001, I said: "We must try to see through the pain of the innocent thousands
killed on that dreadful day. We cannot be so blinded by our anger to the point that we
fail to see how violence begets violence. If we are keenly interested in bringing
terrorism to a halt, we must have the courage to examine its roots."
Growing up to become a suicide bomber is simply
not the course of normal human behaviour. Leaving one’s children behind in Grozny,
going to Moscow and seizing hundreds of people at gunpoint in a theatre is not an act born
out of some ingrained Chechen hatred for Russians. Nor have the Kurds fought for more than
15 years simply because they are, in some mysterious way, bad folk, full of unexplainable
hostility.
When such groups as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International call for an international investigation of Russia’s actions in
Chechnya, why have the United Nations, the US and other Western governments not pressed
the issue? Why have the Chechens had to endure so many massacres at the hands of the
Russian army?
The Chechen suffering doesn’t excuse the
violent hostage-taking in Moscow, but it explains it. We can scream "nothing
justifies terrorism." We can block our ears and accuse those who disagree with us of
being "sympathetic with the terrorists," even of being traitors. But that will
change nothing.
Moscow will probably find itself the victim of
more desperate Chechen attacks. The unilateral cease-fire of the Kurds in Turkey is likely
to be ended by the Turkish army’s continuing violence against the Kurdish population.
"Fighting terror" is the new trend.
Aggressive, powerful countries crush their weaker foes, deprive them of freedom, of
humanity even, terrorize them, degrade them, arrest them en masse, test their latest
weapons on them - while continuing to blame them for all the wrongs of the world.
And we, the people of this world who mean well
but fail to act, are expected to believe everything we are told. Israel is defending
itself as though it were the Palestinians who occupy Israeli territories, besiege the
Israeli people, blow up their homes, steal their land and gun down their children. We are
expected to hate the Kurdish rebels and deny any feelings of sympathy toward the Chechens,
because the powerful set the tone of the battle.
When will we treasure the lives of all on an
equal level, whether American, Afghani, Iraqi, Israeli, Palestinian, Turkish, Kurdish,
Russian, Chechen? How long will we remain blinded by empty slogans, unexplained hatred and
pretentious condemnations?
(The writer contributed this comment to The
Washington Post)
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