NATIONAL10 (Spotlight Weelky)]

Lethal Linkages

The symbiotic relationship between criminal gangs and terrorist groups comes into sharper focus

By AKSHAY SHARMA

The global war on terrorism has renewed focus on the factors that impel people and organizations to use violence to pursue political and other aims. An important element of the ongoing debate is the relationship between criminal gangs and terrorist organizations.

Protesters: Violent rage

"Terrorism is an act of violence like sit-ins, walk-outs, and other similar protests no matter how positive," writes terrorism expert Cindy C. Combs. "Violence, the threat of violence and the capacity and the willingness to commit terrorism is endemic to terrorism. The violence need not be fully perpetrated ó that is, essentially, theatre, an act played before an audience, designed to create the attention of hundreds of millions, to an often unrelated situation through shock ó by doing and thinking without apology or remorse ó thereby producing situations of outrage and horror."

When it comes to instilling a sense of fear, tactics adopted by Nepal's Maoists are hardly different from those used by criminal gangs. "We can't identify Maoists from any other suspicious-looking people," said Ram Saran Yadav, a taxi driver, a day before the Nepal bandh called by the underground group last week. "I bought this taxi after selling land I inherited from my father. I can't take any chances either with the Maoists or any of the common criminals that are on the prowl these days."

Although the Nepal bandh was called as a form of political protest, it was accompanied by the psychological terror the Maoists unleashed by attacking a soft-drink factory in Balaju a week earlier. "That is where terrorism and crime converge. The Maoists knew that an attack on the gas factory next to the Coca-Cola plant would have caused greater damage. But they also knew that an attack on the Coke plant would create international headlines. The Maoists seem to be good in psychological warfare," said an anlyst.

Killed terrorists: Bitter consequence

It is that capacity for cold manipulation that gives terror groups their strength. "When a poor boy becomes a martyr, thousands of people attend his funeral. Poor families become celebrities," writes Jessica Stern, a terrorism expert, about the Islamic seminaries in Afghanistan. "One mother whose son died in a gunfire in Kashmir by Indian security forces said it would be better if her six other sons would die as martyrs too."

For Nepal, which is fighting to douse the flames of a costly insurgency, there may be little time to spend on the arcane socio-cultural underpinnings of terrorism. "The Maoists struck with swiftness at the army barracks and our problem was getting the security required to the areas effected," Minister for Information and Communication Jaya Prakash Gupta, who is also the spokesman of council of ministers, told reporters. "We were probably too slow in the immediate aftermath of the event. Because of the topography, the Maoists had the alternative of putting booby traps to slow the process of deployment."

But some analysts believe the government was just caught sleeping. "How could the government have taken the Maoists' commitment to peace talks so seriously when they were represented by people very low in the party hierarchy," one analyst said.

The ability to spring surprises at will is not the only reason why the comparison between gangs and terrorist groups is apt. "The irregulars often hire criminals to do their dirty work and sometimes turn to petty or organized crime themselves. Criminals are supposedly hired to ëdrop' weapons and explosives or to carry out extreme acts of violence where a typical irregular may be unable to perform," a security analyst said.

Reports that the Maoists brought in their weapons through the porous border with India have been partially substantiated by both governments' swiftness in trying to seal the frontier. "When criminals join a private army, therefore, random attacks are likely to break down. Criminal involvement in the problem also affects the principal-agent, the sponsor nation: pure mercenaries are harder to control than individual whose goals are partly aligned with those of the state," Stern writes.

Nepal is a weak state and the government's vague policies are making it weaker. The country has a disastrous economy exacerbated by corruption. The lack of leadership is at the root of many of its problems. Most importantly suggest an expert, Nepal must recognize militant for what they are: "Dangerous gangs whose resources and reach continue to grow, threatening to destabilize the nation which in turn would destabilize the entire sub-continent."

The fear psychosis gripping insurgency-hit areas was captured by a recent newspaper story on a boy who had come to Kathmandu from the western district of Salyan. "The Maoists wanted a representative from each house in our village to be present at a rally in defiance of the deployment of the army," the boy said. "I have to go back. I worry about my sisters and mother."

This raises the perennial question of whether terrorists are criminals or crusaders. "[T]he willingness to carry out those perpetrating acts of terrorism or missions in which one's death or at least small imprisonment is inevitable argues no small degree of personal courage," explains Combs. "A willingness to give one's life for a cause, throughout history, commanded at the least a reluctant admiration from one's enemies.

"Bravery is a subjective term. One may feel oneself to be very cowardly, but be perceived by others to be quite fearless. The audience for one's deeds are often to be judged by one's bravery only by the commission of deeds, and are unaware of the inner doubts or demons that may have driven one to the act. Nor is the individual necessarily the best judge of his or her own personal bravery, since a person's capacity of self-deception makes it too difficult to assess one's true motives and fears," Combs adds.

Terrorists have changed with the transformation of the aims of terrorism. "Modern terrorists, for the most part the fanatics, whose sense of reality is distorted, operate under the assumption that they alone know the truth, are therefore the sole arbiters of what is right and wrong," Combs writes. "While they vehemently deny the rights of the state and commit so many atrocities, they demand to be treated as prisoners of war. In other words, they invoke the laws of war only in so far as to serve their purpose, but reject any aspect of such laws which limit their ability to kill at will. The less clear the political purpose of the motivation of terrorism, the greater its appeal is likely to be in an unbalanced person."

This complex psychology makes it all the more imperative for the state to understand the linkages between terrorists and criminal groups. "Counter-terrorism involves activities more than those that bear a counter terrorism label. It is the harmonization of the foreign governments and investigative work of all the international agencies, related legal works of focused on terrorism because the problem transcends borders," writes terrorism expert Paul P. Pillar in the November 2001 issue of the Electronic Journal of the US State Department . "It includes defensive progress of every government and the private sector of every country. Every counter terrorist instrument is difficult to use. Using them well together is more difficult. But using them all is the critical factor against fighting terrorism."

Nepal's fight against internal terrorism is constrained by the government's limitations in mustering enough resources in time. However, the government's decisive move to outlaw front organizations backing the Maoists and the support it has received from political parties have raised hopes for the restoration of peace. But others, like Pradeep Thapa, are in a quandary. "The rivalry in the subcontinent could spill over into Nepal, especially since there are other militant organizations in Nepal seeking external supporters. We may be facing a long drawn-out war on Nepalese soil." Such fears need to be addressed through concerted action against terrorist groups, their propaganda machine, supply routes and funding sources, among other things. In this process, the symbiotic relationship between criminal gangs and terrorist groups needs to be studied carefully before it can be severed.