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Press Release
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| On the left Mr. Arun Shourie, Union Minister of Disinvestment
and the Department of Development of the North East Region addressing
the International Seminar On the Global Threat of Terror . |
On the right is Mr. K. P. S. Gill, President, Institute For Conflict Management |
New Delhi, October 31, 2001: Mr. Arun Shourie, Union Minister of Disinvestment
and the Department of Development of the North East Region, said that
the terrorist strike using two planes to crash into the twin towers
will live on in terrorist mythology for over a hundred years as an example
of successes, and such successes will breed 100,000 new terrorists.
Mr. Arun Shourie said this while delivering the Valedictory Address
on the concluding day of the 3-day international seminar on "The
Global Threat of Terror: Ideological, Material and Political Linkages"
organised by K.P.S. Gill's Institute for Conflict Management. The Institute
constitutes a major forum for research, data and analysis on terrorism
and low intensity warfare in South Asia. The Seminar was convened at
the India Habitat Centre.
While commenting on the new Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO),
the Minister said that the data on the abuse of the earlier TADA against
the minority community was completely false and added that the same
logic is being used in the debate on POTO. Mr. Shourie stated if the
potential for abuse can be an argument against a law, then one would
have to do away with the CrPc and IPC also.
Drawing attention to the state's failure to contain terrorism, and to
the low conviction rates of terrorists and criminals in the country,
Mr. Shourie said that the "the worst factor is the weak and flabby
condition of the state itself." Taking the example of the Bombay
blasts case in which the accused have not been convicted even after
8 years, and where proceedings were still at a preliminary stage, he
emphasised that this flabby condition of the institutions of governance
were providing the principal opportunity for the sustenance of terrorists
and criminal gangs. It is in these conditions that Pakistan, as also
terrorists, find their opportunities.
Pointing to the double standards adopted by the international community,
and especially the West, the Minister noted that 53,000 people had been
killed in terrorist conflicts in the country over just the last decade,
and yet, delegation after delegation of foreign dignitaries used to
keep coming to Delhi asking for evidence.
On response strategies, he said that "each state is going to have
combat its own problems." Mr. Shourie added, "Once the fight
abates, one should not forget those who fought in the battle. It is
a crying shame for all governments that prosecution of policemen in
Punjab is still continuing."
Attempts to buy peace, in Mr. Shourie's perspective, would boomerang.
It is necessary, he said, to secure unambiguous victories against terrorism.
The sponsorship of terrorism would boomerang on the patron states unless
they realised this truth in time.
While observing that the technology of terrorism is becoming easier,
he indicated that one "cannot block technology. All that one can
do is to be one leap ahead of the terrorist technology." The Minister
also cautioned that "all this is going to cost a great deal and
every society that is to survive these challenges will have to pay a
certain cost of survival."
Mr. K. P. S. Gill, commenting on the current succession of crises, observed
that US was confronted by a unique situation: the Taliban is a state;
it is a state with an army; and it also has an elaborate network of
terrorists. Mr. Gill indicated that the US may have the strategy to
confront an army, but the fight against terrorism is far more complex.
He also added that there are no universal responses or punishment for
terrorism, and that is why this was such a popular strategy. For any
other crime, a criminal knows that he will receive a certain punishment;
but for terrorism there were so many political explanations and justifications,
and little consistency in law, that there was little fear of retribution.
On the ongoing international campaign against terrorism, Mr. Gill held
that "there is no such international campaign. The West is always
unhelpful and hypocritical."
Mr. Gill pointed out two images that have become significant - that
of the World Trade Centre crashing and of the Afghan children pierced
by shrapnel. In this context, he stated that while there is truth in
both these images, the images of 'mass demonstrations' were largely
staged.
Drawing from his past experiences, Mr. Gill emphatically stated that
the only time there was a definitive policy on counter-terrorism was
during the last two years of the Punjab campaign. Nevertheless, he added,
this policy evaporated with the subsequent elections. On the recurrence
of terrorism in Punjab, he was emphatic in pointing out that people
in Punjab have just "moved on".
According to Mr. Gill, societies which have parts of it indulging in
terrorism degenerate and "degenerate in such a manner which cannot
be imagined." Reflecting on the increasing levels of violence,
he posed the question whether one is witnessing the end of liberal democratic
societies? And who would emerge victorious in this battle? Mr. Gill
was however optimistic on the victory of liberal society.
Dr. Ajai Sahni, Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management,
during his presentation on "The Threat of Islamist Terrorism &
Subversion in South Asia" remarked that, while, in many ways, the
September 11 terrorist attacks constitute a watershed in history, they
lay along an interrupted continuum that extended well into the past.
He observed that this was "terrorism in very slow motion"
and that the entire strategic community was aware that some such act
of catastrophic terrorism was inevitable.
On Pakistan's strategy in the current crisis, Dr. Sahni questioned the
idea of Pakistan as a 'frontline state' against terrorism, noting that
it was entirely unclear on which side of the battlelines Pakistan stood.
Pakistan, he remarked is better described as a frontline state sponsor
of terrorism in South Asia.
Dr. Sahni said that if sustained military operations against the Taliban
regime result in a change of guard in Afghanistan, or even exert extraordinary
pressure on the extremist cadres there, a large number of terrorists
currently active in Afghanistan may disperse and seek shelter in Indian
territory and relocate their terrorist operations.
While providing an overview of Islam in South Asia, he emphasized that
moderate Islam is, today, under deep, penetrating and sustained attack
in every concentration of Muslim populations throughout the region,
and there is campaign by sponsored extremist elements to "harden"
beliefs that, while it had not met with much success till now, could
lend itself to the extremist jehad in an uncertain future.
Prof. Mushirul Hassan, former Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Milia University,
New Delhi, speaking at the same forum said that the proliferation of
madrassas in India was primarily due to the withdrawal of the Indian
state from providing education and other social services to the poor,
which impacted enormously on the Muslims.
Prof. G H Peiris of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, said that
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had served as a model for other
terrorist outfits in South Asia, particularly in the use of suicide
terrorism.
Prof. Peiris, while addressing the issue of international co-operation
in combating terrorism, drew attention to the case of the reported arrival
of a large consignment of approximately 60 tonnes of arms in Notheast
Sri Lanka from Ukraine. He added that this entire operation was monitored
by a Western Intelligence agency, who however, shared the information
with Sri Lanka only after the consignment was downloaded.
Gen. Alfredo Filler, who retired as the Vice Chief of Armed Forces of
the Philippines, said that the Abu Sayyaf Group, which continues to
hold 19 civilian hostages, including two or three American and two Chinese
nationals in the Basilan island since over three months, has links with
the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden as also with Middle East terrorist
groups. Gen. Filler also added that extensive human contacts and exchanges
between the Abu Sayyaf Group and Middle East are primarily directed
through more than a million Filipino workers in the Middle East.
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