Asia Times: Nagging doubts over US sincerity


	December 15, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Nagging doubts over US sincerity
By Sultan Shahin

NEW DELHI - The touchstone of any real improvement in Indian-United States relations does remain Washington's approach to terrorism that victimizes countries other than itself. Amid reports that more than 400 Kashmiri militants and possibly thousands of Taliban are waiting at different launching pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) to infiltrate the Indian side of the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir and boost the terrorist activities that have been going on there for more than 12 years, India continues to be uncertain on this crucial question.

A consensus of opinion is gradually firming up that India will have to fight its battles alone and depend on its own resources, despite grandiose US rhetoric on the fight against worldwide terrorism.

Having failed to convince the US to form, in Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh's colorful phrase, "a concert of democracies to wage a war against terrorism", India concentrated its efforts on keeping Pakistan, in its view a terrorist state itself, out of the coalition that was being forged for this purpose.

Having failed in that attempt too, India has focused its diplomatic efforts in Washington on getting the US to place a ban on Pakistan-based major terrorist organizations, such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad that are mainly responsible for terrorism in Kashmir, along with the indigenous Hizb-ul-Mujahedin.

But Washington has frozen the assets of only the banned Harkat-ul Ansar (now called the Harkat-ul Mujahideen) operating out of Pakistan. Not a single other terrorist group operating out of Pakistan has been touched, despite India's insistence that many of these have direct links with, or are members of, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization. This has prompted the Pakistani high commissioner in India, Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, to say in an interview with The Asian Age that it was "neither constructive nor helpful" to think that the present situation arising out of the attacks against America could be translated into support for India's point of view with respect to the Kashmir issue.

In his interview with The Asian Age, an influential newspaper published from several cities in India as well as from London, the Pakistan high commissioner claimed that the international community was supportive of Pakistan's position that the "resistance movement" in Jammu and Kashmir was not terrorism but a struggle for freedom. He was categorical that what India looked upon as terrorism was a struggle by the people of Jammu and Kashmir for self-determination. "I believe that the international community also does not look on the Kashmir movement as a terrorist movement", he said.

The high commissioner, however, did not want to get drawn into a discussion on the US position on this, insisting that Pakistan had extended unconditional help in the global campaign against terrorism. Jahangir Qazi insisted that the so-called conditions were a media creation and that Pakistan had extended all help in pursuance of its principled position against terrorism. "There is no such thing as good or bad terrorism," he said, adding, "We are against terrorism in all its forms."

Meanwhile, Washington has maintained total silence on its position on terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Except for a general statement that all forms of terrorism need to be addressed, India has been unable to extract a specific assurance from the Washington that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism will definitely be on the agenda at some point in time.

The Americans have made it apparent that they do not wish to be drawn into what they perceive essentially as "differences" between India and Pakistan over Kashmir at this stage, and that hostile references to each other by the two neighbors would definitely not be welcomed by Washington at this stage.

The US has made it clear it is concentrating on targeting bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism. The US said that other issues, including the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, could be taken up only in the "subsequent phases".

US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill said that all other aspects of terrorism, apart from the bin Laden network, would be dealt with only in the following phases. He said that it was quite understandable that India would talk about the second or third phase of the fight against terrorism. But, he said, as of now the US is concentrating on the first phase, which means eliminating bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda group. He said that the Indian government has recognized the US concerns and has fully backed its efforts.

The US ambassador said that Washington was well aware of the "objectives down the road" (the subsequent phases) and emphasized on taking up a holistic approach in dealing with it. He said that the US would concentrate only on the first phase now, but added that dozens of phases would follow. "In the long run, we need to address terrorism everywhere in the world. But in the first instance the primary concern is to tackle Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and its network," he said.

The US ambassador said that the list of 27 terrorist entities whose assets were frozen by the US administration was just the beginning. The list included the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, a group operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Responding to New Delhi's demand that other groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir be included in the list, Blackwill said the list would be expanded after the evaluation of other groups.

About US-Pakistan relations, the ambassador said that the US was gratified about Islamabad joining the fight against international terrorism. The US wanted Pakistan's stability and President General Pervez Musharraf was managing the country's affairs well at present, he said, adding that there was no change in the US stance of promoting democracy.

Blackwill confirmed that India and the US shared intelligence information regarding terrorist networks to face this problem but said that there was no request from Washington to New Delhi regarding military facilities.

Meanwhile, India has been concerned for over a month about intelligence reports that over 400 Kashmiri militants are lying in wait at different launching pads to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir across the Line of Control and the international border, India's premier news agency Press Trust of India reported, quoting defense sources. Its concern has only deepened now with reports that the Taliban fleeing from Afghanistan may also infiltrate Kashmir. There has indeed been speculation in the media that bin Laden may himself be hiding in Kargil (Kashmir), where Pakistan's military intelligence Inter-Services Intelligence has created safe hideouts for precisely such situations.

The Pakistani army, which has shut down training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has segregated foreign mercenaries from Kashmiri militants and sent those of Kashmiri origin, trained as well as those under-training, to 15 prominent launching pads along the LoC and international border with Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the Jammu sector, the sources said. Most of the militants are being pushed into the Jammu region to keep the pot of militancy boiling during the winter.

Looking back at the past 12 years of violence in the state, the involvement of Afghan nationals as such is not to the extent of the direct involvement of the Al-Qaeda or the Taliban which operate from Afghanistan. This, despite the fact that the militant outfits operating in Kashmir hold the same ideology as that of bin Laden or the Taliban. Official records show that out of 1,027 foreign militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir so far, only 183 were Afghans, but there were 884 Pakistanis.

The global dimensions are also clear. According to officials, the foreigners killed include seven from Sudan, four from Yemen, two each from Albania and Bahrain and one each from Egypt and Bosnia. Out of the 115 arrested, 14 are Afghans, one each from Lebanon and Tajikistan and 99 from Pakistan. There are instances of militants from Iran and Algeria getting killed in encounters, but for want of clear proof, they are counted among the unidentified.

It is this global dimension of terrorism that India has been aware of for quite some time and the US doesn't seem to fully appreciate despite its own experience now. The US approach to terrorism is for this reason attracting a great deal of criticism. In an editorial entitled "Tunneled vision" the daily Pioneer, a newspaper believed to reflect official thinking, says, "The first list of 27 organizations and persons suspected of funding terrorist outfits as drawn up by the Bush administration is hardly indicative of a comprehensive fight against global terrorism. It betrays a tunneled perspective, a characteristic that has typically bedeviled the US in its handling of global issues like drug trafficking, money-laundering and terrorism. The Bush administration would do well to recognize that it will require a global effort to snuff out terrorism; a selective, piecemeal approach [that focuses solely on US perceptions] will just not work."

The paper goes on, expressing views that the Indian establishment shares but cannot say so openly, "Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. The Americans know it better than anyone else in the world; they financed much of it, including the very group they are now hunting. What is new is that terrorism has hit the soul of an invincible America. But the panic, hurt and the rage has been felt not just by the Americans. People the world over wept for the victims, pledged support for US retribution and are willing to fight alongside that country in the new war.

"Reciprocally, the Bush administration needs to extend its vision beyond the shores of the US and target all those who sponsor terrorism, be it Pakistan or any other country. The world cannot afford to nitpick specious definitions about which group is, or is not, a terrorist organization; all people who create terror with an objective to establish their beliefs over those who they terrorize must be painted with the same brush. It is highly disappointing, therefore, to find that the list of terror sponsors included just one Pakistan-based organization - Harkat ul Mujaheedin [HuM] - among so many that have been promoting terrorism in Kashmir for more than a decade."

Even more interesting, however, are the views expressed in the same paper by Bharat Jhunhunwala, a social activist and scholar considered to be the favorite social scientist of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS - the Hindu fundamentalist organization that has spawned all similar organizations, including the ruling political party, the BJP, and the militant VHP or World Hindu Congress).

"Though the US and India are both democratic," says Jhunjhunwala, "their inner characters are entirely different. American democracy is, to a large extent, a reflection of the autocracy elsewhere. The US brings home wealth from developing countries by supporting dictators and undemocratic regimes - China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The existence of the veto and permanent membership in the Security Council is a joke on democracy. The differences between India and the United States are much greater than the similarity of their democracies.

"We have a choice to make. We can either join or, at least, remain passive bystanders in the just war of Islam against the exploitative world order; or we can join the sham democracy of the West in its attack on the rigidity of Islam. The correct course would be to let the exploitative injustice of the US and rigidity of Islam fight themselves out while we remain bystanders and turn our sights on reforming Hinduism from the inside."

In a radical departure from mainstream Hindu fundamentalist thinking, Jhunjunwala explains, "The Indian government is anxious to join the United States in its war against Islamic terrorism because that will build global pressure on Muslim fundamentalism in Kashmir. But the two types of terrorism, though both Islamic, are quite different. That against the West has its roots in economic and political exploitation of the developing countries by an 'unbeliever' - like the West. That in Kashmir has its roots in the injustices in Hindu society against the lower jatis [castes] and in our failure to explain to Islam that Hindus, too, believe in the supremacy of God. Instead of joining the exploitative West against militant Islam, we must maintain equidistance from the two. Let the two evils fight it out with each other. We must take up the task of reforming Hinduism. That alone will provide a durable solution to Kashmir.

"The bombing of the World Trade Center emanates, in large measure, from the helplessness of the Islamic people in face of economic and political exploitation by the US. The US actively encouraged the creation of Israel to appease the powerful Jewish financial lobby in gross violation of the democratic rights of Palestinians. It used its military might against Iraq to ensure its own supplies of oil. It bombed Yugoslavia even without the facade of the resolution of the Security Council in order to keep its oil routes open. It has supported undemocratic regimes in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China to suit its financial interests."

Jhunjunwala quotes bin Laden as having said in one of his cassettes, "When we buy American goods, we are accomplices in the murder of Palestinians. American companies make millions in the Arab world with which they pay taxes to their government. The United States uses that money to send $3 billion a year to Israel, which is used to kill Palestinians." He is drawing attention to the immoral use of economic power. The hazy belief in the rein of God among Americans makes things worse.

India does nothing of the sort, says Jhunjhunwala. "In fact, among the great civilizations of the world, India has the distinction of never having attempted to rule over other lands. In the past 50 years India has, in large measure, stood by other democracies and oppressed peoples, such as the blacks in South Africa. It is not correct to equate the two democratic traditions."

The Islamic opposition to India is based on altogether different premises, he says. "First is the birth-based caste system. Ordinary Hindus were denied their rightful opportunity to grow within the Hindu fold. Islam became their 'savior'. It is for the Indian society to reform itself on this count. Islam may have done a favor by bringing this weakness of ours into the open. Second is a misconception that Hindus do not believe in the reign of Allah. The Holy Koran says, 'You shall not worship any but Him'. [17.23]. Here, 'Him' refers to the omniscient and omnipotent god. The Hindus do worship this one god, therefore, they are not kaffirs [non-believers] by any stretch of imagination. The difference is that they worship that one god in ways other than that taught by Prophet Muhammad. Idol worship in the Hindu tradition is but a means to reach that one god - somewhat similar to the photographs of Mecca and Medina displayed by the Muslims. This opposition is more misconception and less reality. Pitted against the US and India are Islamic militants who fail to distinguish between the reign of Allah and the reign of mullahs."

It is doubtful, however, if Jhunjhunwala's present article does indeed reflect RSS views. If it does, it should be considered very significant and perhaps a reflection of the exasperation Hindu hardliners and admirers of Adolf Hitler are feeling toward the one country they think has the right to rule the world. In their assessment, the US is a successor to Nazi Germany sharing Hitler's dream of Aryan domination of the world. American multiculturalism and all talk of melting pots and the subtleties of a salad bowl culture are for them just so much hogwash.

And for this reason they love America. The government recently appointed the head of the RSS in the United States, B K Agnihotri, as an ambassador at large, making his position on a par with the Indian ambassador to the US at the cost of causing much heart-burning and hand-wringing in its foreign affairs establishment.

Part 1: Shadow over Indo-US ties Full text

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