Lulua
11-12-2001, 13:05
THE TRUTH ABOUT STATE TERRORISM AS NOAM CHOMSKY SEES IT
[Editorial, The Dawn, Nov. 7, 2001]
================================================== ====================
In a most appropriate setting and in the right city, American dissident
and thinker Noam Chomsky has come out with an apt denunciation of India
and of his own country. While he called the U.S. a rogue country, he
accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir. In fact, the words
Chomsky used for India's record in Kashmir were "state terrorism." On
the United States, Chomsky was the harshest, his epithets ranging from
being "the biggest rogue state" to a practitioner of international
terrorism. While he did refer to Washington's military campaign in
Afghanistan as terrorism, it was America's role in Nicaragua that drew
his fire.
The International Court of Justice at The Hague, he said, had condemned
only one country for international terrorism, and that country was the
U.S. However, of special interest is what Chomsky told his hosts. "How
about criticizing the (Indian) government for outright terrorism?" he
asked the Indian media. What must have hurt his hosts most was that the
American intellectual did not merely confine his criticism of Indian
policies to human rights violations. He equated them with state
terrorism. Quoting such international bodies as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International, the professor said these two bodies had "reams of
material on Indian state terrorism in Kashmir and in fact elsewhere."
India has always been the guilty party in Kashmir, having brazenly
violated the Security Council resolutions and gone back on its own
commitments to resolve the dispute with reference to the wishes of the
people in the held state. However, its record for more than a decade has
been criminal and genocidal.
The ongoing revolt in this occupied territory is a manifestation of the
enslaved Kashmiri people's desire for liberation from Indian bondage.
India's response to this war of liberation is not political, but brute
military force. In specific terms, this has meant the killing of nearly
70,000 Kashmiris, wholesale burning of Kashmiri villages, widespread use
of torture, mysterious "disappearances" of thousands of youths, and the
abuse of thousands of women.
To Pakistan's repeated pleas that the issue be resolved through talks,
India has always turned a deaf ear. Under international pressure, it
agreed to talk in July this year, but the Agra summit floundered on the
rocks of Indian obduracy. All that Pakistan wanted was for the Indian
government to realize the centrality of the Kashmir issue to
Indo-Pakistan relations. However, talking about Kashmir is like showing
the proverbial red rag to the bull. Instead, India has tried to hide
behind the convenient plea that what was going on in Kashmir was the
result of "cross-border terrorism" sponsored by Pakistan. Nothing can
be more transparent as a blindfold for the realities in Kashmir.
Since the September 11 catastrophe and the ensuing war on terrorism, the
world has realized more than ever before that the Kashmir dispute
contains the seeds of a nuclear holocaust. It's no wonder that all those
statesmen who recently visited Islamabad and New Delhi consistently
stressed on both India and Pakistan to solve the issue through
negotiations. However, one hopes India is not naive enough to believe
that the advice from these quarters is based on expediency because of
Pakistan's pivotal position in the world coalition.
Chomsky is not a politician or a diplomat. In fact, his own country's
establishment and media shun him because he speaks a truth that is
unpalatable to both. True to his reputation as an upholder of truth and
sanity, this eminent thinker and humanist has told the Indians bluntly
how the world views their government's record in Kashmir. One hopes New
Delhi is not going to accuse Chomsky of "expediency."
[Editorial, The Dawn, Nov. 7, 2001]
================================================== ====================
In a most appropriate setting and in the right city, American dissident
and thinker Noam Chomsky has come out with an apt denunciation of India
and of his own country. While he called the U.S. a rogue country, he
accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir. In fact, the words
Chomsky used for India's record in Kashmir were "state terrorism." On
the United States, Chomsky was the harshest, his epithets ranging from
being "the biggest rogue state" to a practitioner of international
terrorism. While he did refer to Washington's military campaign in
Afghanistan as terrorism, it was America's role in Nicaragua that drew
his fire.
The International Court of Justice at The Hague, he said, had condemned
only one country for international terrorism, and that country was the
U.S. However, of special interest is what Chomsky told his hosts. "How
about criticizing the (Indian) government for outright terrorism?" he
asked the Indian media. What must have hurt his hosts most was that the
American intellectual did not merely confine his criticism of Indian
policies to human rights violations. He equated them with state
terrorism. Quoting such international bodies as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International, the professor said these two bodies had "reams of
material on Indian state terrorism in Kashmir and in fact elsewhere."
India has always been the guilty party in Kashmir, having brazenly
violated the Security Council resolutions and gone back on its own
commitments to resolve the dispute with reference to the wishes of the
people in the held state. However, its record for more than a decade has
been criminal and genocidal.
The ongoing revolt in this occupied territory is a manifestation of the
enslaved Kashmiri people's desire for liberation from Indian bondage.
India's response to this war of liberation is not political, but brute
military force. In specific terms, this has meant the killing of nearly
70,000 Kashmiris, wholesale burning of Kashmiri villages, widespread use
of torture, mysterious "disappearances" of thousands of youths, and the
abuse of thousands of women.
To Pakistan's repeated pleas that the issue be resolved through talks,
India has always turned a deaf ear. Under international pressure, it
agreed to talk in July this year, but the Agra summit floundered on the
rocks of Indian obduracy. All that Pakistan wanted was for the Indian
government to realize the centrality of the Kashmir issue to
Indo-Pakistan relations. However, talking about Kashmir is like showing
the proverbial red rag to the bull. Instead, India has tried to hide
behind the convenient plea that what was going on in Kashmir was the
result of "cross-border terrorism" sponsored by Pakistan. Nothing can
be more transparent as a blindfold for the realities in Kashmir.
Since the September 11 catastrophe and the ensuing war on terrorism, the
world has realized more than ever before that the Kashmir dispute
contains the seeds of a nuclear holocaust. It's no wonder that all those
statesmen who recently visited Islamabad and New Delhi consistently
stressed on both India and Pakistan to solve the issue through
negotiations. However, one hopes India is not naive enough to believe
that the advice from these quarters is based on expediency because of
Pakistan's pivotal position in the world coalition.
Chomsky is not a politician or a diplomat. In fact, his own country's
establishment and media shun him because he speaks a truth that is
unpalatable to both. True to his reputation as an upholder of truth and
sanity, this eminent thinker and humanist has told the Indians bluntly
how the world views their government's record in Kashmir. One hopes New
Delhi is not going to accuse Chomsky of "expediency."