|
No
to the War, No toTerrorism
Statement of the Coalition For Peace and Democracy (India)
We oppose and condemn the US military assault
on Afghanistan. This has already taken the lives of innumerable
people who are in no way responsible for, or connected to,
the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. We unequivocally
condemn those actions as a crime against humanity and demand
that its perpetrators be brought to justice. But the US and
its alliance must give up their blatant double standards.
If the calculated killing of ordinary, innocent people is
terrorism, and doing so outside one's borders is a form of
international terrorism, then we oppose this wherever it takes
place and whosoever is responsible for it.
An effective campaign against international
terrorism can only take place by upholding international law,
establishing an International Criminal Court (ICC), strengthening
the International Court of Justice, and democratizing the
United Nations (UNO). Only legitimate international bodies
like these can carry out adjudication and enforcement in a
principled and impartial manner.
The global coalition of states that the US
is setting up to undertake its self-declared "war on
terrorism" is illegitimate. It comprises governments
that are the major profiteers in the global arms trade, possess
virtually all the world's stock of weapons of mass destruction
(nuclear, chemical and biological), have caused great ecological
devastation, and are also responsible for many acts and campaigns
of ethnic cleansing and international terrorism, even genocide,
that have taken place over the last 50 years. That this coalition
should now be authorized and empowered to wage war on one
of the poorest countries in the world violates the most elementary
principles of justice and offends basic values of decency
and concern for our fellow human beings.
The Indian government has shamelessly endorsed
this coalition. We oppose and condemn this stand of the Indian
government and demand that this coalition be immediately disbanded.
This war will bring immense suffering to the people of Afghanistan
and destabilize the whole South Asian region. Already, lakhs
of innocent Afghans have become refugees, and their numbers
will increase to millions. As always, women and children will
be among the principal victims of the war, and also of the
reinforcement of masculinist and patriarchal attitudes and
structures, that the ideology of war always brings with it.
Undeterred by all this, the Indian and Pakistan governments
are using the situation to foment mistrust and xenophobia
among their respective populations and to deepen mutual tensions.
We strongly oppose this and affirm our commitment to promoting
goodwill, cooperation and peace between India and Pakistan.
The US government's claim that "fighting
global terrorism" gives it the right to militarily intervene
anywhere it judges fit, is contrary to international law.
And it arouses suspicions that US designs have little to do
with terrorism. In this regard, the "8 to 10 year program"
that the US is embarking upon is completely unjustified. It
will lead to many more conflicts and wars the world over,
generate more bitterness about the arbitrary use of American
power, and cause destruction, casualties and deaths on an
ever widening scale.
The BJP-led government has also sought to
use the current situation to promote communal polarization,
and to attack basic democratic rights within the country.
It has tried to identify terrorism as predominantly a phenomenon
of Islamic fanaticism. It has painted opponents of the war,
and of the Indian government's support to it, as anti-nationals.
In this regard, it has deliberately targeted sections of the
Muslim community as well as others such as human rights activists
opposed to its own repressive and anti-democratic behaviour.
This government has arbitrarily banned selected associations,
arrested individuals on a large scale, harassed activists
exercising their democratic rights of peaceful public protest,
and now proposes to bring in more draconian laws like the
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance which is modeled on the
notorious Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention)
Act (TADA). This codification of the government's arbitrary
power to arrest, detain, harass and punish on grounds of mere
suspicion, can then be used against all kinds of peoples'
movements legitimately mobilizing and opposing government
policies of various kinds.
The opposition to the war on Afghanistan is
not only a struggle for peace and justice on a world scale,
or for preventing avoidable human suffering. It is also a
struggle to reduce communal tensions and to strengthen India's
best traditions of secularism and democracy.
STOP THE WAR
NO TO COMMUNALISM AND FANATICISM
DEFEND SECULARISM AND DEMOCRACY
YES TO PEACE AND JUSTICE
|
