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Speech at Seminar on "Positioning Pakistan in the 'War Against Terrorism'" Organized by the Sindhi Baloch Forum on December 2, 2001 in London Rubina Shaikh, PhD., Vice Chairperson, World Sindhi Congress |
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I
would like to thank the Sindhi Baloch Forum for organizing this
seminar and providing me with an opportunity to speak with you. I am
delighted to see all the participants today and look forward to
having a fruitful discussion during the second session of this
seminar. Before
I comment on the topic of this session, let me introduce myself. I
represent the World Sindhi Congress, a non-profit organization based
in the UK, USA, Canada, and Sindh. The main objective of WSC is to
create a better understanding of the disadvantaged status of Sindhis
in Pakistan and the Sindhi people’s struggles for their human
rights, including the right to self-determination. World
Sindhi Congress collaborates with several organizations working on
human rights advocacy, sustainable development, equal rights for
women and religious minorities, as well as conflict resolution and
peaceful initiatives in Sindh. Firstly,
I offer my deepest grief and condolences to the families and loved
ones of those thousands of Americans and citizens of 80 other
countries mercilessly killed on September 11th, 2001 in New York and
Washington, DC. Sindhis living in the UK, USA, India, and Sindh have
expressed their solidarity with the people of the United States and
the victims of this unprecedented terrorism. I
also feel deeply sad for all those innocent people who have died as
a result of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, most of whom have
nothing to do with political or religious agenda of their ruthless
government. All
forms of the terrorism should be met with appropriate resistance.
However, as an activist and advocate of peace, I believe that we
must analyze the historical contexts and policies that have brought
us to this war. In what ways have the international community
contributed to the conditions that have been so horrifically
exploited by Islamist terrorists? What should the United States, the
victim of the September 11 attacks, do to stop the cycle of
terrorists violence? Can the current “war against terrorism”
conducted by the US and its military allies (including the UK)
produce a long lasting peace? People
of Sindh who themselves have been the victims of the
religious extremism and ethnic discrimination, are hopeful that the
Talibanization of the their region may finally be stopped. However,
the United States’ current gestures of friendliness and support to
the military dictatorship in Pakistan remind us that this situation
of terror and oppression may very well be with us for sometime in
Pakistan. Pakistan's
government has performed as an ally in the coalition against
terrorism, but we believe that General Musharaf’s support is
likely to be very short-lived and may actually be
counter-productive. Musharaf is a self-proclaimed President and
Pakistan's current government is a dictatorship. It is no secret,
that Pakistan has long been involved in training, sheltering and
arming extremist groups. The US State Department's annual report on
Patterns of Global terrorism during 2000 released in April 2001
clearly states the Government of Pakistan's increasing support to
the Taliban by providing them material, fuel, funding, technical
assistance and military advisers. These policies have not only
harmed the peoples of Pakistan and neighboring countries but have
now reached to harm the people around the globe. The
military establishment of Pakistan thrives on the politics and
economics of religious nationalism. Pakistan's military works as a
corporation. It includes influential elements that believe in
Pan-Islamism. Considering these two factors, it is unlikely that the
Pakistani military will change its war strategy with India and
create true democratic structures in Pakistan. The very survival of
this military corporate structure depends upon the continuation of
war. The Pakistani military is truly the omnipotent political and
economical force in the country. Today the military sides with the
US, but we believe that this is yet another tactic for the
perpetuation of its power. For
the last two decades Sindhis and other progressive forces within
Pakistan have protested against religious extremism and oppression
against smaller nations, religious minorities and women. Most of our
protests were ignored, but there remained some hope. The USA and the
UK enforced some limited trade embargoes on Pakistan for its
development of nuclear power. The European Union condemned the
military dictatorship and called for democratic elections. But now
suddenly Pakistan and its fascist regime is being rewarded with
billions of dollars. The UK, USA, Japan and other countries are
pouring money into the pockets of the Pakistan’s military
government. Even
now progressive forces within Pakistan are getting no attention in
the western media. For example several Sindh and Balochistan-based
parties and groups have openly supported the war against terrorism
but we hardly see any coverage of these elements in western media.
[Though the Pakistani government has imprisoned Sindhi freedom
leaders in the last few weeks and continued the detention of the
Sindhi environmental rights activists, the western media failed to
report these arrests and other attacks on civil liberties.] In
this climate, we believe that the USA and UK must offer only
conditional support to Pakistan, if at all. And in this support they
must adhere to the basic principles of justice, human rights and
religious tolerance. Here, I would like to propose a few
suggestions, which I think as activists we must try to bring to the
attention of the public, so that we can convince our governments to
make sure that this war against terrorism eliminates the threat to
not only the people of the USA and Europe, but the peoples of South
Asia, and for that matter, all over the world. The
influx of Afghan refugees creates a tremendous threat to Sindh and
Balochistan. Since the recent bombing began, more than 1 million
Afghanis have emigrated to Balochistan and Sindh and this move is
still on. How will these two regions deal with not only the human
migration, but the migration of drugs, weapons and religious
extremism? How will these two regions – both sensitive to
religious minorities—handle Islamic extremism? In the last ten
years the Pakistani establishment and Afghani Taliban have worked
together in creating and promoting Pan-Islamism in the region. Sufi
secular Sindhis like myself, feel threatened by this scenario.
It is vital that the return of all Afghan refugees is guaranteed in
humanitarian fashion. Otherwise, we will see an ethnic and civil war
type situation develop in Southern Pakistan. Now
that US and other countries together have promised Pakistan more
than one Billion dollars, we must make sure that Pakistani
government properly uses this money on social welfare and poverty
elimination projects, particularly in Sindh, Balochistan and
NWFP--regions most adversely affected by the war. Aid agencies must
enforce that the Pakistan administration distributes resources
fairly among the provinces - We know from previous experience that
these funds are likely to unfairly spent in the Punjab or on the
Punjabi dominated army to strengthen its war agenda. As
far as the money donated for repatriation of Afghani refugees is
concerned, we request the international community that all
arrangements should be directly made by UN to provide food and
shelter and eventually the return of displaced Afghans. These
responsibilities should not be left in the hands of the Pakistani
establishment. Some
political forces in Pakistan believe that the solution to prevent
future terrorism activities in this part of the world is to
“decentralise Pakistan” and "de-Punjabize" its Army.
A
decentralized state would provide stability in the region and
peace for its people, neighbors and the west. Pakistan must be
"de-nuclearized" or at the very least the nuclear program
must be brought under multi-ethnic control as no system of command
and control can be effective over Pakistan's nuclear weapons as long
as it resides under one ethnic group—at present the Punjabis. Sindhi
and Baloch freedom groups in Pakistan look forward to joining the
struggle against the forces of terrorism and it is imperative that
the United States support the Baloch and Sindhi freedom forces to
counter the Islamist forces within Pakistan. Let
me summarise that the
favors which the Pakistan Government is
receiving from the world will further strengthen this military
dictatorship and will
legitimize the undemocratic laws and policies
that are the very cause of the religious intolerance and extremism
we are condemning today! Currently, Pakistan has one of the worst
records of human right violation. Laws discriminate against
religious minorities, women, and smaller nations like the Sindhi and
Baloch peoples. Lastly,
I would like to finish with the hope that peace may prevail all over
the world. |
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