| June 04, 2008 | Wednesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429 |
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The killing fields are spreading
I WAS going to write about something else, but got sidetracked by the explosion outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad. As usual, almost all the casualties in this latest act of terrorism were Pakistanis, and presumably, Muslims.
None of them were in any way connected with the publication of the sacrilegious cartoons published in Denmark. Indeed, most of the embassy personnel had been moved to a local hotel after the controversial cartoons were printed, and the Danish mission had been reduced to a skeleton staff. So basically, the killers were targeting Pakistanis for something that happened thousands of miles away.
Most of the targets of Islamist militants have been fellow-Muslims who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And yet, there is little condemnation of these ruthless killers. Instead, I hear plaintive questions like “Why did the Danes have to publish those offensive cartoons, anyway?”
This is a classic case of blaming the victim. The other refrain in media reporting of the incident was the fact that the embassy was not in the heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave, and was therefore somehow fair game.
These perceptions are totally at odds with how the rest of the world perceives this attack. The thing to remember is that Denmark is a democracy, and freedom of the media is taken for granted. And while the cartoons were insensitive, offensive and in poor taste, the fact remains that their publication did not break any law.
The Danish government has no powers to dictate the content of newspapers. We would do well to remember that Jesus Christ is caricatured regularly in the Western media.
Certainly, editors and publishers can be taken to court by individuals and groups. In any case, there is due process available to aggrieved parties. Suicide bombing is not on of the options civilised people take recourse to in order to lodge a protest. But obviously, those behind this and similar acts of terrorism are brutal killers of whom we cannot expect civilised behaviour.
It is the duty of the host country to provide security to diplomatic missions. In case of terrorist attacks, it has to pay for damages. In 1979, when the US embassy in Islamabad was attacked by a mob and partly burned down, Zia’s junta paid the repair bill (with our taxes, of course). To say that all missions will be moved to the diplomatic enclave, as this government has just done, is to force foreign countries to pay for the lawlessness that prevails in Pakistan. For many developing countries, this might not be possible. Even for some rich countries, Pakistan might not be important enough to build a new chancery. We operate out of rented buildings in many capitals abroad. How well would we cope if we had to construct new embassy buildings in every country where we have permanent representatives?
But more important than these practical considerations is the larger question of how Pakistan is increasingly perceived abroad. Hardly a week passes without some foreign government warning its citizens not to travel to Pakistan. This recent attack will only reinforce the perception of a weak, dangerous country where religious fanatics rule the streets, and killers can strike at will. Unfortunately, we have got so accustomed to this frightening level of violence that we no longer see how abnormal it is to have terrorist attacks rocking our country day in and day out.
The bombing of the Danish embassy also shows us the hollowness of the so-called peace accord reached with Baitullah Mehsud and his loose alliance of militants. It should be obvious to the meanest intelligence that he has no intention of keeping his word, and that this truce is only a tactical ploy for him. He will use it to strengthen his base, and launch more attacks in Afghanistan. Significantly, when he was asked by a BBC reporter if he would offer the Karzai government in Kabul a similar deal, his only response was a mocking laugh. Many observers, both in Pakistan and abroad, have warned the government of the dangers inherent in a separate peace. Already, despite the accord signed with the militants, there have been a number of attacks within the country, with the bombing of the Danish embassy being the most serious. Our western allies have expressed their grave reservations about the one-sided nature of the talks with Baitullah Mehsud. Given the weakness of our economy, and the serious security threats we face, we cannot afford to antagonise our friends, especially when the returns are so transient.
It appears that in our desperation to seek peace with the militants at any price, we are willing to gamble with the Pakistan the nation’s founder wanted. Although we have drifted far from his goal, there was still a lingering hope that sheer pragmatism would prod us away from the kind of extremist dystopia many Muslims are striving for today.
We see the shape of things to come in the daily attacks on girls’ schools, barber-shops and video stores in settled districts and tribal areas in the NWFP every day. When this image of Pakistan is overlaid on the constant reports of radical young Muslims coming to Pakistan from all over the western world to receive training in bomb-making, we can understand why our country is now seen as the source of great danger to the region and the world.
Should we proceed on our present path of providing a safe haven to terrorists, we will give western forces in Afghanistan a good reason to attack them. If we cannot enforce our sovereignty over the tribal areas, somebody else will fill the vacuum.
To think that other governments will permit their forces to suffer casualties through attacks from Pakistani soil, and not retaliate, is to live in a fool’s paradise. In England and elsewhere, I am often asked by friends why we cannot tackle this menace. After all, they argue, with such a huge, well-equipped standing army, why can’t your government take on these terrorists? Why not, indeed?
Obviously, there are big problems in fighting our own countrymen. But as long as Baitullah Mehsud and his cohorts are willing to slaughter innocent fellow Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere, we owe them no mercy. We certainly owe them no sympathy or support.
