Bogey of Terrorism

Bogey of Terrorism

 V.Thangavelu

The countries raising the bogey of global terrorism have a common denominator. Each one of them has a wound in its back viz fighting national liberation wars led by numerically smaller nationalities demanding self-determination.

Sri Lanka, Russia, India, China, Philippines, Indonesia etc. are ganging up because all of them have more than one liberation wars in their hands! Even Canada a model for a pluralistic polity is preoccupied with Quebec separatism. To all of them the bogey of “terrorism” comes in handy to camouflage their own state terrorism! That explains why these countries are scratching each other’s backs to ” fight terrorism, which jeopardises the sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and stability.” Like democracy being the last refuge of scoundrels, so too global terrorism has become the subterfuge of racists and fascists!

Russia like Sri Lanka has unleashed state terrorism against the tiny Muslim Republic of Chechnya. To break the will of Chechens, Stalin deported hundreds of thousands of Chechens to Siberia during world war two. Even after the overthrow of the communist dictatorship, Chechens continue to be oppressed by Russian imperialists.

Majority of Chechens and non-Chechens consider Mr Basayev and Mr Hattab heroes for their courageous struggle against the hegemonic and brutal rule of Russia. For Moscow, however, Basayev and Hattab are dangerous criminals intent on destroying the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.

We can see the parallel closer home. India is fighting a losing battle in Kashmir because the government mistakenly thinks the territory belongs to it when the people are not. For Sinhala supremacists like President Chandrika and Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Prabhakaran is a “terrorist”, but for millions of Tamils, he is a hero comparable to Lord Murugan! So there is little wonder that imperial Russia and racist Sri Lanka have signed an agreement recently to combat “terrorism!”

The fascist government of Sri Lanka is in the grip of imminent financial collapse because of the endless economic haemorrhage caused by the unjust war against the Tamil people. Even the European Union and other aid agencies appear to have abandoned Sri Lanka, because of bad governance, economic mismanagement and sub-standard human rights record.

Terrorism, if that is the right word to use, is a symptom and not the disease. Countries which beat their chests about the bogey of terrorism should try to find out the political and economic causes that led to the birth of terrorism. Injustice, oppression and denial of basic rights of national minorities like the Tamils, Kurds, Kashmir Muslims and Chechens are the causes behind the liberation wars and armed struggles.

Those who are fighting the bogey of terrorism are well advised to bear these in mind.