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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
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http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in
Asia (ACHA) www.asiapeace.org
Editors:
David Campion, PhD campion@lclark.edu
Pritam K. Rohila, PhD pritam@open.org
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Volume VIII, No. 1, January
16, 2005, Next Issue, February 15, 2005
Pakistan-India
REPORTS & ANALYSES
(Readers are invited to
submit similar information from other areas of
“Nature: the Great Equalizer”
David
Campion
On
December 26th 2004, South and
Even
now, weeks later, as the enormity of this event is beginning to sink in, it is
hard for us to make sense of it. Indeed,
there is no rational explanation that gives meaning to such a dreadful loss of
life, even as the seismic and oceanographic factors that caused it can be
plotted with mathematical precision and scientific rationality. Manmade disasters are in some – albeit
limited – sense easier to explain. The
decades of conflict in Kashmir, Nepal, and Sri Lanka; the tragedy in Bhopal;
the riots in Gujarat, etc. – these can all be ascribed to man’s own ignorance,
fear, corruption, lust for power, or fanatical blindness. At the very least, in these cases we can
demand accountability, commit ourselves to eradicating the source of the problem,
and hope and pray that our Creator can forgive the weaknesses of His own
creation. But what can we say about an
act of nature that in one day surpasses in violence and death the most
determined efforts of the most evil among us to accomplish the same end?
At
the outset, the images of the Tsunami and its aftermath provide us with a
sobering reminder of the terrible power of nature. In
So
what meaning can we ascribe to this occurrence?
How can those who lost their loved ones ever explain this event to
themselves in a way that makes sense?
The answer for many is that there is no explanation. But for those of us committed to peace in
this region, there are some salient observations we can take from this
catastrophe.
The
first is that as individual human beings we have been reminded of our smallness
and utter insignificance in the larger scheme of the natural world. A much needed lesson in humility,
indeed. Perhaps this may help diminish
the egotism, false pride, and sanctimonious that are at the heart of much of
the violence and conflict in our world.
Clearly, when the forces of nature converge, we humans do not count for
much.
Secondly,
we may take note of the fact that whatever differences among us we persist in
believing are so important, and which have divided communities for decades,
were of absolutely no consequence on December 26th. Tamil and Sinhalese alike were swept away;
Asian and European faces filled the photos on the notice boards as family and
friends searched for them. Moreover, if
we believe that the manner in which we worship God leads him to favor us over others
who worship differently, there was no evidence of this on December 26th. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists
perished together. Distance, too, was no
protection as fishermen in
Yet,
in the aftermath of the Tsunami, we can learn a more hopeful lesson as the
consequences and work ahead have forced us to acknowledge our common
humanity. There are signs of it
everywhere. We have seen it in the
British and Australian marines offloading helicopters laden with food and
medical supplies into the desperate arms of Sri Lankan villagers. We have seen it in the Thai hotel clerks and
shopkeepers comforting distraught Scandinavian tourists even as their own loved
ones remained unaccounted for. We have
seen it in the hundreds of charity drives that have been undertaken in temples,
mosques, and churches in places as diverse as
Sadly,
just a few weeks after the Tsunami struck there are signs of familiar patterns
reemerging. There have been reports of
airlifted supplies bound for Andaman islanders seized on the tarmac by the
Indian Government to the bafflement and frustration of relief workers. In
As
2005 begins, the work of ACHA remains as important as ever. The Tsunami has paradoxically shown us how
utterly insignificant all our lives are in the grand plan of nature, and yet
how infinitely priceless is each individual life. Perhaps this spirit of common humanity and
chastened humility can help advance efforts for peace throughout South Asia –
from the cautious optimism of the Indo-Pakistani peace efforts in
*Pakistan-India
India-Pakistan’s
“Parallel Diplomacy”
By Aamer Ahmed Khan, BBC News,
Has people-to-people contact
between
“It is unstoppable now,” says
Imtiaz Alam, the founding father and current secretary general of the South
Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), a Pakistani NGO aggressively pushing
public-level contact between the two South Asian neighbors. Mr Alam’s optimism is easily understood. After a long and sluggish march through much
of the last decade, the year 2004 saw cultural exchanges between
Over 500 Indians, including
intellectuals, politicians, former bureaucrats, retired soldiers, showbiz and
media personalities, visited
Apart from the scale, say
observers, the wide-ranging nature of such visits was also something never seen
in the past. Pakistanis have been
exposed to a hugely varied cross-section of the Indian society: from Bollywood
stars to media professionals and from film directors to IT experts. “The change that we see has not just come
about at the government level, where one sees a visible slackening of
bureaucratic resistance,” Mr Alam told the BBC News website. “Even the public perception has changed
radically,” he said. Noted human rights
activist and peace activist Asma Jehangir agrees. “Not everyone who crossed borders this year
was a peacenik. But they were all sucked up in the tide,” Ms Jehangir says.
Until recently, Ms Jehangir,
a lawyer by profession, was riled by her colleagues at the bar councils for her
pro-peace views. She was often referred
to as “shrimati” – an Indian title for a lady.
“Now most of them have been forced to admit that it was foolhardy to
maintain a policy of continuing conflict,” she laughs.
Such was the momentum
generated by Track II last year that even government figures from both sides
could not resist jumping on the peace bandwagon. The chief ministers of the divided
Hasan Zaidi, an independent
film-maker and director of the Karachi-based film festival, Kara, points to
other developments that are likely to make the governments think twice before
trying to bring such activity to a halt.
Nazr, an Indian movie starring
Pakistani screen diva Mira, is due for release and is likely to be screened in
both countries soon. Indian filmmaker
Mahesh Bhatt told Kara participants at a seminar during the festival that had
it not been for such cultural meets, the film would probably never have
happened. More importantly, the opening
up of borders on this scale has led some Indian film distributors to look at
One aspect of Track II
efforts that has seriously excited observers, it seems, is the capacity of such
activity to take the peace agenda away from
The threat from the religious
lobby remains omni-present. “We are not
against normalization with
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4143737.stm
Couple bridge
By Zulfiqar Ali, BBC
correspondent in Keran, 15 December 2004
The
Pakistani-side relatives wave at separated family members. The families were there, so were the gifts
and the engagement ring. But the
tradition of placing ring on finger could not be fulfilled – the bride-to-be
was on the other side of a 30-metre wide river.
This
is Keran in the Neelum valley, 100 km (63 miles) northeast of Muzaffarabad,
capital of Pakistani-administered
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4097635.stm
*
UN aid chief visits Tamil Tigers
BBC South
The head of a UN aid agency
has completed a visit to rebel-held territory in
The
WFP says it is trying to feed some two million survivors across the region,
including up to 750,000 people in
But despite
the tensions over aid provision, there appeared to be fresh hope for the
Norway-brokered talks process on Saturday with the Tamil announcement that
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and top peace envoy Erik Solheim are
set to visit the island next week.
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4177519.stm
Friends:
We concluded
the India Pakistan Peace and Goodwill Mission yesterday afternoon, (January 8, 2005), following a Press Conference at the Press Club at
Consisting of
about 25 Non-resident Indians and Pakistanis from
Besides
We had a hectic
schedule. Often we got up early and went to bed very late. At times we had to reach the venue of program directly from the airport or train station, or vice versa, without a breakfast or dinner. Some of us took ill. The highlight of our trip
was our visit through the
I will provide
more details in my next report.
Pritam
Joint
Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.
The Joint India-Pakistan
Peace and Goodwill Mission ended on the afternoon of Saturday, January 8, 2005,
following a Press Conference at the Press Club,
Consisting of twenty-one
Non-resident Indians and Non-resident Pakistanis from
No government or
non-government organization had sponsored the delegation. Each member was
responsible for his or her expenses.
The delegates ranged in age
from 23 through 69. Some of them were born in the West, and were visiting
They included businessmen,
community developers and organizers, economists, engineers, history scholars,
investment managers, IT professionals, management consultants, psychologists,
and realtors. Many were involved in non-government advocacy, peace and harmony,
and relief and welfare organizations, some in executive capacity. Captain
Mohamed Suleman Mehtab had started his career in Pakistan Navy.
To promote peace between
Besides
The delegation purposely
abstained from offering a political formula, or an action plan for the
resolution of problems that have plagued India-Pakistan relationships for the
last 57 years. Instead, they encouraged the peoples and governments to live
like friends and good neighbors, while they work together to find peaceful and
just resolution of all outstanding issues.
They emphasized everywhere
the need for removal of visa restrictions. They believed that easy movement of
people across the border would be of immense help in destroying the decades-old
walls of suspicion and mistrust between the two neighbors. In
At Wagah border the delegates
offered interfaith prayers for the victims of the Partition-related violence,
on both sides, in 1947. Also the delegation delivered a petition personally to
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at
In the course of their
thirteen-day visit, the delegates met representatives of a number of peace and
harmony organizations. With their help they hoped to revive in the people the
same passion for peace between
The delegates had a hectic
schedule. Often they got up early and went to bed very late. At times they had
to reach the venue of the next program directly from the airport or train
station, or vice versa, without a breakfast or dinner. Some of them took ill.
Offered and arranged by General (Retd.) Iftikhar
Jilani, the Governor of the
Courtsey of their local hosts, the delegates had the
good fortune to visit the ancient ruins of Taxila, near
The longing for peace in
people on both sides of the border made the delegates feel “Aag dono taraf
hai baraber lagi huyi.” But at the government level, they could not help
recall Ghalib’s couplet, “Aashqi sabr talab, aur tamana betab; Dil ka kya
rang karun mein khoon-i-jigr honay tak.”
Jaipur Declaration at The Second National Convention of Coalition for Nuclear
Disarmament and Peace
(28 November 2004)
Free
The Second National Convention of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace
(CNDP),
We, the assembled delegates at the Convention representing the peace movements in
India and coming from
various corners of the country, most emphatically reaffirm our firm conviction in reiteration of our Charter 2000:
Nuclear weapons are means of
mass destruction regardless of who wields them. They are weapons of genocide. They can impose horrendous suffering on
victims across generations.
They destroy the ecosystem. The damage they do is lasting and incurable. The sheer scale and character of the
devastation they can cause
makes them a profound and distinctive evil. For this and other reasons, the possession, use, or threat of use of nuclear
weapons is absolutely
immoral. We also with equal emphasis reaffirm that the use, threat of
use, or possession
of, and even preparation for making, nuclear weapons is immoral, illegal, and politically unacceptable under any circumstances. Not only that, nuclear deterrence is absolutely abhorrent
to human sentiment
since it implies that a state if required to defend its own existence will act with pitiless disregard for the
consequences to its own and
its adversary’s people.
We note with great concern the profoundly destabilizing effects of the nuclear
blasts in May 1998.
These have been most graphically and irrefutably demonstrated through an extremely dangerous (undeclared) border war in
less than a year followed
by a ten month long eyeball to eyeball massive confrontation all along the international border and the line of
control. These confrontations
were laden with the very real threats of nuclear exchange. The rulers of these two resource-starved countries
remain unwaveringly
stuck with their pernicious nuclear weapons program, which are a tragic diversion from addressing vital social needs.
Though there have been no
further blasts since 1998, in the teeth of massive waves of international censure – the race for developing nuclear
warhead carrying missiles
goes on unabated. And the possession of nuclear weapons is given a formal status through issuance of highly deplorable
nuclear doctrines – based on the
spurious and extremely dangerous theory of “nuclear
deterrence”.
We also note that both West Asia and
Most disturbing of all, the
We, therefore, clearly recognize the need to rededicate ourselves to the tasks of
ridding
We are also resolutely with the worldwide struggles for effective and total
elimination of biological,
chemical and radiological weapons, which threaten our gene pool. We further demand the universal banning of
anti-personnel land mines and
the “civilian” use of nuclear energy be made far more transparent, accountable and hazards free – in terms of both
radiation exposure and
safekeeping of fissile materials and to keep it clearly delinked from any weaponization program.
We do specifically recognize that especially in the Indian, and South Asian, context
the ideology and politics
of paranoia and hatred against the other internal and external, acts as the major driver for nuclear
nationalism. Hence, we decide to
make common cause with the myriad ongoing struggles against the forces of irrational, mindless, hateful and
oppressive violence and
towards more harmonious and inclusive social orders in order to reinforce the struggle for peace and nuclear
disarmament.
We also take special note of the importance of fighting the ideology of aggression
and violence being
continually disseminated in the fields of education and popular culture and the need to counter in a forceful and innovative
manner.
At the specifically national and regional levels, we pledge our full support to the
popular initiatives
for better understanding and friendship between
We, similarly, pledge our full support to any and every effort to bring about better
and improved relations
among the peoples and the governments of the region, particularly the SAARC countries. We call for
a yearly ten percent reduction in defense expenditure by
At the global level, we decide, and call upon all peace activists, to join forces with
the reinvigorated
global campaign for total and complete abolition of all nuclear weapons. The May 2005 NPT Review Conference is
the immediate focus of
intervention. The Mayors for Peace are spearheading the global effort to
eliminate nuclear
weapons by the year 2020. They have a membership of over six hundred cities spread over more than a hundred countries and
are carrying out the
campaign in collaboration with peace groups and networks all the world over and with endorsement from the European Union
Parliament and also
backing from some other state actors including the constituents of the seven member New Agenda Coalition and also the
NAM – currently chaired by
Malaysia. The year 2005, it is further noted, is profoundly significant being the 60th year of the tragic bombing of
We pledge to carry forward the campaign for freeing
South Asians Against Nukes (SAAN): An informal information platform for
activists & scholars
concerned about the dangers of nuclearization in
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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts
do not necessarily
reflect the views of SAAN compilers. Materials
carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SAAN compilers.
[The posting below is being resent along with the route because of requests from many people interested in joining the padyatra for route details. Kindly register as soon as possible to join the Padyatra/Peace March. Visa formalities will take time] India-Pakistan Peace March, Delhi to Multan Probably nowhere in the world we have a situation where people are as emotionally entwined as between India and Pakistan India and Pakistan Common people on both sides are now fed up with violence and atmosphere of antagonism. They want friendship, peace and normal relations to be established between the two countries. We have seen that even though the governments of the two countries may be suspicious of each other whenever the common people of the two countries get to meet all walls of reservation against each other melt as warm emotions of affinity surge. It is almost like people of same family meeting each other after years of separation. The enmity, hatred and distance is only artificial and soon gives way to warmth, friendship and camaraderie. We feel that if real peace and friendship has to be established between India and Pakistan India and Pakistan Delhi and Multan For more details about the peace march or interest in participating in the peace march you may contact the following. Contact in Pakistan Contact in India Please visit our website at www.thesouthasian.org and subscribe to indpakpeacemarch@yahoogroups.com to receive regular information about the peace march or send mail to moderator atindopakpeacemarch@yahoo.co.uk *********************************************************************************************All persons wishing to march must register as soon as possible with their passport details.*********************************************************************************************