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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN-Volume V, No. 5, June 4,
2003, (Next issue, July 2, 2003)
Peace
& Harmony News From & About South Asia
Peace
& Harmony Organizations
Act Now for Harmony and
Democracy
(ANHAD), New Delhi, India
Fazaldad Human Rights Institute (FHRI), Pakistan
Feature
People LIKE us across the
border,
S.K. Aggarwal, Tribune May 31, 03
To Islamabad and
the FRONTIER, Rajmohan Gandhi, The Hindu, May 26, 2003
Between India and Pakistan, S. Turkman, Founder of the
Third option for Kashmir
Arts & Entertainment
Disposable People: New
Slavery in the Global Economy, Kevin Bales
Understanding Human Rights, online at www.etc-graz.at, www.bmaa.gv.at
Minority Rights Information System
(MIRIS), Online Database
Allah Baksh Soomro; Apostle
of Secular Harmony, Khadim Hussain Soomro
Defining
Democracy; Decisions, Elections and good Governance, Peter Emerson
Human
Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People, The Commission on Human
Security
Call For Papers
Children
Conferences & Symposia
June 5, Karachi, Pakistan: Straight Talk - Pakistan -
Kashmir - The Possible Solutions?
June 20, New York, NY, USA: Diversity: Celebrating The Fabric Of The Conflict
Resolution Field
June 28 & 29, Santa
Clara, CA:
India After Gujarat - Democracy Or Religious Fanaticism
July 27 - August 2, Chiang
Mai, Thailand:
Conference On Religion And Globalization
June
7-July 5, Eugene, OR, USA: The Wisdom Of Mahatma
Gandhi
June 26-28, and November 20-22, Watertown, MA, USA: Power Of
Dialogue: Constructive Conversations July 21-August 13, Eugene,
OR, USA: Religions Of India
Environment
Events
June 16 - 24, New York, USA: Human Rights Watch Film
June 24, New York City, USA: The Middle East Peace Quilt
Fellowships & Scholarships
Library of Congress Kluge Research
Fellowship
LGI Policy Fellowship 2004
Lectures
June
10, New York, NY, USA: U.S.-India Economic And Trade Relations
June 12, New York, NY, USA: Governing India: The Return Of Pragmatic
Politics? Understanding National Elections 2004
June 13, New York, NY, USA: The Arts Of Kashmir (Ii) - Emeralds Set With Pearls: The Tradition Of
Gardens And The Arts In Muslim Kashmir And North India
June 30, Seattle,
WA, USA: Conversations With Traditions: Nilima
Sheikh/Shahzia Sikander
www.apnaorg.com Academy of the Punjab in
North America (APNA)
WWW.THEWALT.DE/AFGHANISTAN/Index_w.html
Women
REPORTS & ANALYSES
(For
a copy send a blank email to pritamr@open.org with its subject as
the UPPERCASE word in the article title. Please limit your request to 3
articles)
Bangladesh
Human RIGHTS in Bangladesh, Sitangshu Guha, May 13, 2003, Speech at the 9th Session of the UNHR
Sub-Commission's Working Group on Minorities at UN office in Geneva
Education
Do not EQUATE Indian
madrasas with the Pakistani ones, An interview with Zafar-ul Islam Khan Qalandar, May 2003
Environment
Ordering A NEW World, Sunita Narain, Editor,
Down To Earth, May 10, 2003
Fundamentalism-Communalism
On SOCIOLOGY of
Communalism, Asghar Ali Engineer, Secular Perspective 16-31 May
2003
Fundamentalism, Communalism
and ROLE of Civil Society in South Asia, Shariar Kabir, South Asian Conference against
Fundamentalism and Communalism held in Dhaka on June 1-2, 2001
DHAKA Declaration, Adopted June 2, 2001 at
the South Asian Conference on Fundamentalism and Communalism and Role of Civil
Society, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on June 1-2, 2001
India
Giving Peace a CHANCE: An
interview with supercop J. F. Ribeiro, A Chakravorty, Humanscape,
April 2003
India secular by
temperament, by BELIEF: Talking With Justice J S Verma, Chairperson, National
Human Rights Commission
India-Bangladesh
Peace
Mission to DHAKA: Journey of Discovery and Friendship,
Amrita Dutta, South Asian News-Feature Service, Dhaka May 31,2003
Indo-Bangla women’s MEET: Pluralism, tolerance must be
upheld, The Independent, Dhaka, 19th May, 2003
An enchanting evening with
SONGS and dances, Novera Deepita, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 19th
May, 2003
India
NE
Assam: The IM (DT) ACT - Of
Aliens, Natives and Politics, B P
Routray, South
Asia Intelligence Review, May 19, 2003
Tripura: LETHAL Strikes from
External Bases, Praveen Kumar, South ASIA intelligence
Review, May 12, 2003
Manipur: Surrogate WARS, Pradip Phanjoubam, South
Asia Intelligence Review, May 26, 2003
India-Pakistan
Let Punjabis SHOW the way to peace,
Ishtiaq Ahmed, Daily Times, 18 May 2003
A TALE of two visits, Praful Bidwai, Rediff.com, May 19, 2003
A PIPELINE to peace, Rinku Dutta, The News,
Pakistan
NUCLEAR
India and Pakistan, Ashok Sharma, New Delhi
INDIA
Déjà vu: ARMITAGE Comes
Calling,
Ajai Sahni, South Asia Intelligence Review, May 12, 2003
Pakistan OFFER on Nuclear Weapons is Insincere, K. Subrahmanyam, India West, May 23, 2003
Relations between India-Pakistan: People-to-people contact VITAL, says Khakwani, By W Gillani, Daily Times, 24 May 2003
Kashmir in FOCUS: New start, new ideas and new faces, Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times Online. May 8, 2003
US to REWARD peace moves, Our Correspondent, Dawn, May 24, 2003
US CHARTS the road to peace in J&K, Josy Joseph, Rediff.com, May 14, 2003
Indo-Pak TIES: A Thaw or A Passing Breeze? Qalandar, May 2003
OUR forgotten commitment, Hamida Khuhro, Dawn, June 2, 2003 Bulletin
Kashmir
Sikandar supports Kashmir's
DIVISION, A
Staff Reporter, Dawn 19/05/03
J&K: The Small PRINT -
Is Infiltration Up? Down? Just Middling? And Does It Really Matter? P Swami, South Asia Intelligence Review, May 19, 2003
Kashmir And The ELYSEE
Experience,
Naeem Sarfraz, The Daily
Nation, 15th May, 2003
The Kashmir DISPUTE: A Cause or a Symptom? Ishtiaq Ahmed, Politologen, Fall
2002
Kashmir, we all know, is not JUST another state, Editorial, Times of India, May 2003
American think-tank to
undertake post-conflict economic STUDY in Kashmir, S A Motta, KGN News, 27
May 2003
Hurriyat overtaken by
EVENTS,
Ghazanfar Butt, Daily Excelsior 28 May 2003
The THIRD force in the
Kashmir equation, S S Shahzad, Asia Times Online, 29 May 2003
Children to LEAD Army's PR
Drive in Kashmir, Khursheed Wani, OneWorld South Asia, May 29, 2003
Nepal
Nepal-Peace Moves in a
Political TANGO, Deepak Thapa , South Asia intelligence, May 12, 2003
Pakistan
The Ozymandias
PARADIGM, Khalid Hasan. Friday Times, May 23 - 29, 2003
Pakistan NEEDS autonomous universities,
Ishtiaq Ahmed ,Daily Times, Sunday 24 May 2003
END political confrontation, Shafqat Mahmood, International Daily News,
June 1, 2003
Religion
Reconstituting The United
States' Relations With The ISLAMIC World, A, May 14, 2003, IRIS, The University of Maryland
at College Park
Hindu Followers of a Muslim IMAM, Qalander, July 2002
RAM Janmabhoomi And Hinduvta, Sulekha, May 21, 2003
South Asia- USA Reassessing the War on TERROR, K.P.S. Gill, South Asia Intelligence Review, May 26, 2003
Women
Dilaasa-Creating SPACES For
Women In A Public Health System, Sangeeta Rege, Humanscape Magazine May
2003
Because they HATE women, Khalid Hasan, Friday Times
Bangladeshi Women Migrants: STORY 1, By Dr. Anindita Dasgupta, India
_______________________________________________________________________________
PEACE
& HARMONY NEWS FROM & ABOUT SOUTH ASIA
(Readers are invited to
submit similar information from other
areas of South Asia to help us broaden of our coverage. Please send the info to
pritamr@open.org
, a week before the date of publication of the next issue of ACHA Peace
Bulletin)
*Bangladesh
Bangladesh marks Tagore’s
anniversary
“Tagore upheld the glory
of Bengali literature in the world, said prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, in
Dhaka, May 8, while leading the nation in paying tribute to Nobel Laureate
Rabindra Nath Tagore on his 142nd birth anniversary. Tagore is the
only person in the world who has authored national anthems of two sovereign
nations – Bangladesh and India (India West, May 16, 2003).
*India-Bangladesh
Indo-Bangladesh Peace Bus Leaves
Coinciding with the Pakistani parliamentary
delegation’s visit to the Kolkokata, and with banners eulogizing the
Indo-Bangladesh Peace and Friendship mission, a 34-member all-women team of
Indian intellectuals and activists went to Dhaka May 14. (Press Trust of India, Via India West May
30, 2003)
*India-Kashmir
Advani hopeful of peace
returning to J&K soon: 'Sindu can integrate India-Pak-China'
LEH (LADAKH), Jun 1 (UNI) Addressing the inaugural
function of the Sindhu Darshan festival here, Deputy prime minister LK Advani
today expressed the hope that peace would soon return to Jammu and Kashmir and
the state would be back on the international tourism map in its old colour, a
point supported by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. www.kashmirtimes.com
No change in Congress
policy on J&K: Sonia reiterates unconditional dialogue
with all
SRINAGAR, May 31: Expressing satisfaction over the
performance of the Mufti Sayeed led PDP-Congress coalition government, Congress
President Sonia Gandhi said the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) continues to be
sacrosanct for the two parties. Supporting the release of the innocents
undergoing detention for prolonged durations, she said there were no
differences on any issue between the coalition partners. www.kashmirtimes.com
Seminar on ‘Peaceful
Settlement of Kashmir:’ Call for conditional cease-fire
SRINAGAR, May 31: A seminar entitled ‘Towards a
Peaceful Settlement of the Kashmir Issue’ and
organised by T N Zutshi, a veteran activist of Gandhi Peace Foundation
today stressed the need for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue
involving all the parties to the dispute.
www.kashmirtimes.com
Mufti favours transit point at Uri
Terming it as a key to normalising situation in the
restive state, the J&K chief minister said: "Once transit points are
started, may be in Uri, things will be clearer and those spreading the
propaganda will be pushed to wall." http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/29jk1.htm
Hurriyat must be flexible: Lone http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/22jk1.htm
Hope for militancy's kids: Mufti
The children will be included in the welfare schemes
of the rehabilitation council for victims of militancy.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/20jk.htm
NHRC deadline for J&K government on missing
persons
According to the Association of the Parents of
Disappeared Persons, more than 8,000 people have disappeared so far from the
state. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14jk.htm
*India-Pakistan
Indo-Pak
Peace Talk: Complete Coverage http://www.rediff.com/news/peacetalk.htm
India
ready to run Delhi-Lahore bus from July 1 http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/03pak2.htm
Violence
will reduce if India talks to Pak: Kasuri
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/02pak.htm
Sonia backs Pak peace
initiatives
BARAMULLA, June 1: Congress president Sonia Gandhi
today gave a green signal to centre for starting talks with Pakistan and said
all outstanding issues can be resolved by a sustained dialogue process and not
through military prowess. www.kashmirtimes.com
Peace process with India to continue: Jamali
ISLAMABAD, May 30 (UNI) Pakistan prime minister
Zafarullah Khan Jamali said yesterday that the peace process with India will
continue till a destination was reached.
"Pakistan has already taken the first step, and it would not stop
here," he added. www.kashmirtimes.com
Convene Indo-Pak summit in
Kashmir: Mehbooba
BARAMULLA, May 30: People's Democratic Party (PDP)
has called upon India and Pakistan to initiate confidence-building-measures by
way of people-to-people contact to make the ongoing peace process successful
and fruitful. She even suggested holding the Indo-Pak summit in Kashmir to make
it more fruitful. www.kashmirtimes.com
India accepts Khan as new Pakistan envoy
The approval paves the way for the restoration of
full diplomatic relations between the two countries.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/28pak.htm
The
bottom up approach
'The speed with which Indo-Pak diplomatic relations were restored and
communications links repaired indicates that both are itching for peace and a
normalisation of relations,' says Adm J G Nadkarni [retd].
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/28nad.htm
Delhi-Lahore
bus to resume http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/26pak.htm
Pakistani
businessmen to visit India amid thaw http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/may/19pak.htm
Pakistan
trying to stop cross-border activity: Kasuri http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/19pak1.htm
Isolate
hawks in India, Pakistan: Jamali
Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Thursday assured that he
would find a way out of domestic pressures to resolve the Kashmir issue and
that there would be no break in Indo-Pak dialogue now on. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/15pak5.htm
Pakistan
will not sabotage peace process: Kasuri http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/15pak.htm
India,
Pakistan raises Kashmir in UN
Both the countries, however, did not attack each other as they had done several
times in the past.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14un.htm
'Vanity
of India, Pakistan responsible for tension'
The Pakistani parliamentary delegation said the Indian and the Pakistani
governments busy with political warfare while the people did not want a war. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14pak3.htm
Jaish
chief Masood Azhar barred from entering PoK http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14pak4.htm
Pakistan
to release 20 Indian prisoners on May 17 http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14pak.htm
ARD
calls for discussion of all initiatives to improve ties with India
The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy in Islamabad asked the government to
discuss all initiatives to improve ties with India in Parliament and not to
bypass it. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/10pak2.htm
Indian,
Pakistan MPs for isolation of fundamentalists http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/09pak.htm
Delegation
of Pakistani lawmakers arrive in India http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/08pak1.htm
Pakistan suggests timeframe for
talks http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/07pak3.htm
*Nepal
Government to limit Army patrols, release three Maoist leaders
At
the second round of peace talks on May 9, 2003, the Government agreed to limit
the Royal Nepal Army within five kilometers of their barracks in Maoist areas
and also release three central level Maoist insurgent leaders. www.nepalnews.com
May 10, 2003.
*Pakistan
NWFP
comes under Sharia law
The North West Frontier Province government, however, assured the law will not
be applicable to non-Muslims. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/03pak3.htm
Pakistan
bans Hizbul Mujahideen http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/20pak.htm
US starts verifying Pakistani claims on closure of terrorist camps
Hours after the US President George W. Bush met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in St. Petersburg on June 1, 2003, Washington has reportedly placed in motion a process to verify claims made by Pakistan that all terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) had been wound up by May 31, 2003. "It is now a process of audit and verification," an unnamed US official was quoted as saying. Times of India, June 2, 2003.
Jaish-e-Mohammed
chief Masood Azhar barred from rendering speech in Peshawar
The
local administration in Peshawar on May 30, 2003, stopped Maulana Masood Azhar,
chief of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),
from addressing a "Deefa-e-Islam" conference at the Peshawar Press
Club. The conference was reportedly organised by the Khudamul Islam, Jaish's
new name. However, Azhar was reportedly allowed to lay the foundation stone of
Hanan bin Salma Centre at Chamkani and address the people at Speen Jamaat.
There, Azhar hailed Osama bin Laden and the Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed
Omar as heroes. "Both leaders have demonstrated supreme courage and
tenacity by not bowing down before America," he said. Jang,
May 31, 2003.
Acting chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi arrested in Muzaffargarh district
Qari
Abdul Hayee, acting chief of the proscribed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ),
was reportedly arrested during a surprise raid conducted at Basti Allah Buksh
in Sher Sultan, Muzaffargarh district, on May 29, 2003. He is reported to be
the mastermind of US journalist Daniel Pearl's murder and was reportedly
planning suicide attacks in the country following a recent crackdown against
the LeJ. He has been accused of involvement in various sectarian killings
across Pakistan. Jang, May 30, 2003.
Jamaat-e-Islami asks Hizb-ul-Mujahideen to vacate its offices
The
Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) has asked the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)
to shift its offices from the premises of the Jamaat offices. Hizb sources were
quoted as saying that the group had been operating from the premises of JeI
offices since 1990. Daily Times, May 27, 2003.
*USA
Ohio
accords historic status to Sikh temple
Ohio Bicentennial Commission , April 20, awarded the Gurdwara in Richfield, Ohio, a historical marker (India West May 16, 2003)
PEACE & HARMONY
ORGANIZATIONS
(Readers are
invited to submit similar information
from other areas of South Asia to help us broaden of our coverage.
Please send the info to pritamr@open.org , a week before the date
of publication of the next issue of ACHA Peace Bulletin)
*Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), 4
Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001 anhadinfo@yahoo.co.in (Gujarat
Office c/o Prashant, Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad anhadgujarat@yahoo.co.in)
Contact person: Shabnam Hashmi shabhashmi@hotmail.com
ANHAD means without limits. Intended to be “an inclusive institution in which every one who stands for democracy, secularism, justice and peace can participate,” and to work against “the onslaught of the hate propaganda,”ANHAD was formed on March 20, 2003.
A total of 572 activists participated in a ten-day
political and theatre training workshops in Jaipur and six five-day residential workshops in Gujarat Districts of
Surat, Godhra, Himmatnagar, Chotila, Kutch and Ahmedabad organized by ANHAD, in
collaboration with local organization, between May 5-24 Meetings Similar
workshop have been scheduled at Delhi (June 4-7). Also ANHAD plans to
form a regular street theatre repertory and to produce primers covering all
major issues related to communalism, a bi-monthly leaflet, peace
audiocassettes, and anti communal, anti-fascist posters.
*Fazaldad Human Rights
Institute (FHRI), Pakistan fhri@isb.paknet.com.pk : Contact Person: Ali Tariq, program manager
FHRI has incorporated the subject of sexual harassment at workplace since their last five diplomas and workshop courses. It has trained 450 master trainers from the diplomas and 9500 participators from the workshop. With a broad range of educational institutions and mass awareness programs FHRI is attempting to bring a change and to make a difference in today's world, where most people are unaware of their rights and obligations, resulting in wide spread human rights abuse.
FEATURE
*People LIKE us across the border, S.K.
Aggarwal, Tribune May 31, 03
www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030531/edit.htm#5 (Via asiapeace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace, An Electronic
Discussion Forum of ACHA, www.asiapeace.org)
It was mid-fifties and I was a growing child in the streets of Amritsar. The
area around where we lived was very thinly populated and there were many
dilapidated houses and an abandoned mosque near our house. During our evening outings
my father would tell me how these houses once belonged to Muslims and how they
had to leave for Pakistan. There were no Muslims to be seen in Amritsar as this
town was right at the declared border and everybody was able to cross over.
My father and mother would tell me how once they were their neighbours and all
those nasty and ugly scenes at the time of partition. We children would
perceive Muslims as looters, plunderers, tormenters and
war-mongers. There were our text books narrating the horrible stories of Muslim
atrocities on Sikh Gurus and all these were very well illustrated in beautiful
but piercing and poignant paintings by S. Sobha Singh
mounted on the walls of the famous Sikh Museum in the Golden Temple. My own
conception of a Muslim was that of a fierce looking monster. I grew up like
that and finished my school without seeing any in flesh and blood.
It was my first year at college. During the summer break a friend's brother who
was a customs official took the two of us to see the Wagah border post. There I
stood at the no-man's stretch of land facing a boy of my age who had come to
see the border post from Lahore. We were soon talking. We spoke the same
language and the same dialect. We longed to cross over and sit together and
talk more. Dogs were running from this
side to that and back chasing each other in play. There were no barriers for
them. But a soldier of the Pakistan Rangers was keeping a vigil on us. As soon
as I tried to read the English daily that my newly formed friend was holding in
his hand the soldier separated us, "This is not allowed". We
grudgingly moved away from each other. That day I felt very different. So where
were those monsters that I had imagined?
After finishing college when I moved out of my shell at Amritsar and saw the
vast sea of human faces of my country it became so obvious how it is the same
stock, all of us. Only the name will tell you whether you are a Hindu, a Muslim
or for that matter a Christian or someone else. Working in a busy maternity and
paediatric hospital in the walled city of Delhi with a majority of our patients
being poor Muslims from the city and the slums and resettlement colonies for
the last 20 years I see the all prevailing mothers and children with anxieties
and apprehensions common to all of us during the illness of our near and dear
ones. Mothers and grand-mothers and
fathers and grand-fathers overjoyed over the birth of their new-borns and
wailing over the loss of their children. There is no difference. All humans
behave in a similar manner in matters
of joy and sorrow.
There is a realisation; we are the same people. When we see the people from
across the border whether on their arrival here or on the Pak TV we cannot make
out one from the other. Why this animosity? We are living with it for the past
50 years.
But then real brothers also have it for some similar reasons after they start
living separately. It may last for many years, but in due course bones of
contention crumble and cordiality evolves. Their children
relish the kinship and proudly declare in larger gatherings that they are
cousins.
Let the people of this sub-continent rediscover this kinship. Are we at such a
threshold; alas there are more fears than hopes. But then hope sustains us.
This is bound to happen sooner or later.
*To Islamabad and the
FRONTIER, Rajmohan Gandhi, The Hindu, May 26, 2003
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/26/stories/2003052600431000.htm (Via asiapeace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace, An Electronic
Discussion Forum of ACHA, www.asiapeace.org)
Indications of an American
resolve to control world events have made many Pakistanis watchful if not
fearful, and in their nervousness they look wistfully at India.
FOR WHATEVER they may be
worth, let me put down my impressions from a three-day visit to Pakistan made
via Dubai in the third week of May. The visit was primarily for research for a
new study on Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan — I hoped to meet the surviving colleagues
as well as his descendants and also those of his older brother, Khan Sahib.
Before Partition, Dr. Khan Sahib had twice served, in alliance with the Indian
National Congress, as Chief Minister of the Frontier province. In the 1950s, he
became a Minister in Pakistan's Central Cabinet and, later, Chief Minister of a
one-unit West Pakistan.
I must record the tremulous
hope and guarded wistfulness noticeable in Pakistani attitudes towards India.
These reactions were triggered, of course, by Atal Behari Vajpayee's call from
Srinagar for an Indo-Pakistan rapprochement, but they were shaped, too, by
America's intervention in Iraq.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
and accompanying indications of an American resolve to control world events
have made many Pakistanis watchful if not fearful, and in their nervousness
they look wistfully at India.
As they look around for
possible protection, several Pakistanis seem to ask whether friendship with
India might not be one way of obtaining it. In this connection they think of
China, too, of course, and also of Russia, France and Germany, and, despite a
difficult relationship, of Iran as well. Yet, India connotes a distinctiveness
that Pakistanis cannot get over even if they would like to.
A senior officer in the
Pakistani police who, I am sure, also has some intelligence responsibilities
said to me: "We have a natural relationship with India that we do not have
with the Arabs or with Iran. Some things in the Arab world are unacceptable to
us. With Indians we can talk heart-to-heart, not with the rest." He added:
"Indians and Pakistanis should rethink their relations. The border between
us is real but unnatural. The border should remain but similar people live on
either side." "All we need from India," he went on "is some
reassurance of friendship." Men like this Pakistani seem to have
expectations of Mr. Vajpayee and hope that inside the Prime Minister's heart
the poet will overcome the politician.
A key government figure was a
good deal less optimistic. He did not see summitry on the agenda anytime soon,
and he favoured negotiations over every step up the mountain. But he wanted to
know why Mr. Vajpayee made that statement in Srinagar. I replied that I did not
know but my guess I said was that Mr. Vajpayee was at times mindful of
history's verdicts, and also that he probably desired a continuance of the
popular participation he was seeing in Kashmir. I added that when asked what
lay behind his Srinagar utterance, Mr. Vajpayee had answered "Iraq".
The leader in Islamabad I was
talking to thought that it was Mr. Vajpayee's Kashmiri audience that had
elicited his unexpected remarks. Did the remarks, he asked, signify a
substantive shift in the Indian position?
How much backing did Mr. Vajpayee's call have in the Indian Cabinet? As
for American "pressure" on Pakistan and India, the leader claimed
there was no such thing. "All that the Americans provide is
stimulus", he said.
Not surprisingly, Government
personalities and the Pakistani public seemed to differ on the question of
American pressure. The Islamabad Government has to show the Pentagon, the U.S.
State Department, and the White House that it is cooperating with Washington —
it has no other option. Pakistani citizens, on their part, seem deeply
resentful of the new American position.
Anti-establishment opinions
are on occasion voiced in the establishment's halls. On May 15, along with a
few hundred residents of Islamabad, I heard Tariq Ali, the London-based
commentator and activist, deliver the Eqbal Ahmad Memorial lecture in the
auditorium of the National Library. The audience seemed to include former
members of the civil and military wings of the Pakistani Government, academics
and students. A good percentage was that of women. The backdrop for the
outspoken speaker on the stage was a large portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah when
young, surrounded by books.
Mr. Ali made the following
blunt points: The creation of Pakistan had weakened India's Muslim minority.
Also, it was the Pakistani army, and its GHQ, that lost East Pakistan in
1970-72. Not to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rehman to form a Government after he won
the election was the army's decision, and it resulted in Bangladesh.
Coping with the hegemon, Mr.
Ali added, was the challenge before Pakistan now, and it required improved
relations with India. A Kashmir solution would be easier in the context of a
South Asian Economic Union, for which Pakistan should take the initiative, even
if India does not. Jehadis were moving into Kashmir, he said, and Pakistan
should not deny it, but China too should be involved in any India-Pakistan
settlement over Kashmir.
An Islamabad-based analyst
explained Pakistan's media scene to me. Evidently, new TV channels and many
newspapers offer space to criticism of President Pervez Musharraf and the Prime
Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, but if they so choose security agencies
can still make life difficult for individual journalists. Jang, the Urdu paper
with the largest circulation, has apparently called for peace with India. TV
programmes are livelier and less austere than before, and the regional Press is
strong and influential in Sindh, the Frontier, and Balochistan. Anti-India
propaganda seems to have toned down.
Jinnah's secularist side is
now more emphasised than in the past, especially the August 11, 1947, speech in
which Pakistan's founder said that religion was a citizen's personal affair.
The analyst talking to me pointed out that the two newspapers that Jinnah had
founded, Dawn, owned by the Haroon family, and Pakistan Times, which belonged
to Mian Iftikharuddin, once a Congress leader in the Punjab, had a
non-religious tone.
The analyst also spoke of
Pakistan's recent heroes, whether or not famous. Among the well-known ones on
his list are Maulana Edhi, who created a great network for medical relief for
the common person, Akhtar Hameed Khan, who helped thousands of poor women in
Karachi, Eqbal Ahmad, who fought for justice inside and outside Pakistan, the
cricketer, Imran Khan (for his cancer hospital), human rights activists Asma
Jahanguir and I.A. Rehman, and the nuclear scientist committed to peace, Pervez
Hoodbhoy.
Ruled now by parties of the
religious right, the Frontier province emerges soon after one proceeds
westwards from Islamabad. I was lucky to find Ajmal Khan Khattak in his humble
home in Akora Khattak, beyond the Indus. Once Badshah Khan's young lieutenant,
Mr. Khattak spent years with him in Afghanistan and offered a host of memories.
And I was able to meet Badshah
Khan's surviving children, Wali Khan, the famous political figure of the NWFP,
and his half-sister, Mehr Taj, whose husband Yahya Jan, a schoolmaster who
became a Minister in the Frontier, was the brother of the late Mohammed Yunus,
who had made India his home.
Dr. Khan Sahib had three sons
(Sadullah, Obeidullah and Hidayatullah) from his Pathan wife and a son (Jan)
and a daughter (Mariam) from his English wife. None of the five children is
alive. Ghaffar Khan had two sons, the poet-artist, Ghani, and Wali, from his
first wife, who died early, and a daughter (Mehr Taj) and a son (Abdul Ali),
who was the principal of Lahore's reputed Aitchison College, from his second
wife, who also died soon after her children were born.
It was my good fortune to meet
three generations of the Khan brothers' descendants.
*Between India and Pakistan, S. Turkman sturkman@msn.com
Founder of the Third option for Kashmir, (Via asiapeace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace,
An Electronic Discussion Forum of ACHA, www.asiapeace.org)
There could be only a few countries that never had a
Territorial Disputes against their neighbor/neighbors in this world, where
hostilities still exist, outside this Sub Continent. The
Calendars on the walls in the sub-continent should be not say its 2003,
when everybody is living in 1503 still.
The problem is,
they have 16th Century brains in their bodies but have weapons
of 21st Century in their hands. They are fighting for their 500 years old
rights to keep killing or oppressing each other and think, whoever
argues against it is crazy. In the nations, who live in this Space Age,
people like that are sent to Insane Asylum but its impossible to
send hundreds of millions of people to a Mental
Institution. They claim to be more religious than rest of the world but
even their God/gods have failed to help them.
Leaving no choice, should
God not be thinking to let these backwards people annihilate each
other by His own natural 'Survival of the Fittest' Process of
Elimination?
May God have His mercy ...
!
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
*Through July 27, Los Angeles,
CA, USA: GENGHIS KHAN EXHIBIT, featuring the West Asian art during the time
of Genghis Khan at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Bvd.
More info from 323.857.6515
*Through August 17, Chicago, IL,
USA: HIMALAYAS: AN AESTHETIC ADVENTURE, an exhibition of Himalayan art,
featuring 187 masterworks of Buddhist and Hindu art created between the 5th
and the 19th centuries, from Nepal, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh, Tibet and Bhutan, more than one-half of which have never been publicly
exhibited, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
*Through October 19, New York, NY, USA: THE WORLD OF BUDDHISM will
explore the key concepts and imagery of one of the world's great religions, 6:00-9:00 p.m., at Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue at
70th street. Admission: $7 adults; $5 students and senior citizens. Free to
members and children under 16. Free admission Fridays. More info from The World of Buddhism
*Awards for books on Indian subjects
In order to promote scholarship in South Asian
Studies, the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) announces the award of
two prizes each year for the best unpublished book manuscript on an Indian
subject, namely "The Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Indian
Humanities," "The Joseph W. Elder
Prize in the Indian Social Sciences". Only junior scholars who have
received the PhD since 1998 and been
awarded an AIIS Fellowship or participated in an AIIS program (fellowship or
language) are eligible. Send manuscripts, postmarked no later than October 1,
2003, to the Publications Committee Chair, Susan S. Wadley, Anthropology, 209
Maxwell, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 sswadley@maxwell.syr.edu
*Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global
Economy, Kevin Bales , University of California Press, 2000. A book review
by Danny Yee http://dannyreviews.com/h/Disposable_People.html
(Via asiapeace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace, An Electronic Discussion
Forum of ACHA, www.asiapeace.org)
Disposable
People contains five case studies: sex slavery in Thailand; old-fashioned
c