| February 1, 2002 | Friday | Ziqa’ad 17, 1422 |
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Kidnap mystery
The stray dog menace
ONE can understand why certain Arab countries and Muslim groups have reacted negatively to President Bush’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. The focus of the speech was, of course, on terrorism. Given the wounds inflicted on America by the Sept 11 carnage, one can understand the reasons behind American anger and its resolve to avenge itself. It also goes without saying that the quick success of American military action in Afghanistan and the ouster of the Taliban regime have bolstered President Bush’s image. Also, the worldwide support he managed to line up behind the anti-terrorism coalition has strengthened the United States’ belief in the justness of its cause and the righteousness of its policy. Nevertheless, Tuesday’s speech contains all the elements that should make America’s well-wishers feel concerned about possible swerves in its anti-terrorism campaign.
While there is no doubt that the war on terror should continue, there were disturbing hints in the president’s speech of military action against what he called the “axis of evil” — meaning thereby Iraq, Iran and North Korea. None of these countries is aiding terrorists or providing sanctuaries to them. Iran, of course, has links with Hezbollah, but that does not in any way make Iran a supporter of terrorism. Hezbollah has played a commendable role in resisting Israeli occupation, and to it goes the credit for liberating southern Lebanon after twenty-two years of Israeli occupation. The other charge against the “axis of evil” is their reported plans to acquire weapons of mass destruction. However, the truth is that Iraq has been so thoroughly “inspected” that all of its projects for weapons of mass destruction stand destroyed. Similarly, there is no evidence that Iran and North Korea are anywhere close to building a nuclear device. Yet, if having weapons of mass destruction or plans to acquire them is a crime, then it is Israel that should be the focus of American attention.
A greater anomaly in Mr Bush’s speech is his unwillingness to differentiate between terrorists and freedom fighters. Palestinians and Kashmiris are fighting for freedom, and they will not rest until they have secured it. To bracket freedom fighters with terrorists is to pervert the meaning of the two words. While terrorists are evil men whose targets are innocent people, freedom fighters resist those robbing them of freedom. Theirs is a noble struggle which is invariably crowned with success. In the case of Palestine and Kashmir, the boot is on the other foot, for it is Israel and India which have been guilty of state terrorism. Regrettably, the Bush speech contains no censure of these two violators of human rights. Instead, it targets Iran, Iraq and North Korea, none of which is in possession of someone else’s territory.
Terrorism, no doubt, is a reprehensible phenomenon and deserves to be condemned and rooted out. But a total elimination of terrorism is not possible without getting to grips with the problems that give rise to militancy as a weapon of last resort. The Bush speech is silent on this. Unresolved disputes, the unjust global economic system, Third World poverty, transfer of technology, trade barriers, global warming — all these find no mention in the president’s speech. One hopes Washington will see terrorism in its world as well as regional perspectives and make attempt to tackle the causes that give rise to terror and violence as a mode of political action. Widening the scope of the war on terrorism is not without grave risks and hazards that would be wholly unwise to ignore or underestimate.
AS the deadline for his threatened execution draws nearer, the mystery surrounding the kidnapping of an American journalist in Karachi shows little sign of being solved. The authorities are deeply concerned about the latest e-mail message from a group that claims to have kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The message from the obscure National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, brands Pearl as a Mossad agent and threatens to kill him in 24 hours if certain demands are not met. The deadline was to expire shortly before midnight yesterday. Among the demands for his release is better treatment for the Pakistani prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay US base in Cuba. The message also asks all US journalists to leave Pakistan within 72 hours or face serious consequences. The police, meanwhile, have been desperately trying to make a breakthrough and is working on a number of leads. The plight of the kidnapped reporter is causing great concern in the US and figured in a recent conversation between President Musharraf and US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Pearl was working on a story about alleged ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid when he was kidnapped on January 23. He had been interviewing leaders of a number of militant groups across the country. Police believe that the kidnappers had laid a trap for Pearl by offering to arrange a meeting between him and Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, the leader of a small militant Islamic group. While investigators have held Gilani for questioning, the religious leader denies any knowledge of the kidnapping or the journalist’s whereabouts. The authorities are faced with a major challenge to swiftly trace Pearl and arrest his abductors before they carry out their dire threat. If any harm comes to the journalist, it will do untold damage to Pakistan by presenting it as a country unsafe for foreign journalists operating there.
IT is quite unfortunate that government or private hospitals in a city the size of Karachi, and with a stray dog population to match, do not have adequate stocks of a particularly potent vaccine against rabies. In recent months, the city’s population of stray dogs has increased quite dramatically and so have the number of cases of people being bitten. In fact, in many neighbourhoods the situation is so bad that even a walk on the street with one’s family becomes quite a hazardous affair. Hundreds of people have been bitten, including, according to one estimate, 150 children. In fact, these numbers reflect only cases reported to the main hospitals and the actual figure could be much higher. To make matters worse, the victims are not able to get proper treatment because the more potent ‘human cell’ vaccine, which doctors say is most effective against rabies, is generally not available. Instead, a much cheaper, but less effective, vaccine is used. Cases have been reported where people treated with this vaccine failed to recover and eventually died.
Clearly, something needs to be done so that people do not die just because our hospitals do not have the money to afford a life-saving medication. A situation that could have been entirely avoided in the first place has been allowed to develop to a point where the safety of anyone who walks the street is under threat. If shortage of funds is the main constraint, the government must consider subsidizing the production of the more potent strain of the anti-rabies vaccine to make it affordable for the poorer section of the patients. The other imperative is for the city government to immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the growing hordes of stray dogs running all over Karachi’s neighbourhoods and posing a threat to the safety of unwary residents.