| November 11, 2002 | Monday | Ramazan 5, 1423 |
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Toxic effluent tragedy
Baby snatching
IN A debate that could have far-reaching repercussions for the US-led war on terror, an important section of opinion in the Pentagon has urged a radical shift in Washington’s priorities and tactics in Afghanistan. Senior military figures and political analysts believe that the US must deemphasize the military aspect of its operation in Afghanistan now and focus more on reconstructing work in the war-ravaged country. In the opinion of many senior analysts, including chairman joint US chiefs of staff General Richard B. Myers, that would be the best way to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a hub of terrorist activities once again. The CIA seems to have thrown its weight behind such a policy shift. In a recent assessment, the agency pointed to the poor security situation in large parts of the country and stated that “reconstruction may be the single most important factor in increasing security throughout Afghanistan and preventing it from again becoming a haven for terrorists”. For President Hamid Karzai, the shift will be a welcome one as it would provide much needed jobs for his people and jump-start economic activity.
However, there are important figures within the Bush administration who have deep misgivings about involvement in any nation-building efforts. There are also doubts if the US has the will or the inclination to tackle Afghanistan’s problem number one: the presence of powerful regional warlords who are a law unto themselves and do not recognize the writ of the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul. The problem for the US is that these warlords, who at one time were used by Washington in its war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, are now a source of much insecurity and lawlessness in Afghanistan, being well armed and restored to their fiefdoms.
The crucial question is whether the US is willing to turn its guns against its erstwhile allies to bolster the authority of the Karzai government. Unfortunately, the reconstruction of Afghanistan is intimately linked to the ability of the central government to maintain law and order across the country. This is essential to gain the confidence of donors who have withheld funds earmarked for such activity because of the poor law and order situation. One only hopes that Washington opts to back the reconstruction effort and strengthen Hamid Karzai’s hands.
While return of peace and normality to Afghanistan is likely to be a stabilizing factor for the region, it is still only part of the story. Following the ouster of the Taliban, the Al Qaeda network has been quick to regroup in countries across the globe. The best long-term strategy to fight the menace of terrorism is for the US to seriously rethink its policies in the region. At the heart of the matter is the question of Palestine, where efforts for a just solution must be urgently revived. Every atrocity committed against the hapless Palestinians by an Israel fully supported and bankrolled by the US provokes deep anger in the Muslim world and creates more recruits for militant groups. In the long run, militancy will be defeated not by guns and bombs alone but by removing its root causes.
THERE should be a lesson in what happened to three ten-year-old boys who suffered third-degree burns while playing in a pond in a Karachi suburb the other day. The water contained toxic waste that was disposed of, presumably, by a small-scale chemical industry or a construction unit operating in the neighbourhood. Initial medical reports suggest that the affected boys might lose their lower limbs as a result of the burns caused by the high level of sulphuric acid found in the pond. The dreadful consequences for the stricken children could have been avoided if waste disposal of this kind were not permitted or made possible and if the civic and environmental agencies had been vigilant and done their job properly. It is downright criminal that the young boys in question should now be paying a terrible price for someone else’s neglect.
There is only one logical conclusion to be drawn: the agencies assigned to keep tabs on sewage as well as industrial effluent and waste disposal and environmental degradation are not doing their job properly. If the civic bodies are apathetic and casual, so are the environmental agencies that are there to keep a watch and initiate preventive and penal action wherever called for under the 1997 environmental protection law. Many unauthorised small manufacturing units are located in, or close to, residential areas in cities and small towns, creating serious problems affecting people’s health and environment through their toxic emissions and effluent. These ought to be identified and shifted to safer locations. Unless the problem is tackled by the relevant agencies with the urgency it deserves, tragic cases of physical damage and deformities like the one caused by contaminated water to three children in Karachi the other day will continue to recur.
THE return of a newly born baby to her parents a day after she was abducted from Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi is a happy end to a short but traumatic saga. The baby girl was kidnapped on Tuesday from her incubator in the nursery ward of the hospital by a man posing to be the grandfather. The next day the same man and his woman accomplice brought the baby back to the hospital, apparently after reading about the abduction in the newspapers. The couple has been detained by the police for questioning and investigation. What is of concern is that another such baby kidnapping had taken place in the same hospital in April last year, and two years ago, two newborn babies were abducted from Rawalpindi General Hospital within consecutive months. The obvious remedy, as with all crimes, is exemplary punishment for the abductors. But the ease with which these abductors have been able to carry out their crime posing as a nurse in one case, a doctor in last year’s abduction at Holy Family Hospital, and in the latest case, grandfather of the child, says something about the security arrangements, or rather the lack of it, in these hospitals.
Hospitals in Rawalpindi should have been on constant alert, particularly since such abductions have been taking place since 2000. That so far the motive for these kidnappings has been fuelled by social pressure to have an offspring whatever the cost, rather than a baby stealing and selling racket at work, does not mean that the hospital authorities can afford to be complacent about security, particularly in the nursery ward. Entry into hospitals could be tightened, for example, with all visitors having to record their personal particulars in a register.
It is obvious that this crime also needs to be tackled at the social level. In the latest case, the baby was kidnapped for a woman who had been threatened with divorce by her in-laws because she was issueless. In last year’s abduction from the same hospital, the woman for whom the baby was kidnapped was also childless. There is need to neutralize this social pressure on women on this score by means of social awareness and education, and also through the institution of proper adoption agencies from where issueless parents can have the chance to become proud parents.