The exile option

THERE is a ray of hope that Iraq may after all be spared death and destruction. The remarks by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday were significant. Mr Powell said President Saddam Hussein’s exile could constitute “regime change” in Baghdad and “we might be able to avoid war.” Mr Powell said he would “encourage” the Iraqi leader to listen to asylum advice, if he was getting it. Even Mr Rumsfeld seemed to be a little less than his usual hawkish self. Speaking on ABC, he said he would “personally recommend” that some provision be made for the exile of President Saddam, top Iraqi leaders and their families. This would be, he said, “a fair trade to avoid war.” The two Bush aides’ remarks come in the wake of media reports that some countries friendly to Iraq are suggesting to President Saddam that he should go on exile. This would constitute a ‘regime change’, and there would be no war-crime trials. Countries where the top Iraqi leadership could seek asylum were also mentioned, but there was no official confirmation from any quarters that any Arab and Muslim country had contacted Baghdad on these lines.

The regrettable aspect of the situation is the continued hardline which the UN continues to follow on Iraq. In his preliminary report, chief UN inspector Hans Blix made it clear that his team had found no “smoking guns”, nor evidence that Baghdad was pursuing a clandestine plan to develop weapons of mass destruction. However, apparently under prodding from the Bush administration, the Blix team now has changed its stance. While Mr Blix did say on Sunday that war was not inevitable, he wanted Iraq’s “very active cooperation.” One is also appalled to see the UN acting contrary to the basic norms of justice by expecting Iraq to prove its innocence rather than the UN inspectors being required to produce the evidence of its guilt. The UN and the world’s sole superpower have failed to come up with any evidence that Iraq has WMDs or is involved in developing these. In fact, following the Security Council resolution of Nov 7, the UN inspectors have returned to Baghdad with enhanced powers. Since then they have been doing their job without any obstructions, and in doing so, they have even gone to the ridiculous extent of searching the drawers of officials and scientists at suspected sites and prying into women secretaries’ diaries. Still, nothing has been found. Now much fuss is being made over four empty chemical warheads.

Clearly, the inspectors have failed to produce anything that could provide Washington with the fig-leaf of a pretext for attacking Iraq. Iraq has come clean. If its 12,000-page declaration contained some gaps, surely the Blix team and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s men would have by now solved the mystery if any. They have failed to do so. Rather than admit this, the two agencies are now trying to lay the blame on Iraq. The whole world can see this subterfuge clearly.

One does not know whether the acceptance of the exile option is the result of worldwide protests against war. Whether or not it is, one must welcome the shift in the American position. Any step that defuses the existing crisis and averts the threat of war will be greeted with a huge sigh of relief all over the world. The real gainers will be the people of Iraq who will be spared further death and destruction.

These guardians of morality

MULTAN’s district coordination officer (DCO) recently boasted that no other city could beat his administration’s campaign against theatre and stage artists. The DCO is reported to have also said that “vulgar and obscene dances” will not be allowed in any of the city’s theatres. The DCO justified the ban by saying that Multan was known as a city of Sufi saints, implying that any kind of dancing or revelry went against its historical past. The issue of what constitutes obscene and vulgar has come into much sharper focus with the rise of the MMA in the October elections. The administration in the NWFP has gone after the province’s cinema houses and video markets in a big way as has been the case in Balochistan. In fact, in Peshawar dancing and music of any kind has been banned, affecting even popular concerts by well-known musicians and bands.

The rising tide of conservatism, coupled with the fact that our officialdom has never looked approvingly on those involved in theatre, music or dance, makes life all the more harder for artists who genuinely want to express their creative energies. Perhaps, the Multan official might have a case since many stage plays performed in theatres have little to do with art or acting and more with suggestive dialogue and gestures. But that does not give a licence any one to make sweeping generalizations denigrating everyone associated with acting. In Multan, action has been taken after a report from a so-called ‘vigilance committee’. This is also a dangerous precedent because sanction for constituting such a body and choosing its members is unclear and because they can assume the role of a de facto moral police. Unfortunately, the Multan DCO seems to have set himself up as a kind of custodian of public morals. What will be his next step? Going after the cable networks? Bureaucrats should try and perform their assigned tasks rather than seek to enforce cultural conformism.

Here we go again

ANOTHER diplomatic tiff has developed between India and Pakistan. India says its charge d’affaires in Islamabad was tailed and harassed by intelligence officials while going out to attend a diplomatic reception. According to the Indian diplomat, it took him an hour and a half to cover a distance that would have taken him barely 10 minutes to reach. The Pakistan foreign office has described the allegation as “totally nonsensical” and suggested that it might be meant to cover up complaints Islamabad had lodged with New Delhi over the harassment of Pakistani diplomats there. Diplomatic missions of the two countries in each other’s capital are already working without high commissioners, following India’s unilateral decision to recall its envoy. Rather than a movement towards restoring full diplomatic relations, we have this new exchange of accusations.

The two countries have a shared history of shadowing each other’s diplomats and even selected non-official visitors. There have also been frequent tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats amidst charges of spying. The veracity of these charges has never been proved or disproved, although everyone knows that all diplomatic missions have intelligence officials working under cover as part of their staff. It is just this that given our subcontinental culture, Indian and Pakistani sleuths, their controllers and those assigned to watch over them tend to be far more boorish at the game. Relations between the two countries are already passing through one of their worst phases. India test-fired another missile on Monday in an act that can only be described as designed to intimidate. It is earnestly to be hoped that the row over diplomats will not be allowed to blow out of proportion and add to the existing acrimony.