| April 28, 2003 | Monday | Safar 25, 1424 |
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Law alone won’t do
Cell phones for Northern Areas
HAVING deeply divided the world by launching a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, the US seems determined to continue with this reckless strategy after the war is over. A series of recent US moves suggests that the Iraq episode has only emboldened Washington and further strengthened its unilateralist impulses. The swift overthrow of the Saddam regime seems to have strengthened the resolve of the hawks in the White House and convinced them that the best way forward for America is to disregard world opinion and to do exactly as it pleases in defence of its perceived interests. What is disturbing is that instead of becoming wiser by the events preceding and following the war, the US seems impatient to settle old scores. The UN, whose will was flagrantly flouted over Iraq, appears to be the main target of ire, followed by France and Russia. The world body as well as certain ‘disloyal’ powers must now be punished, or at least sidelined, for not bowing to the will of the US over Iraq. This arrogant attitude was reflected in petulant statements by senior officials that the UN would have absolutely no say in the formation of a future interim government in Iraq.
More recently, the US has rejected calls from members of the international community to widen the scope of the investigations being conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission into the crimes of the Saddam regime. Some member countries wanted the UN human rights rapporteur in Iraq to go beyond investigating crimes committed by the Saddam regime and look at the actions of US and British troops during and after the war. Washington reacted angrily to such suggestions and quickly blocked any such move. France and Russia too are being openly threatened for opposing the war on Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said that his country would now have to seriously reconsider its relations with France, threatening a whole range of punitive measures, including a downgrading of France’s role in Nato. Another example of the belligerent and triumphalist mood that has lately gripped Washington came into view when a majority of the US Congress called on the Bush administration to sideline the EU, Russia and the UN from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Congressmen believe that there is a deep pro-Palestinian bias among America’s partners in the “quartet” that formulated the new ‘roadmap for peace’ in the Middle East and have asked Bush not to give Russia or the UN any monitoring role in the process.
Washington’s current unilateralist mood is a dangerous one. It must be tempered with a more consensual approach on world issues if serious future discord is to be avoided. Its actions are creating large pockets of anger and resentment across the globe. The massive anti-US rallies against the attack on Iraq were just the tip of the iceberg. There is deep public revulsion in Europe at the arrogant unilateralism that currently defines US policy. The Arab and Muslim world is deeply perturbed by the current drift of American policies and the dire threats being hurled at Muslim nations like Syria and Iran. The situation in Iraq too remains extremely volatile, with the ‘liberators’ finding that the Iraqis are not as friendly towards them as they had anticipated. If America persists in arrogantly remoulding the world according to its wishes, a massive global backlash is the likeliest of consequences.
IT is encouraging to learn that representatives of all major political parties told a consultative meeting the other day that they would vote in favour of legislation outlawing karo-kari or so-called honour killing. However, so far no such bill has been presented in either the national or any of the provincial assemblies. And even if there were such a law, to expect honour killings to disappear overnight would be unrealistic. The curse of karo-kari, and other reprehensible customs like swara, cannot be eradicated with laws alone because over time they have become deeply embedded in the psyche of some segments of our population. It would be naive to believe that passage of a tough law alone would suffice as a deterrent to honour killings, and such other cruel and hideous customs and tribal practices.
Customs like karo-kari, swara or the systems of parallel justice — the panchayat and the jirga — have deep roots in our society’s tribal and feudal traditions. They have been around for hundreds of years and will not go away unless there is a concerted effort by the more enlightened segments of society to create public awareness of how vicious and inhuman they are. Any future legislation against the abhorrent custom of karo-kari will have to be fortified by the certainty of its enforcement and also by a mass awareness campaign to educate the people about its brutal and discriminatory nature. People must be told that customs like karo-kari have no place in any civilized society and that respect for women is a matter on which there can be no compromise. One important point to stress in this context is that a woman does not lose her respect or dignity, or bring her family into disrepute if she talks to a man who is not her relation. The attitudes of the police and the courts will also have to be changed because without the willing cooperation and assistance of these institutions it will not be possible to prosecute those who commit karo-kari and other heinous crimes against women.
THE government’s decision to extend cellular phone services to Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas is a positive step forward. Harsh mountainous terrain and bad weather conditions routinely cut off these areas from the rest of the country. The existing communications infrastructure is also prone to frequent breakdowns as a result. A mobile phone service would be of particular benefit to residents of small villages in the remote mountainous regions of AJK and the Northern Areas. The facility will also help the authorities deal more efficiently with emergency and relief work. Large parts of the area that will benefit fall in an earthquake-prone zone, where landslides, avalanches and the resulting closure of roads are common occurrences.
The cellular phone service could act as a catalyst for change in the remote areas and contribute to the economic uplift of these regions, as similar experiments in Bangladesh have shown. Reliable communications can translate into the growth of sustainable small and medium-scale business opportunities and support the various cottage industries in the mountainous region. It will also be possible to get locally produced handicraft out to markets in the rest of the country. As the next logical step, the authorities should consider offering loans through public banks to local people for setting up small-scale businesses and streamlining the existing cottage industry. This has already happened in other, relatively better connected, mountainous areas of the country. There is no reason why it could not happen in other remote areas once reliable lines of communication are established linking them with the rest of the country.