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Islamic terror in Moscow
Atul Rawat
IN one of the most serious
terrorist crimes in Russia in recent past some forty to
fifty Islamic terrorists from Chechnya have taken around one
thousand people hostage in a Moscow theatre last Wednesday
(October 23, 2002). They are demanding that the Russ ians
should stop the anti-terrorist operations in the Islamic
terror infested province of Chechnya within one week. They
have claimed to be a “suicide squad”. The media has reported
that the terrorists have separated children from their
parents at the time of hostage, killed
one woman and injured two others who tried to escape from
their clutches.
The reports indicate that
the Chechen Islamic terrorists have connections not only in
Chechnya but also in Turkey and United Arab Emirates as they
made a few telephonic calls to these countries. According to
some reports the leader of this terrorist gang
is Mousar Baraver who is
reportedly a nephew of a Chechen warlord Arbi Baravev. The
Qatar based television channel Al Jazeera has broadcast a
statement from inside the theatre in which one of the
terrorists has claimed that: “I swear by God (thar) we are
more keen on dying than you are keen on living.” One of the
woman terrorists who were wearing a veil threatened the
world that “Even if we are killed, thousands of brothers and
sisters will come after us, ready to sacrifice themselves.”
Meanwhile, President
Vladimir Putin, the iron man of modern Russia who had come
to power with a popular mandate to crush the Islamic terror
and who was successful also in fulfilling his duty, has
termed the act as a “major” terrorist act in the world. This
crisis has come as a major challenge to him. President Putin
has claimed rightly that the hostage crisis has been created
by “the same people who had organised the Bali bombings…”
Though the Russian
President was firm in his resolve to liberate the people in
the theatre but at the same time he sounded to be cautious:
“The objective of our special services is to prepare the
liberation of the hostages while at the same time
guaranteeing maximum security for them.”
A remarkable change can be
seen in the Western response towards the Chechen violence in
the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 incident in New
York. While earlier the major Western countries wee
pro-Chechen rebels, now they have all come to understand the
true nature of Islamic secessionism be it in Kashmir or
Chechnya. But they are not able to rise above the petty
politics of appeasement as played at the world level. That
is why they seek to appease Pakistan despite understanding
the reality in Kashmir.
It is a positive sign that both the USA and Britain have
shown their sympathy and support to Russia at this juncture
against the common enemy—the Islamic fundamentalism. The
battle against the Islamic terrorism cannot be won until and
unless these great powers take a
similar judicious approach towards the Islamic terror in
Kashmir also.
Bali blast part of grand
jehadi design
Jose Ramos-Horta
Terrorists have struck
again, this time at the peaceful and gentle Indonesian
island of Bali. However, while the Bali terror attack has
had massive media coverage and provoked the world’s
revulsion, it is a sad fact that an Islamic terror network,
the Las kar
Jihad, has been operating in the sprawling archipelago for
the past few years, wrecking havoc and causing the death of
thousands of innocent human beings without eliciting much
international reaction.
The terrorist attack in
Bali is part of a two-pronged extremist strategy. One, it is
consistent with the grand design of the Muslim fanatics in
turning the entire region into a conservative haven modelled
after the Taliban version of the ideal Muslim world.
To achieve this end, they
must drive out the United States from the region. Without a
strong US presence here, the governments in the region would
have enormous difficulties surviving. Two, Bali, a Hindu
bastion in an otherwise Muslim archipelago, is a natural
target for the extremists.
The attack on Bali is
reminiscent of the relentless war waged by well-armed thugs
of the Lashkar Jihad against Ambon, a once peaceful enclave
in Eastern Indonesia where Christian and Muslim communities
co-existed harmoniously for generations. It is estimated
that as many as 10,000 people have died in the last three
years and some 600,000 have been displaced.
Violence has been rampant
elsewhere in the archipelago, from Kalimantan to Aceh and
West Papua, where thousands have died and hundreds of
thousands have become homeless and displaced.
In the best of times, this
vast archipelago of 17,000 islands inhabited by 220 million
people of 200 distinct ethnic background is a very difficult
place to govern. The Indonesian authorities under President
Megawati Sukarnoputri have made genuine efforts to lay the
foundations of a democratic State after more than three
decades of a corrupt and dictatorial regime, when the army
was above the law and enjoyed complete impunity. Attempt at
reforms of the finance and banking sectors, police and armed
forces and of the
corrupt judiciary have progressed at a snail’s pace, with
contrary interests continuously trying to derail them.
The President, with the
support of her two most loyal and competent ministers,
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hassan Wirajuda, is trying to
confront the terrorist threat but is moving cautiously, some
say too cautiously, so as not to ignite a violent Muslim
backlash against her Government. The United States and
others must continue to support the Government of
Sukarnoputri as she offers the best guarantee that Indonesia
will remain a pluralistic and secular State.
Maybe the Bali tragedy has
finally awakened the Indonesian people and their leaders to
the threat of the radical Islamic groups. While there is no
doubt that the Government is conscious of the menace to the
country’s integrity and stability and is determi ned
to face this menace, there are few means at its disposal to
launch an effective clampdown on the terrorists. One
institution that could be used to decapitate the extremists
is the army intelligence apparatus.
But there are questions
about the loyalty and integrity of this intelligence service
that, after all, does not have clean hands. The fight
against International Terror Inc. will be a long one and
will carry heavy costs. However, it can be won. If the rich
in the North and the rich elite in the South forge a social
strategic partnership to eradicate poverty and improve the
lives of the Earth’s wretched, we eliminate one source of
instability and deny the fanatics a fertile ground for their
terrorist schools.
My country, East Timor, is
very vulnerable to the terrorist threat. We are 98 per cent
devout Catholics sharing a common land border and a very
porous vast maritime area with the largest Islamic nation in
the world. I appeal to the United States and our neighbours
to assist our infant nation in protecting itself and
preventing it from becoming a victim of the terror network.
(The author: a nobel Peace
Prize laureate, is the foreign minister of East Timor)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer) |
