Mumbai terror attack posers

The recent terror attacks in Mumbai which left some 20 persons dead and scores injured, meet with our unreserved and vehement condemnation. We join the rest of the civilized world in offering our heart-felt condolences to the Indian state, its people and to very particularly those who were affected by the lethal attacks. Such expressions of sorrow and of moral solidarity come easy to us in Sri Lanka, who, for long years, endured the unmitigated bestiality of the LTTE.

Investigations on these attacks are ongoing in India and observers would do well not to prejudge the issue by pointing accusing fingers in any direction, but it is plain to see that terror is continuing to stalk parts of South Asia, although we in Sri Lanka are free of LTTE terror. However, our fraternal links with India and other neighbours are so strong that we would consider a terror attack on one of them as an attack on ourselves and be so concerned as to extend to the affected state help in any form to relieve it of its anguish. Besides, we consider it incumbent on ourselves to share with them our expertise in fighting terror.

As we have come to realize, we need to always unleash a two-pronged attack on terror. On the one hand, it needs to be dealt with militarily and quashed through the use of law and order measures, as Sri Lanka has already done in the case of the LTTE. On the other, the terror phenomenon should be tackled at its roots through the application of a political solution to the vexed issue. That is, the genesis or the seeds of the violence concerned must be ascertained, and these must be eliminated by peaceful means. The Sri Lankan state having accomplished the first enterprise is now engaged in the second, through the evolution of peaceful measures that address the outstanding grievances of the North-East people.

India has been foremost in showing the world the effectiveness of this double-pronged approach to fighting political terrorism. The gnarled Sikh rebellion and scores of other insurrections which have erupted all over India over the decades come easily to mind. To be sure, India 'fought fire with fire', but it also ensured that the roots of rebellion were uprooted through the application of peaceful measures to eliminate public grievances once the terror threat was defused by military means. Punjab today is a largely peaceful state but in the mid eighties it was a chronically violence-afflicted one. 'Operation Blue Star' launched by the Indian state, put an end to the military capability of the Sikh extremists who were fighting the Indian centre, but peaceful measures were soon put in place to manage the roots of the violence.

Pakistan, another close friend of Sri Lanka, is also up against the terror phenomenon and is currently doing its utmost to manage the problem while keeping in place the structures of democracy. We hardly need mention Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province, for instance, which has been chronically conflict-ridden over the years. It could be said that Pakistan is facing the brunt of efforts by sections of the world community to contain terror by military means.

The point that needs to be stressed is that the majority of South Asian states are no stranger to political terrorism. They have suffered severely at the hands of terrorists who have had no inkling of what it means to be human, as a result of losing their humanity in the thick of rebellion. But these states have, over the years, acquired a vast store house of knowledge on how the terror phenomenon ought to be managed. Sri Lanka, for instance, is now in a position to advise conflict-hit states on how terror could be confronted militarily and put down.

It would be fatal to be smugly complacent on these questions. Poverty breeds conflicts, so does wealth and prosperity. Ethnicity is aggravated by both deprivation and wealth. For instance, rising prosperity among some sections of the Sikh population in India, prompted them take up the cry for a separate state within the Indian Union.

Right now, there are sections within India which are apparently continuing to entertain the misguided notion that violence could earn for them a measure of power. It is up to Indian social scientists and other knowledgeable sections, to study the reasons for the persistence of political violence within the Union. Meanwhile, the SAARC community needs to pool its expertise more effectively, abundantly and systematically than ever before, to manage terror by military means in the short and medium terms.

Despite SAARC possessing the necessary conventions which make provision for it to pool its expertise and resources to fight and defeat terror, this has not been happening to the desired degree over the years. Incidents, such as the Mumbai attacks, should remind SAARC of the urgency of this task.