'All we are saying ...' say Asian activists
By Satya Sivaraman

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - While the US-led military strikes in Afghanistan have the support of most Asian governments, they are being opposed by a growing number of peace activists in the region, who question the policy of combating violence with violence.

From non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and interfaith groups to green and leftist activists, there is concern that the ongoing war, coming at a time of deepening economic recession, can only cause widespread grief and misery in the region and increase social and political tensions within their own countries.

"We do not believe that war can be a solution to terrorism. War - such as what the United States and the NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] forces are initiating - is in fact organized terrorism on a much higher scale, with a much higher casualty figure," says Sonny Melencio, head of the Socialist Party of Labor, a leftist organization in the Philippines.

Left-wing, church and student organizations in the Philippines have led a barrage of protests outside the US embassy in Manila almost every day since the September 11 attacks. They condemn terrorism but also strongly oppose Washington's plans to go to war on the issue.

In South Korea on October 10, over 756 citizens groups, including the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, signed a petition urging government not to aid Washington's campaign against Afghanistan. In a statement the groups said, "Terrorism cannot be justified in any way; neither can any retaliation war be. The war killing innocent civilians of Afghanistan should be stopped immediately."

There have been similar statements and protest rallies outside US embassies against the war in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi and Islamabad.

In Pakistan, where the international attention has predictably focused only on hundreds of radical Muslims protesting their government's support to the US military action, there have been numerous rallies for peace organized by secular trade union and citizen's groups.

A large number of women activists participated in a peace rally in Lahore on September 25, chanting slogans against terrorism and religious fundamentalism, but also warning the United States not to bomb Afghan cities. The rally was organized by Women Workers Help Line in collaboration with the Labor Party of Pakistan and the Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights.

Speaking at the peace rally, Asma Jahangir, the former chairperson of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, said the Pakistani people do not need any advice from United States to fight terrorism. "As victims of terrorism for long time, we know it very well what does it mean to humanity. We have all the sympathies with the victims of the September 11 victims. But we do not want more bloodshed of innocent people," she said.

In neighboring India, where the Hindu fundamentalist government has extended unconditional support to the US policy against Afghanistan, peace groups have sprung all over the country to mobilize against the war.

In Calcutta, the stronghold of the Indian left movement, thousands of left-wing activists protested outside the US consulate soon after the first air strikes against the Taliban regime, demanding an immediate end to the war and to find a political solution to the problem of terrorism. Similar rallies have been reported from all other major Indian cities like Delhi, Bombay and Madras.

For many Asian civil society groups, both the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the ongoing US war on terrorism are seen as a major setback on a variety of fronts, particularly human rights.

"We expect our government to use terrorism as an excuse to further clamp down on dissident groups of all shades apart from increasing the already high militarization that prevails in the country," says Rasti Delizo, a leading organizer with Sanlakas, a social activist group in the Philippines.

Faced with a long running and bloody separatist rebellion in the south, partly led by an extremist Islamic group, they fear that the Philippines government will take the new international mood against terrorism to violate the human rights of the country's minorities.

In India, too, activist groups, already campaigning against their right-wing government's anti-minority bias, are bracing for more severe persecution of the country's Muslim population and also a clampdown on civil liberties activists. In an ominous sign of things to come, five activists of the All India People's Resistance Forum were arrested in the second week of October for distributing anti-war pamphlets in New Delhi.

Further east in South Korea and Japan, one of the major issues that anti-war activists are concerned about is the growing right-wing agenda of the Japanese government. Japan has offered to send troops for "humanitarian" purposes to help the United States and its allies in their war against Afghanistan, raising fears of a possible attempt at remilitarization of the country.

"With the United States seen to be openly and rashly endorsing a military solution to what is essentially a political problem there is bound to be a spurt in militarization around the region and increased tensions over various issues," says Filipino activist Melencio.

For many of the anti-war activists and groups, many of whom were until recently at the forefront of the anti-globalization movement, the emerging scenario is fraught with great dangers as well as possibilities.

If they can provide the vision and leadership for meaningful social and economic change, the anti-war groups could find a receptive audience among Asian citizens looking for an alternative to current policies. Failure to do so could result in a long period of chaos and turmoil throughout the region.

(Inter Press Service)