-Caveat Lector- http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2002-daily/20-11-2002/oped/o2.htm
Important Notice: Jang Group of Newspapers web site can be accessed only by using http://www.jang.com.pk and http://www.jang-group.com Beyond Iraq to Israel Shireen M Mazari The writer is Director General of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Now that the UN Security Council has ostensibly been given substantive power as reflected in the passage of Resolution 1441 relating to Iraq and the issue of weapons' inspectors, it is hoped that it will move in the same fashion on its other unfulfilled commitments also. Otherwise, the whole facade of neutrality will vanish and the UN will be seen for what it has become: merely an appendage in the implementation of US foreign policy objectives. This would be unfortunate because the facade allows for at least a veneer of international consensus to evolve and give cover to coercive action under the UN cover. And even the US has realised that despite its massive coercive power, the costs of "going it alone" may prove to be too high. So there is a need for even the US to at least sustain this international consensual facade. In that context, then, now that the weapons inspectors are in Iraq, there is a need to pay heed to the Egyptian president's call that Israel's weapons of mass destruction also need to be inspected. After all, Israel's behaviour falls directly in the category of rogue states as defined by the US itself in its National Security Strategy paper. This Paper, inter alia, defines rogue states as those which, * "display no regard for international law, threaten their neighbours, and callously violate international treaties to which they are party; * " are determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction, along with other advanced military technology, to be used as threats or offensively to achieve the aggressive designs of these regimes;"... On these two counts Israel fits the bill as a rogue state, especially given its clandestine nuclear programme, its aggressive policies against not only its neighbours but also against the Muslim world in general, and its massacre of the Palestinian people. In addition, it continues its illegal occupation of Palestinian land and continues to renege on its international commitments in this regard. Worse still, its dismissive attitude towards the UN shows a general contempt for international opinion and norms - as reflected in its continuous rejection of any UN interventions in Palestine. As for weapons of mass destruction, Israel has yet to sign the Biological Weapons Convention and to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention. It has also not acceded to the NPT. So it has stockpiles of all three categories of weapons of mass destruction - and all unregulated by any international treaty! So, if ever there was a case for weapons inspections by UN inspectors, Israel fits the bill! But of course the US has given carte blanche to the Israeli leadership - which presently is headed by a man responsible for the massacre of the Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatilla camps - to do as it wishes with scant regard for any international norms of behaviour. And the worse of it is that the Muslim world is barely audible in its protest on this count. The recent demand by the Egyptian leadership has found no response amongst the Muslim world. No wonder then that the US feels Muslims are fair game to target at will. And this is exactly what is being done under what is becoming more and more a pretext - that of dealing with "al Qaeda" - to hit out arbitrarily across the Muslim world. Take the case of the missiles launched from the UAV in Yemen against a jeep full of people. Given that almost nothing remains of these human beings, we really do not know who these people were. Whether they really were al-Qaeda members will now never be ascertained and the US word for it hardly carries with it a reassuring credibility. After all, US intelligence has hardly been accurate in such cases in the recent past - as shown most brutally by the killing of a wedding party in Afghanistan. In any event, if al-Qaeda suspects had been identified, there is a legal way in which states are to proceed within the territories of other states. They can eventually go for the kill but not in the manner in which they did - simply intruding another state's territory and making a killing. The implications of such an action are too tremendous to contemplate. For instance, any group or person the US dislikes in the Muslim world can now be targeted in a similar fashion and literally annihilated so that no one will ever know the truth - the excuse being "al Qaeda membership!" Even governments who oppose US preemptive policies may be eliminated in this fashion. After all, a simple apology for a mistake can be made later. The element of total anarchy in such an approach is what makes it so dangerous. But then the US with Britain has been doing exactly this on a limited scale in Iraq since the Gulf War - with bombing raids and attacks in the so-called "no-fly zones" whenever their pilots get itchy fingers. One never really knows how many civilians have been killed in such raids or what the intent of many of these raids was. The world is simply informed that some military or communication installation has been attacked - but who can verify the veracity of this claim? Now with the Yemen incident, it appears that the US is simply not in the mood to pay any heed to international norms and treaties relating to inter- state behaviour. This bodes ill for the Muslim world. After all, the US can target any sensitive installation in any Muslim state and simply say that they were going for an "al-Qaeda" target. In the process they may conveniently destroy the sensitive assets, or undermine the governments or opposition groups in these states. It is no wonder then that countries like Malaysia have warned (on November 11) that any covert action by the United States against terrorist targets, such as the missile strike in Yemen, would be unacceptable. Malaysian Defence Minister, Najib Tun Razak, in response to a report that the US State Department coordinator for counter- terrorism, Francis Taylor, had stated that Yemen could be emulated in southeast Asia, told the official Bernama news agency that, "We do not need any foreign interference or foreign troops in the country. We are capable of fighting terrorists." Even the Philippines' response, through President Arroya's spokesman, was in the negative. He stated that any US missile attack in the Philippines without permission "would be an intrusion into our sovereignty". These assertions have come from countries that are strong advocates of the war on terrorism. However, this war is fast degenerating into a coercive and unilateralist assertion of US military power. The result has been that the world is a lot less safe post-9/11 with the most powerful state itself not being able to restore a sense of safety and security within its own citizenry. As for US allies in the war on terrorism, they have seen their societies subjected to increased acts of violence and terror - for example, Pakistan, which has been itself subjected, for the first time, to suicide bombings. Meanwhile, the whole issue of terrorism itself is being conveniently removed from its political context and being absurdly defined in terms of religion - that is Islam. This may make it easier to demonize the "enemy" that the US and its allies have assumed for their own strategic policies, but it hardly helps move the world towards a comprehensive strategy to deal with the very real menace of terrorism, including state terrorism. Therefore, there is a need to take advantage of the new activism of the UN on Iraq and move the UN on its other commitments also, so that there is a move away from US unilateralism with its discriminatory coerciveness. Within the context of weapons inspections in Iraq, the Egyptian call should also be heeded by the Security Council since Israel has also failed to comply with its commitments under UN SC resolutions - a fact that was deplored in the case of Iraq in Resolution 1441. After all, this Resolution re-focuses attention on disarmament through inspections and away from the US objective of seeking regime change, through force if necessary. This new approach to disarmament will also have far-reaching long-term consequences and to negate the impact of discrimination - which can only heighten global instability - on states like Israel, which have reneged on their international commitments, also need to be brought under the purview of Security Council action, not only in terms of weapons' inspection but also in terms of its illegal occupation of Palestine and the ensuing massacre of the Palestinian people. Unless a more equitable approach is adopted by the UN SC, its new activism (or the facade of it) will only accelerate the global descent into instability and chaos where there will be no room for international norms and principles. That will certainly not make the world safe for anyone. The views expressed by the writer are her own <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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