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Three months after the attacks on the Pentagon
in Washington and the New
York Twin Towers, the wave of globalization that has engulfed
the world
is now subject to "Infinite Justice". Can a global
war on terrorism,
conducted by a coalition of Western powers, be a systemic response
to
terrorism without imposing terror and massive "collateral
damage" on
innocent civil populations? Can we consider carpet bombing countries
such as Afghanistan a "holistic" or a "targeted"
strategy against
terrorism, when, at the same time, some members of the coalition
are
unable to eradicate their own persistent terrorism secreted by
local
political groups - IRA (Basque country), ETA (Northern Ireland)
or FLNC
(Corsica) to name a few ? Action and reaction: the advent to
power of
Vladimir Poutine, George Bush II and Ariel Sharon coincided with
a
recrudescence of violence, terror and terrorism.
In times of war, propaganda and self-censorship
are recurrent patterns
that endanger the free press; the quality of information is often
affected. These patterns already emerged in 1991 during the Gulf
war -
the first informational war. Ten years after, it is obvious that
the
same mistakes, the same perceptions and interpretations are repeated
in
the media coverage of this new war which is promised to be as
global as
the globalization of terrorism. We did not learn anything from
the Gulf
war syndromes: in a certain manner the (low-tech) attacks on
the
Pentagon and the Twin Towers are the collateral results/continuation
of
this high-tech war which dropped 89'000 tons of bombs on Iraq,
killed
100'000-300'000 Iraqis and allowed the permanent establishment
of US
military bases in the Arabic peninsula - the "Holy Land"
of 1.2 billion
believers in Islam (one-fifth of the world's population).
In response to propaganda and self-censorship
which always tend to
reinforce the central paradigms of the dominant actors of a conflict
("Us and Them", "The Battle of Good Against Evil",
"Crusades against
Islamic terrorism", "Civilization versus Chaos"),
it is vital to
maintain critical viewpoints. This corresponds to a dietetics
of
information. The Post September Press Review which covers the
war in
Afghanistan is proposed as an alternative source of information
and
reflection. This press review has privileged thought-provoking
comments,
articles and essays from outstanding journalists, writers, university
professors. In a certain manner, this introduction to a collection
of
editorials and essays reflects the concerns and the emergence
of a civil
society worldwide which gradually is gaining its official recognition
(after the international conferences of Seattle, Göteborg,
Genova,
Durban). The Post September 11 Press Review tends to manifest
the
diversity of viewpoints, the size and the complexity of Middle
East and
Central Asia problems. It seeks to analyze these problems at
a deeper
level, on the assumption that terrorism is a symptom and not
a cause of
major social, political and economic issues faced by the world
today:
fractal inequality, injustice, violence, under-development, illiteracy,
pollution,...
One can see clearly signs of the New Age
of Ignorance: the more the
world is complex, interdependent and multicultural, the more
global
policies that pretend to regulate it are linear, deterministic
and
"monocultural".
RB
__________________________________________
The following press review has been prepared
by Reda Benkirane* as a
weekly contribution to the electronic bulletin "Behind the
News: Visions
for Peace - Voices of Faith", a joint initiative of three
ecumenical
NGOs (ACT International, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, World
Council of
Churches) launched after September 11 to provide alternative
perspectives and provocative reflections on the current situation.
The Post September 11 Press Review is also
available in Word
and PDF
* Reda Benkirane is a sociologist
and a consultant for the United
Nations (UNCTAD) and for ecumenical NGO's (WCC, EAA) in Geneva,
Switzerland. He is author of "Jahiliya", a sociological
reflection on
the Arab world and contemporary Islam (to be published in 2002).
__________________________________________
The Post September 11 Press Review :
A Critical Look at the War on
Terrorism
13 December 2001
Michael T. Klare's comment, "Wars
Without End", published in The Nation
anticipates the next US punitive military actions which will
follow the
war in Afghanistan. After an easy victory in Afghanistan and
despite the
fact that the war objective No.1 - the killing or the capture
of Bin
Laden - has still not be achieved, the general feeling is that
massive
bombings work and can be the panacea for future US military actions.
The
Pentagon, which has the support of an overwhelming majority of
the
American public, is eager to look for new adversaries. An expanded
war
against terrorism, with so many options and fronts envisaged
(Iraq,
Somalia, Sudan, Philippines, Lebanon, West Bank, Syria, Iran
and
Northern Korea), argues Klare, will lead the United States to
be
involved in "one uncontrollable conflagration after another".
The author
denounces a military campaign which would go beyond the destruction
of
Al Qaeda. He also fears a growing resistance from local populations
affected in a way or another by future US military operations.
A wider
war against terrorism, as it is currently promoted by some strategists
and politicians, could expose the United States, its soldiers
and its
citizens, to more deadly violence and more irreducible enemies
all
around the world.
http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=20011224&s=klare
The recent fortune of the Arabic word 'Jihad'
is stunning many Muslims
intellectuals. One of them, Farish A. Noor, a political scientist
and a
human rights activist, member of the Institute for Strategic
and
International Studies (ISIS) in Malaysia, explores the different
meanings of this word in "The Evolution of 'Jihad' in
Islamist Political
Discourse: How a Plastic Concept Became Harder". Published
on the web
site of the Social Science Research Council (New York), this
article
seeks to track the original semantic context and the precise
theological
justification of this concept. The author reminds readers that
'Jihad'
means 'to struggle', ' to expand effort' and the term is not
linked to
political or military violence. Noor reports that the Prophet
Muhammad
himself described the 'greater Jihad' as a personal, internal,
existential struggle with one's self and the 'lesser Jihad' as
a
struggle for self-defence. It is the latter which has been popularized
and its meaning has been distorted, due to its political interpretation
by Islamist leaders and the international media hype which has
contributed to propagate an erroneous comprehension of the 'Jihad'.
Farish A. Noor calls for a 'Jihad' which will overcome ignorance,
poverty and injustice within the Muslim world.
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/noor.htm
In "Deported... Disappeared?"
Amy Bach relates in The Nation the tragic
story of Ghassan Dahduli, a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport
and
leader of the Islamic Association for Palestine, an Illinois-based
nonprofit with an office in Texas known by the FBI for its alleged
ties
to Hamas. Ghassan Dahduli is one of the many persons who has
been
detained after the attacks of September 11. His wife has lived
23 years
in the US and his five children are all US citizens. All left
the United
States for Jordan to follow Ghassan who has preferred to be deported
since he refused to be an informant for the FBI. Ghassan Dahduli
is now
in Jordan where none of his family has the possibility to meet
him.
Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International,
do
not exclude that he could be tortured.
http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=20011224&s=bach
Robert Fisk reports another tragic story,
which happened to himself last
week in Kila Abdullah near the Afghan-Pakistan border on his
way back
from his coverage of Mazar-i-Sharif massacres. In "My
beating by
refugees is a symbol of the hatred and fury of this filthy war",
the
Middle East correspondent of The Independent describes how he
was beaten
and severely injured by a furious crowd of refugees. After this
traumatic event, where dozens of angry men were near to lynching
him
with stones, Robert Fisk still tries to understand the resentment
of his
assailants who had in memory recent television images of war
crimes
committed in Mazar-i-Sharif during the - holy - month of Ramadan.
"I
couldn't blame them for what they were doing. In fact, if I were
the
Afghan refugees of Kila Abdullah, close to the Afghan-Pakistan
border, I
would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner
I
could find."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?dir=71&story=109257&host=3&printable=1
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue no. 11, 13 December 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/index.html
__________________________________________
6 December 2001
What are the causes of anti-Americanism?
How should the United States
act to modify this resentment ? In "America and the War"
published in
the New York Review of Books on 15 November, Tony Judt calls
for a
sustained effort to understand the causes of anti-Americanism
in the
world. This text, addressed to an American audience during times
of war,
lists various critical viewpoints from Anglo-Saxon intellectuals,
and
describes a diversified sociopolitical context which contributes
to
shape the perception of the American "arrogance", "inconsistency"
and
"hypocrisy". Finally, Judt defines what kind of actions
and attitudes
could be adopted by the United States in order to overcome not
only
terrorism but anti-Americanism.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14760
According to Robert Fisk in "We
are the war criminals now", war crimes
have been committed during the Mazar-i-Sharif prison revolt.
With its
massive bombings on the Mazar-i-Sharif fortress, the US aviation
has
assisted the Northern Alliance in overcoming the rebellion. Fisk
denounces the lack of interest and ethics from western journalists
reluctant to report on this massacre which seems to be in violation
of
the Geneva war conventions. >From this tragic episode of the
war in
Afghanistan, Robert Fisk develops a global reflection on the
emergence,
after September 11, of a double standard in human rights opposing
the
"civilized" nations to the "rest" of the
world. (29 November)
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?dir=1&story=107292&host1&printable=1
In "Americans want a war on Iraq
and we can't stop them", Hugo Young
explains why president Bush is in favor of a wider war. Anti-Americanism
in the Arab world might reach a new peak of popularity, as the
Bush
Administration is now considering the possible extension of the
war
against terrorism to countries such as Iraq, Sudan, Somalia.
As the US
president warned that this is just the beginning of the war,
Iraq is
likely the best candidate for being the next target of US military
operations. However, notes Young, the other countries of the
coalition
will not support wider military operations and restriction of
constitutional liberties that will accompany them. According
to Young,
there is already a significant "gulf of perception"
among the allies. If
the war spreads, the coalition against terrorism would be seriously
weakened. (November 27)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,606686,00.html
In "House of Saud looks close to
collapse", David Leigh and Richard
Norton-Taylor, journalists at The Guardian, explore the risks
of a
radical political change in Saudi Arabia. They reveal that one
of the
most direct consequences of this war could be a coup d'Etat in
the
peninsula. Since it has US military bases on its soil to protect
its
oil, the Saudi monarchy cannot rely any more on its religious
legitimacy
. Economic crisis, corruption and unemployment are now threatening
the
middle classes. Disappointed by the lack of perspectives and
liberties,
more and more citizens are attracted by the messianic discourse
of
theologians in rebellion with the Saudi clan - 7000 princes who
are
cumulating for their own benefit revenues of a country representing
25%
of the world oil reserves. (November 21)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,602854,00.html
In "New World, Old Order",
Jerry W. Sanders describes the metaphorical
dilemma raised by the Bush administration which has suddenly
shifted its
foreign policy from uni- to multilateralism. Sanders, who teaches
Peace
and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley,
questions the commitment of the Bush Administration to multilateralismn.
What the author sees in action until now is rather a kind of
à la carte
multilateralism that reflects "smoke and mirrors from the
old order".
http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=special&s=sanders20011129
"Société-monde contre
terreur-monde" gives philosophical
and ethical
perspectives on the current world crisis in this short essay
by French
sociologist Edgar Morin published in Le Monde. Morin promotes
a new way
of thinking in order to approach adequately the complexity of
the world
and to solve the contradictions inherent with global problems
affecting
humanity. Hard problems such as terrorism cannot be solved nor
eradicated in a deterministic manner. A new conceptual approach,
in
correspondence with the new scientific ideas, is needed to rethink
international relations and global problems of violence, poverty,
education and pollution. In French at:
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article/0,6063,246552,00.html
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue no. 10, 6 December 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin10.html
__________________________________________
29 November 2001
In "This must be the end",
Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War
Coalition, urges the US and British governments to halt the "unjust
war"
in Afghanistan. Murray argues that the collapse of the Taliban
cannot be
seen as a victory against terrorism, since the return in Kabul
of the
Northern Alliance - known in the past for its terrorist actions
- was
accompanied by massacres, lynchings and other atrocities. The
author
also fears an extension of the conflict in Iraq as the next step
of the
"infinite justice" operation, but at the same time
observes that the
public opinion in the West is more and more in favour of an end
to
military operations. The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4300120,00.html
The Social Science Research Council,
an independent and not-for-profit
international organization based in New York, has published in
its web
site a series of essays related to the current crisis. The ambition
is
to discuss, from the perspectives of the social sciences, the
various
implications of both the terrorist attacks of September 11 and
the
responses to them.
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/
For a detailed study on how war and conflict-prevention
and resolution
are thought today in the frame of international relations, consult
the
essay of the political scientist Susan Woodward, "On
War and
Peace-Building: Unfinished Legacy of the 1990s", in
which the author
reveals the theoretical background as well as the empirical lessons
learned and missed by the United Nations and its specialized
agencies.
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/woodward_text_only.htm
In the light of international law, what
is the status of the US military
commissions which are now officially entitled to try accused
terrorists?
What about the legitimacy and the symbolic significance of these
courts?
What could be their implications if they are going to be used
as a
long-term mechanism? In an instructive comment published in The
New York
Times, "Al Qaeda Should Be Tried Before the World",
Anne-Marie
Slaughter, professor of international law at Harvard Law School,
deconstructs the concept of military court and its justification
in the
context of the "war against terrorism". In the name
of law and
democratic values, the author affirms that only an international
tribunal has the adequate legitimacy to judge and condemn convicted
terrorists, especially in the case of Bin Laden and the members
of Al
Qaeda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/17/opinion/17SLAU.html?ex=1007190193&ei=1&en=1270c8f5a3158a93
One of the side effects of the war and
its encouragement to undertake
exceptional measures to fight terrorists is the reinforcement
of the
authoritative political regimes of the Arab world. In a "Chance
for a
clampdown", The Economist reported a month ago how the
political regimes
of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia among others are now taking
liberties with civic and civil liberties thanks to the unexpected
global
mobilization against the Islamist activists. If the anti-terrorism
campaign is going to be fully exploited by these regimes, more
young
people might be attracted by the messianic views of some extremist
Islamists.
http://www.economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=836058
What should be the role of an efficient
humanitarian action in the
context of wars dominated by communications strategy and propaganda
?
What have we learned, during the last decade, from the humanitarian
crises in Kurdistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, or more recently
in
Kosovo? In her article "Le temps du dévoiement"
published in Le Monde,
Sylvie Brunel, president of Action contre la Faim (Action against
Hunger) and specialist of development issues, defends humanitarian
principles which cannot be aligned, by any means, behind the
march of
militaries, businessmen and diplomats. Sylvie Brunel advocates
for true
independent humanitarian actions which must be accompanied by
long-term
developmental projects. In French at:
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article/0,6063,246546,00.html
In the same manner and with strong arguments,
Rony Brauman, former
president of Médecins sans frontières (MSF), condemns
in "Des mots
magiques aux cruelles désillusions" the notion
of "military-humanitarian
coalition". In his article published in Le Monde, he recapitulates
the
major failures and risks inherent to "humanitarian wars"
and reiterates
the guiding principle of any humanitarian mission: the preservation
of
life is the first and ultimate goal. In French at:
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article/0,6063,246543,00.html
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue no. 9, 29 November 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin9.html
__________________________________________
22 November 2001
Robert Fisk's article in The Independent
on 19 November ("Our friends in
the North are just as treacherous and murderous") details
the inherent
contradictions of the military operations in Afghanistan which
supported
the recent offensive of the northern alliance. Now that the Taliban
regime has collapsed, the Northern Alliance, the Afghan warlords
and
tribal leaders could be tempted to replay the sinister episode
of the
civil war that was at the origin of the Taliban movement.
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=105560
Where is Bin Laden hiding? What is like
to share 24 hours of his life in
caves at an altitude of 3000m? In 1996, Abdul Bari Atwan, editor
of the
UK Arabic weekly news magazine Al-Quds al-Arabi, met the al Qaida
leader
in one of his eagle's nests. In this article published in The
Guardian
("Inside Osama's mountain lair"), he describes
in a vivid manner his
visit to the world public enemy No 1.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,591809,00.html
Tony Benn's article "Tackle terror
at its roots" in The Guardian is very
critical of the way the war against terrorism is thought by political
leaders. The author analyzes the global and local implications
of the
current phase of "Infinite Justice" and sees in the
militarization of
the crisis a potential danger for democracies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,591856,00.html
In an interview, René Girard, a
Christian philosopher and
anthropologist, analyzes the current crisis under the light of
his
theory of "mimetic rivalry" ("What Is Occurring
Today Is a Mimetic
Rivalry on a Planetary Scale"). He focuses more on the
notions of
resemblance and competition than on cultural differences. At
the same
time, his views on contemporary Islam sketch out its specificity
as well
as its continuation of the monotheistic tradition.
http://theol.uibk.ac.at/cover/girard_le_monde_interview.html
In an article published in The Nation ("A
war we cannot win"), author
John Le Carré expresses his pessimistic analysis on how
the "war against
terrorism" is conducted and perceived. Le Carré is
extremely critical to
the leaders of the "coalition" and vigorously denounces
the new world
(dis)order which produces more inequality, more injustice, more
enemies... In this global chaotic context, can the current war
eradicate
terrorism?
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=12290
An editorial from the Times of India ("Diminished
Democracy"), reflects
in the Asian political context the growing concern about the
use of
military courts for persons suspected of terrorism. If this is
the kind
of responses to terrorism that Great Powers want to promote in
the 21st
century, then, according to the Times of India, we should be
worried
about the regression of democracy.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?catkey=2128669051&art_id=1661272832&sType=1
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue No 8, 22 November 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin8.html
__________________________________________
14 November 2001
After several weeks of intensive bombings
on Afghanistan, the goals and
objectives of this massive military action are still not clearly
defined. "When will it all end?" asks Derek
Brown in The Guardian. In
this article, the author presents a selection of official prognostics
on
its duration and outlines the increasingly vague public statements
about
the US-led response to the attacks on New York and Washington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,589425,00.html
In the global context of the current crisis,
Mwaganu wa Kaggia,
President of the Philadelphia-based Kenya Children's AIDS Project,
makes
an instructive comparison between the current price negotiation
on
anthrax medicine led by the Bush administration and what happened
in
South Africa, Brazil and in other countries from the South when
these
countries tried to ignore the patent laws in order to develop
cheaper
AIDS drugs for their populations. In "Anthrax, HIV/AIDS
and Patent
Laws", Mwaganu wa Kaggia questions the 'two standards'
logic behind the
current negotiations with pharmaceutical firms and reminds us
the fact
that the Anthrax threat has provoked until now 4 deaths in USA
whilst
the HIV/AIDS pandemic takes the lives of 8,000 Africans every
day.
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/analysis18.html
In a recent issue of the Far Eastern Economic
Review ("A Poser For the
Press"), Murray Hiebert observes that American journalism
is endangered,
in times of war, by a kind of blind patriotism. The search for
the truth
cannot objectively prevail in US media when journalists use so
frequently words such as "our" and "us" when
mentioning the U.S.
government and America. Consequently, many US citizens are looking
for
alternative news and views in order to be fully informed about
the
latest developments of the war.
http://www.feer.com/articles/2001/0111_08/p020region.html
How Pakistanis are perceiving the war in
Afghanistan ? What do they feel
when, living under a military dictatorship, they see how CNN,
Sky and
BBC cover the events ? This new article of Robert Fisk ("Hypocrisy,
hatred and the war on terror") reports a certain number
of "disturbing
arguments" that a Western journalist could hear today in
the Middle East
and in Pakistan.
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?dir=1&story=103717&host=1&printable=1
In "Quand Washington négociait
avec les talibans", the French newspaper
Le Monde has introduced a new book written by two specialists
close to
the US and French Intelligence services which reveals that the
Bush
administration maintained close ties with the Taliban until 11
September. Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié,
the authors of
"Ben Laden, La Vérité interdite", affirm
that the FBI was bridled in its
counter-terrorism mission because of intensive negotiations held
by the
American diplomacy with the Taliban in order to assure the interests
of
American oil companies involved in Saudi Arabia and in Central
Asia. The
book details the financial networks of Bin Laden in Saudi Arabia
and in
other Gulf states, the diplomatic discussions organized in Berlin
in
2001 with the Taliban, and various activities of the main Intelligence
Services around the issues of oil economy and terrorism. In French
at:
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article_ref/0,9187,3230--243578,00.html
In this article written from Islamabad
for the Asia Times ("The New
Imperialism" ), Pepe Escobar highlights and denounces
concepts of new
forms of imperialism and colonialism which have emerged during
this
global crisis. These "defensive" forms of imperialism
are more and more
"defended" by strategists and opinion leaders from
the West in order to
control "failed" and "rogue states". The
new imperialism scenario would
be based on a Western "coercive apparatus" and legitimized
by the United
Nations which would have to be in charge of "temporary protectorates".
http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/CK06Ag01.html
In "An imperial nightmare",
Seumas Milne reflects the temptation for
Britain to recreate an imperial project. This project could be
legitimized by the necessity to establish "international
colonial"
regimes on rogue states but also to protect big power interests
in
dictatorial countries like Saudi Arabia where "colonialism"
would be
"progressive and enlightened".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4294466,00.html
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue No 7, 14 November 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin7.html
__________________________________________
8 November 2001
From the French paper Le Monde:
In "L'esprit du terrorisme",
the well-known French philosopher and
sociologist Jean Baudrillard reflects the symbolic violence of
modernity
behind the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of New York.
Baudrillard
sees in the collapse of these towers a symbolic clash which does
not
really reflect a confrontation between modernity and archaism
nor a war
of civilizations, but a resistance from the world itself to the
movement
of globalization.
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article_ref/0,9187,3232--239354,00.html
In an interview, the French philosopher
René Girard, professor at
Stanford university, develops his own interpretation of the symbolic
dimension of the current world crisis. Girard is a Christian
philosopher
who has written major books on the notions of violence and sacrifice
in
Christianity. His views on contemporary Islam are profound and
instructive. "Ce qui se joue aujourd'hui est une rivalité
mimétique à
l'échelle planétaire", he observes.
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article_ref/0,9187,3230--239636,00.html
"Une modernité malade": In this text translated from Arabic, the Syrian
poet Adonis expresses his concern about the pathological transformation
of our modernity. He hopes that one day new creative thought
on humanity
and its cultures could emerge locally (in the Muslim world) as
well as
globally.
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article_ref/0,9187,3232--239090,00.html
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue no. 6, 8 November 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin6.html
__________________________________________
25 October 2001
"Promises, promises": Robert Fisk's details all the vain promises that
have been made by the great powers to the political leaders of
the
Middle-East. For example, in 1991, Bush, the father of the current
US
President, promised to transform the region into an "oasis
of peace" in
return for the Arab support in the Gulf war. "History shows
that
assurances made in wartime aren't always everything they seem"
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?dir=1&story=99860&host=1&printableble=1
"The algebra of infinite justice": As the US prepares to wage a new kind
of war, Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy of New Delhi,
India,
challenges the instinct for vengeance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4266289,00.html
"The Roots of Conflict": Umberto Eco's article, initially published in
the Italian newspapers "La Republicca", is his own
response to Silvio
Berluconi's recent remarks on the superiority of Western civilization.
Instead of approaching cultures and civilizations in terms of
domination
and hierarchy, Eco defends the principles of diversity and tolerance
in
the context of a global, interdependent and multicultural world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,568431,00.html
"Terrorists should be tried in
court": Imran Khan, leader
of the Tehreek
Insaaf party of Pakistan, has written an article which expresses
several
concerns regarding the side-effects of the war against Afghanistan,
including the political destabilization of Central Asia.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,568078,00.html
Extracts from the bulletin "Behind
the news: Visions for peace - Voices
of faith"
Issue 4, 25 October 2001
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/bulletin4.html
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