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| Sunday, 4 January 2004 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 SAARC: Lanka's initiative When the heads of State and Government of the seven countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) meet today and tomorrow in Islamabad, high on their agenda will be President Chandrika Kumaratunga's initiative to establish a tighter regional regime to counter insurgency or, what is increasingly, in official jargon, called 'terrorism'. Another initiative in which Sri Lanka has led the way in an early bilateral pact with India and, which is likely to be formally sanctioned for region-wide emplacement, is the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement. Virtually all of the SAARC seven, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, are affected either by insurgency within their borders or by its spill-over from their neighbours. While the Kashmir insurgency problem has affected both India and Pakistan for decades, in the last two decades Sri Lanka too became affected by the functioning of Tamil secessionist militant bases on Indian territory. Bangladesh has experienced a regional insurgency in the Buddhist Chakma hill tribal region. Nepal now suffers from a rural insurgency with tragic characteristics similar to Sri Lanka's multiple insurgencies. India's North-East region has also been wracked by some of the world's longest running insurgencies. Bhutan has been affected by the infiltration of Indian North-Eastern militant groups. The Maldives was narrowly saved by Indian intervention when some ex-Sri Lankan Tamil militants hired by politicians hostile to the Male government attempted a 'regime change' there. Of course one person's 'militant' or liberation fighter can always become another's 'terrorist'. While the subject social groups struggling for justice or change to their conditions may describe their armed campaigns as 'militancy' or even 'revolution', increasingly the governments directly affected by insurgency have begun using the term 'terrorism'. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who during her Presidency has proven to be second to none in her determination to militarily counter anti-State insurgency, has nevertheless been one of the first South Asian leaders to acknowledge that there is no purely military solution to insurgency, and to take courageous and imaginative initiatives to resolve the conflict by means of political negotiations. It is with these sound credentials of a commitment to peace-making and political solutions that the President has promoted further measures in the region to constrain the violent tendencies of various militant groups, some of which have developed unfortunate links with the region's underworld in numerous areas of criminal activity such as arms smuggling, narcotics smuggling, and human smuggling. No doubt the common South Asian experience of insurgency has prompted the SAARC Foreign Ministers, who have been meeting in Islamabad these past few days in the preliminaries to the Summit, to quickly take up Sri Lanka's proposal for further measures specifically to control cross-border financial transactions that may be attempted by such militant groups. The SAARC Foreign Ministers' meeting has now submitted the new counter terrorism measures for approval by the Summit conference beginning today. The adoption of the Sri Lankan proposal must be seen as an important development in the region that will help limit the power of those militant groups now wielding considerable power, sometimes dictatorial power, on the basis of their military capability. But such counter 'terrorism' measures by South Asia governments will only have credibility and legitimacy as long as these governments remain committed to social justice and to using all political means to resolve problems of insurgency. The Islamabad Summit is the first SAARC Summit after a two-year lapse and the hopes of more than a billion people in one of the world's most populous regions lie with the deliberations of their leaders. A critical issue of regional significance that we hope will be addressed on the sidelines is that of the stand off between India and Pakistan. South Asia's citizens will hope and pray that this first major regional activity for 2004 will lay the foundation for greater prospects for regional peace and stability. |
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