The neighbour next door – a persistent pain in Bengal’s neck

Ishaal Zehra

Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina has said that the recent mutiny in the paramilitary force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which killed 73 army officers was aimed at triggering a civil war and warned that the masterminds behind the bloody revolt still wanted to achieve their goal. The 33-hour mutiny by the rebel BDR soldiers on February 25-26, 2009 was initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, who heads a high-power committee to coordinate the foreign and local investigations into the February 25-26 carnage, said “a dangerous conspiracy is going on to destroy the development of the country". Whereas the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Mahmoud admitted that terrorist outfits with alleged cross-border links still existed in the country despite years of massive anti-terrorism campaigns.
At a glance, Bangladesh's 37-year history has been a turbulent one, with many incidents of political turmoil and violence, where most of the time cross-border linkage was confirmed at the public level (even if not acknowledged at government level). This recent mutiny reminded me of the tempest that rocked Dhaka University and other educational institutes of Bangladesh, in August 2007 which ended up in the imposition of curfew like situation in the country. At that time too the sole purpose of the tempest creators (master minds), seemingly, was to start a civil war by bringing the people face to face with the armed forces through the so-called student movement. The Bengali media reports later disclosed that the havoc was actually masterminded by the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing – RAW. In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla service, the first elected mayor of Rajshahi City, Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Minu said that he feels that India is behind the terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Minu said that because of the Indo-Bangladesh porous border, it has not been possible for the government to apprehend the terrorists.
Yet today the same situation is again being sensed in the country. “Foreign hands” had been detected by the new Chief of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Brigadier General Mohammed Mainul Islam who revealed the involvement of outsiders wearing BDR uniform in the mutiny. Ironically, had there been no revelation from General Mainul Islam, people would have believed that BDR personnel targeted Army officers on account resentment over biased treatment as well as difference in their pay, allowances and other benefits. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in the same regard, also claimed that the killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring. Analytically, Mr. Nizami might be true as the increasing frenzy in Bangladesh is only paving an easy way for India to increase her hegemony in political, economical and cultural arenas.
The story is quite simple if considered logically. Bangladesh, having the population of more than 140 million - 40% of whom are below the poverty line - and it is dependent on foreign aid and investment, seems a soft target to digest. And by initiating a civil war in the country many disrupted plans could have been fulfilled like crippling the economy of Bangladesh, disrupting and destroying the road communications and infrastructures thus proving Bangladesh a dysfunctional and failed state and finally paving the way for Indian military invasion.
To achieve the objective, the people of Bangladesh were being targeted in an ingenious way and from all dimensions of life. RAW is exploiting this civil force to meet its own evil objectives. India’s agenda does not obviously end in creating and keeping Bangladesh as a nominally independent country. Since 1972, India has been pouring in huge material and intellectual support to Indianise the mind and psyche of Bangladeshi people. The so-called modern school educational curriculum, in general, and the social sciences, in particular, have been said to be shaped and oriented to Vedic philosophy rather than to Islamic values and virtues. Besides the promotion of narcotics in the society RAW is said to be supplementing terrorism via educational institutes in Bangladesh and the recent BDR mutiny exhibits the reach of Indian tentacles.
There lies a real dilemma for Bangladesh in forging some form of much needed unity to stand concrete against constant onslaught of Indian hegemony. Indian policy makers are well aware that the traditional method of occupying a country by force is neither appreciable nor acceptable in the recent scenario. Today, to run over a country, an aggressor cripples psychologically of the civil force of the nation and reduces its economy to shambles and creates such a situation that its citizens no longer possess mental strength and inspiration to be self- reliant. And RAW is persistently attempting to create such a situation in Bangladesh. It is known to all that Indian intelligence agency is engaged in disruptive activities in Bangladesh since it came into being in 1971 to create the demand for Indian intervention from within the country. As a matter of fact, India has a condemnable history of swallowing Hyderabad, Manvadhar, Goa, Dumn, Deue and Kashmir and of course not forgetting the illegal and conspiratorial annexation of Sikkim, a tiny and rocky mountainous kingdom of Himalayas. Recalling all this it would be quite naive to believe that India is not interested in capturing a strategically important country like Bangladesh as this annexation seems necessary for them to suppress the on-going liberation struggles in North-Eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh.

It wasn’t surprising at all when General Mainul Islam said that the BDR mutiny was a conspiracy by outside forces. Even history is evident that India's assistance in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, did not originate from their sense of humanity for the people of Bangladesh, but to dismember Pakistan and finally merge them to 'greater Bharat, what Nehru termed as 'Aakhand Bharat'. At that time probably the Indian leaders thought that dismemberment of Pakistan would lead to the accession of Bangladesh to India but unfortunately this dream of them could not materialize even after the lapse of 38 years but hats off to the consistent nature of India that she has still kept her dream alive and is still working for its establishment.

Indian Elections and the Muslim Factor

Momin Iftikhar

The elections for the 15th Lok Sabha in India are at hand and as the billion plus public gears up to go to hustings, the Indian Muslims are only prominent on the tumultuous scene through their conspicuous absence.

In a changing political scenario in which the mainstream parties (Indian National Congress, Bhartya Janata Party) are loosing their clout to an empowerment of regional players (Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Rashtrya Janata Dal etc), it is disconcerting that despite constituting a solid 14% chunk of the Indian population, Muslims as a community appear comatose, confused and directionless.

The most striking aspect is the absence of a unifying strategy seeking to uplift the community from the social morass and squalor that it finds itself in. It is a reason for major concern that Muslims in India neither have a leader to represent them nor a party of their own to articulate their aspirations. It is a measure of the prevailing drift that Muslims remain outside of the core constituency of any mainstream or regional party in India; leaving them at the mercy of political mavericks who are ruthlessly exploiting them for realizing partisan agendas, more often than not at unbearable cost to their interest.

Having been disillusioned by the supposedly secularist Congress Party and bruised and battered by the BJP, the Muslims in India find themselves at the mercy of exploitative regional parties whose interest in their welfare barely extends beyond a malicious purloining of votes. It is ironic that instead of producing and supporting a leader from among their own ranks, Muslims in India are turning to the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadev and Mayavati for political leadership and emancipation. The situation need not have been so dismal. Notwithstanding that the Indian state and the political process tends to leave them outside the mainstream of politics yet in term of numbers, which determine the thrust of matters in a democracy, Muslim presence in India is in no way insignificant. Their clout, if suitably exploited, becomes particularly potent in a scenario whereby the major political parties are shrinking in influence and the regional parties are becoming ascendant. It is a measure of their latent potential that in at least 140 constituencies where they constitute more than 20% (including 14 constituencies where they are in majority and 28 other where they are above 30%), all political parties, including the BJP, are bending backwards to woo Muslim votes.

The formation of the Central Government in India largely depends upon the number of seats secured by political parties in Bihar and UP and in both states the Muslim constituencies can play a major role in deciding who reaches the pinnacle of political power in India. It is a different matter though that the supposed friends of Muslims, boasting claims of their leadership, are playing games with them. In Bihar, during 15 year’s rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Muslims have suffered the maximum, particularly on the education front. Lalu never cared to implement reforms that would benefit Muslim; only administering to the interests of his own clan of Yadavs. Once asked as to why there was no Muslim in the top leadership of his Rashtrya Janatadal Party, Lalu replied jokingly that he himself was the leader of the Muslims of Bihar.

Situation is no different in UP, where the Muslim votes have been instrumental in the rise of Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati , who after winning the UP state elections a year ago, appointed only one Muslim minister and that too in the insignificant department of environments. In another unkind cut she ordered the abandoning of construction of the Mohammad Ali Johar Minority University in Rampur that was much needed in spreading the light of education among Muslim youngsters who presently lack badly in this vital field. As for Mulayam Singh Yadav, claiming to be the rock solid friend of Muslims of UP, in the run up to the elections, has taken into his party’s folds Kalyan Singh, who during his stint as the Chief Minister of UP was instrumental in demolition of Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992.

It doesn’t require exceptional political acumen to identify the well known Muslim grievances that have reduced a significant community to the level of the proverbial slumdogs. The Sachar Committee report starkly outlines the despicable conditions of the Indian Muslims who are sliding miserably on account of all socio – economic indicators. It also exposes a state sponsored culture of institutionalized insensitivity that has seen Muslims in India descending to the bottom of the pit, even below the scheduled castes(SC) / tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) whose sponsorship by the Government is facilitating these neglected communities’ upward social mobility.

The absence of a political clout to voice the concern of the Muslim community over racial profiling, that has made the Muslim youth a target of police and agencies, is another area that requires immediate emphasis. Muslim community also needs to underscore the need for implementing recommendations made by the Mishra Commission to provide 15% reservations for the minorities in the government jobs, provision of higher education opportunities, developmental benefits and availability of credit flow with 10% assured quota for Muslims. These recommendations are pertinent but in a joint electorate system where Muslims political and economic interests are totally overshadowed, given the obtaining state of affairs, hold no promise. Unless Muslims acquire a voice in the political system of India and secure dedicated quotas, guaranteed by legislative guarantees, there can be no empowerment of the community enabling them to benefit from the high pace of economical growth so proudly brandished by the Indian leaders and economists.

Muslims exclusion in Indian politics, irrespective of who takes the reins of the government, seems to have made the community resigned to a life of second rate citizens in perpetuity. It is instructive to note that in dealing with Muslims’ welfare and matters of advancement, the secular Congress Party has not been much different to BJP once their performance is viewed even superficially. In violation of its manifesto and charter, UPA in direct political competition with BJP, tried to sidetrack the Muslim community’s interests in a bid to vie for the Hindu votes. Congress made its lack of concern for the Muslim welfare glaringly obvious once it trashed the recommendations made by Sachar commission, refusing to even table it in the Parliament. Congress led UPA even refused to acknowledge the constitutional and legal recommendations made by the Mishra Commission in the wake of the Sachar findings. The reason behind this inertia is the stark realization that any relief to the Muslims is cross grained to the run of the democracy practiced in India where Muslims are destined to remain eternal losers under the crippling weight of a strident Hindu majority.

Indian infringement over Nepal border Area

Ishaal Zehra

THE history of demarcation of India-Nepal border began on March 4th, 1816, after the signing of the “Sugauli Treaty” between the then British India and the state of Nepal, which declares River Mahakali, of Nepal, as the border-line between both the countries. The Treaty was expected to resolve the border issues, but it did not. Even after such a long time, the dispute regarding the border and the no-man’s land area is being ensued now and then in different areas of Nepali border. The reason for the continuation of such dispute is that the rivers, counted on as border, diverged from their courses several times in the past. Interestingly, 595 Km of the border is defined by rivers. Mechi in the East, Mahakali in the West and Naryani in the Susta area, and the unavailability of old maps and documents to revise demarcations has made the situation more significant. The Central government of India deputed its Para-military security guards of special services bureau (Shastra Seema Bal) along the border where as to counter guard the Nepali side of border-line, presence of Nepali security is almost nil!. Taking advantage of the ignorant attitude of Nepalese towards border guard, India started encroachment of the border land. She has said to encroach over 60,000 hectares in 21 of the bordering districts, by now. There has been a lot of hue and cry over the encroachment by Nepali people which unfortunately never fell on the deaf ears of the giant called India.

India surrounds Nepal from the East, West and South. There is a 1,808 km long border between Nepal and India, where 26 districts of Nepal adjoin Indian Territory, marking 54 areas of disputes altogether where the main ones include Kalapani- Limpiyahura, Susta, Mechi and Tanakpur. There is often found an opportunistic overtone in both countries regarding the ownership of such disputed border points. Hence, to resolve the issue, an India-Nepal Joint Technical Level Boundary Committee has been set up in motion which is still to find a reasonable solution for this false encroachment issue.

The encroachment by India started right after the Indo-Sino border war of November 1962. After facing defeat the Indian army set-up a camp inside Nepali’s territory at Kalapani to monitor the Chinese activities. But now they claim that the area belongs to them. However, reports prepared by Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, former director general of the Department of Survey Nepal, corroborates that the maps of 1850 and 1856 prepared by the Survey of India with the participation of Nepalese authority clearly states that the river originates from Limpiyadhura, 16 km North-West of Kalapani, which proves that Kalapani belongs to Nepal. But India refuses to accept those maps as proof. They say that the map prepared by them in 1875 should be considered as proof which shows river Mahakali origin is beyond Kalapani. Interestingly, the said map does not have Nepal’s certification.

The other disputed area situated in the East of Naryani River, is the Susta area, which is the tensest area owing to encroachment. Some time ago, over one thousand Indian villagers backed by Indian border police force (SSB) had forcibly entered the Nepali territory in Susta. They completely destroyed sugarcane in about ten hectares of land and also manhandled men and women. Where the locals of Susta complain such incidents are rampant in the area. The main reason behind the dispute is the changing course of Naryani River, over the past decades. The river has said to change its course towards the Nepalese side in the West. India has encroached about 14,000 hectares of the reclaimed land because of this. The intrusion happened in stages over a period of 73 years. Considering the situation, the people of Nepal had launched a “save Susta campaign”. The organizers requested students of Nepal to join them and launch a valley wide campaign from Nepal’s capital Katmandu. The purpose of the campaign was to inform the world about the wicked plans of her “polite” neighbor India. Actually the reason to start off the border dispute at Susta side is that Susta is surrounded by Indian Territory on three sides -the North, South and East, and on the West it is the Naryani River. Hence, cutting off Susta from its mother land becomes much easier for India to occupy it which will pave her closer to the “Greater India” dream of Hindus.

The other most talked about point of dispute is Mechi. India’s disapproval of “Junge pillers” as the main boundary pillars has sparked the Mechi border dispute. The map published by the British India right after the Sauguli Treaty clearly indicates those pillars to be the main boundary pillars. Even history is evident that British had erected those pillars as monuments of Nepal-India border. But the credit goes to the Indian desire of getting control over weak and tiny neighbours which made her to incite the dispute by denying the original Sauguli Treaty signed by the British and the Nepal Kingdom.

According to the official records, Nepal covers a total area of 147,181 Sq Km. But in reality, the territory of Nepal is gradually shrinking because of the increasing encroachment by India. The Maoists Young Communist league (YCl) once submitted a memorandum to the Indian embassy Katmandu, demanding immediate return of the encroached land by the Indians in Susta area but later the political havoc in Nepal made everything go vanish for some time. They demanded that scientific demarcation of the border land must be done as per historical maps, the encroached territories should be given back to Nepal and the bilateral bordering area should be regulated. The district level of Nepal and India earlier agreed not to allow the use of encroached land for any purpose and put the issue at the central level for the resolution of the problem. But despite the agreement Indian farmer have been cultivating in the disputed area. More than 125 Bighas of Nepali land has been encroached by Indian farmers in year 2007 alone.

The Nepal-India joint Technical level Boundary Committee has supposed to have completed 98% of the task of strip-mapping the border, as per 1874 Persian map adopted by the committee. According to them all the disputes, except Susta and Kalapani, have been resolved. But when the border is traced in the field, many instances of encroachment are found. The unwisely decision of Nepalese side of accepting the Persian map as the basis of demarcation has made them deprived of 1630 hectares of their own land, which now lies in Indian territory. The border committee somehow, could not act the way it ought to. It failed to take firm decisions regarding border disputes at several places, such as the presence of Indian Paramilitary force in Kalapani since 1962.

The amusing part is that India ignoring all her regional disputes is always eager to malign Pakistan by making her a part of every Indian dispute (with whom so ever it may be). And her practice is same even in this land dispute problem. Propaganda against Pakistan is the main instrument of Indian Intelligence. Exposing Indian hegemonic designs, Nepali media says that although India grumbles a lot of the India-Nepal open border being misused by the ISI, it is actually India’s own intelligence agency which is blatantly exploiting the open border. Today every tom, dick and Harry knows that the Terai agitation was actually fueled by India. Earlier when Nepal was a kingdom, India used to supply arms and ammunition to the warring fractions of the Terai and gave safe sanctuary to its leaders, as exposed by a visiting team of United Nation Mission in Nepal (UNMN). The Research and Analysis Wing of Indian Intelligence (RAW) is active in Nepal for the last 40 years, earlier it was only the Intelligence Bureau (IB), operating from there. Experts say that due to open border and special relations with India and Indian association in political changes in 1950, 1990 and 2006, it has become easy for RAW to perform disguised role in Nepal. Raw is not only involved in creating instability and disturbing peace in the Asian region but its name is also associated with terrorism.

India has many interests in Nepal to fulfill which it has gradually made her strong political, diplomatic, economical and cultural influence there, all due to RAW’s efforts. Her main strategy is to keep Nepal instable and always dependent towards India. In this regard, she has supported arms to the establishment as well as anti-establishment groups in Nepal, according to the former Prime Minister BP Koirala’s biography. The untrustworthy nature of India is evident from the past. She has a history for formulating efforts on multiple fronts to weaken the already fragile country to facilitate its swallowing. It is high time when all the Nepalese, currently divided among various political affiliations, should come together against the onslaught, instigated by India, in Nepalese territory and understand the game-plan of their so-called considerate neighbors. And India also should realize that the flame she has ignited in Nepal can very well extend to its own northern flank and the unstable southern part as well.

WHITHER INDIAN PEACEKEEPERS?

Amjed Jaaved

India boasts of professional competence and conduct of its peacekeeping forces. But, the facts tell a different story. Take Republic of Congo. In view of elusive ceasefire (1998-2003) between rival groups, the United Nations deployed a multinational 8,000-strong force there. The force evinced sterling-clean conduct, except for two groups of Indian `soldiers’. One group indulged in gold trafficking and gun running. And, the other committed `sexual exploitation and abuse’ in Congo’s North Kivu province.

The local commander tried to cover up the incidents for fear of beclouding UN peacekeepers’ image. But, Human Rights’ Watch (HRW) somehow managed to get an inkling of the Indian troops’ moral infarctions. When Indians’ misconduct surfaced in the HRW report, the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban ki Moon, had to order an inquiry through the Office of Internal Oversight Service.

The Service confirmed several allegations. As such, the secretary general had to demand from India `disciplinary action to the maximum degree permitted by Indian law’ against Indian peacekeepers’.

India’s defence minister, A. K. Antony and vice chief of army staff, M. L. Naidu, had to carry out a time-bound probe to punish the offenders. Aside from moral turpitude, Indian peacekeepers regard gun running as a lucrative pastime. They do so, not as individuals, but as state-sponsored-policy agents. Indian peacekeepers in Sri Lanka amply bear out this policy role.

India forced Sri Lanka to accept its `mediation’ and `peacekeeping’. During peacekeeping, its forces never made a sincere attempt to eliminate the LTTE. They were more interested in establishing a pro-India administration in northern Sri Lanka than exterminating armed rebels.

Prabhakarn was India’s prodigal son. He received political, financial, and military support from India’s central government during 1978-87. He enjoyed patronage of not only the Tamil Nadu’s state government, but also the politicians from all shades of opinion in that state Prabhakaran lived in Tamil Nadu for several years. His Ambassador car used to be escorted by Tamil Nadu state police. He sustained his outfit’s warfare through supplies of arms, ammunition, explosives, medicines, etc from Tamil Nadu, his base of operations.

The position of the LTTE vis-à-vis India was total cooperation until Rajiv Gandhi began to compel it to negotiate outside Eelam context in late 1986. The Indian agencies the RAW, and Q Branch of the Tamil Nadu police not only armed and funded the LTTE but also provided logistical as well as intelligence support for their operations. The Sri Lankan government realised that Indian forces were actually perverting, not keeping peace by avoiding confrontation with the LTTE. So, it considered it wise to initiate negotiations with the militants. It directed Indian peace keepers to pack up and leave Sri Lanka.

India reluctantly left Sri Lanka. But, look, what it did before leaving! She decided to punish the LTTE for its conciliatory attitude towards the Sri Lankan government. It expressed its ennui at the LTTE by raising, arming, training and funding another militant force, Tamil National Army.
The Indians conscripted `volunteers’ from the refugee camps, and trained them in handling weapon and explosives. For easy identification, lest they should slip out, the young men drafted were shaved and their eyebrows plucked.

On June 23, 1989, president Premadasa asked the IPKF to remain in their barracks, if they could not withdraw by end-July, as he earlier directed. Judging the government’s mood, Indians decided to withdraw. But, before doing so they heavily armed the TNA to pave way for gory clash between the LTTE and the TNA.

Rohan Gunaratna points out: “Most of the Indian troops were airlifted on board Soviet-built Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft. Accompanying these planes were Antonov-32 transport planes carrying arms and ammunition for the TNA” (Indian Intervention) in Sri Lanka, p. 3560. To India’s ill fate, the TNA was wiped off in a few months.

The Sri Lankan experience reflects that Indian peacekeepers do not keep peace. They pervert it. They are morally bankrupt. In view of Indian government‘s ulterior motives in peacekeeping in foreign lands, these forces should never be deployed anywhere in the world.

RAW THE RASCAL by PREM RAJ in Columbo

Up to the mid-seventies the Sri Lankan government had kept India happy by following policies which followed the Indian line - domestically and externally. The trouble began in 1977 when the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) lost power to the Jayewardene-led United National Party in elections. He moved towards a more cooperative policy with the United States and Sri Lanka chose to oppose the Indian demand for the withdrawal of all foreign naval forces from the Indian Ocean. Mrs. Gandhi had already been irked by Sri Lanka’s support to Pakistan during the 1971 war when it allowed landing and fuelling facilities to Pakistan’s East-West commercial flights.

So RAW saw a perfect opportunity to exploit within the prevailing dispute between the Sinhalese majority (74 percent) and Tamil minority (14 percent) over distribution of economic and social spoils of independence. Before the two sides could work out a compromise, India, through its RAW, managed to polarise the two sides as well as militarise this essentially political conflict. On the Mukti Bahini model, RAW built up terrorist training camps in India for a number of Tamil terrorist organisations, while India suddenly began orchestrating a public campaign feigning concern because of the links the Tamils had with the 50 million Indian Tamils of Tamil Nadu state - which was separated from Sri Lanka by the Palk Straits. It was only a matter of time before the militants trained in India began sidelining the moderate Tamils and instead demanding complete independence - Ealam. Ironically, the presence of Tamil training camps in Tamil Nadu often created a law and order situation when large arms were captured by the state police. The surprise for the state government came when New Delhi ordered that such captured material be returned.

According to Rohan Gunaratna, in his book Indian Intervention in Sri Lanka, RAW waged a secret war in India beginning 1983 so that when the Sri Lankan armed forces launched a major offensive against the Tamil militancy in 1987, the Indian government had already ensured that the Tamils were well supplied and were able to conduct terrorist acts that brought the war closer to Colombo. Tamil Nadu had become the sanctuary for the Tamil terrorists in their hit-and-run tactics. Already, a year prior to this offensive, that is by 1986, there were over 20,000 Indian trained and financed Tamils and India forced Sri Lanka through this militant pressure to alter its foreign policy. But even more crucial, India by now was systematically destabilising Sri Lanka. Being unable to resist the temptation to now intervene directly, India used the Sri Lankan offensive against the Tamil terrorists to force Sri Lanka to accept India’s armed intervention ostensibly to save ‘ innocent Tamil civilians’. Unfortunately for India, the controversial Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 proved to be as much of a failure as India’s policy of direct intervention. The result was India’s massively assisted LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) turned on its benefactor and declared war against the Indian forces in Sri Lanka. All in all, this Indian adventure killed 60,000 men, women and children and forced the Indians to withdraw their forces without successfully completing their mission. The price has been steep for both India and Sri Lanka and even today Sri Lanka is paying the price for this Indian-initiated and RAW inspired polarised conflict. The extent of RAW’s role in this affair has been painstakingly documented by Gunaratna in his book on the Indian intervention.

Quest for Justice

By Judith Stone

I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do.

I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.

Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity.

"Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Meir even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem".

We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere seven per cent of the population and owned three per cent of the land.

Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers levelled hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.

Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a levelled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking".

I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist.

Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (30 April, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."

We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labour and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned?

The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves... politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.. .The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country...".

Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. We must recognise that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.

In Hertzl's 'The Jewish State' the father of Zionism said: "We must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak (3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurtle a boulder.

Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not G-d's restitution of the holy land to it's rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.

We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people. here.
Contact Independent Catholic News tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7267 3616

Jewish editor sacked for publishing article
This article was sent to Debbie Ducro, an American-Jewish journalist with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She published it, and was fired the next day.

100 Groups In A War Against India...

Mumbai’s night of terror underscores a phenomenon concealed by the Indian government and intelligence agencies and deliberately ignored by a biased Anglo-American media for a long time: The rise of a virulent form of Hindu terrorism that begets violence from other minorities. Here is a list of almost one hundred groups that are fighting the Indian government. All of them thrive in India. The context for what has happened in Mumbai is stunning only for those unaware how a cocktail mix of wrong policies, official patronage to extremism, and separatist movements have come together to destabilize India.

By AHMED QURAISHI
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

The night of Nov. 26, 2008, will go down in history as the day when India’s homegrown terrorism reared its head after years of silent mushroom growth.

This terrorism in Mumbai is not surprising, unlike the reactions in most of the western media. India’s terrorist underground has been flourishing for many years. While the U.S. media was busy last year likening Pakistan to Iraq in a politically motivated campaign aligned with U.S. military objectives, experts were ranking India only second to Iraq in the number of people who died as a result of terrorist attacks between 2004 and 2007, according to one survey by an American think tank.

The Indian government has been artfully concealing a worrying development for at least sixteen years under an organized hype centered on economic growth and military power projection with a focus on China and Pakistan.
Indian terrorism is a confusing mix. Journalists and observers outside the region often miss the simmering tensions beneath the surface that occasionally burst into the open, surprising many and raising questions like how could there be so much violence in what is supposed to be a secular democracy and a rising economy where such things should not happen.

In India, there is a cocktail mix of wrong policies, official patronage to extremism, and separatist movements, all coming together to destabilize India. At least 600 Christians, churches, nuns and priests were targeted by Hindu mobs in eastern India in August this year. Almost the entire Muslim population of Kashmir is up in arms against the excesses, arrests, murders and rapes by the Indian army. For years there has been a media trial of Indian Muslims for real and imaginary involvement in violence. News such as the arrest this month of two serving Indian army officers involved in crimes that were attributed to Indian Muslims has served to increase disgruntlement among minorities. In 2002, close to 2,500 Indian Muslim men, women and children were burned alive in the first religious genocide of 21st century. In 1984, Sikhs were hauled off buses in New Delhi and beaten or burned to death following the assassination of Indian prime minister Indra Gandhi at the hands of Sikh bodyguards. And finally, between 12 to 14 separatist insurgencies currently rage across India’s north and northeast.

All of this makes for a dangerous combination that simmers quietly under the surface. The Indian media’s self-imposed ban on discussing these problems helps keep the lid on them. But when the pressure becomes unbearable, things occasionally burst into the open in the shape of terrorist acts. This only surprises those who do no know how India has been gradually relapsing into religious extremism in the period between 1990 and 2008. This history is important in order to understand why the Indian claims of Pakistani complicity in the attacks have often sought to simplify a complex situation.

Hindu militant groups have mushroomed in the past few years. This month, the arrest of two serving Indian army officers has confirmed speculation that Hindu terrorist groups have infiltrated Indian military and political establishments.
1992 was the definite year that saw Hindu fundamentalism express itself politically. Hundreds of religious terrorists descended on a north Indian city with tools in hand. They climbed on top of a majestic, 500-year-old mosque built by the same Muslim rulers who built the famous Taj Mahal. Imbibed with religious hatred, the Hindu mobs razed the building to the ground. Indian government authorities did nothing to stop it.

This Indian betrayal of a carefully crafted secular image would prove fatal later. In 1999, a Hindu mob surrounded the car of Graham Staines, an Australian priest, and his underage boy and girl and burned them alive.
Australia maintained an unusual quiet till this day about this major act of terrorism. The bias is easily detectable when compared to Australia’s reaction and statements to ‘Muslim terrorism’, especially in Indonesia and later in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In this sense, countries like United States, Britain and Australia are partially responsible for letting the growth of India terrorism – with its mix of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian and ethnic insurgencies – go unnoticed for so many years. These western countries have done this in order not to disturb the Anglo-Saxon project of grooming India as a bulwark against China and Russia and other regional powers.

Following is a list of various indigenous separatist, militant and terrorist organizations operating in India against the Indian federal government. This list has been compiled using information available in the public domain, news reports and specialized publications. During any given incident in India, a combination of some or all of these organizations is a suspect, including in the Mumbai blasts and in any other militant activity. Blaming Kashmiris or Pakistanis for Indian internal problems would be a factual misrepresentation that must be countered with full force by Pakistan.

It should also be noted that the Indian establishment is cracking down on Tamil separatists due to violence in Sri Lanka as Tamils are regrouping in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nado. Tamils have to their credit the last significant political assassination in India, the blowing up of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. They continue to be the most ruthless terror outfit in India. Mumbai blasts carry the fingerprints of many terror groups operating inside India, each with a long list of grievances against the Indian government and enough motivation to carry out such terrorist acts.

Not all groups in this list are necessarily terrorist organizations. But all of them are active against the Indian government.

Hindu Terror Groups
1. Shiv Sena – Army of Shiva
2. Bajrang Dal
3. Durga Vahini-Women militants
4. BJP
5. A ragtag, government-armed Hindu militant groups have been raised in Kashmir and

northern India during this decade

Indian Occupied Kashmir
6. Hizbul Mujahideen
7. Harkat-ul-Ansar or Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami
8. Lashkar-e-Toiba
9. Jaish-e-MohammadMujahideen E-Tanzeem
10. Jammu & KashmirLiberation Front
11. Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen
12. Al Badr
13. Dukhtaran-e-Millat
14. Al Barq
15. Al Jehad
16. Jamait-ul-Mujahideen
17. Jammu & Kashir National Liberation Army
18. People’s League
19. Muslim JanbazForce
20. Kashmir Jehad Force
21. Al JehadForce (combines Muslim Janbaz Force and Kashmir
22. Jehad Force
23. Al Umar Mujahideen
24. Mahaz-e-Azadi
25. Islami Jamaat-e-Tulba
26. Jammu & Kashmir StudentsLiebration Front
27. Ikhwan-ul-Mujahideen
28. Islamic Students League
29. Tehrik-e-Hurriat-e-Kashmir
30. Mutahida Jehad Council
31. Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqar Jafaria
32. Jamait-ul-Mujahideen
33. Al Mustafa Liberation Fighters
34. Tehrik-e-Jehad-e-Islami
35. Therik-ul-Mujahideen
36. Muslim Mujahideen
37. Al MujahidForce
38. Tehrik-e-Jehad
39. Islami Inquilabi Mahaz

ASSAM
40. Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT)
41. Dima Halom Daogah (DHD)
42. Karbi National Volunteers (KNV)
43. Rabha National Security Force (RNSF)
44. Koch-RajbongshiLiberation Organisation (KRLO)
45. Adivasi Cobra Force(ACF)
46. Karbi People's Front(KPF)
47. Tiwa National Revolutionary Force (TNRF)
48. Bircha Commando Force(BCF)
49. Bengali Tiger Force (BTF)
50. Adivasi Security Force(ASF)
51. All Assam Adivasi Suraksha Samiti (AAASS)
52. Gorkha Tiger Force(GTF)
53. Barak Valley YouthLiberation Front (BVYLF)
54. Muslim United LiberationTigers of Assam (MULTA)
55. Muslim United LiberationFront of Assam (MULFA)
56. Muslim Security Council of Assam (MSCA)
57. United Liberation Militia ofAssam (ULMA)
58. Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA)
59. Muslim Volunteer Force (MVF)
60. Muslim Liberation Army (MLA)
61. Muslim Security Force (MSF)
62. Islamic SevakSangh (ISS)
63. Islamic United ReformationProtest of India (IURPI)
64. United Muslim LiberationFront of Assam (UMLFA)
65. Revolutionary MuslimCommandos (RMC)
66. Muslim Tiger Force (MTF)
67. People’s UnitedLiberation Front (PULF)
68. Adam Sena(AS)
69. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
70. Harkat-ul-Jehad

NAGALAND
71. National Socialist Councilof Nagaland (Isak-Muivah)– NSCN(IM)
72. National Socialist Councilof Nagaland (Khaplang)– NSCN (K)
73. Naga NationalCouncil (Adino) – NNC (Adino)
74. Tripura Liberation OrganisationFront (TLOF)
75. United Bengali LiberationFront (UBLF)
76. Tripura TribalVolunteer Force (TTVF)
77. Tripura Armed TribalCommando Force (TATCF)
78. Tripura TribalDemocratic Force (TTDF)
79. Tripura Tribal YouthForce (TTYF)
80. Tripura LiberationForce (TLF)
81. Tripura Defence Force (TDF)
82. All TripuraVolunteer Force (ATVF)
83. Tribal Commando Force (TCF)
84. Tripura Tribal YouthForce (TTYF)
85. All TripuraBharat Suraksha Force(ATBSF)
86. Tripura Tribal ActionCommittee Force (TTACF)
87. Socialist Democratic Frontof Tripura (SDFT)
88. All TripuraNational Force (ATNF)
89. Tripura Tribal Sengkrak Force (TTSF)
90. Tiger Commando Force (TCF)
91. Tripura Mukti Police (TMP)
Meghalaya
92. Hynniewtrep NationalLiberation Council (HNLC)
93. Achik NationalVolunteer Council (ANVC)
94. People’s LiberationFront of Meghalaya (PLF-M)
95. Left-wing Extremists
96. People's Guerrilla Army

Here are quick references that can help understand the India story:

Hindu Al-Qaeda: Asia’s New ‘Terror Central’ : Here is the hottest Indian story, neatly tucked under the well constructed –and expensive- veneer of ‘Incredible India’ advertisements on international television news channels: The fast rise of Indian religious terrorist organizations that have penetrated India’s military and politics. The movement is so strong, resourceful and organized that it warrants the label India’s Hindu al-Qaeda. India is quietly emerging as a new ‘terror central’. Since the start of this century, almost nine years ago, India has seen the targeted murder of over 700 Christians, 2500 Muslims, and the unaccounted hundreds of ‘untouchables’. That’s not all. India is now grooming its own ‘Hindu al Qaeda,’ terrorist militias tasked with guarding India’s dreams of becoming the next superpower. Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka beware. India is already grooming rebels to stir trouble in China’s Tibet and Xingjian. The problem with this thinking is that expensive showoff space shuttles to Moon –when almost no one else in the world is doing it for now- won't reduce poverty among the world's largest single concentration of poor people on earth.

The Face Of India Hidden From The World: There is a distinct lobby in United States and Britain that played a criminal role in fostering Indian terrorism. It did this by covering up Hindu terrorism against Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and low-caste Indians. Have you seen any of the above pictures published by any American or British newspaper or news service? See [left] the charred bodies of Indian Muslims burned alive by Hindu mobs in 2002, in the 21st century’s first genocide.

Why Hindu Extremists Invaded Taj Mahal? A group of 10 Hindutva activists-cum-militants belonging to Shiv Sena, a core fundamentalist political outfit, sneaked into the Taj Mahal at Agra on July 24 and performed prayers (puja) within the precincts on Thursday. They were taken into custody and later released without any hurdles. This is a routine matter for Indian governments when Hindus perform illegal activities. Had Muslims enter the temples and remove the idols and clean up the structure to be able to offer prayers to God, the matter would be different. Hindu outfits, who consider themselves above law and have every right to do anything they please with Muslims and their mosques, have been on a rampage for political reasons with concocted stories against Islam.

Kashmir Shakes India: Something stunning is happening in Indian controlled Kashmir. World media is not giving it projection, Indians are hiding it and Pakistani media is too busy focusing on political turmoil within. The fact is that the Indian federation has been shaken to the core over the developments in Indian held Kashmir in the last few weeks.