23.07.2006
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The Grass Trodden in the Fight of Two Bulls
_ By Ko Ko Thett
A humanitarian crisis is in the Middle East again. By Saturday 22.07.2006, Israel’s ongoing assaults in Lebanon have killed more than 340 Lebanese. One-third of them were children. It has wounded nearly a thousand and displaced half a million Lebanese. Aid agencies have warned that effective relief will not be possible with the transportation infrastructures and fuel supply points targeted in Lebanon. On the other hand, hundreds of Israelis have been relocated from their northern cities being sheltered in bunkers. Fifteen Israeli civilians have been killed by the rockets launched by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.
The war has caused an exodus of foreign workers from Lebanon. Most expatriates have left the country. The UK has sent war vessels to evacuate its citizens while other Western nations are following suit. Beirut ports have been packed with naval ships from different countries waiting to bring their citizens to safety.
As always, it does not rain but pour for the people of the poor countries. Their cash-strapped, undemocratic, corrupt, incompetent, or irresponsible governments are not capable of looking after the safety and security of their own peoples. The fate of about 30,000 Filipino domestic workers in Lebanon is unclear. The Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, who has been subject to severe criticism for persecuting her political opponents over the past years, appeals that the Western countries help the Filipinos in evacuation process. These days, desperate and distressed appeals of the Filipinos caught in the crossfire can be often heard on Manila radio and television stations.
Thai foreign ministry claims that about 100 Thai workers in Lebanon have left the war zones. Four Indian ships are expected to bring home 1000 out of about 12,000 Indian nationals working in Lebanon. ‘Space permitting,’ Indian vessels will also accommodate the citizens of Nepal and Sri Lanka, whose governments have requested India to help their citizens. Personnel from Western rescue vessels are breaking up some families, whose members could not show proper identification to be able to board their ships.
Even Australian government has been under severe criticism for delay in rescuing its citizens from the danger zone. Given this maddening scenario, there has to be a miracle for the citizens of India’s kin countries to be accommodated on the Indian rescue vessels, which are expected to be overcrowded. Similarly it is unlikely that any Western countries will evacuate the Filipinos in distress. China says that eighty-two Chinese, presumably from its diplomatic or elite quarters, have been evacuated to neighbouring Syria. The plight of the majority of the Chinese community in Lebanon is unclear.
The Burmese military government, a beneficiary of Israel’s discreet support to its illegitimate rule, has not even made mention of the plight of their citizens in Lebanon. When the junta has registered its protest against American war in Iraq as unjustifiable international war, Pyinmana has so far been quiet on the legitimacy of Israeli war in Lebanon.
Ironically Israel’s pretext for beginning the war was for the safety and security of two of its citizens, two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah which wanted to swap prisoners with Israel. It should be noted that Hezbollah itself was a product of Israel-Lebanon war in 1982.
This is not the first time Israeli forces have crossed Lebanese border. Lebanon, a country of Shi’ite, Sunni and Druez Muslims as well as Christians, had been wracked by civil wars since 1975. In June 1982, soon after the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt, Israeli forces under the then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon attempted to drive the Palestine Liberation Organization from Beirut. Hezbollah, a Shi’ite group, was founded during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982. By 1983, an estimated 14,000 deaths were reported in Beirut. Among the deaths were Lebanese Christian leaders who tried to make peace with Israel.
One of the most hideous atrocities in the history of Israel-Palestine conflict remains the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees by Phalangists, allied to Israel, in the refugee camps which had been surrounded by Israeli troops. In 1983, Sharon stepped down as Defense Minister when an Israeli enquiry found that he failed to prevent the massacre.
The Israeli terrorization of Arab refugees in the 1980s has also precipitated intifada, in which the world saw Arab kids throwing stones at Israeli tanks. Intifada was supposed to end in 1993 with Oslo peace agreement. Yet Arabic kids have been seen throwing stones at Israeli tanks and troops until recently. It is unlikely that Israeli military actions will be able to uproot Hezbollah from Lebanon. However, It is likely that new Palestinian movements or new groups like Hezbollah will be generated by the ongoing war. The worst-case scenario can happen if Lebanese army and friends of Hezbollah, such as Iran, get involved in the war.
Unlike Al-Qaeda which had been universally perceived as a terrorist group, labeling Hezbollah or ‘Party of God’ as a terrorist group has been controversial. The group remains a legal political party, with an armed wing, in Lebanon. The UN has condemned the group for causing the war and Israel for disproportionate reaction and has called for an immediate end to the war. The United States’ disregard for international law and the authority of the UN become evident again when its Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejects the call for ceasefire. Israeli government, backed by its staunch ally US, has not yet learned the lesson of the 1980s. The country, which has been the most frequent target of so-called terrorists, has yet failed to understand that war is terror.
Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister in an interview with the BBC this week stresses the need to understand the nature of terrorism in order to make peace. He points out that so-called terrorists do not have any avenue to express themselves. In effect he was reiterating a simple truth articulated by Samuel P. Huntington in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations: ‘‘Terrorism traditionally is the weapon of the weak. That is of those who do not possess conventional military power.’’
It follows that war is the weapon of the powerful. Conventional war, fought between combatants, is simply impossible in battling semi-urban organizations like Hezbollah. In as much as terrorism, the slaughter of war is indiscriminate. For all parties involved, de-escalation of the current conflict must be a priority. For, in any war, the people caught in the crossfire become what the Burmese calls the grass trodden in the fight of two bulls.
Ko Ko Thett
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COMMENTS:
Miika M (FIN) said _
Hey Koko, great piece of writing. Good knowledge of the background of the region. Exceptional new insights into realities which many of us know nothing about.
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know BDeditors@tayzathuria.org.uk .
Please download from http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/BD.pdf a simple, portable and printable version of BURMA DIGEST and send it to all your Burmese friends.
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