|
|
|
What
Cause?
By
Nisar Sarwar
They have killed Danial Pearl! Ruthlessly
and gruesomely murdered in cold blood in captivity.Whoever
the authors and whatever may be the circumstances of this
most irresponsible and macabre act of inhumanity, Pearl’s
executors can never be at peace with their body and soul.
Time
and again, this fact has been proven right. Dostoevsky’s
“Criminal
and Punishment” is a most revealing drama of torment
and pain for a crime committed. But if Daniel Pearl is dead
today, can his executors escape the wrath of Nature tomorrow?
Or, can the shame, torment, and agony of having committed
this heinous and barbaric act spare them from perpetual mental
unrest? Certainly not!
A
journalist may be dead, but journalism lives forever. Pearl’s
work
|
|
A journalist
may be dead, but journalism lives forever. Pearl’s work
and words will always be quoted, written and rewritten-this
all known too well. In the past five decades, investigative
journalism has influenced and awakened public opinion to a great
extent, all over the word. Committed journalists like him have
unearthed falsification of facts and seams, which have helped
dump iron clad characters and myths in the dustbin of history.
The late journalist’s yet to be born child will not be
able to see daddy, and will have to be contented with daddy’s
photographs in the family album. But it will be Daniel Pearl’s
work and writings, which will make his posterity, feel proud.
This what human life is all about, working for the good of all
life on earth, the quest for truth and the struggle against
evil. Pearl, probably was working in a real spirit of his former
President, Nixon’s advice saying “Let us begin by
committing ourselves to truth-to see it like it is and to tell
it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and live
with truth.” Daniel Pearl’s blood, has left a perpetual
dark blemish on the rich cultural traditions of this Land of
Pures.
Around the Eid ul Azha holidays in Pakistan, while all faithful
was busy reviving the tradition of great sacrifice, his kidnappers
released the video filming his beastly slaughter. As the news
of Pearl’s gruesome murder spread weeks of suspense and
of prayers for Daniel’s survival ended. Many Pakistanis
were outraged. All leading newspaper editorials condemned Pearl’s
assassination. There is a strong realization that the Pakistani
state and society, caught in the throes of an extremely chaotic
socio-political and security phase, would come under further
internal and external pressure by such a heinous act.
The list of demands put forward by Pearl’s assassins was
absurd and clearly smelled fishy. These included better treatment
and release of Taliban prisoners, release of F-16 fighter planes
to Pakistan and release specifically of Mullah Zaeef, Taliban’s
former ambassador to Pakistan. Such a demand list linking Daniel’s
captors to the negative feeling within the Muslim world against
Washington’s sledge hammer policies and action towards
those the US views as terrorists has not earned them support
for their brutal murder of Daniel.
Islam is a religion of tolerance and compassion and that many
Pakistanis may be critical of the conduct of Washington’s
anti-terrorist campaign but abhor such gruesome acts, has prompted
widespread condemnation. The soul stirring slaughter of Pearl
can only damage but never advance any cause. The death of Daniel
Pearl compounds the pressure on the Pakistan government to nab
those responsible for his murder. Nationwide hunt continues.
The world wants assurance that all sections of the state will
follow the government’s policy on enforcing rule of law
irrespective of any religious outfit’s previous affiliation
with any one. Handling of this case, has become the real challenge
for a “new-Pakistan” that Musharraf promised. There
has been vacillation between extreme hopefulness to confusion
in official statements on the status of the Pearl investigation.
Intriguing part has been the time lag between the surrender
and production in court of a British national Ahmed Omar Saeed
Sheikh, one of the self-professed kidnappers. Being one of three
men Pakistani police formally charged him with aiding and abetting
the kidnap. The police are still searching for a key suspect,
the man believed to have driven Pearl from his Karachi Hotel.
Pearl had come to Pakistan to follow a story about the al-Qaeda
network, Omar Sheikh’s previous activities in Bosnia and
Kosovo, his alleged involvement in the 1994 capture of western
tourists in India and his arrival in Pakistan after the Kandahar
deal between the hijackers and the Indian authorities. Omar’s
court statements have been very revealing. He has claimed links
with Pakistani agencies, retracted his earlier confession and
his February 25 complaint before the Sindh High Court that the
police was forcing a confession under duress.
The investigation of this significant case will continue to
be jointly conducted by the US and Pakistani aw enforcing agencies.
In this case too, like earlier ones involving US nationals or
US security interests the USA agencies will remain fairly proactive.
This will unlikely to change even if Omar is extradited from
Pakistan. The reservations in certain quarters regarding legality
about extradition in the absence of a Pak-US extradition treaty
is unlikely to deter his extradition. In the past several ‘suspects’,
including a renegade CIA agent and Pakistani national Aimal
Kansi, were quietly handed over during former President Farooq
Leghari’s term to the US government.
So back to Daniel Pearl, a guest in the Islamic Republic, a
man who had written much about the plight of the world’s
down-trodden whether they were Kashmiris suffering under the
Indian jackboot or the Palestinians who were writhing under
the Israelis, was hacked in cold blood by those who call themselves
Muslims and Pakistanis too. No they are neither Muslims nor
Pakistanis. They are not even human beings. They are direct
deciples of Devil out to wipe out humanity. “Killing of
one person amounts to wiping out whole humanity”. This
is what not only all Pakistanis and Muslims believe in but also
practice too. No religion, and more so Islam, teaches killings
of human being without reasons. His head hacked off his torso.
What kind of God-fearing people would do that?
There may be many “reasons” for killers’ gruesome
act but non can justify killing of this human being. The most
serious “cause” of his assassination being propagated
by his murderer had been that Pearl was a Jew, born to Jew parents.
For, immediately before he was killed, he was made to announce
that he was a Jew and his parents were Jews.
It is often said by these self proclaimed “brave Mujahids
of Islam”, that they do what they do for the freedom of
Muslims all over the world, specially Kashmiris and Palestinians.
In doing so they should not forget the services of two Jews,
one American and one British, to these two causes; far more
than most Muslims. These Joseph Korbel, the former Czech diplomat
(and father of Madeleine Albright); who migrated to the United
States in 1946, became an academic and was the UN’s rapporteur
on Kashmir; and the Right Honourable Gerald Kauf-man, Labour
MP, and Chairman of the House of Common’s Culture, Sports
and Media Select Committee.
Mr. Korbel wrote in his book ‘Danger in Kashmir’ about
forty-five years ago: “The two great nations of the subcontinent,
India and Pakistan, continue to dissipate their wealth, their
strength and their energy on a near fratricidal struggle in
which the hitherto almost unknown state of Kashmir has become
the physical battleground. Because of the constant unjustifiable
postponement of the solution to the conflict…Kashmir has
become a veritable power keg for the whole of Asia.”
About a solution, Professor Korbel says, “…if these
and other factors are kept in mind, an equitable and honorable
solution of the Kashmir conflict may yet be found. The procedures
and processes would matter little, whether by mediation, arbitration
on individual non-political aspects of the dispute, or through
the engagement of the International Court of Justice. Varied
solutions, acceptable to parties directly concerned, could then
be reached, whether accession to India or Pakistan, independence,
partition or condominium.”
As for the other Jew, Gerald Kaufman, MP. Mr. Kaufman is one
of those few British MPs who have stoutly defended the Kashmiris’
right to self-determine. He has led protest marches against
Indian excesses in Kashmir, and took part in the immensely successful
British -Kashmiri Lobby to the European Parliament, Brussels,
in 1995. On the Palestinian Question, this Jew had the following
to say in a House of Commons speech a few weeks ago: “Today
the Prime Minister has had the dubious experience of meeting
the Prime Minister of Israel (Ariel Sharon), a war criminal
who was condemned by the Kahan commission’s judicial inquiry
into the Sabra and Shatila massacre in which 800 people were
killed the commission ordered him to be dismissed from the Israeli
Government. “The Right Hon Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack)
talked bout Mr. Netanyahu. I share the Right Hon Gentleman’s
regard for him; the only thing that can be said for him is that
he is not as bad as Sharon. People like Netanyahu and Sharon
say, “Don’t get at us, we’re an independent country.
We’ve a right to pursue our own policies.” Okay, we
should tell the Israelis, “Be independent if you want,
but be completely independent of western economic and military
aid.” I suggest that we offer that choice, and I do so
as a Jew and as somebody who has been a Zionist all his
life, and remains
a Zionist: as somebody who was brought up as a Zionist
and has ties to the state of Israel. I also do so as the
first Front bench member to support the establishment
of a Palestinian state, which a still support.” The
above narration is an ample proof that being a Jew does
not make any difference. It is being a good human being
with respect for fellow beings and sense of justice, which
matters. Any one who saw Mariane Pearl on CNN would understand
the difference. Despite being devastated by the tragedy
by so called Pakistani “Mujahids”, hers was
the most eloquent defence of Pakistan that any one ever
heard, more than anything else because she sounded so
sincere. Here is an extract of it.
CNN: Mariane, thank you for joining us. You come to Pakistan
in peace. You come here seeking the truth with your husband.
You leave Pakistan as a widow after your husband was brutally
murdered. |
 |
What messagewould you have (for) the
people of Pakistan?
Mariane Pearl: well, first of all, would tell them that
my feelings and my affection for this country have not
changed because of what happened here. On the contrary,
people have shown tremendous support to me. They have
shared my sorrow. I know they feel bad, ashamed, and sad
about what happened. Also, the people who have been actually
around me during all this ordeal in this terrible time
have …basically, been people of heart and of a tremendous
professionalism with very, very limited resources, very
limited resources, they have shown an unlimited amount
of courage, of commitment, individual commitment, as well
to try and find Danny. That has meant a lot to me and
I know that the people like Danny’s family and Danny’s
friends have not shared that and it’s even harder,
in a way, for them because having been surrounded by such
human quality, regardless of whether they are Pakistani
or some other nationality, but just human, you know, they
were shocked as much as I was. Maybe not as much, but
I mean they really shared my suffering and it meant a
lot. So I really want to tell them that and thank them
for that, all of them, all of these investigators as well
as the anonymous people that have shown their support.
And now I also want to tell them to find the people who
have killed Danny.
CNN: And how much hope do you have that they will?
Mariane Pearl: Well, honestly, that depends, I think,
a lot on how the world responds to it. I was mentioning
the lack of resources, as it happens, Karachi is at the
front line of a battle that it’s leading and it’s
fighting on behalf of the rest of the world because this
is, this happens to be at the front line for a lot of
reasons. There are immediate political and historical
reasons. Yes, Pakistan has supported the Taliban before.
Yes, there’s been the war in Afghanistan, all this
before now. You know Pakistan is also the natural, like
second front, right? So that’s a reality. There’s
also deeper reasons that we all know but more vaguely.
Lack of education, it’s a major one, absolutely major
one, lack of resources, lack of hope, lack of scope for
the people. I don’t think that any more we can consider
that that’s the problem of Pakistan alone. It’s
not anymore. Danny was killed and only this month, 10
other people were killed buy terrorists, and they were
all Pakistani. So they’re suffering as much as we
are. |
|
Off
The Cuff
By
Sagittarius
One way to regulate behavior: put your ideals
in writing. That may be asking a lot from someone
who’s only 7th class student. Every kid gets
in trouble,
makes mistakes. But on the subject of drug abuse,
I’d say Rashid’s chances are excellent.
And I’ll tell you
why. Because I’ll be watching Rashid, and
so will everyone else who know him. He did it
a few months ago in an essay for his Urdu class
competition
at local school. I was sent a copy of it.
|
“I used to think that drugs
were cool,” he wrote, “but when I got to thinking
about it, they are not. When you do them, you are just
like wasting your perfect life. “Drugs can mess up
your grades and nobody will like you anymore. The only
people who will be your friends are ghosts, because when
you get caught and go to prison the people who used to
smoke and do drugs with you are not going to be with you.”
Instead, those so-called friends “are going to be
moving on the mess up other people’ lives.”
Rashid has deduced the crux of the problem – that
some children can’t resist the inducements of peers,
these peers having caved to their own peer-induced temptations.
It’s an ugly chain. It is interrupted only when a
youngster breaks it with, “I decide for me”.
You talk about a way of regulating your behavior. Put
a vow in writing before several thousand fellow Citizens.
That’s what Rashid did. I bet it sticks.
Do the write’ thing
Often when I talk to school children I tell them that
there are rewards to writing beyond what the craft might
fetch in publishing or in making one’s self presentable
for an employer. I tell them that writing is one of the
very best ways for people to define themselves for themselves.
Other means of self-expression can do much the same art,
sculpture, music. They might not be as specific, but they
are putting you on the record in ennobling ways.
As for writing, particularly if one has an audience, the
impact can be huge. If I write here before a fellow Citizen
or school mater that drug and alcohol abuse are terrible
scourges in our society, and if someone sees me abusing
either, I’m outed as a hypocrite.
Teachers who have their children do a journal are doing
them a big favour, especially when children express what
they stand for and what they wish to become. They have
something to which they can refer, to compare their words
with their actions. This can be particularly helpful for
those dealing with emotional problems or trying to right
their lives from crime or substance abuse.
It’s one thing to recite a pledge – of sobriety
or chastity or loyalty – while engaged in groupthink.
It’s another to use one’s own words as guideposts.
Everyone has a conscience. Expression is how conscience
becomes a guide. Outside forces can guide, but inside
forces must steer.
Get it on the record – that’s the concept a
friend & a teacher is using in a project to influence
children to choose non-violence to deal with conflict.
He received a grant for an activity in which youth of
the city slam act out and express the ways of non-violence.
A possible fruit of this effort would be a “peacekeeper
statement” written by the children. |
|
|
|
