Global challenge

Investigators inspecting a bus that was burnt when a bomb exploded in it on May 5 in Yangpu, Shanghai. An Uighur separatist group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.-AFP

Terrorists struck freely in Asian and African countries in the past one month, and the latest target is the Beijing Olympics.

IN the last week of July, as terrorist bombs hit Ahmedabad and Bangalore, other cities around the world were being similarly targeted. Terrorist strikes occurred in Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, causing many casualties. In Iraq, 25 Shia pilgrims were killed in three separate suicide attacks. In the same week, suicide attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk killed more than 50 people. Ten members of an Afghan family were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in hit a mine in Spin Boldak. In July, more Afghans were killed as a result of American and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) air strikes than due to terrorist violence. In the first week of August, terrorists killed 16 Chinese border patrolmen in the town of Kashgar, located in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.

The American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced in the first week of August that it had closed the case on the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S. An American bio-weapons scientist, Bruce Ivins, working for the government, was identified as the culprit for the crimes which claimed five lives in the U.S. and spread panic. Ivins committed suicide when the FBI was on the verge of filing formal charges against him. American politicians had repeatedly said that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks. A retired FBI official told New York Daily News that the Bush administration wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East. President Bush had in fact said on October 15, 2001, that there could be some possible link between Osama bin Laden and the anthrax attacks.

The first week of August was also the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The dropping of atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities is viewed by many as the first act of state terrorism on a gargantuan scale. Hundreds of thousands of people perished in the nuclear holocaust. August 2008 also happened to be the tenth anniversary of the terrorist bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which claimed hundreds of lives. That attack signalled the arrival of Al Qaeda on the international terror scene.

Meanwhile, in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, another terrorist bomb, hidden not coincidentally in a rubbish dump, claimed the lives of 21 civilians, the majority of them street cleaners, who all happened to be women. More than 6,000 Somalis have been killed in violence and terrorist attacks and hundreds of thousands displaced since Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia at the end of 2006 with U.S. backing. A government established by the Islamic Courts Union had briefly reunited large swathes of the country which were under the sway of warlords. A semblance of peace had returned after a decade and a half of civil war. But the Bush administration decreed that the Islamic Courts Union was a front for Al Qaeda and those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, though no evidence of the linkage was provided. Somalia has now descended from functioning anarchy to unmanageable chaos. In the last year and a half, American planes have routinely targeted fleeing refugees in the haphazard hunt for alleged terrorists.

Most analysts and contemporary historians believe that the roots of terrorism can be traced to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which started with the establishment of the Zionist station on Arab territory. The Palestine issue remains unresolved. It was the Palestinian quest for self- determination and statehood that first sparked acts of international terrorism. The cycle was in fact kick-started by the state of Israel. Israel was the first to shoot down a civilian aircraft. The state itself was created on the basis of ethnic cleansing. The massacres of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila are still fresh in the memories of Palestinians. The Gaza Strip has virtually been turned into an open-air prison by the Israeli government.

The occupation of Palestinian lands is still taking a severe toll. It is no surprise that incidents of terrorism continue to occur in Israel and the occupied territories on a regular basis. In the first week of August, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Suleiman, a close aide of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, was shot by unknown assassins as he was holidaying in the Mediterranean resort town of Tartous. This terrorist act, like many others in the region, in all likelihood is linked with the broader Arab-Israeli conflict.

Most observers are of the view that the scourge of terrorism can only be tackled if the international community is able to find a solution to the long-standing Arab-Israeli dispute. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 and 2003 respectively have only complicated matters and given international terrorism a boost. Local resistance groups have freely shared their expertise in making improvised bombs and staging suicide attacks with groups sharing a similar ideology. This year, casualties caused by Afghan roadside bomb explosions have registered their highest levels.

In Iraq, there has been a rise in the numbers of female suicide bombers though the numbers of suicide bombings have come down. As many as 27 suicide bombings have been conducted by women this year in the country. Under American occupation, Iraq was turned into a nursery where terrorists from West Asia and North Africa congregated to impart training to eager recruits. The technology being used by terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in many cases is eerily similar to that used in Iraq after March 2003.

The attack in Kashgar was the deadliest outbreak of terrorist violence in China since 1990. Chinese officials have blamed Uighur separatists for the attack, which took place just a few days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The Xinjiang province shares borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and a host of Central Asian countries. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is fighting for Xinjiangs independence, is often blamed for much of the violence. The group has been put on the terrorist list by both the U.S. and Chinese governments.

Another party, the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), has claimed responsibility for several pre-Olympic bombings, including the July 21 bombings of three buses in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. That bombing caused widespread damage and claimed three lives. The TIP has warned that it will target more cities when the Games are on.

Many observers are suspicious about the timing of the terrorist attacks. Some, such as Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa, who has written extensively on terrorism, view the entire American-sponsored war on terrorism as an attempt to create an illusion of an outside enemy. He sees a Central Intelligence Agency-Inter-Services Intelligence hand in the terrorist attack in Kashgar. Chossudovsky, in his writings, has delved extensively on the historical relationship between the Uighur separatists, the ISI and the CIA.

Until September 11, 2001, the Uighur separatists had the tacit support of the U.S. administration. According to Chossudovsky, the ISI, which had played an important role in the Afghan war in the late 1970s and the 1980s, continues to have a working relationship with the CIA. The ISI continued to be used by Washington to channel covert support to various Islamic fundamentalist movements, Chossudovsky writes.

The Chinese authorities have not accused the ISI or the CIA of complicity but the head of the Olympic security command told reporters that the biggest threat to the security of the Games comes from the East Turkestan t1errorist organizations. Interestingly, the footage of the Turkestan extremists broadcasting their chilling message against the Olympics has been broadcast repeatedly on important American channels such as the CNN, just prior to the opening of the Games. The transcript was released to the media by IntelCenter, a Washington-based private company known to have a close relationship with American intelligence agencies.

In Turkey, the terrorist attacks occurred when the government was awaiting a key judgment from the Constitutional Court, the countrys top court. The fate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK), along with that of President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan, was in the balance. It was therefore not surprising that many people viewed the timing of the terrorist attack with suspicion. Two powerful bombs rocked Istanbul on July 27 in a crowded residential neighbourhood around 9 p.m. That is the time when the largest number of people are on the streets on hot summer nights in Istanbul. Twenty people were killed and 150 injured.

The government was quick to put the blame on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkish forces have gone on the offensive against the PKK and have been frequently staging cross-border raids on PKK bases inside northern Iraq. In early July, three terrorists, along with three policemen, were killed after a gun battle outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul. The responsibility for that attack was put on an Al Qaeda affiliate, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front. In November 2003, more than 60 people were killed after a series of suicide bombings attributed to Al Qaeda.

The Constitutional Court has given a reprieve to the AK Party. An adverse decision would have resulted in political chaos and provided more leeway for terrorist activities.