Families blown apart, infants dying. The terrible truth of this 'just war'
Richard Lloyd Parry in Quetta | 25.10.2001 20:15
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=101306 Families blown apart, infants dying. The terrible truth of this 'just war'
Richard Lloyd Parry in Quetta
25 October 2001
Sami Ullah was asleep when it happened, and so his friends and neighbours had to tell him about the bomb that struck his house and what it did to him and his family. How the American planes, which had been over earlier in the evening, had returned after everyone went to bed and how, instead of the
Taliban base two miles away, they dropped their bombs on a residential area of the town of Tarin Kot.
Mr Ullah's injuries are obvious enough even now – deep cuts caused by the collapsing house and the fragment of something in his belly that might be bomb shrapnel. One of his cousins was also pulled alive from the rubble but no one else was. In the 11 hours between the explosion and the moment when he finally regained consciousness, the bodies of Mr Ullah's wife, his four children, his parents, and five of his brothers and sisters had been lifted from the rubble of their home and buried.
What do you say to a stranger who tells you he has just lost every member of his immediate family? All you can decently do is ask questions.
When did it happen? On Friday night or early Saturday morning. Where? In a suburb of Tarin Kot, capital of the Afghan province of Oruzgan. And why? But Mr Ullah, who is not familiar with the phrase "collateral damage" or "just war" does not have an answer.
In the 19 days of the bombing campaign, many terrible things have been reported but the scenes at the Al-Khidmat Al-Hajeri hospital, where Mr Ullah lay last night, are the most pathetic I have seen. In one ward lay a woman named Dery Gul, about 30 years old, with her 10-year-old daughter, Najimu, and a baby named Hameed Ullah. The little girls have bruised and cut faces; the cheek of the baby is cut neatly in a T shape, as if by a knife. But to understand how lucky they were you only have to look at their mother.
Her face is half-covered with bandages, her arm wrapped in plaster. "The bomb burned her eyes," says the doctor. "The whole right side of her body is burned." The reason Ms Gul is so battered and her daughters so lightly injured, they say, is because she cradled them.
From the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the injured people were carried late on Tuesday, the town of Tarin Kot is just a dot in the middle of the map of Afghanistan, traversed by a single road, surrounded by contour lines. But even if it amounts to no more than a few thousand mud houses with a handful of administrative buildings, it is a provincial capital – an Afghan York or Norwich. Yes, the people in the hospital yesterday said, of course there were Taliban there; but, no, they were miles away from Sami Ullah, Dery Gul, the
little girls and their dead relatives.
There had been bombing earlier in the evening, Sami Ullah said, and the military camp had been hit. "There were four bombs that hit the Taliban," he said, "but many more bombs fell on the houses."
While some of the villagers were pulling their neighbours out of the rubble, more bombs had fallen, and more people had been hurt – "about 10 people were injured, and 20 were killed". But the danger appeared to have passed by the time the family went to sleep. If the planes roared overhead, they did not wake them and perhaps those who died – 12 in Sami Ullah's house, eight in the home of the mother and her girls – did not even know what had happened to them.
What then went wrong? The Pentagon has already admitted this week bombing an old people's home in Herat with a simple targeting error. Two weeks ago, bombs killed dozens in the village of Karam where, according to the local people, there had once been an Osama bin Laden camp which had moved years before. Other stories like it suggest that in some cases American intelligence is simply out of date.
But there is a third possibility – that the Taliban are deliberately moving military personnel and equipment close to civilian areas, turning their oblivious inhabitants into de facto human shields.
In another hospital in Quetta yesterday, a nurse told of how nine days ago the Taliban had turned up at her family's house and ordered them to leave. "They said it was for our own safety, because there was a barracks a few hundred
metres away," she said.
"But after we had left they moved Taliban soldiers in and stayed there themselves. Afterwards the bombs did fall, and my house was destroyed and the civilian people who stayed behind were hurt too."
"We heard the bombs falling often," said Mr Ullah, as I start to run out of questions, "but we didn't feel afraid because everyone said that American bombs were accurate, and that they would bomb the Talibs, but not the innocent people."
The American broadcasters have a phrase which they repeat in reporting civilian casualties in Afghanistan: "The claims cannot be independently confirmed". And, of course, there is no way to check on anything that the people at the Al-Khidmat Al-Hajeri hospital say.
But if this is all a hoax perpetrated by the Taliban, why does Mr Ullah speak of them with such disdain? And would even the Taliban mutilate a baby to win a political point? I believe that Sami Ullah and Dery Gul and her girls are what they appear – innocent victims of an increasingly cack-handed war, and that there will be many, many more of them before it is close to being over
Richard Lloyd Parry in Quetta
Homepage:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=101306
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Bottom Line
25.10.2001 22:01
Seen
The time for 'conservative' thinking is over
26.10.2001 19:44
----
"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."
- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
---
[The time for 'conservative' thinking is over]
--
Daily Mail & Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa.
January 13 2000
Preventing war with consciousness-based defence
Preventing war in the world is as easy as a shift in perspective, and adopting transcendental meditation, argue DR DAVID LEFFLER and LEE LEFFLER
NO enemy, no war. The key to peace is preventing an enemy from arising. Mozambique's government recognised this in 1992 while attempting to end civil war. They prevented enemies from arising within their borders using a new
"secret weapon" -- consciousness-based defence. This technology helped Mozambique, and could offer hope to all nations struggling with enemies inside and outside their borders.
Warfare is more dangerous than ever. Weapons of mass destruction are easily available on the world arms market. Building up arms and powerful weapons incites fear in friends as well as foes. A novel solution is needed.
The root cause of war is the build-up of stress and tensions in collective consciousness in a nation. Collective consciousness is the sum of the
influences created by its individual members. This collective consciousness
affects the thoughts and feelings of those same individuals.
If a nation's collective consciousness is full of tension and fear, then disorder erupts. Social injustice and unfavourable economic conditions thrive
in such chaotic environments. Unresolved religious, territorial, political and cultural differences add to the unrest. This creates a frustrated and
dissatisfied population, further destabilising society.
Therefore, raising collective consciousness by reducing stress in society prevents the conditions that lead to enemies, conflict, and war. An ancient
system of defence, revived by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, raises collective consciousness by reducing stress. Using a simple, non-religious mental technique called the Transcendental Meditation (TM) programme, collective
consciousness is raised starting on the level of the individual.
Individuals practice the TM technique daily in large groups. Extensive scientific research indicates that practitioners of the TM programme experience increased coherence and higher states of consciousness. The
consciousness of the individual affects the group, and the group creates a super-radiance effect. Super-radiance means the coherence of the individuals and the group radiates into the surrounding population.
Tensions in the population of Mozambique were running high in 1992 after decades of war. The damage to human life and property was high. After the General Peace Agreement was signed, the country remained in a precarious
situation. Although a United Nations mission would soon be coming into the country, fighting could have easily broken out again at any time.
President Alberto Joachim Chissano and other representatives of the Mozambique government were contacted by Maharishi Vedic University. Maharishi Vedic University, based in Vlodrop, Holland, felt that Mozambique was a good
candidate to implement Maharishi's system of defence. The University gave a detailed presentation on the TM programme and cited research published in leading scientific journals. These journals included The Journal of Conflict
Resolution, Social Indicators Research, International Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Crime and Justice, and Journal of Mind and Behaviour.
After serious and critical study of the programme by the Mozambique Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, these leaders implemented the programme. The goal was to create the Maharishi Effect in the country. The Maharishi Effect
happens when the number of people practicing the programme reaches a critical mass, creating coherence, peace and harmony throughout the nation.
The TM technique was taught to different police and military units including the Ground, Naval and Air Forces. More than 16 000 people learned the TM programme, and many practiced it daily in large groups. Additionally, more
than 3 000 went on to learn the advanced TM-Sidhi programme and Yogic Flying, which is even more powerful.
Learning TM takes a few hours over several days. Then, the meditation is
practiced for about twenty minutes, twice a day. The military merely added
two more duties to the members' daily routines. Since the military by its
nature is disciplined, it was an ideal choice for participating in the
meditation project. The military's job is to protect society. By practicing
the TM programme, the military fulfills its duty without violence.
After the programme was under way in 1993, positive trends were noticed. Peace was maintained. Crime, which is normally expected to increase at the end of a war, actually decreased, as predicted by Maharishi Effect scientists.
The next year, the military began to be demobilised. The Commander of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Tobias Dai, who is now the General Secretary
of the Ministry of Defence, noticed a sudden change. "What is very clear is that once the positive effect is created, if group practice is stopped, the previous tendencies of higher collective stress, as determined from the crime
indices and the tense situations in the country, began to rise again. In
1994, there was a remarkable decrease in coherence in the country as a result
of decreased participation in the group practice of the Transcendental
Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme ..."
Dai attributed the dip in coherence to the demobilisation of the troops and
anticipated ending of TM courses for future police officers. He also said in
1994 that "until now, although with several difficulties, the maintenance of
peace has been possible during these two years, and free and just elections
have been carried out ..." Coherence-creating groups of meditators were
recreated. A year later, the United States National Defence Council
Foundation dropped Mozambique from the list of conflicts in the world, and
stability has since been sustained.
The Maharishi Effect apparently strikes at the most fundamental strategic
point -- the level where enemies arise -- stress in collective consciousness.
If enemies do not arise, there are no battles. Warfare and violence become
obsolete.
Maharishi's consciousness-based strategy may be the first truly defensive
system for maintaining peace. Any nation that has only allies becomes
invincible. If the Maharishi Effect is real, military experts in this
technology could create permanent peace.
Jane's Defence Daily, the highly regarded source for defence and police
information, recently printed advertisements announcing the strategy. A
Jane's spokesperson quoted in the Londoner's Diary said: "We checked these
advertisements with our company board. They are defence related and don't
contravene the Geneva Convention because they don't advertise torture
weapons, napalm or weapons of mass destruction." The spokesperson indicated
that a new trend may be emerging. "We haven't had a chance to test the
system, but spiritual defence systems could be the next generation of
weapons."
Due to the success of TM programme on many fronts, Dai met officials at
Maharishi Vedic University a few weeks ago. They finalised plans to train 7
000 military personnel in the TM and TM-Sidhi programme. If the success in
Mozambique is repeated by other militaries, fear-based defence strategies
could disappear. The Mozambique military is setting an example for the rest
of Africa and the world.
President Chissano states: "First I started the practice of Transcendental
Meditation myself, then introduced the practice to my close family, my
cabinet of ministers, my government officers, and my military. The result has
been political peace and balance in nature in my country. People ask me if
this is a religion. I have explained to them that I may keep my religion but
I should take advantage of this science and make maximum use of it. We will
not stop praying in our churches, we will not stop praying in our mosques, we
will not stop praying in our synagogues, but we will make an appeal to the
support of nature through the application of this technology (of conscio
usness)." Chissano expressed his willingness to endorse his experiences to
any government which inquires. Why not South Africa?
-- The Mail & Guardian, January 13 2000.
==ends===
How to eliminate terrorism permanently?
Its our choice now. The time for 'conservative' thinking is over. A scientifically proven method of peacefully eliminating terrorism and war already exists, and it can be implemented straight away if the necessary desire is there.
See:
(Includes references from in the Journal of Conflict Resolution)
------------
* American Public TV broadcast on terrorism:
"How to effectively eliminate the root cause of terrorism and war", a new video featuring Major General Singh, a 35-year career army veteran, and John Hagelin PhD, award-winning quantum physicist, speaking recently on APTV throughout the USA:
See:
[Streaming video - requires media player such as RealPlayer]
---
Ron