Antiterror war conceals global injustices

Antiterror war conceals global injustices

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian religious leaders marked Saturday's International Day
of Peace by calling for a war on global injustices as a
prerequisite to fighting worldwide terrorism and violence across
the country.

They also told the United States and other Western countries
to cease their arrogance deemed to have led to feelings of
enmity, hatred and hostility in the developing world.

Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) leader Andreas A.
Yewangoe said developed countries, especially the U.S., should
use the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy as momentum to reflect on whether
their global economic and political systems were just.

"It is not impossible that war on terror and terrorism will
encourage new terror if the core of the problem, namely global
injustice, is not addressed.

"Churches have really been aware that violence will not end
with violence. It will lead to renewed outbreaks of more intense
violence."

If only the outbreaks of violence were addressed, without
dealing with the core problem, the cycle of violence would
continue, Yewangoe said at a ceremony to observe the UN's first
annual International Day of Peace.

Other guests at the ceremony, hosted by the UN Information
Center (UNIC) Jakarta, was UNIC director Abdullah Saleh Mbamba,
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra and
Islamic, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist leaders who all delivered
messages of peace.

Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla and
Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Husin Al-Munawwar were
not present but sent senior officials to represent them.

The International Day of Peace was declared under a UN General
Assembly resolution dated on Sept. 7 last year, six days before
the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It is observed
worldwide on every Sept. 21 beginning from 2002.

Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) secretary general Din
Syamsuddin shared Yewangoe's view, saying the U.S.-led
international campaign against terrorism would fail should global
justice not be taken into serious account, or if the world
superpower continued with its double standards in the Middle East
conflict.

"The war on terrorism will not be successful and will even
spark new terrorism, if the U.S. and other Western states
continue with their arrogant power," he told journalists after
his speech.

The U.S. has been repeatedly berated by many Muslim states and
others for their "double-standards" in the Mideast in favor of
Israel.

Criticism escalated as the world superpower signaled its
intention to attack Iraq as part of the global anti-terrorism
campaign.

M.J. Notoseputro, an executive secretary of the Bishops'
Conference of Indonesia (KWI), said Western nations had gone too
far in the war on terrorism as it had breached the principles of
human rights.

"The campaign is politicized by the U.S., so the target and
purpose are unclear," he told The Jakarta Post after Saturday's
ceremony, citing as an example the Israel-Palestinian conflict
and the plan to hit Iraq.

He said that in order to be "fair" there should have been
intense dialog to deal with terrorism across the globe.

"What is happening now is arrogance and hatred."

Abdullah Mbamba concurred with the Indonesian religious
leaders' calls for the world to eradicate global injustices to
make the war on terrorism a success.

"It is true," he told the Post when asked about the global
injustices blamed on the U.S. and other Western nations, which
have encouraged terrorism.

Apart from the anti-terrorism fever, Saturday's observation
came amid religious, ethnic and separatist fighting that has been
plaguing several parts of the world's largest Muslim country. The
fighting has killed thousands of people in Maluku, Poso in
Central Sulawesi, Aceh and Papua.

Other cases of violence, ranging from murders and rapes to
robbery, were reported in major cities across the country of more
than 200 million people.

All of the speakers called for an end to the violence to
achieve long-lasting peace in the country.