East Cape News (Grahamstown)
Steven Kretzmann
10 October 2001
Grahamstown — Even if the US succeeded in their strikes against Afghanistan they would be likely to sow seeds of hatred amongst Muslims said Rhodes University International Relations Professor Korwa Adar yesterday (subs: Tues) "Terrorism cannot be eradicated unless pertinent issues such as the Palestinian question is immediately and amicably resolved," said Professor Adar.
"They are going to generate hatred and instability." He said there was a central core of problems which continued "to plague the world".
He said for example the way Israel, supported by the US, dealt with the "Palestinian question" was not acceptable.
"They (the Palestinians) are being shot like birds over there." "Terrorism is a major global concern, it is wrong for one country to try resolve it using sophisticated missiles. You will dismember the leadership and the country but so what? Many of the terrorists are not even there." He said the war against terrorism should be handled by the United Nations.
That way specific targets such as sponsors, organisers and financiers could be identified and targeted.
He said President Bush's statement that countries either supported America or the terrorists could mark a return to a Cold War situation and would reverse the democratic process underway in many countries.
He said the internal politics of countries such as Sudan which "jumped onto Bush's bandwagon" would be ignored so long as they supported the US.
"It's a return to a cold war situation where countries' internal politics were ignored so long as they supported the West or the East." "So long as it expresses its solidarity with the US, there will be no pressure put on Sudan to refrain from its pursuit of state terrorism against its own civilians in the south and the marginalised areas.
These civilians have been indiscriminately bombed since 1983." He said "dictators and corrupt leaders are now likely to jump on the Bush bandwagon putting the demands for the institutionalization of democratic systems in the background".
"For decades the corrupt and authoritarian leaders in Africa invested their siphoned billions of dollars in 'secret accounts' in the West." He said that by rallying all countries to stand behind it in their war against terrorism, the US was "playing double standards".
"The US has refused to join other countries when certain global concerns were put on the table." He said the most recent example of this was the racism conference held in Durban to which the US sent a skeleton delegation because it refused to discuss Middle East policy or reparations for slavery.
He said he "would not be surprised" if leaders in the Middle East region who accommodated the US military efforts against Afghanistan would eventually "have to pay the price for it over the long run".
"That is something which cannot be ignored. Things may change, depending on how the US and the UK execute their military action."
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