AFGHAN CRISIS AND RAMADHAN: TEST OF US SENSITIVITY

by Rahmad Nasution

Three days before the Moslem holy fasting month of Ramadhan starts this Saturday, there is still no indication of changes in the US policy of retaliatory 'terrorist' action against Afghanistan.

The superpower's military actions in the civil war-torn Moslem country will very likely go on though hundreds of the Afghan civilians, including women and children, had been killed by its cluster bombs and "smart" missiles that it had launched since Oct 7.

The firm stance of the angry superpower to continue its military strikes on the poor Moslem country despite the coming of Ramadhan had recently been clarified by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

As if she responded to the calls of certain leaders of Moslem countries for a suspension of the US attacks on Afghanistan during the Ramadhan, Rice said apparently there would be no pause in the US action against terrorism.

The Voice of America in its editorial had recently even defended the White House's policy.

The US government-funded radio station said "there was no better choice than hunting down terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere, even during the Ramadhan".

The radio justified the Americans' doing in the poor South Asian country which has been torn by civil wars for more than a decade, by referring to a series of wars, which had ever occurred in the Ramadhan or in other holy days.

The VOA said Prophet Muhammad -- peace be upon him -- began his operation to take the holy city of Mecca back in the Ramadhan, while Egypt and Syria fought Israel in the holy Jewish day of Yom Kippur.

This argument is not only used by the US government or its official media channels (like VOA), but also by academicians, to justify its policy without listening to Moslem world leaders, including those in Indonesia and Malaysia.

School of thought

"War has nothing to do with a holy day" school of thought seems to have been the mainstream view of most Americans, so that noted American analysts, like Brian Michael Jenkins, also shared this thought.

A former Green Berets captain who was active in conducting research on terrorism, and had once chaired RAND's political science department (1972-1989), said he could accept other criticism on the US policy on combating "terrorism".

But in fighting Usamah bin Ladin and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, he said: "I don't know of any war that it will be stopped because of a holy day ... No holy day!"

Jenkins, who spoke to live tele-conference participants in Jakarta from Los Angeles on Wednesday evening (Jakarta time), believed that the best way to fight terrorism is through law enforcement by bringing all the culprits to justice.

Indonesia, despite its agreement to counter terrorism, stated at the APEC meeting in Shanghai last October and the ASEAN Summit in Brunei in early November, that the US military attacks on Afghanistan need to be stopped during the Ramadhan.

Even President Megawati Soekarnoputri echoed calls for an end to the attacks during the Ramadhan.

She had even come up with a likely-applicable proposal that a "humanitarian pause" be implemented in Afghanistan during the holy month.

However, the White House seems to have been "stone deaf" said the people who recently staged a series of rallies in front of the US embassy here, to the calls for a halt in the strikes on Afghanistan.

Mahathir's belief

Meanwhile, Dr.Mahathir Mohamad was among the world leaders who did not think that Washington would soon stop or just suspend its military campaigns on Afghanistan until Usamah bin Ladin, the prime suspect of the last Sept 11 terrorist attacks killing more than 5,000 people in New York and Washington, and those supporting him, had been killed and totally crushed.

The outspoken Malaysian premier that media workers in Indonesia had once labeled as "little Soekarno", further said the US military forces would be in Afghanistan for a long time until they were sure that "there are no longer terrorists there."

"Thus, there is no indication that the United States will end its attacks on Afghanistan soon," he told a news conference after the ninth APEC economic leaders meeting in Shanghai which ended on Oct 21.

If there is no chance to see changes in the US policy in the near future, what possibilities may be faced by fragile Moslem countries like Indonesia whose anti-American sentiment is growing among certain elements of the nation?

None can predict what will happen in Jakarta or elsewhere if, during the holy month of Ramadhan, the US military forces continue their strikes by using whatever they thought is necessary, like ground troops and even what the Pentagon generals and US policy makers always claim to be "smart bombs" but, in fact, kill many innocent civilians on the ground.

The impact of the US Afghan policy on the domestic politics of Indonesia and even Pakistan -- the closest US ally in its military campaign against the Taliban regime, Usamah bin Ladin, and other Moslems who believe that Ladin and his Al Qaeda are only the Americans' scapegoats for the last September tragedy -- will likely be serious.

As foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda once warned that there would be an emotional explosion in Indonesia if the US continued its military campaign against Afghanistan during the Ramadhan, the holiest month in Islam.

Actually, there remains a hope if the pledge, once echoed by President George W. Bush's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, that the US government would be sensitive to the fact that the Ramadhan is the holiest month on the Muslim calendar, would be fulfilled soon.

How is the US sensitivity translated into reality which accommodates Moslems' reservation, and when is the pledge fulfilled are two questions in many people's minds.

Or, the policy makers in Pentagon, White House and even US congressmen have lost their true awareness that if their counter-terrorist policy on Afghanistan through their "eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a tooth" approaches will only justify any anti-American peoples anywhere in the globe to continue their fight against the US with every thing at their disposal.

*) Tulisan menjelang serangan AS ke Afghanistan tahun 2001. ANTARA menyiarkannya pada 14 November 2001.