Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Asia's Tsunami and Darfur's 'Sudanami' highlight our hypocritical humanity

By Kamal Mirawdeli - posted Friday, 28 January 2005


“Rich and poor, young and old, of all colours and creeds, most people were violently swept off without a record of their passing.” That is how The Times (December 31 2004) described the victims of the Asian tsunami, a tragedy that has shaken the depths of our humanity, exposed our fragile and frail existence and focused our minds very sharply on our transitory place in the equation of nature and life.

In the age of global media, we can see and hear, we can touch and feel, we can share the trauma of the greatest human tragedy unfolding in its grimmest details and dimensions. But we do not only share the sight, we share the severity of the disaster itself. The victims include not only Asians, but also tourists from a variety of nations. According to official Foreign Office figures (January 6, 2005) there were 407 confirmed deaths and 12,500 missing persons from 14 European and Western countries.

This figure is expected to rise. On the other hand, the environmental, economic, health, social and political consequences will also be far-reaching and long-term, affecting every country and community in the world.

Advertisement

While the response of governments and peoples around the world has been outstanding, unfortunately the ugly and cynical face of politics is not absent from the scene. In his initial response to this enormous calamity, the UN's Chief Mr Kofi Annan talked about “our common humanity” and Mr Gordon Brown talked about “our moral universe”. But is there really, at long last, a sense of common universal inclusive humanity that overrides the “we versus them” dichotomy? Can certain human beings, namely racists, colonialists and chauvinist nationalists, even at this moment of human fragility and transient triviality, allow themselves to feel humane and behave rationally?

Governments, businesses, communities and individuals can share their common horror of what is obviously a natural disaster: A disaster that is not man-made, is apolitical, and therefore no one is to blame. So it is alright to establish a spectacular, international response to the catastrophe, colossal enough in its scale to undermine our homocentric and egocentric view of the universe and existence, and even bring God to account, if not doubt His existence.

But when it's the political animal that creates the carnage and mass graves, then solidarity disappears, minds get numb, cynicism reigns, silence overwhelms and governments and media cartels do their best to not only hide the truth, but also to distort, trivialise and marginalise it. There will be no emergency measures, no international mobilisation and no common human empathy. Nor will there be any feelings of guilt and remorse by the protagonists of crimes against humanity, no sustained media coverage, no generous giving to save certain deaths and to check the preventable human cruelties and inhumanity to fellow human beings.

Just by virtue of being weak, de-powered and historically carved up by stronger imperialist interests, entire nations and communities have been disfranchised. They have been marginalised, turned into permanent, perpetually-oppressed minorities, repressed and ravaged, without any one giving a damn; without Mr Annan managing a feeble noise; without big world politicians competing in their generosity and expressing their humanity - as they do now over the Asian tsunami.

What is crueller and more inhumane? To be suddenly caught in an act of nature's wrath, washed away with waves of mass destruction or to have entire villages and towns deliberately, systematically - in the most dehumanising and humiliating way - destroyed by human weapons of mass destruction?

What is crueller? To have a wave snatch your baby away, or to have a knock at your door at midnight, while all your children are asleep, and a herd of human beasts invade your home, your privacy and your gift of life and liberty; then one by one taking you away to be subjected to torture and rape and buried alive in mass graves while you are embracing your babies? And this done for no reason other than you belong to a different nation and culture.

Advertisement

This is not a figment of my imagination. I am not envisaging a fictional scenario. This is exactly what happened to the Kurds not long ago. It happened in 1988 to 182,000 of our children and parents. The Iraqi army bombed the villages with helicopter gun ships and war planes and then attacked with tanks and armoured vehicles. If the area was mountainous and difficult to occupy, they used chemical weapons to destroy the population en masse - the way they did in Halabja and other small towns and villages on March 16, 1988.

Four thousand villages and towns were destroyed in this manner including the village I was born in and the town in which I studied for my secondary education and taught English for eight years.

Since Saddam was toppled, 400 mass graves containing Kurds have been discovered. The last two were discovered in Sulaymani just recently. So why don't the media, which is obsessed with death and murder, take any interest in these bundled bodies of children, babies and parents lying in mass graves? Why don't teams of scientists and forensic experts visit and examine the bodies?

I do not want to detract from the enormity of the present disaster, or to show any scepticism about the sincerity of the majority of sympathisers and donors. Of course what has been done so far is little considering the total destruction in the communities of Aceh, Tamil Nadu and Thailand.

I recall what has happened to our people because I know that it has been happening in Aceh, Tamil Nadu and in particular in Darfur. In these places, where in the words of Kofi Annan "the greatest man-made catastrophe of our time" is occurring, this news is being sidelined and submerged by the tide of the Asian tsunami.

In both Aceh and Tamil Nadu the devastation caused by the tsunami exacerbated the sufferings of people who have been denied their right of self determination, and subjected to the worst forms of oppression and abuse by their dominating states for many decades, supported by arms traders, countries and companies interested only in oil, gas and trade. Being discriminated against and deliberately underdeveloped, these countries had never had any reasonable infrastructure. And once the tsunami washed away roads, bridges, schools, farms and homes the devastation was complete.

Neither the Indonesian Government nor Sri Lanka is serious about rescuing the people of Aceh and Tamil Nadu or reconstructing their communities. They would rather use this disaster to get rid of them altogether. The reality of this situation can be clearly understood when we compare relief and reconstruction efforts in Thailand to those in these two countries. Thailand has mobilised its entire mainstream military and civilian resources to help, save and reconstruct. A ruined school has been reconstructed in just two days and the children are already back at their desks. Every possible area and corner at sea and land is searched and scanned to look for survivors and bodies.

But Indonesia from the very beginning gave up even counting the dead and has already rejected Britain's offer to send soldiers to help. Sri Lanka is similarly reluctant to facilitate rescue and relief operations. Thailand does this fantastic job because it considers the victims as its own people. But Indonesia and Sri Lanka are viewing the Aceh and Tamil peoples as enemies just because they are different ethnic groups who are rightly asking for their legitimate inalienable right of self-determination.

I am even more concerned about Darfur because I know from my own experience that what is happening there now is exactly what happened to the Kurds for decades while the world turned a blind eye. In the same issue of The Times (December 31, 2004) - in which many graphic pages were devoted to the tsunami disaster, where in excess of 230,000 perished - there was a news report entitled "Darfur refugees face starvation as violence halts aid". The first paragraph of the report by Xan Rice in Nairobi reads:

Hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's Darfur region will go hungry over the New Year period after renewed violence forced the UN to suspend food deliveries. The World Food Program (WFP) said that it had halted three convoys of trucks carrying more than 1,300 tonnes of food destined for thousands of people in camps in West and South Darfur.

In a statement, the organisation said that the increased violence meant the UN and non-governmental organisations were effectively blocked from having overland access between central Sudan and Darfur. As a result 260,000 people would not receive their December rations. More than 1.85 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur since February 2003, when the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against Khartoum, to fight for a greater share of resources and political recognition.

The people of Darfur are deliberately targeted because they do not wish to be controlled by Arab colonialists, who are definitely supported by all those with vested interests in their land and there are vast oil reserves in Darfur.

Compare Darfur's “Sudanami” to the Asian tsunami and try to contemplate and understand our common human hypocrisy. It would be a travesty of humanity and human international solidarity if all this rivalry to outbid and grab headlines with each nations' generosity to the victims of the Asian tsunami ends up serving to hide the more hideous political crimes perpetrated against dispossessed and oppressed nations.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

11 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Dr Kamal Mirawdeli is a specialsit in Middle East and in particular Kurdish issues and writes from a Kurdish perspective. He is a regular contributor to www.kurdmedia.com.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Kamal Mirawdeli
Article Tools
Comment 11 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy