Reject the Farcical Proctorial Enquiry on the JNU Forum against War on People! Unite to Defeat Operation Green Hunt in JNU!

 “Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it” 

– Giordano Bruno

 
Of late, the Chief Proctor’s office of JNU has been “seized” by a frenzy to shoot off one circular after another in connection with an even more ridiculous and laughable enquiry which it has initiated against JNU Forum against war on People. Being a gem of an example of bureaucratic highhandedness, the Circular undersigned by the Chief Proctor on 19 May 2011 deserves to be quoted in full:

“Important Notice: An organization named “JNU Forum Against War on People” has in the recent past, issued and distributed an anonymous leaflet containing objectionable depiction of the State Emblem in campus. It violated Sections 3 and 7 of State Emblem of India Act (Prohibition of Improper Use), 2005. A Proctorial Enquiry is underway to establish the identity of students associated with the creation and release of the said leaflet. It is urged that any information, in regard to the identity of the involved students may be submitted in writing to the office of the undersigned by 31.05.2011. No public meeting or any other activity of this organization will be permitted inside the JNU Campus during the pendency of the Proctorial Enquiry.”
 
First of all, the so-called ‘objectionable depiction” was not in a ‘leaflet’ as claimed by the Chief Proctor but was on a small slip distributed in the dhabas on the evening of 5 May 2011 during the campaign for a public meeting that night. One who cannot even judge the simple distinction between a leaflet and a slip, has now pompously delivered the judgment that “It violated the Sections 3 and 7 of…”! Never mind if the Chief Proctor has played the role of the litigant, the judge, and the executioner, all rolled into one. Now since the Kangaroo court of the Proctorial Board has delivered its verdict, the next step is to launch a manhunt “to establish the identity of students” guilty of the ‘crime’ of creating and issuing that ‘objectionable’ image. And since the Chief Proctor does not have a spy network (or, may be he has one) and a police force, he has summoned the students of the campus to act as informers against their own fellow students. Once the students are ‘identified’ (which means randomly picking and choosing a few students), they can be handed down any punishments as per the whims and fancies of the Great Dictator. This is the modus operandi planned by the monarch and his henchmen at the Pink Palace. But they also very well know that the students of JNU, and particularly the JNU Forum against War on People which has been singled out as the target, will not so easily surrender to these unjust, arbitrary, vindictive and absurd measures, and will rise up in protest. They are aware that as per the tradition of the progressive students’ movement in JNU, there will be strong opposition and resistance articulated in the form of pamphlets, posters, protest demonstrations and public meetings. What better way to gag the protesting students than by preemptively ordering that “No public meeting or any other activity of this organization will be permitted” until this farce of an Enquiry is over? And then to follow this up with another Circular altogether prohibiting and censoring the use of all “unsigned printed material” (which covers the posters of all the organisations and the pamphlets of many others which are not signed)? This second Circular issued by the Chief Proctor’s Office titled “Regulation of unsigned posters/pamphlets/ leaflets etc.” reads:

“This office is seized with the enquiry related to the derogatory depiction of the state emblem of India in an anonymous leaflet issued and distributed by “JNU Forum against War on People”. It has been observed that some organizations are issuing unsigned printed material that sometimes contain objectionable text, pictures, photos, etc. In order to curb this activity, it is proposed that the shopkeepers running photocopy shops inside JNU campus to be directed that they should not make multiple copies of such material under any circumstance. The Registrar’s office may advise the shopkeepers accordingly. Vice-Chancellor may please approve this proposal.”

It is very clear that the logic of one “objectionable” image is now extended to anything and everything that is ‘unsigned’ and ‘objectionable’. The pretext is conveniently and cleverly manipulated to bring into purview not only pictures but even ‘texts’, meaning all kinds of written material. Any poster or pamphlet which is critical of the administration or the authorities to which it is subservient, can be termed ‘objectionable’, and therefore repressed. Through these circulars, the JNU administration is trying to usurp and arm itself with absolute power which will allow it to control and ‘regulate’ the political space of this campus, and to stifle those sections which are most critical of its policies. The bogus manner in which the Chief Proctor has pronounced the judgment that the image used by the Forum is “objectionable” and has “violated” the law, is a glimpse of the kind of dictatorial powers it wields.

If the judgment has already been pronounced and the ‘crime’ already established, then what is this ongoing Enquiry all about? The trial is already over, now the task remains merely to find the accused students and to put them on the stakes. So this is no enquiry, but is in fact a witch-hunt. And why such an elaborate hunt for students who only reproduced an image, which is all over the public domain and is widely used without any prohibition? As the JNU Forum has stated, “this image is readily available in the internet and other public domains. It has been widely used all over the country to depict the use of brutal force by the armed forces of Indian state against the people resisting Operation Green Hunt. This is an artist’s impression which exposes the reality of Indian state’s war on people today, and was used by the Forum keeping in mind the context of a public meeting which was to discuss ‘Operation Green Hunt: Unmasking the Reality of Democracy and Development.’ This image along with the public meeting – which was addressed by Arundhati Roy and Prof. Amit Bhaduri with more than 600 students in attendance in Koyna mess – indeed unmasked the fact that there is no democracy and freedom of expression or political dissent for those who oppose the repressive polices of the Indian state such as the Green Hunt.” Is the Chief Proctor also going to hound out and initiate criminal proceeding against the artist who has created this image? Is it going to punish the JNU students who visit the hundreds of websites carrying this image, or is found with the literature carrying this image? Is it also going to start an enquiry against AISA and its members for maintaining and using their website in which this same image is prominently displayed? One tends to doubt the sanity of those who finds the message conveyed by this image “objectionable”. However, we presume that the Proctorial Board was in their full senses while delivering the above-mentioned verdict. Therefore we suspect that there is something more than meets the eye behind their eagerness to persecute the students who have been protesting against Operation Green Hunt for the last two years. Indeed, this entire farce of an enquiry by the administration against the use of such an image would have been highly ridiculous and utterly laughable, had it not been for the highly dangerous motive and intent behind it.

The new VC, who has already in the short period of his tenure has earned the notoriety of an autocrat, is a darling of the country’s present rulers for his ability and willingness to prostrate before their neo-liberal agenda. He has been deputed to JNU by his masters Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh for implementing the neo-liberal policies which the good economist Dr. B B Bhattacharya has left unfinished. What is his declared agenda in JNU? To privatize JNU and making it ‘market-friendly’. Taking over as the VC of JNU in January this year, S K Sopory told journalists, "we need to expand it (research) more by linking institutions with industry". He also suggested that "institutions should be knowledge parks", the euphemism for turning the campus into an island of Special Economic Zone that processes ‘human resource’ for corporate profit. But as his predecessor has also found out, Sopory knows that the socially conscious and responsible students of JNU, its students’ movement and the political culture are the biggest hurdles to this neo-liberal agenda. The politicized and socially conscious students of the campus have always imbibed a spirit of dissent and resistance against not only anti-student measures within the university, but also against the anti-people policies of the Indian state imposed on the entire subcontinent. JNU is not an island. The identity and solidarity of JNU’s students with peoples’ movements outside has always strengthened and complimented the students’ movement in the campus. So when large numbers of JNU students take to the streets against Operation Green Hunt, or attend public meetings to talk about the Indian state’s war on people and its accompanying corporate plunder in numbers upwards of five to six hundred, the VC and his cronies sense a potential threat. In such political mobilizations they see the rudiments of resistance against their own neo-liberal plans for JNU. Therefore Sopory takes a leaf out of his other master – Chidambaram – and launches a hunt for students who are be punished. This way he wants to set an example for other students who dare to protest and stand up to the authorities. By punishing some students, the VC wishes to pave way for the unopposed privatization of JNU.

From witch-hunt of students to the ‘Green’ hunt of adivasis – it is the same policy of repressing resistance: There is no basic difference between Chidambaram’s Green Hunt and Sopory’s witch-hunt. The difference is only in magnitude and scale. In fact the present draconian actions by the administration can very well be imagined as a miniature version of Operation Green Hunt. In the allegation of violating laws (most of which, such as the Land Acquisition Act, Public Securities Act, etc. are of colonial vintage), thousands of people struggling to defend their jal-jangal-jameen are today being imprisoned by the Indian state. Revolutionaries are being cold-bloodedly murdered by the armed goons of the state in fake encounters, without allowing even the chance for a lawful trial. The villages and houses of those who are being branded as ‘anti-nationals’ or Maoists/Naxalites are being razed to the ground. Rape and torture are used as weapons against people of central and eastern India for opposing the military onslaught of Green Hunt to satisfy corporate interests. All this is being perpetrated by the Indian state by violating all laws and constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people. While the state and its machinery is high above the law, the so-called law-enforcers and the justice system is a constant source of terror for the vast majority who occupy the lowest strata of the society. While criminals run the system, people are criminalized and penalized for opposing the crimes of the oppressors. In this upside-down world, the acts of those who fight for justice or raise voice against injustice become ‘objectionable’ and punishable. Neither is JNU an exception to this rule, nor are the VC and his henchmen –the highest authorities in the university– any different in character from those criminals who rule the roost in the country today.

Has the Chief Proctor, who is so worked up by the alleged violations of law caused by the use of an image, been ever so bothered about the real crimes committed in the campus on a regular basis? Why has he not dared to start proceedings against the former VC who violated the provisions of the OBC Reservation Act for three long years? Has he bothered to penalize those teachers who have regularly flouted the law by discriminating against students from oppressed castes? Has he ever found time to look into the violations of labour laws that are committed on a daily basis in the tens of construction sites in JNU? Why has he repeatedly shielded and protected the right-wing hooligans who so admirably adhere to the law by assaulting Muslim and Dalit students time and again, or by distributing highly communal pamphlets (duly signed by ABVP office-bearers)? Whatever happens to his law when the YFE lumpens publicly shouts casteist abuses, for which they should have been booked under SC/ST Atrocities Act? Why has he not acted against the communal-fascist hooligans who have repeatedly disrupted and vandalized UGBMs and many public meetings, or tore up posters (which the ABVP proudly announced in their last pamphlet) with full immunity and complete impunity? If only images bother him, then why does he allow the ABVP to display public posters where Muslims are stereotypically depicted as ‘terrorists’ and aliens? The list of the crimes of the sanghi-giroh in campus is indeed long, as equally long is the account of Proctor’s reluctance to act against them, or to counter any of the crimes committed in the campus. What’s more, the Proctor himself appears complicit in these crimes through association and inaction. We do not expect that a closet-sanghi can do any better. Nor do we expect the sanghi-goons of ABVP to be punished by the administration. If anyone who has shown the sanghis their place, it is not the administration but the collective strength of the student community of JNU. The ABVP goons have been repeatedly taught lessons by the students in the past, and they will continue to do so in the future too, without pleading the Chief Proctor to punish them for their crimes. Nor do we hesitate to warn the administration that any attempt to intimidate, victimize or punish students for raising their voice against injustice, oppression and state terror is unacceptable. 

DSU demands that the administration immediately put a stop to the farce that it calls ‘Proctorial Enquiry’ against the JNU Forum against War on People. It must also withdraw the abominable Circulars that put the democratic culture and freedom of expression cherished by this campus to shame.

JNU Administration STRIKES AGAIN with Farcical Enquiries and ‘Circulars’! Unite to Defeat Administration’s Authoritarian Measures!

27 May 2011

JNU students too are now ‘internal security threat’ for the state. JNU administration, acting on behalf of the Indian State has recently issued a Circular on 19 May informing the campus of an ongoing enquiry on JNU Forum against War on People. They have instructed the concerned authorities not to allow any public meeting or other activities by the JNU Forum till the enquiry is over. Exposing their ruling-class character, the ‘high-and-mighty’ in the administration have further tried to use students of the campus to spy against their own fellow students by inviting them to give deposition against the JNU Forum and its members. It is nothing but ‘Salwa Judum’ or ‘Harmad’-style tactics where adivasis are pitted against the adivasis, and people are seduced to kill their neighbours. Let’s have no illusion! Operation Green Hunt is here knocking at the gates of JNU.

According to administration JNU Forum is guilty of violating State emblem act by using a pictorial depiction of Indian army smashing its own people under its jackboot. This is apparently as the administration has told us ‘objectionable’. What is however really objectionable for the administration is not a leaflet distributed ‘anonymously’. But what is ‘objectionable’ is the fact that students dare to raise their voice against the Indian state. If you oppose or resist, you must be treated as a criminal and punished with impunity and as ‘anti-national’. After Dr. Binayak Sen and other activists languishing in jails, now is the time for the students of JNU. The administration working as the lackeys of the state is up in arms to witch-hunt the students. The Home Minister Chidambaram is sustaining the war on the people with the same logic - either you are with the state or with the Maoists. The administration is employing the same tactics against the JNU Forum. Either you are with us or you are ‘anti-national’ and liable to be punished. For last two years JNU Forum has been successfully doing campaign against Operation Green Hunt and taking their political program to the students. Still the effort is to brand it as anonymous, as if it is a covert, clandestine organization indulging in the so-called anti-national activity!

Not so surprisingly, ABVP in their pamphlets and posters almost reproduced the same branding and allegation welcoming the administration’s step. In the final analysis, the administration exposes itself as a communal, casteist and status-quoist brigade hands-in-gloves with the ruling-class forces. ABVP could put up posters depicting minorities as intruders and outsiders, etc. No administrative action was taken against them! No ABVP goon was punished for unleashing violence on women, minorities, political activists and even JNU professors during the world cup cricket matches. All was pardoned perhaps because the administration feels these were in favour of ‘national interest’. Does cheering for the Indian cricket team give these communal-fascist hooligans a license to beat up the Kashmiris, Muslims, Dalits? If this is ‘nationalism’ and not ‘objectionable’, we must first ask this communal, casteist Chief Proctor who has given him the right to decide what is ‘national’ and ‘anti-national’? Who is he to describe what is ‘objectionable’ and what is not? For him, an image depicting the repression of the people of the country by the Indian state is ‘objectionable’, but the depicting of Muslims by the Sanghi ABVP in their posters as ‘terrorists’ and ‘outsiders’ is not objectionable. Any amount of violence, vandalism and intimidation is not objectionable for him if the perpetrators have ABVP membership. There is not even a fraction of eagerness or hurry shown by the Proctor’s office to act against the JNU Forum when it comes to the ABVP lumpens. If anybody has the right to decide what is objectionable and what is not, it is the students of JNU, as they have always done through debates, discussions and democratic methods.

In another circular, the administration has instructed the photocopy shops in JNU not to do multiple copies of any written material which is ‘anonymous’. This is not only applicable for JNU Forum but all organizations and platforms. This is nothing but effort on the part of the administration to curb our democratic space. Let us pose a simple question. Written pamphlet includes even posters. No organization in this campus undersigns its posters. So does it mean we stop bringing out posters all together? The naked truth is, the JNU Forum is the pretext. It is an effort to destroy our hard fought right to protest, dissent and most importantly right to political and artistic expression. DSU condemns in the strongest words this onslaught on JNU Forum in the name of ‘enquiry’ and extends its full solidarity to the JNU Forum in its fight against the farcical enquiry and sham circulars. We demand immediate termination of the Proctorial ‘Enquiry’ and an end to this targeting of students. We call upon the students and teachers to resist and unitedly struggle against the authoritarian interventions of the administration in the name of enquiry and circulars.

Two Years after the Eelam War: The Flames of Liberation Continue to Expose the Oppressors and their Apologists!

 

Two years back, on 18 May 2009 the Sri Lankan army claimed to have killed Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of LTTE, along with hundreds of his comrades. The next day in the Sri Lankan parliament a jubilant Rajapakse declared victory in the Eelam War IV. This was the day, two years back, when the Eelam Tamils lost their hard-fought freedom at the hands of the fascist and expansionist Sri Lanka. This week the Tamils in Eelam and outside remember the heroic sacrifice of the sons and daughters of Eelam who laid down their lives fighting the armed forces of the chauvinist Sri Lankan ruling classes. Braving threats, intimidation and harassment from the Sri Lankan armed forces and intelligence, the people of Eelam paid homage to those who have fallen in the decades-long struggle for national liberation. They reiterated that it is the people of Tamil Eelam alone who have the mandate to chose their destiny, denouncing and warning against any ‘negotiated settlement’ of the issue which compromises with the historical realities. The people have stated that any secret deal or confidential talk with the Sri Lankan state by those who claim to represent the Eelam Tamils will not be acceptable. The ‘solution’ only lies in the recognition of the historical reality of Tamil Eelam, i.e., its right to exist as a free and independent national state.

The injustice, oppression and discrimination of the Eelam Tamils by the Sinhala chauvinist ruling classes of Sri Lanka has a long history that goes back many centuries. The genocidal murder of Tamils in the first five months of 2009 in the last phase of the war was one of the most extensive and brutal phases of this national oppression. In the last days of the war alone, more than 40,000 Tamils – including combatants and non-combatants – were slaughtered by the marauding Sri Lankan army and air force. As the ‘international community’ watched in silence, cluster bombs and chemical weapons were unleashed on the entire population. Houses, schools, hospitals, ambulances, civilian shelters, and even No Fire Zones were bombed with impunity. By the time the war was declared over, almost the entire Tamil population of the north and east was uprooted, their lives and property was destroyed, and were forcefully confined in concentration camps which the Sri Lankan state calls ‘refugee camps’. Even conservative estimates put the number of displaced people to be above 3.5 lakhs. A large part of them are still not allowed to return to their villages, most of which have been ravaged and ruined beyond recognition. Eelam has been transformed into a mammoth prison-house by the occupation army of the Sri Lankan state. Here any form of dissent and articulation of political demand is strictly prohibited. The aim is to enslave the entire nation, and to kill the very hope of a free homeland. By forcing them into utter misery, the Sri Lankan state expects the Eelam Tamils to give up their aspiration for liberation, to abandon their dream of Eelam as a mere illusion, and to accept the present condition as their immutable fate.

Living under the shadow of fascist repression, experiencing the terror unleashed by the Sri Lankan state, and deeply aware of the historic oppression of their nation, it is the Eelam Tamils more than anyone else who seek the punishment of the perpetrators – the Sri Lankan ruling classes and its mercenary army. They deserve the severest of reprisal and punishment for their crimes. The question however is, what should they be punished for? For ‘crimes against humanity’, ‘war crimes’, ‘international crimes’, ‘violation of human rights’, flouting the rules of ‘Geneva Convention’, etc.? Or, for trying to wipe out a whole nation fighting for their inalienable right to self determination and national liberation? Here lies the difference between the perspective of the peoples’ movements and that of the International Human Rights industry/NGOs promoted by the imperialist camp. It is in the name of humanism, humanitarian intervention, and the so-called crimes against humanity that imperialism and its faithful lackeys such as the comprador ruling classes of Sri Lanka commit national oppression. Not for nothing that the Sri Lankan state called its war on Eelam a ‘humanitarian war to liberate the people of the Northern Province’. This is how the warmongers sell their wars, and the international weapons industry, its wares. This is the language in which the ‘internationally recognised bodies’ like the United Nations (UN), NATO and the European Union wages war on peoples’ movements and organisations. No wonder the imperialist countries and their ‘recognised legal bodies’ like UN spends millions of dollars every year to promote the discourse of ‘human rights’ or ‘crimes against humanity’ by funding thousands of human rights organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations. In the ‘conflict zones’ they protect the interest of the forces of oppression by accusing and persecuting the oppressed people, their leaders and their organisations, who dare to rise up against imperialism and its lackeys, while silently or vocally approving the acts of the oppressors. In the name of ‘conflict resolution’, they seek to take away the oppressed peoples’ right to fight back.

Any talk of ‘humanity’ and ‘humanism’ in a world divided into oppressor and oppressed classes, or oppressor and oppressed nations, is nothing but a sham. It is not in the name of ‘humanism’ that oppressed nations demand the right to self-determination. It is not in the name of ‘human rights’ that oppressed people seek liberation. The right of every oppressed nation to self determination including secession from the oppressor nation is a political right. It is a genuine collective right of a nation or a people, which even the UN was forced to recognise under pressure from the tidal wave of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist liberation struggles in the twentieth century. It is this inalienable political and collective right that the Eelam Tamils and their organisation Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought for almost four decades without compromise. In the path of liberation they unflinchingly suffered, but have not surrendered. Even today, after undergoing such extreme forms of repression and near extinction, they have not given up the aspiration for liberation. Therefore, when some sections who claim to represent the Eelam Tamils or to be in solidarity with them talk of ‘war crimes’, ‘crimes against humanity’ or ‘human rights violations’ in Sri Lanka without even acknowledging the right of a separate, sovereign and independent Tamil Eelam, stands accused of not only betraying this heroic struggle, but also of colluding with imperialism and its trusted executioners, the Sri Lankan and Indian ruling classes. They would do well to pay heed to the students of Jaffna University, who while remembering the martyrs of Eelam War this week, warned that it is the Eelam people alone that have the right to decide upon their destiny, and not those who compromise with the peoples’ aspirations in the name of tactics.

The Sri Lankan ruling classes responsible for centuries of oppression of the Tamil national minority must be punished so that the people of Eelam can win their freedom. But this punishment can only be in the form of overthrowing the repressive rule of the Sri Lankan state and through the liberation of Eelam, not by ‘demanding punishment’ for this or that member of the ruling classes. Let us not forget that the Rajapaksas –Mahinda, Basil, Gotabaya, or Sarath Fonseka etc. are mere instruments of class rule and national oppression – they are the puppets of imperialism. To howl for the punishment of such puppets without opposing Eelam’s continued occupation by the Sri Lankan state and its plunder by the imperialists is nothing but to legitimize this oppression and to backstab the Eelam liberation movement. Only the wolves in sheep’s skin are capable of such opportunism. The struggling people everywhere – including the Eelam Tamils – have seen too many of these chameleons to be fooled by their pretensions.

Who then will punish the ruling classes of Sri Lanka and bring them to justice, after all? Will it be United Nations, International Criminal Court, United States of America, India, the Sri Lankan state itself? Or the oppressed people of Tamil Eelam and Sri Lanka? Anyone who trusts the collective strength of oppressed people and believes in their unwavering determination to struggle against injustice knows the answer. However, those who are in the payroll of imperialism or benefits from oppression and status-quo, call upon the people to repose faith in their masters to ‘deliver justice’. This is the characteristic role of the imperialist-funded human rights industry and the NGO racket. What is the track record of imperialist agencies like the United Nations or the International Criminal Court (ICC) in ‘punishing’ despotic and authoritarian rulers complicit in mass murders? The worldwide operations of ICC, for example, are run by a consortium of international NGOs called ‘Coalition for the International Criminal Court’ which has over 2,500 NGO members in 150 different countries, most of which are directly funded by the imperialists. No surprise that ICC has prosecuted ruling-class members of six countries for ‘crimes against humanity’, all of which are from African countries. The latest target against whom ICC prosecution has begun is Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, his gravest crime being the opposition to imperialist intervention and the US-led war. As per the official rhetoric, however, he is to be tried for ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’! On the other hand, the biggest criminals in the world – George Bush Junior and Senior, Barack Obama, Tony Blair etc. are roaming free, some even managing to get Nobel ‘Peace Prizes’! Therefore, at a meeting of 30 African ICC member states in June 2009, several African countries called on African ICC members to withdraw from the Court in protest against the Court’s targeting of only Africa. The Commissioner of African Union, Ramtane Lamamra, said that the Prosecutor of the ICC was applying "a double standard in pursuing cases against some leaders while ignoring others". Knowing all this, can anyone be so naïve to be ignorant of the politics of ‘war crimes’, ‘crimes against humanity’, and the ‘justice’ system of “internationally recognised legal bodies”?

Is the real character and purpose of the UN any different? History proves that this ‘recognised legal body’ too has been a ‘powerful tool’ and a ‘strategic weapon’ in the hands of the imperialist powers and their surrogate regimes the world over. Just five years after its establishment, the UN –brainchild of US president Roosevelt – fought in favour of South Korea against Peoples’ Republic of Korea and revolutionary China under Mao in the Korean War (1950-53). From its inception till now the UN and its legal wing, the so-called International Court of Justice, has worked untiringly for establishing the New World Order under US imperialism. Its role during the ‘Cold War’ and thereafter needs no elaboration. In light of this dark history, to welcome the UN to be the arbiter of ‘international crime’ and ‘world peace’ is to invite imperialist intervention, to strengthen the forces of oppression and to deny any possibility of justice. Has the Libyan ‘rebels’ who invited UN bombardment in the name of ‘ousting Gaddafi’ and ‘liberating’ Libya opened doors for peace, justice and democracy? The people of Libya know that they are the lackeys of imperialism, no matter how much they try to convince the world about the ‘strategic’ need of using the UN-led war in Libya. For the Libyan people, the so-called rebels are nothing but imperialist collaborators and traitors.

The recent UN Expert Panel’s report on Sri Lanka exposes its real character to those who care to see. The so-called ‘major limitations’ of the UN report are nothing but the very basis of the report. Like any other imperialist agent, it does not recognise the right of Eelam Tamils for a separate and free homeland, instead offering a humiliating ‘common homeland’. It falsely accuses LTTE and its leadership, the force spearheading the decades-old liberation struggle, of using Eelam Tamils as ‘human shields’ and of even ‘point blank shooting of civilians’! In fact, while the UN Expert Panel finds five allegations of ‘potential serious violations’ against the Sri Lankan state ‘credible’, it held the LTTE guilty of six such ‘potential serious violations’, including the killing of its own people for whose defense and liberation it heroically fought for three decades! By accepting, welcoming and propagating the UN and its report, one tacitly accepts that the leaders and cadres of LTTE were also criminals, an opinion which is alien to the people of Tamil Eelam. The oppressed people of Tamil Eelam will never accept such a conclusion against the very organisation which they built and sustained with their blood and sweat. Nor would the LTTE or its leadership would accept such a verdict, no matter how much the report is ‘critical’ of the Sri Lankan genocidal state.

Sri Lanka’s ruling classes too have rejected the report, but for entirely different reasons. They know very well that the report and the threat of ‘prosecution’ in international courts will be used as a tool by the Western imperialist countries to wrest economic benefits, and hence is this rejection. Apart from outright imperialists, only those turncoats who see opportunities in the decimation of LTTE and the plight of the Tamils in Eelam can talk of ‘using the report as a strategic weapon’ in favour of Eelam Tamil and their political aspiration, after slyly declaring that “considering that the Lankan government claims that all the leaders of the Eelam movement have been eliminated, it can be presumed that the report shall apply only to those in state machinery who were responsible for war crimes”! We must thank them for exonerating the martyred sons and daughters of Eelam from being prosecuted for ‘war crimes’! But we have no right to anticipate whether the oppressed people of Tamil Eelam will be so merciful and benevolent as to exonerate the renegades for their crime of betraying the ongoing Eelam liberation struggle at one of its most critical junctures. Long live the struggle for free and independent Tamil Eelam!

Expose the dubious UN report! Oppose the heinous attempts to do business on the dead bodies of the martyrs for Tamil Elam!

The Report of the United Nations “on accountability in Sri Lanka” is finally out, having nothing to add but for a further brandishing of the liberation struggle for separate Tamil Eelam as ‘violent ethnic conflict’. It is a follow-up on the joint statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Government of Sri Lanka made on 23^rd May 2009. They spoke of the importance of an ‘accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law violation’. The UN secretary-general made his visit to Sri Lanka just after the official announcement of the end of the bloody “Final war” on 19^th May 2009. Furnished on the line of Hitler’s ‘final solution’, Rajapaksa’s ‘final war’ on LTTE tried to terminate the decades long genuine demand for separate Tamil Eelam. The ‘solution’ was simple—to silence the voice of resistance and liberation by murdering, dismembering and assassinating lakhs of Tamils in Northern-eastern Sri Lanka. It was one of the biggest acts of state-terrorism, targeting no-fire zone, hospitals, orphanage and international bodies, using chemical weapons, cluster bombs on civilian targets. The report, while reiterating that the Sri Lankan state has indeed indulged in war crimes violating all forms of human rights and humanitarian laws, does so only in the context of condemning the violence unleashed by LTTE. The report clearly states that its mandate does not include fact-finding or investigation; it is rather a report made on the basis of allegations collected from different sources having some factual validity and admissibility with respect to international laws.

Tamils in Eelam are not mere victims of a genocidal war. They were and still are aspirants for an independent and free Tamil Eelam. The report obviously chose to exclude this political aspiration of the Tamils and reduced them to mere helpless victims caught up between the Sri Lankan government and the ‘terrorists’ LTTE. This war was also not just violation of human rights and international laws as the UN claims, but a planned genocide, that too not the first of its kind on the Eelam Tamils. The discrimination against the Tamils started with the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948. It was not mere Sinhalese domination in government as the UN report puts it that led to the ‘conflict’, but the oppression of Tamils at every level that led to the fight for the independent Eelam nation. Parroting Rajapaksa, the report reduces LTTE’s decades long struggle and setting up of a parallel government for the Tamils in Eelam, as a ‘successful outcome of the effect of intimidation, mass extermination and threat’. In a world where international relations are forged on the principle of ‘war on terror’, the story seems to be very convincingly marketable. Such branding has always been a potent tool for any ruling classes in today’s world to delegitimize people’s movements and repress their struggle in the most ruthless manner possible. The report also adopts the same formula—that of silencing the people’s struggle for just political demand to mere ‘human rights violation’. It glosses over the repression and oppression in the context of global ‘war on terror’. Further it recommends the secretary-general to suggest that the Sri Lankan government adopt necessary measures to carry out proper investigation with full accountability. To put it simply, the report declares the Sri Lankan government allegedly guilty of war-crimes, and then requests the same government to supply proof of it, being fully accountable! It calls for accountability and transparency from the same government that it found guilty of blatant distortion of truth and justice by severely repressing and silencing democratic voices, mass media or restricting movement of international organizations at the time of war! So the report seeks justice for the victims of the Sri Lankan government’s terrorism from their perpetrators! The report speaks of “common homeland” for Sinhalese and Tamils, thereby completely rejecting the existence of separate geographical territory for the Tamils and Sinhalese. In north and east of Sri Lanka the Tamils have historically been a dominant force since the 13^th century. While it had alleged the Sri Lankan government, the UN has cleverly tried to mask the dubious role of Vijay Nambiar, the personal advisor of Ban Ki Moon. One cannot forget that the LTTE commanders including Nadesan, who were shot dead in cold blood, came to surrender to the Sri Lankan Army with white flags only after the assurance from Vijay Nambiar. It is no secret that Vijay Nambiar’s brother was an advisor of the Sri Lankan army. In fact the UN, as always in the past, has colluded with the perpetrators of crime and then cried hoarse about human rights violation.

With the end of war, the Sri Lankan government has colonized lands, resources and infrastructure which rightfully belong to Tamils. Today in the name of ‘reconstruction of the north and east’, Sri Lanka has been completely militarized. Visitors’ accounts state that the only concrete structures in many areas in the north are that of army barracks. Sri Lanka has become the newfound ‘land of opportunities’ for imperialist plunder by the US and its competitors like Russia and China. In a mad rush when US imperialism is working through Indian expansionism, China and Russia are also trying their best to win over Rajapaksa. Already, heavy investment in terms of infrastructure, road and rail construction and service industry has been made by India in the recently ravaged Tamil Eelam. Sea beaches of this part of Sri Lanka has been rented out to Chinese companies. While Obama issued occasional statements asking Rajapaksa to stop the war, Israel-US have extended their full cooperation to Rajapaksa’s genocide through intelligence support and military equipments. The UN report must be read in this context of competition among imperialist and expansionist forces. After the publication of the report, Rajapaksa sought support from Russia and China, two Security Council members of UN with veto power.  Russia came to his immediate rescue extending their solidarity opposing UN’s report alleging him of war-crimes.

UN has never been an international organization with neutral position. It is the nexus of imperialism which controls the interest of UN too. It is merely the ‘human face’ of US-imperialism, masking impoverishment caused by imperialist invasions and devastating economic reforms imposed by IMF and World Bank. Nothing proves the link better than UN role’s in Iraq invasion. Even before US military invasion, it was UN’s sanction on Iraq that pushed the country to the brink of destitution and caused millions of deaths. Despite prominent international intellectuals and politicians pointing out that the sanction is eventually detrimental for Iraqis, the UN persisted with it. And it did so under the guidance of the US. It is crystal clear to the world that the sanction was neither against Saddam for genocide nor for alleged possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was particularly targeted to weaken Saddam’s resistance to US efforts to monopolize the oil resources through privatization of oil mines. The inevitable result was US invasion and innumerable war crimes which the UN would do nothing about. Except mere token cautions to US and its junior partners, the UN has done nothing to restrict imperialist aggression in Africa, Middle East, Afghanistan where imperialism has nurtured, funded and aided local war-lords and feudal elements to subvert governments in order to meet their own interests. The bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999 or the recent involvement of the French Government and NATO and subsequent invasion into Libya are other glaring examples. Despite violations of boundaries of nations and delegitimization of sovereignty of countries, the UN did nothing but pay lip service in the name of ‘human rights’. The hollowness and subsequent political agenda of the human rights discourse is visible for us to see.

While the UN speaks of ‘accountability’ of the Sri Lankan state, the latter forced people to take shelter in ‘welfare camps’ that are nothing but modern day Auschwitz or Dachau. This is what the Sri Lankan government perpetuates under the guise of rehabilitation and resettlement. The Forcefully Detained People (FDP) face physical and mental torture and humiliation as a part of the official policies in such camps. If one is suspected of having any LTTE links or sympathy, (s)he is taken away, never to be returned again. Besides these, women are targeted specifically. Estimates show that there are over 89,000 war widows in Eelam. Women are molested, sexually harassed and raped as a part of their torture strategy, ensuring that the surviving Tamil population never recover from the horrors of this war. Deplorable conditions of food, water and other basic amenities have already led to several epidemics in the camps and steady rise in death toll. Last estimate suggests almost three lakh Tamils in these modern day concentration camps, even after two years of war and millions pumped into Sri Lanka in the name of ‘rehabilitation’. Some of these camps were ‘let open’ last year, but there is no information or evidences of resettlement; no one knows what happened to those 2 lakh people. However nobody can confirm the number too as no credible information about these camps can be obtained under the dictatorship of Rajapaksa. Only status-quoist pro government media is manufacturing relentless lies to manoeuvre the national and international opinion. Not just in camps but every Tamil in Sri Lanka and particularly in Eelam are living under threat, including the MPs and members of opposition party Tamil National Alliance. It is quite clear by now the situation is going to continue in the similar fashion as long as Rajapaksa is able to satisfy his imperialist masters and successfully play the cunning game to balance the international expansionist forces’ economic interests in the region. No UN report is even going to create a single ripple.

The Eelam war was not just between two parties – the Sri Lankan state and the LTTE, but a brutal assault on the people of Eelam who were fighting an uncompromising struggle for their national liberation. India is not just complicit, but was actively aiding the Sri Lankan state in its genocide and did all it could to crush the liberation movement just as it is trying in Kashmir and north-east. The recommendation of the report to ‘find a political solution that recognises Sri Lanka’s ethnic diversity and the full and inclusive citizenship of all its people’ only comes as a cruel joke when even civilian jobs are today filled by military personnel in the north and east, facilitating the colonisation of Eelam by Sinhalese. Hence only a resolute struggle by the Tamils for a free Tamil Eelam and our unconditional support to their struggle is the answer to the fascist dictats of the Rajapaksa regime. No politics of opportunism or NGO-isation of politics can deliver justice to the Tamils. Tamils not only fought or is still fighting for a separate Tamil Eelam, but they are also fighting against inequality, oppression and marginalisation. Their fight is for justice, for a democratic progressive society which the oppressed masses all over the world now aspire for. At this crucial juncture the UN report strives to show the world that the fight is over. As if the time has come for ‘re-building and reconstitution’.

Thus, to celebrate the UN report for merely alleging Sri Lankan state of war-crime is nothing but doing business on the dead bodies of the revolutionaries who fought for national liberation. UN report must be seen in the context of facilitating and strengthening the interests of imperialist and comprador capital, and their incessant war on people in south Asia in the name of ‘war on terror’ or ‘internal security threat’. It therefore must be rejected and resisted in-toto, while standing in full solidarity with the people fighting such repression. A section of civil society and some ‘left’ political parties however are now betraying the peoples’ movements and fuelling up ‘emotions’ to sell off movements as a commodity for their own opportunist politics. We must resist these brokers of peoples’ aspirations and struggles. We must carry on the mantle of the glorious legacy of Eelam Tamil’s liberation struggle. We must join the struggles of the oppressed masses of Eelam, Kashmir, North East and India in their onwards march for national liberation and for the victory of revolution!

My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death: Noam Chomsky

It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.”

Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.

There is also much media discussion of Washington’s anger that Pakistan didn’t turn over bin Laden, though surely elements of the military and security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

There’s more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the “Bush doctrine” that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the U.S. and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.” There is much more to say, but even the most obvious and elementary facts should provide us with a good deal to think about.

इतिहास गवाह है कि कोई भी साम्राज्य शाश्वत नहीं रहा है ! अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद का पतन भी दुनिया की उत्पीड़ित जनता के हाथों लिखा है !

2 मई को ओसामा बिन लादेन की हत्या अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद के अपराधों की ताजा मिसाल है. दुनिया के सबसे बड़े अपराधी और हत्यारों का मुखिया अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति बराक ओबामा कहता है- जस्टिस हैव बीन डन (इंसाफ हो चुका). और वह उम्मीद करता है कि दुनिया इसे मान लेगी कि एक दूसरे देश की धरती पर गैरकानूनी तरीके से घुस कर एक निहत्थे इनसान की हत्या कर उसकी लाश को समुद्र में बहा देना इंसाफ था. लेकिन दुनिया भर की जनता ओसामा की हत्या और अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद के विरोध में सड़कों पर उतर रही है. थाईलैंड, पाकिस्तान, कश्मीर और अनेक दूसरे देशों में बड़े विरोध प्रदर्शन यही दिखाते हैं कि दुनिया भर में साम्राज्यवाद से लड़ रही जनता ओसामा को अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद के प्रतिरोध का एक प्रतीक मानती है.

ओबामा का कहना है- ‘ओसामा पर 2,752 लोगों की जान लेनेवाले 11 सितंबर के हमले की योजना बनाने का संदेह था.’ संदेह! हो सकता है. लेकिन क्या हममें से किसी को इस पर संदेह है कि अफगानिस्तान और इराक को तबाह कर देनेवाला हमला किसने किया? या इस पर कि बीसियों सालों की घेरेबंदी, प्रतिबंधों, बमबारी और यातनाओं में 15 लाख इराकियों की मौतों के लिए जिम्मेदार कौन है? हिरोशिमा-नागासाकी पर बम गिराकर लाखों लोगों की हत्या करनेवाले देश के बारे में कभी कोई संदेह नहीं रहा. यह तथ्य भी निर्विवाद है कि भोपाल के यूनियन कार्बाइड जनसंहार में हजारों लोगों की जान लेने और लाखों लोगों को स्थाई रूप से बीमार और अपाहिज बना देनेवाले हादसे के जिम्मेदार वारेन एंडरसन को अमेरिका ने पनाह दी है, उसे किसी भी अदालती कार्रवाई से बचाया है, और उसके दबाव में भारत सरकार और दूसरे संस्थानों ने हत्याकांड के पीड़ितों को राहत और न्याय देने में आनाकानी कर रही है. और ग्वांतानामो में कैद सैकड़ों युवक, श्रीलंका में 50 हजार से अधिक तमिलों के हत्यारे राजपक्षे को समर्थन, फिलीस्तीन को एक यातना शिविर में बदल दिया जाना. अंतहीन सूची है अमेरिकी अपराधों की. ऐसे में अगर अमेरिका इंसाफ, शांति और लोकतंत्र की बात करता है तो हमें उसे कुछ याद दिलाने की जरूरत है. यह बताने की जरूरत है कि दुनिया की जनता दूसरे विश्व युद्ध और उसके बाद यूनान, फिलीपींस, कोरिया, अल्बानिया, पूर्वी यूरोप, ईरान, इराक, ग्वाटेमाला, कोस्टा रिका, सीरिया, निकारागुआ, सोमालिया, चिली, कंबोडिया, वियतनाम और अफगानिस्तान समेत तख्तापलट की कम से कम 45 घटनाओं और अलग-अलग देशों पर सैकड़ों युद्धों को थोपने के उसके इतिहास को भूली नहीं है. जिन देश की ‘आजादी’ अपने मूल निवासियों और बाकी दुनिया के करोड़ों लोगों के जनसंहार पर टिकी हुई है, उसकी आतंकवादी कार्रवाइयों को दुनिया ने भुला नहीं दिया है. उन्होंने नहीं भुलाया है उस ओरलांदो बोश को, जिसने सीआईए की मदद से क्यूबा के एक नागरिक विमान पर हमला कर 73 लोगों को उड़ा दिया था, और क्यूबाई मंत्रियों और राजनयिकों की हत्या की अनेक साजिशें रचीं. बोश को जॉर्ज बुश सीनियर ने माफी और पनाह दी. उसके नाम पर ‘ओरलांदो दिवस’ मनाया गया.

जनसंहार, फौजी तख्तापलट, हत्या और साफ दिखती हिंसा ही नहीं, दुनिया के अरबों लोग अमेरिकी साम्राज्य की छिपी हुई और संस्थागत हिंसा के भी शिकार हैं. पूरी दुनिया में अमेरिकी और दूसरे साम्राज्यवादी संस्थानों द्वारा ‘उदारीकरण, निजीकरण, वैश्वीकरण’ की नीतियों को थोपे जाने के कारण करोड़ों लोग तबाह हुए हैं. अकेले भारत में इन नीतियों के कारण पिछले 15 वर्षों में ढाई लाख किसानों ने आत्महत्या की है. भुखमरी, बीमारी, बेरोजगारी, संसाधनहीनता और अशिक्षा की पहले से ही बदतर स्थिति कई गुणा और बदतर हुई है. इसके अलावा साम्राज्यवादी कारपोरेट घरानों के साथ किये जाने वाले करारों के जरिए मेहनतकश जनता के संसाधनों की लूट से और जल, जंगल, जमीन पर देशी-विदेशी कंपनियों का कब्जा होने से देश भर में लाखों लोग विस्थापित हुए हैं. इन अधिग्रहणों और शोषण के दूसरे रूपों का प्रतिरोध कर रहे आदिवासियों, किसानों और मेहनतकशों के खिलाफ उन्हीं कारपोरेटों के पैसे से सलवा जुडूम और हरमाद वाहिनी जैसे फासीवादी हत्यारे गिरोह खड़े किए गए हैं. अनेक राज्यों में जनता के खिलाफ भारतीय शासक वर्ग द्वारा चलाया जा रहा ऑपरेशन ग्रीन हंट नामक युद्ध अमेरिकी और इस्राइली फौजी और खुफिया अधिकारियों की निगरानी में चल रहा है.

इसलिए दुनिया की जनता के खिलाफ वाशिंगटन के गुनाहों का हिसाब होना अभी बाकी है. और यह हिसाब हो रहा है. हरेक गुजरते दिन के साथ फिलीस्तीन, इराक और अफगानिस्तान की संघर्षरत जनता अमेरिका, इस्राइल और उसके साथी साम्राज्यवादियों की बेइंसाफियों का हिसाब कर रही है. वह साबित कर रही है कि साम्राज्यवाद अपराजेय नहीं है. हमास, तालिबान और हिज्बुल्लाह के इन जुझारू हथियारबंद संघर्षों ने साम्राज्यवाद के विजय अभियानों को रोक दिया है. इस जुझारू प्रतिरोध का ही नतीजा है कि साम्राज्यवाद इन इलाकों में पीछे हटने पर मजबूर हुआ है और उसे बचाव का रुख अपनाना पड़ा है. आज साम्राज्यवाद अफगानिस्तान और इराक में वियतनाम हमले के बाद सबसे बड़ी फौजी हार की कगार पर खड़ा है. भारत और दुनिया के दूसरे देशों में साम्राज्यवाद के खिलाफ जारी जनता के बहादुराना संघर्षों का भी यही अनुभव रहा है. यहां हम याद कर सकते हैं अपने पड़ोस के एक छोटे से देश को. वियतनाम न तो अपनी फौजी ताकत के लिए जाना जाता था और न ही अपनी तकनीकी उन्नति के लिए. लेकिन यह वही देश था, जिसने अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद और फौजी ताकत को पराजित किया था. वियतनाम की ताकत थी उसकी जनता, क्रांतिकारी राजनीति और उसका हथियारबंद संघर्ष. जनता ने अपने इतिहास से सबक लिया है और वह आगे बढ़ रही है. ओसामा की हत्या करके साम्राज्यवाद अपने खिलाफ जनता के इस युद्ध को रोक नहीं पाएगा. आनेवाले दिनों में यह संघर्ष और तेज होगा. इस कागजी बाघ का पतन तय है. इतिहास गवाह है कि कोई भी साम्राज्य शाश्वत नहीं रहा है. जनता ने अपने संघर्षों के जरिये साम्राज्यों को ध्वस्त किया है. अमेरिकी साम्राज्यवाद का पतन भी इस लड़ रही उत्पीड़ित और मेहनतकश जनता के हाथों ही होगा.

Unite to defeat the violence of US imperialism and its allies!

‘Justice has been done’ declared Obama, while officially announcing that they have finally killed Osama Bin Laden. The world was proudly informed that a small group of US army personnel, in a covert operation, successfully barged into the hide-out of Osama in Pakistan and killed him in an encounter. His body was later thrown to the sea and not even given a proper Islamic burial. So far however not a single evidence of the entire incident has been produced other than the verbose ‘cry of victory’. The US army claimed they have killed ‘three other adult males, including one suspected to be Osama’s son and a woman who was being used as a shield by them’. No one knows what happened to their bodies. All these discrepancies got lost in the garrulous statements of the imperialist, self-proclaimed custodians of ‘global peace and justice’ and corporate media’s uncritical breaking news on greatest break through in ‘war on terror’.

For US imperialism there is no border and boundary. US army invaded inside the boundary of a sovereign nation and carried out covert military operation in a densely populated area without even informing the Pakistani government! US imperialism in last two decades has emerged as the single-most security threat for the entire world. With demise of Soviet Imperialism, US in search of monopoly over markets and natural resources like oil, have indulged into repeated state-sponsored terrorism. They have engineered war in Latin American countries like Peru, Chile, Nicaragua, Panama and many others. Since 1945, CIA-backed innumerable operations pumped in money to subvert or topple atleast 45 governments in various countries. While all over the world US has been pressurizing countries to hand over ‘suspected terrorists’, President Clinton and Bush have given presidential pardon to people like Orlando Bosch, Luis Possada Carriles who are considered to be ‘dangerous’ by other countries for their countries’ security. John Negroponte, the then US ambassador in Honduras who was condemned by even UN for making Honduras the base for US international terrorism has been promoted by Bush as a in-charge of counter-terrorism.

Obama is new the murderer with the mask of ‘benevolence’. Obama came to power with carefully worded and warped ‘anti-war promises’. Right in his first week in office he sanctioned two missile attacks in Pakistan, killing 22 people, including women and children. Criticizing Bush for being ‘soft’ on Afghanistan, in his rule he has sent 20-30,000 fresh troops in Afghanistan, intensifying the ‘war against terror’. He however did declare his ‘opposition’ to the war on Iraq during his election campaign. But as expected, no demilitarisation of Iraq as promised by him happened so far. He is still extending the ‘deadline’ to withdraw troops and consistently pumping billions of dollars in the Iraq military operation. With the advanced knowledge, approval, finances, and weaponry of the U.S. government, Israel pulverized the people of Gaza, bombed residences, mosques, schools, and even a U.N. building, and blocked humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza. More than 1300 Palestinians were killed, and thousands were wounded. While occasionally giving statements against Sri Lankan government, asking them to stop the war on Tamils, he backed up Chauvinistic Sri Lankan state through intelligence support, weaponry in the genocide that killed 50000 civilians in Tamil Eelam.

The latest stunt of Obama declaring that Osama has been ‘killed and justice has been delivered’ must be understood in the context of recent crisis of imperialism. Barrack Obama’s presidential victory after all came in the midst of immense showbiz and promises but soon was discredited to its hilt. Hit by the worldwide economic recession, the US economy too is going through one of the worst slumps with massive retrenchment of workers, homelessness of people, crashes in share market, devaluation of currency and so on. In the face of such unprecedented crisis, imperialism needs both a face-lift and further grounds to fortify a war situation. ‘Killing Osama’ thus is the only oxygen that can salvage Obama’s rule for a second term in the upcoming elections next year and inject new life into the war economy of US. ‘To hunt down Osama’ they had attacked Afghanistan in the past. In the name of restoring ‘democracy’, they reinstated a puppet government of Hameed Karzai. The first decision that Karzai-government took was to sanction a pipe line through Afghanistan for extracting natural gas by an American company. This deal worth millions was halted due to Taliban government’s refusal to cooperate with US. Assault on Iraq also started as Saddam Hussain increasingly refused to cooperate with US and privatize oil resources completely. He was branded as a dictator who is ally of ‘Islamic terrorists’ and possess ‘weapon of mass destruction’ which were never to be found. US’ insistence on privatization of the oil resources and bid the oil mines to US companies nakedly exposes the real intension for killing thousands in Iraq. War afterall has historically served US to boost their own domestic economy while opening up new market in invaded foreign countries. Therefore, not surprisingly, while celebrating ‘Killing of Osama’, Obama and Cameron, Prime Minister of UK , both emphasized that war against terror is far from over. In their statement they have harped again and again the fear of retaliation by Al-Qaeda.

Osama Bin Laden has always remained the recurrent pretext of US imperialism to further its ugly and heinous ‘war on terror’. At the beginning Osama and Taliban were used by US itself to fight Soviet Union in Afghanistan. But when Osama refused to remain as another puppet in the hands of US, he was declared as the enemy of US (and thereby of the entire world) to perpetrate recurring war particularly targeting the Arab world and the Muslim population. Post 9/11 the ‘war on terror’ was fortified. The ruling classes of countries across the world were forced and blackmailed to support US in this war against the Muslim world. Currently across the Arab world a massive anti-imperialist upsurge is going on. They are fighting against US invasion, the puppet governments at the hands of US and against corporate loot of their resources. This fearless struggle of the people is the biggest enemy of the US. US therefore has no other option but to re-invoke the bogey of terrorism to militarily invade these countries and monopolize their resources which so far seems impossible owing to the immense mass uprising in all these countries.

The Indian ruling classes have remained faithful running dogs of the US imperialism loyally hailing the ‘war on terrorism’, which has taken a brutal form in India. With draconian laws like TADA, POTA, UAPA thousands of Muslims have been imprisoned without trial, tortured and even killed. Several organizations have been banned for just being ‘Islamic’. Many were killed in fake encounters. At the same time, despite ostensive proof of RSS-BJP’s involvement in many bomb blasts and terror attacks, nothing has been done. They are now fanning their religious war-agenda by decrying Pakistan’s involvement in ‘terrorism’. Parliamentary pseudo-left like CPI(M), with their tokenism of anti-imperialism in rhetoric has lined up with Sangh-giroh in questioning Pakistan’s involvement while they remain conveniently silent against US imperialism. We must expose the imperialist forces and their allies and stand in solidarity with genuine people’s struggle against imperialist aggression in Arab and Muslim world. We must unite against the biggest terrorist US and its allies and compradors and fight till its demise and downfall!