Round-up of regional news

Indian Pakistani Bhai Bhai (at least with this group)

A hundred and sixty-seven Pakistanis arrived in Calcutta in late December for the Third Joint Convention of Pakistan-India People´s Forum for Peace and Democracy. How they arrived itself says something of the accelerating thaw in South Asian people´s affairs.   Fully 142 of the 167 Pakistani participants arrived overland rather than by air, crossing over the Wagah border and then riding Indian railways across the breadth of North India to Calcutta. "In itself this is a historic event in the 50th year since Independence and Partition," said Deendayalan, one of the organisers of the meet.

The train was hours late checking into Howrah station, but the Pakistani guests told their hosts not to worry: "Yeh to bilhul hamara jaisay hai, sab thik hai." (Don´tworry, this is just like back home.)

Under Foreign Minister I.K. Gujral´s direction, the Pakistanis were given unprecedented visa privileges: they could visit eight Indian cities of their choice, and the requirement of reporting to the local police station in each was magnanimously waived.

The Pakistan-India People´s Forum for Peace and Democracy was formed on 2 September 1994 in Lahore by a group of concerned citizens from both sides of the border. The objective was to initiate a people-to-people dialogue between the two countries whose official animosity is keeping the whole region from moving forward, socially and economically. The Forum, a haven for progressives, believes that "the crisis in the relations between India and Pakistan is being deliberately maintained by ruling elites in utter disregard of common interest and aspirations of the people of the two countries."

Calcuttans welcomed the participants with an enthusiasm that was unprecedented, and this helped the proceedings gain a degree of spontaneity which was lacking in earlier meetings in Lahore and Delhi. Besides the formal sessions and "intersectoral dialogues", impromptu huddles took place among Indian and Pakistani artists, scholars, businessmen, engineers and trade union officials."There was a sense of discovery and learning among the participants," says Tapan Bose, another organiser. "It made a difference that this was Calcutta. The enthusiastic response of Calcuttans helped expand the constituency for this kind of thing."

On the last day of the Convention, all the delegates and about 300 Calcuttans held a public rally in Esplanade East, near the famous Calcutta Maidan. It ended with Pakistanis and Indians holding hands, calling each other "bhai bhai" and singing, "We shall live in peace." It was enough to make even the cynics among those present—and there were some of those too—a bit misty eyed for lost opportunities and what might yet be.

Between 28 and 31 December, delegates held intensive discussions on four major themes, which were demilitarisation, denuclearisation and peace dividends, religious intolerance, Kashmir and governance. They also reviewed the "postures and polices" of the two states in the last half century and concluded that, by and large, the public in both countries had been deprived the promise of freedom. Diversion of precious resources to wars and preparation for war, had condemned millions of people in the two countries to poverty and squalour.

At the end of the conference, a "Calcutta Declaration" was adopted. It called upon India and Pakistan to sign, "by 14-15th August 1997, a comprehensive treaty providing for the employment of internationally recognised mechanisms of mutual negotiation , mediation and arbitration for conflict resolution that could guarantee durable peace." (The two dates mark the independence days of Pakistan and India, respectively.)

The Declaration also called upon the two states to enter into bilateral agreements on free travel across the border, unfettered exchange of information and publications, reduction of communication and travel costs, removal of trade barriers, and granting of most-favoured-nation status to each other.

The Forum called for both governments "to stop intermittent firings across the border, to put an end to proxy wars and to demilitarise Siachen", and asked them to ensure transparency in their defence budgets and desist from nuclear preparations. The participants decided to continue to try and combat intolerance and prejudice, particularly in education (specifically, the teaching of history); media and performing arts; state, law and politics; literature and culture. On Kashmir, the Forum decided to try and organise a meeting where representatives of Kashmir from both sides of the Line of Control could come together so that recommendations on a future course of action could be made.

At the end of the meet, taking advantage of Mr Gujral´s magnanimity, the Pakistanis scattered to the far corners of India, to Bhopal, Lucknow and Hyderabad. We presume they have arrived home by now.

Belligerent Villagers of Khunjerab

A major chunk of the Karakoram region in the extreme north of Pakistan was declared the Khunjerab National Park in 1975, but it was a national park that ran into problems as soon as it was set up. The government backed out of its commitment to pay compensation to the pastoralists who had vacated a 12-km "core zone" established to protect the rare Marco Polo sheep, and this provided the spark to a long-lasting conflict between the park management and the locals.

Wildlife and the environment bore the brunt of the damage resulting from this estrangement. Several pastures, including a lambing ground for Marco Polo sheep, were over-grazed and the animal itself was shot for sport. The number of Marco Polo sheep, ibex and blue sheep plummetted and carnivores were poisoned in vast numbers.

To reverse the situation, the World Wildlife Fund (Pakistan) prepared a comprehensive management plan for Khunjerab, taking all of seven years to do so. Among other things, the plan has recommended nearly tripling the park´s area to 6150 sq km, encompassing the entire valley of Shimshal together with subsidiary valleys and a great chunk of land on either side of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) just before it enters China.

The management plan proposed by the WWF, which received assent of the local communities back in January 1992, allows use of traditional grazing only where it does not pose a threat to wild species. In case grazing affected wildlife, it would be abandoned against compensation. Protection of wild species including predators and birds would be the responsibility of the grazier communities who would stand to lose their grazing concessions if they violated the rules or if they failed to report poaching.

The launch of this very ambitious management plan in November 1996 was attended by several representatives of local communities who have generally been supportive of the programme. The people of Shimshal, however, decided otherwise. They have opposed the plan, and it is thought that their attitude could affect the very implementation of the Plan.

Of all the peoples in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, the Shimshalis are the most educated and urbane. As Ismailis (followers of the Aga Khan), they are easy-going in matters of religion, and without the militancy often seen among followers of the two major sects of Islam in Pakistan.

However, there is nothing a Shimshali likes more than a good argument, and their education and exposure makes them effective opponents of the WWF plan. The Shimshalis´ primary argument is that Shimshal, comprising nearly 80 percent of the area of the park, was neither properly surveyed, nor was any Shimshali included in the formulation of the Plan. They also believe, incorrectly it would seem after looking at the WWF document, that that they will be completely deprived of their grazing rights and that agricultural activity will be disallowed in the park. It has not helped matters that the Shimshali are piqued over the way the government dishonoured its earlier pledge of compensation.

Some Shimshali representatives also argue that there are no Marco Polo sheep, and indeed have never been, within the KNP boundaries, whereas, in fact, it was the Shimshalis who agreed to vacate the core area for the protection of very this mammal in 1975.

Following the example of nearby Bar Valley, a successful conservation project run by WWF Pakistan, the Shimshalis want to begin ibex and blue sheep trophy hunting in KNP. They, however, would like the authority to issue licences to rest with their own community. They have offered 20 percent of the proceeds to the government while the remainder would be spent on the community.

The people of Shimshal, it seems, want almost complete autonomy in matters related to the national park. They assert that they are capable of protecting their land and maintain its sustainability like their "forefathers did in the past". This is questioned by some experts, who point to the state of Furzen Dur, the Valley of Birches, which lies half a day´s march north of the village of Shimshal. This valley, once rich with birches, is today completely bare, a victim of unsustainable logging which cannot be ascribed to "outside dynamics".

If the management plan is implemented in letter and spirit, there is no reason why the Shimshali should not gain from the national park of which they are part. But they are wary of government pledges and outside advice. This has made the WWF work on a separate plan for Shimshal Valley within their Management Plan, after first hearing out local grievances. Perhaps, then, more than two decades after its founding, the Khunjerab National Park will have a workable plan for its management.

Salman Rashid

Listening to the Melancholic Fourth-Born and Others

Crisp January air from a half-open door invigorated discussions among the literati of India and Nepal gathered for a writers´ colloquium in a conference room of the India International Centre in the heart of New Delhi. Karan Singh, the erudite Chief Guest, recited Sanskrit shlokas in praise of Saraswati, goddess of learning and wisdom, even as a solitary crow threw itself repeatedly against the glass panes of the conference room trying to force its way in.

He (the crow) must have the soul of a poet to want to gain entry, commented Dr Singh. Some truth there, for the august gathering included top writers in Indian and Nepali languages exchanging ideas and mapping out new idioms to comprehend and write about the fast-changing modern diaspora.

While meetings among parliamentarians, journalists and sundry experts from the South Asian region are quite common by now, this colloquium was one of the rare efforts to bring together prominent litterateurs from two regional countries. Jointly organised by the Himalaya Today Society of Gangtok (chaired by Dil Kumari Bhandari, former Indian MP and spouse of Sikkim´s ex-Chief Minister, Nar Bahadur Bhandari) and the India International Centre, the meeting was sponsored by the B.P. Koirala Nepal-India Foundation.

Among the prominent participants from India were Kamleshwar, Sitakant Mahapatra, Bhisham Singh Sahani, Ranga Rao, Gangadhar Gadgil and Krishna Sobti. From Nepal, there were Bairagi Kainla, Abhi Subedi, Nagendra Raj Sharma and Tulsi Diwas. Lok Raj Baral, political scientist and Nepal´s Ambassador to India, was the guest of honour.

The meeting lasted three days, with the authors discussing "regionalism" and "nationalism" in Nepali and Indian writings, the folk tradition in the literatures of the two nations, emerging literary trends and creative writing, and publishing in the two countries. "Literature has always been an effective weapon against oppression, dictatorship and tyranny and authors and poets have always been at the forefront to resist any imposed socio-political system," said the Nepali poet Til Bikram Nembang, whose nom de plume, Bairagi Kainla, means "the melancholic fourth-born". Both societies have opted for liberalisation and the consequent integration into the world economy. This is naturally reflected in the emergence and spread of consumerism and rapidly changing values in formerly traditional and conservative societies. For most writers, to grapple with this new phenomenon was a major preoccupation— not only as it affected society, but also how it affected themselves as writers. Most seemed to be worried about commercialisation taking away the soul from literature. Should writers and poets cater to the market and thus garner a larger readership and money for other more serious works or should they write as their conscience dictated and continue in splendid isolation and, of course, relative penury?

Said Prof Gangadhar Gadgil: "The process of globalisation has created similar problems and tensions in all our countries. Apart from a general reluctance to shed or change drastically our old ways, there is the further question about the kind and degree of change we want to make. We have to look to each other and to other neighbouring countries to find out how we should grapple with these problems and the consequences of the decisions we take."

In addition to this was the probing of ideas like nationalism and regionalism that have changed in value and significance over the years. In short, most writers, through their craft, were seeking to formulate new world views that could correspond with the changing times. In this, the interchange of ideas and animated discussions sans national frontiers proved most illuminating. In fact, it was decided that the India-Nepal Writers´ Colloquium should not remain a one-time affair and such meetings between writers should continue.

Lady Ambassador

The only woman presently serving as ambassador, inter-SAARC, has just taken up office in Thimphu. She is Mahmuda Haque Choudary, a career diplomat, reportedly the first Bangladeshi woman ambassador anywhere. The new ambassador told Kuensel weekly that she intended to make economic relations between Bhutan and Bangladesh her priority: "What I am at is to create an environment that will ensure the free flow of commodities between the countries so that the business community will feel encouraged to conduct business free of unwanted hindrances." Her emphasis would be on improving communication links between Thimphu and Dhaka, establishing joint venture projects in agriculture, forestry and other labour-oriented fields, and the renewal of the Cultural and Trade Agreement between the two countries.

Ishini

The young women in the picture is Ishini Wickremesinghe Perera, Commercial and News Director of Telshan Network Ltd (TNL), one of Sri Lanka´s two privately owned television stations.

She is a great grand-daughter of D.R. Wijewardene, Sri Lanka´s Beaverbrook who founded the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd, the country´s dominant print publisher and one of the biggies in the news industry in the South Asian region.

Young Ishini, 29, who married an MP of the ruling People´s Alliance last year, has been grabbing local and international headlines as a result of the Criminal Investigation Department moving to use the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to prosecute (some say persecute) TNL over an allegedly inaccurate news report telecast over its evening bulletin some weeks ago.

The use of the PTA in a matter such as this was widely faulted by the Lankan press, including sections which had supported the People´s Alliance in its 1994 election campaign partly on account of its pledge to liberalise the media. The flak clearly embarrassed the government and President Chandrika Kumaratunga is now on record saying the PTA should not have been invoked. There have been hints that the whole
business will be dropped with "necessary action" taken under administrative provisions governing the licensing of television stations.

TNL is run by Ishini´s father, Shan Wickremesinghe, whose brother, Ranil, is the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and leader of the United National Party (UNP) which ruled Sri Lanka from 1977-94. The station is not popular with the government, which perceives it as anti-People´s Alliance.

Old stagers at Lake House, as ancl is popularly know, remembers Ishini´s great grandfather as an iron-willed martinet who was both tough and fair-minded. One story is that when even senior journalists were summoned to the old man´s presence, they would first visit the toilet to empty their bladders. The genes seem to have passed down the generations because Ishini made it very clear that if there was a rap, she would take it personally rather than let lesser fry face the music.

The stand-off between the government and TNL is far from over. A lot more slugging remains to be completed, so, seconds, out of the ring….
Dapper king. Upon return from a medical check-up in Bangkok, King Birendra of Nepal slips behind the wheel at Kathmandu´s international airport. Soon after his return on 17 January, the nation was treated to an orchestrated nation-wide arousing to mark the 25th anniversary of the king´s accession to the throne. Hundreds of day-to-day events, from high school fetes to painting exhibitions to losar new year celebrations, were labeled "25th anniversary events" in an attempt to lionise the king´s role in Nepali life and politics. A "civic reception" organised for the king´s pleasure at Kathmandu´s national stadium was a lacklustre affair, and a far cry from the spic and span of similar Panchayat-era fests. But the Narayanhiti Royal Palace seemed to welcome the sychophantic gestures as indication of the monarchy´s increasing popularity. After half a decade of treading carefully, the royalist forces which enjoyed total and unaccountable power during the Panchayat years till 1990 were all-too-willing to grab the opportunity that presented itself. A weak and feckless Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was happy to pander to the palace to bolster his weakening hold over events. The heightened sense of self within the royal palace— complemented by increasingly ineffectual governance by commoners—seemed to be feeding the royalists with a false sense of where public opinion lay. In all the pedestrian hype surrounding the 25th anniversary, for example, there was no commentator to make the point that the responsibility for the country´s dilapidated state (evidenced by the need to venture abroad for a routine health check-up) goes back to action and inaction during King Birendra´s absolute rule of 18 years, which was nearly double that of his much-maligned father Mahendra. Better for those who would want a higher profile for the king to have him pursue his constitutional duties more effectively. Other sectors of Nepali society, meanwhile, must learn to demand accountability from the commoner-politicians who are today ruining the national prospects.

Welcome to the World, Thimphu!

"Evidence mounts against man arrested for shocking murder in the capital", said the leader headline in Kuensel of 15 February. A drunken brawl leading to a killing on New Year´s Eve has apparently served to shock Thimphu´s citizens and serve as reminder that modernity´s dark side is knocking at the door of this most forbidden South Asian kingdom. For, if murder is a sign of modernisation, Thimphu has now made the grade.

Excerpted here is the Kuense´s editorial, which indicates the extent of disquiet that the incident has caused in Thimphu.

Even as most of us begin a lo-na (inauspicious year) by taking the necessary steps to ward off bad luck to the extent possible, the eve of the new year was marked by one of the more chilling acts of violence we are likely to see.

The apparently ruthless killing of a young man on the streets of Thimphu was horrifying because of  its senselessness. But it is more frightening because it involved persons we have the tendency to categorise, in recent years, as Bhutanese youth who are going astray. The implication is that the situation involving our youth is rapidly deteriorating.

For the generation of Bhutanese which knew the Thimphu of the past jew decades, such an incident must surely be agonising. Many of us continue to despair at the social illnesses which are festering right before our eyes.

When the young man was knifed to death after a bar room brawl on January 31, he was not just killed. It symbolised the death of an era…

Uighurs Arise

Tibets was the only ´separatist´ problem China has had to tackle. Even as Deng Xiao Ping chose to depart this world, now there is Xinjiang, where the eight million Muslim Uighurs of China´s far west suddenly managed to attract the world media spotlight.

The restiveness among the Uighurs, and the shifting of Central Asian alliances of which they too doubtlessly form a part, is bound to change to some extent the geopolitical balance in the continent, including countries in South Asia.

The immediate reaction in the Subcontinent was to read the role of the "foreign hand" into the events in Xinjiang, and worries about how the Uighurs´ agitation unsettle the given power equation. Given that this is a Muslim uprising, so the theory quickly developed, the Taliban regime in Kabul must be involved. In India, itself seeking to quell autonomous-minded tendencies, analysts naturally aligned themselves on the side of the Chinese state, calling for the need to guard  against  the  secession of Xinjiang—although it is not even clear what the Uighur activists are demanding.

One Indian pundit referred to the fact that both Uighur and Tibetan groups were gaining support among "Western nongovernmental organisations active on the human rights front", as if that were in itself some kind of disqualification.

The Chinese are reported to have accused the (Pakistan- and Saudi-supported) Taliban as well as a Lahore-based group known as the Tablik-e-Jamat of fomenting strife in Xinjiang. There are also those who see in Xinjiang an American conspiracy to carve out a Western sphere of influence in Central Asia which would keep both Russia and China on an uneven keel while maintaining access to the petroleum-rich region and its pipelines.

Amidst all this punditry, this seeking of motives and ferreting out of conspiracies, the Uighurs themselves somehow seem to have been forgotten. Whoever else may be ´using´ them, the lofty principles of cultural identity, self-determination, and the right to be heard must lie with the Uighurs as well—even if few had heard of them and their desires till now.

Four Tibetan Choices: Tick One

Tibetans in exile, spread all over the world but concentrated in India and Nepal, are engaged in a hot debate over whether to go in for a referendum which would decide on the course of their "Free Tibet" struggle.

The referendum was an idea first proposed in March 1994 by Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama. As fleshed out by the Tibetan Government in Exile, the referendum would ask Tibetans to choose one from four options: one, complete independence, two, continuation of the present middle-way approach, three, satyagraha struggle (which would involve a march to Tibet and a Gandhian agitation), and, four, self-determination.

Some Tibetan leaders suggest that the referendum proposal has simply created confusion among the rank and file. To begin with, the Dalai Lama has himself tipped the scales by making no secret of his own preference for the middle path. Further, the proposal is flawed because it mixes objectives and methods: independence, for example, is a goal, whereas a satyagraha is only a means to an objective.

There is also the problem of conducting the exercise in Tibet itself although the Dalai Lama says he will find ways to collect "representative opinions from different parts of Tibet". But, the larger dilemma is how such a referendum could be held in the face of uncompromising attitudes among a considerable section of Tibetan exiles. Although they do not oppose the Dalai Lama directly, they make it clear that they are not in favour of a referendum. For example, these opinions were compiled by the Tibetan Association of Chicago recently from among its members.

"The referendum is long overdue but needs refinement because the choices offered are very narrow and idealistic…We should not miss an opportunity to make a big push for the independence of Tibet during the lifetime of HH Dalai Lama as our government is very vulnerable in his absence and we are not likely to do better in future."

"We must try every possible means to attain our goal. If necessary, we should follow both violent and non-violent means for that purpose… The bottomline is that Tibetans should be in a position to set the terms of the talks with the Chinese rather than dance to their deceptive tune."

"The Tibetan legislature [in exile] must assert the Tibetan agenda. The agenda is rangzen (independence). Dharamshala is notoriously known for its mediocrity and unclear messages often leaving the public groping in the dark."

There are some who hold thoroughly militant views as well, particularly in the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women´s Association based in Dharamshala and some centres overseas, who have started calling for a line of direct confrontation with China—either by marching into Tibet or by rousing the Tibetans within to take up arms.

The most vociferous advocate of the satyagraha approach is Samdhong Losang Tenzin Rinpoche (the chairman of the Tibetan legislature), who believes that time is running out for Tibetans. "We know it may be a kind of suicide, but unless we do take action in the very near future there will be no Tibet left to free," he told a reporter recently.

Despite the divergent views, Dharamshala looks determined to hold the referendum, which is slated for July 1997 after being postponed in August 1996. A ´ workshop was organised in Dharamshala in late January to discuss the various referendum options, as a way of "educating" people on the coming ballot.

The workshop was attended by around 250 delegates from all over, and speakers expressed their views supporting one or another option. At the meeting, the Dalai Lama once again emphasised his preference for the middle way, which essentially means: confirming Tibet to be a part of China while insisting on negotiations over the degree of autonomy.

Die-hard supporters of total Tibetan independence, who include much-in-the-news Hollywood actors, may be disappointed by the Dalai Lama´s present stance but he seems convinced of its pragmatism. Tenzin Gyatso says the idea of separate small nations has become out of date due to the rapid globalisation of the world. Tibet as a separate state cannot survive all alone.

Batuk Vohra
Tibetan Environment and Development News, the newsletter from an American watchdog of goings-on in the elevated plateau, recently printed a map of Tibet giving county-level data for migrants (read ´Han´). The map (shown here) depicts the nature of migrant settlement based on a 1990 census, which seems to "follow a predictable pattern" paralleling the settlement of Chinese with residential permits, says the newsletter.

There are high concentrations of migrants in cities with large Chinese populations. The highest concentration of migrants are found along the eastern border with the Chinese mainland and along the railway line which runs from Xining to Golmud (the large dots at the top of the map, right and left, respectively), both in the Chinese province of Qinghai. There are also a substantial number of migrants (about 40,000) in Lhasa town, which is seen in the large dot towards the bottom.