WEST BENGAL: TERROR CAMPAIGN AS NEW GOVT TAKES CHARGE

From Our Special

Correspondent in Kolkata

WHAT a start! What a chilling ‘Change’!

In the first ten days of changed political scenario in West Bengal, 10 CPI (M) leaders and supporters have been brutally murdered, hundreds injured, and as many were forced to flee from their places of residence, particularly in rural areas.

In a clear signal of terrorising the people, the murders committed by Trinamool and Congress goons were as brutal as possible, in most cases the victims being beaten or hacked to death.

Those who were killed till this report goes to press are Comrades Jiten Nandy, zonal committee member of Garbeta, Ajit Lohar, member of Saltora local committee, Purnima Gharui of Raina, Dahuruddin of Chopra, Ramprabesh Roy and his wife Mundakala Roy, peasants of Durgapur, Md Khodarakha of Margram, Amal Samaddar of Baruipur, Mahabul Seikh and his 18-year-old-son Musaraff of Beldanga.

Take for example the case of Amal Samaddar, who was a popular village doctor. As the entire village was terrorised by TMC gangs, Samaddar took shelter in his daughter’s house for a few days. But he returned to the village, probably assured by the announcement of the new chief minister Mamata Banerjee. That was a mistake. An armed TMC gang attacked the village of Belgachi in Baruipr, South 24 Parganas. They assaulted a number of CPI (M) activists, including women before entering Samaddar’s house. The miscreants forcibly dragged him out and beaten him mercilessly until he was dead.

In Beldanga, Murshidabad district, Congress activists attacked the village of Kapashdanga. They started hurling bombs to scare the villagers and attacked the house of Mahabul Sheikh, a CPI (M) activist. They dragged him out and killed him with choppers. The 18-year old son of Mahabul, Musaraff tried to save his father. The goons threw him into a room and set fire to the room, burning Musaraff to death. The entire house burnt and all members of the family, including 77 year old father of Mahabul, suffered serious burn injuries. Another CPI (M) supporter in Kajipara village under Shibpur PS of Howrah district, Sanjay Singh, was brutally attacked by a TMC gang of 25 people armed with sharp weapons on May 20. Similar reports of attacks and intimidations of various nature are pouring from different parts of the state.

There are also innumerable instances of houses of local CPI (M) and Left Front leaders being torched and looted. More than 200 hundred CPI (M) offices have been looted, ransacked or forcibly closed. In West Midnapore district, TMC armed gangs have attacked villages one after another and destroyed CPI (M) offices. They have also attacked Party zonal committee offices. CPI (M) state committee member and a veteran leader of the Party, Sheikh Israel, was attacked twice in a day in Ghatal in West Midnapore. TMC gangs along with police have also ransacked his house. Houses of Party leaders were attacked in Dharampur, Garbeta, Chandrakona, Jhargram. Even houses were forcibly occupied by TMC gangs.

Trinamool cadre indulged in violent attacks and forceful occupation of six CITU union offices in Mitsubishi, Marcus Oil, Lalbaba Seamless, IOC Marketing & Pipeline, PCL companies in Haldia industrial township and the Nirendranath Sramik Kalyan Bhavan in front of Haldia port. The Congress goons joined hands with TMC to capture TU office in Purba Kathalbari of Jalpaiguri using firearms. They hoisted Congress flag in that office on May 20.

The house of newly elected MLA from Aushgram, Basudev Mete, was attacked and his wife has sustained injuries. TMC miscreants cordoned his house but were forced to retreat after the villagers came out in protest. The house of another MLA, Basudev Khan, was attacked in Raina.

Many attacks were reported from Patrsayar in Bankura district. After severely beating up an agricultural labourer, Saital Lohar, near the Patrasayar bazaar, the Trinamoolis have shamefully urinated on his face. In Idilachak village, a 60 year old woman, Asiya Begum has been beaten up after tearing her clothes apart. Her son, Sarial Mallick, was also severely beaten up by the Trinamoolis. A 70-year old man, Kazi Abdul Rahman, was also physically attacked. In several other places like Grambera, Banshdah Kantadighi, Secundarchak, Rasulpur, Fakirdanga etc breathless terror has been spread by the Trinamooli goons, which led to over 200 people leaving their respective localities. Fines have been imposed on agricultural labourers and common people for being CPI (M) supporters.

In Kolkata, a large part of Beleghata and Topsia are under frightening terror. Many CPI (M) offices were attacked in Beleghata and CPI (M) activists were assaulted. TMC gangs have beaten up a local woman councillor when she tried to save a young activist of the Party. Ganashakti sellers were beaten and display boards were mutilated. Local residents have already sensed the fear of seventies, when Beleghata had been in the headlines for murderous attacks on Left supporters.

The attacks on transport workers’ unions have sharpened and many unions have been forcibly occupied by hoodlums. In rural areas, the extortion of money under threat of dire consequences has become a common feature. Reports of forcible occupation of cultivable land by Trinamool activists have started to come from villages.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that there were ‘no political clashes’ in the state and ‘peace’ has set in. She was, in fact, right in saying so. There were no clashes, only a one-sided campaign of violence from the ruling party.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

WEST BENGAL: WE SHALL OVERCOME

R Arun Kumar

ACCORDING to the critics the verdict is out – with the loss in West Bengal, after being in power for 34 years, the CPI (M) and communism are passé. This verdict is not pronounced by the people, but by the 'analysts' tearing their hair on how to better the venom spewed from 'that earlier analysis'. Since the results for the five state legislative assemblies are out, not a day had passed without one or the other 'analyst' writing epitaphs to the communists and the Left. Most of them are part of the 'disappointed lot', disappointed because they were unable to realise their similar desire, post-Soviet Union. Sadly for them, they are going to perennially remain disappointed.

Of course, there are some analysts who are genuinely concerned about the Left and the communists and want them to immediately recoup and bounce back. They want the Left to carry out a proper introspection, which has already started, and come out with renewed vigour to fight the mounting attacks on the common people. They have some valid points/criticisms to make, which the Left itself had acknowledged to take cognisance of, during its introspection. But others are neither fair in their analysis/criticism, nor bereft of any sinister agenda. They had spread canards on the Left during the election campaign and now after the results, intend to take it to its 'logical conclusion' – demoralise the cadres, sow doubts over the ideological relevance of the Left and add force to the physical attacks. Vain hopes indeed!

Before proceeding further, think of this. Does anyone remember any party or ideology being written off after an electoral defeat? In a democracy, parties win and lose, but obituaries are reserved only for the Communists and the CPI (M)! Now, let us look at another simple fact. A news item had appeared in the newspapers on May 24. It states that the Left front government in West Bengal, under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had led the state on the path of rapid industrialisation to place it in the fourth position in the list of states, ahead of even Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh that are considered to be the leaders in the pack. But these very newspapers cried hoarse both before and during the election campaign stating that the state was wanting in development. They let the cat out of the bag, with their task accomplished, as they now feel there is no wrong in being truthful to facts. This is only one among the numerous mischiefs committed by the media analysts, who to be fair to them, are only performing their assigned duty, waging a class battle, a battle of ideas for the ruling classes. History testifies to the fact that the communists are not new to such malicious attacks, but are, in fact, tempered from such 'battles'.

Right from the day the Communist party was founded in our country, it had to face numerous attacks. Conspiracy cases were slapped, members arrested, persecuted, tortured and killed, but nothing failed to stop its onward march. Slanders were propagated, ignominies hurled, names were called, but none succeeded. So, in a sense, what is happening today is not something new, but is an old tactic employed by the ruling classes. The younger generation, aligned with the Left should in fact 'thank' the media for providing them with an opportunity to participate in this class war and steel themselves.

To defend their belief in communist ideology, one need not quote from Marx 'himself'. If we purview the events happening around us with a rational mind, we can easily discern that the only way out of the morass engulfing the world is through the correct application of the principles expounded by Marx. The war on Libya, global economic crisis, growing inequalities, corruption, environmental concerns...all of them cannot be properly understood, unless looked through the prism of Marxism-Leninism. Many observers driven by their blind hatred towards communism could not fathom these events and even those few who could, tried to belittle their enormity under the guise that these have taken place due to the moral turpitude of a few. If a certain set of individuals are only responsible for the current mess, remember that they were changed at the very epicentre of these events. Obama replaced Bush, but this did not stop the attack on sovereign states. The entire financial team of Bush was replaced by Obama and similarly many financial institutions changed their heads, but this did not put an end to the global financial crisis. Even in the Middle-East, the ruling classes are trying to wear down the popular protests by changing faces, forcing the dissatisfied people to come out once again onto the streets. This in itself shows that wars and economic crisis do not happen due to the whims and fancies of certain individuals but happen because they are intrinsic to the social system we are living in today – the capitalist system.

Similar is the case with income inequalities. What else can explain the condition in our country where on one hand we have more than 77 per cent of the people who live on less than Rs 20 per day, whose numbers are growing rapidly, and on the other, the increasing number of dollar billionaires and their assets? What else can explain the starvation deaths and the lack of space for storing food grains, which are left to rot in the open than be distributed to the destitute, despite repeated orders from the unusually sensitive higher judiciary? What else can explain the spate of peasant suicides in spite of the various packages announced by the union government? What else can explain the Congress-BJP voting in tandem for the pension reform bill? Nothing else can explain these phenomenon except for Marxism-Leninism and the politics of the Left.

Media 'pundits' are afraid of facts and answers to these questions and hence trying to gloss over them. Worldwide the readers of Marx's Capital have increased. The book is in demand as never before in recent history, as people are trying to figure out what had caused the present wreak on their lives. People are finding out what socialism and communism really mean. Eleven per cent in the US, the fountain-head of neo-liberalism, think 'communism' is a 'morally superior' system to that which is currently in place in the country, and another 13 per cent aren't sure, according to a startling new Rasmussen poll, conducted in March 2011. Further, 10 per cent say that the 'communist system of economics and politics' is better for middle-class Americans, and another 10 per cent are undecided. In an April 2009 Rasmussen poll, only 53 per cent said that capitalism was better than socialism. With the margin of error, those who think capitalism is better are statistically tied with those who think socialism is better (20 per cent) and those unsure (27 per cent).

The results of a similar survey sponsored by the Romanian government-funded IICMER (the Institute for Investigating the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile), in order to help guide the institute in its work to 'educate' the population about the evils of communism are also significant. The answers they received bitterly disappointed them. Particularly significant in the results of the survey is, as they acquire more experience of life under the 'market economy' people are becoming more negative about capitalism and positive about communism. In the previous poll in 2006, 53 per cent expressed a favourable opinion about communism; the 2010 survey showed that 61 per cent are favourable towards communism. According to the US-based Pew Research Center's survey carried out in several Central and East European countries in 2009, the proportion of people who take the view that life under capitalism is worse than it was during the period of communist power is as follows: Poland, 35 per cent; Czech Republic, 39 per cent; Slovakia, 42 per cent; Lithuania, 42 per cent; Russia, 45 per cent; Bulgaria, 62 per cent; Ukraine, 62 per cent; Hungary, 72 per cent. This is perhaps what is meant by 'wiser with experience'!

Ruling classes naturally try to nip any real challenge to their hegemony, if not in the bud, at least before it grows into threatening dimensions. As they had failed to nip communism in the bud, alarmed by its electoral strength in 2004, they have since targeted all their energies on the Left. It is even more necessary for them now, in these times of economic crisis – a time when they are trying their best to come out of it by further burdening the working people. They are comfortable with the growth of right-wing communal and fundamental forces, the Frankenstein they create, but not with the growth of communist ideas. And remember, it is only the communist parties that not only stood up to these challenges, but also defeated them and put a lid on their growth, whether outside the country or in West Bengal.

There is no force on the earth that can forever pin-down communism or communists. Yes, mistakes were committed, but only in the process of grappling with socio-economic realities. It is only the communists who have the real courage not only to own up their mistakes but also rectify them and emerge strengthened further. If somebody thinks that the melting of snow will reduce the height of the mountain, they live in no less than a fool's paradise. The defeat in elections is only a passing eclipse. Anyone who knows what exploitation really means, can vouch for the validity of communism because it is only the followers of this ideology, who genuinely stand by the toiling sections in the society, defend their interests and fight for their rights. At the risk of appearing arrogant, we can say the relevance of communism and communist parties can easily be understood by the toilers, but the “stupid call it stupid and the squalid call it squalid”. And we know, “it is the simplest thing, so hard to achieve”. But achieve, we will!

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

V S ACHUTHANANDAN ELECTED AS OPPOSITION LEADER

TRIPURA: CONGRESS THREATENS TO FORCIBLY UNSEAT LEFT FRONT

Haripada Das

Rahul Sinha

ON May 24 evening, the Tripura state committee of the CPI (M) convened a press conference at its state headquarters in Agartala to condemn the Congress threat of violence. One notes that at a press conference addressed by the Congress leadership on May 23, party spokesman Ratan Chakraborty had bluntly blurted out that since the Left Front government could not be dislodged by democratic means, it must be dragged down by hook or by crook.

YET ANOTHER PLOT IN OFFING!

At the May 24 press conference, CPI (M) state secretary Bijan Dhar and state secretariat member Gautam Das vehemently condemned the threatening strategies of the Congress party as reflected in the statement made by Ratan Chakraborty. The latter’s statement, the CPI (M) leaders said, was nothing but a corroboration of the violent atrocities that took place during the 12-hour bandh called for by the Congress on May 23.

The CPI (M) maintained that the threat was clearly in line with the series of internal and international conspiracies against the Left in India, ever since a conspiracy was hatched to dislodge the first communist government in the country in 1957-59. As we know, the conspiracy of the 1950s was followed by other sinister moves in the seventies in West Bengal, in the eighties in Tripura, and the notorious arms drop for extremists in West Bengal in 1995 with help from the then Congress government at the centre. Frustrated after the failure of even its heinous attempts to halt to state’s development by using the armed extremist groups, despite the financial deprivation caused to the state by the 13th Finance Commission recommendations, the Congress party now seems to have chalked out a blueprint to drag down the pro-people Left Front government in Tripura that has achieved spectacular successes in rushing relief to the toiling masses in the teeth of formidable constraints. According to Bijan Dhar, while the gravest danger to democracy and development is from bourgeois parties like the Congress that have no faith in the people. In contrast to them, he said the Left Front government that received a massive mandate from the Tripura would strengthen its ongoing endeavour to fulfil all its commitments to the people and enlist their whole-hearted support. He also alerted the state’s populace against the series of plots and provocations that are likely to be carried out in the state in near future, by those who want to vitiate the political scenario here.

VITIATING THE ATMOSPHERE

On the day, Tripura was stirred with a series of strident protests coming from the CPI (M) and the peace-loving, democratic-minded people of the state against the heinous efforts of the Congress party to unleash anarchy all over the state. The ugly face of such forces was evident the day before, on May 23, when the NSUI, the Congress party’s student front, called for a 12-hour Tripura Bandh with a view to smoke-screening the NSUI storm-troopers’ crime of vitiating the atmosphere in educational institutions of the state.

Incidentally, in order to enthuse the Congress party in Tripura, hot on the heels of the recent electoral defeat of the Left in West Bengal and Kerala, union home minister P Chidambaram parlayed with the state Congress leaders on May 17, and advised them to unitedly launch agitations to dislodge the perfectly stable Left Front government in the state. Evidently, acting upon his blueprint to blow up this strong base of the Left, a faction of Congress party resorted to most uncivilised attacks on the police here --- in the garb of civil disobedience at Belonia, South Tripura on May 20.

Also, with a view to serving the dual purpose of covering up his own scam pertaining to the land grab in Agartala Municipality and of encouraging the border smugglers, a Congress legislator has been creating public inconvenience by putting up road blockades. On May 21, a group of outsider hooligans, with the state NSUI state president Vicky Prasad accompanying them, launched violent attacks on the SFI-led Students Council and certain SFI activists in MBB College. Three SFI workers were injured in the scuffle while Vicky Prasad also fell down from a staircase and sustained some head injury.

Then, capitalising on this accidental fall from a staircase and resultant injury to the NSUI leader during their own scramble for attack, Congress leaders called provocative a Tripura Bandh for May 23 when a reign of terror was let loose in several educational institutions as well as against government offices, vehicles and dutiful teachers, employees, CPI (M) activists and the innocent people throughout the state.

As the NSUI, Youth Congress and PCC leadership knew very well that this bandh would not be supported by the common people, they made all-out attempts to enforce the call by open hooliganism and terror.

In the name of picketing, the Congress cadre tried to prevent the people from going to their offices and attacked the school teachers who dared to defy their edict. Congress goons brutally attacked Asim Pal, general secretary of the Tripura Government Teachers Association (H B Road), who had to be hospitalised. Even doctors were not spared. Dr Kakoli Dhar, a lady doctor of the rank of a Major in the Army Medical Core, was attacked and her car was damaged as she was on the way to her workplace. NSUI goons attacked the vehicle of ADM of West Tripura and the vehicle of the director of NIT Agartala, ransacked an ambulance, and spoiled the cooked food for the mid-day meal scheme by pouring sand into the utensils. They burnt tires in the street and attacked the workers of the State Electricity Corporation when they were going for an urgent repair work. Besides, they attacked and severely beat up a number of CPI (M) workers. Congress MLAs including Ratan Nath (leader of opposition) and Sudip Ray Barman were seen instigating the goons. But in spite all these efforts, the common people rejected the bandh call and ensured a near normal situation at most of the places in the state.

It was at the end of this flopped bandh that Congress leaders convened a press conference in Congress Bhavan in the evening, when Ratan Chakraborty said, “It seems almost impossible to defeat this government democratically. It has to be pulled down by dragging.”

PEOPLE’S RESPONSE

In response to the Congress bandh call, democratic movement in Tripura launched a series of vociferous protest marches and meetings in order to thwart the efforts to vitiate the prevailing atmosphere of peace and progress in the state. At Agartala, the marches called for by the CPI (M) merged into a huge rally in the downtown Shakuntala Road. The TGTA (H B Road) and other employees’ associations organised big protest marches in several sub-divisions of the state.

At Agartala, the state capital, teachers of several schools braved the rain and thunderstorm in order to parade through the streets, shouting protest slogans against the violent threats and atrocities of the Congress activists in schools and colleges the day before. Following their street corner meeting at Paradise Chowmuhani, their leaders met the District Superintendent of Police in a deputation and demanded stern and speedy action against the miscreants responsible for the violent attacks on May 23.

On the day, school students boycotted classes and took out spontaneous marches in Agartala through the streets, protesting against the attack on their teachers.

Tripura Employees Coordination Committee (H B Road) too organised protest actions all over the state during the midday recess.

Four leftist student and youth organisations --- SFI, DYFI, TSU and TYF --- organised protest actions a day later.

At its crowded press conference on May 24, the CPI (M) decried the comment made by the Congress spokesman, and said it showed the undemocratic attitude of the Congress leadership. This poses a great threat to the democracy, Bijan Dhar said. What the Congress leader intends to tell is they cannot depend on elections to defeat the Left Front, nor have they any faith in the democratic sense of the masses. They wish to unseat this popularly elected government by use of crude force. Bijan Dhar said the assertions of Kim Davy have confirmed our suspicion that the then PM had armed the extremists in Tripura in order to unseat the popular Left Front government of the state, and that the Purulia arms drop was a part of the same ploy in West Bengal.

Dhar also accused the central government led by the Congress with attempting to curb the democratic rights of the people. It is trying to take away the hard earned trade union rights of the working class to appease the international finance capital and the indigenous monopoly capital. The entire seeds market is being opened for the multinationals; the banks, pension funds, insurance sector and public sector enterprises are being sold out. The prices of petrol has been hiked for the ninth time in a year; next on the agenda are diesel and LPG. Only the Left is protesting these anti-people steps and also opposing the mortgage of our national sovereignty for a strategic tie-up with the US. That is why the Congress and its central government are they colluding with the CIA and other foreign agencies to break the opposition coming from the communists. Dhar appealed to the democratic and peace loving masses of Tripura to be united and vigilant against any such foul attempt by the Congress, warning the latter too that its antics would only alienate it further from the people.

Addressing the mediapersons, CPI (M) state secretariat member Gautam Das said that the Congress has no reason to be overjoyed by the outcome of the assembly results. In Tamilnadu, people have taught the DMK-Congress alliance a good lesson for its corruption. In Kerala, the power hungry Congress has been having an electoral alliance with a communal force like the Muslim League, and in Assam it utilised the secessionist ULFA to come to power. The Congress would do well to remember that it got only 28 per cent of the votes polled in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. People all over the country are fighting against the economic policies of the central government and more fierce struggles of the working people are in the offing, Das added.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

JAYALALITHAA, TAMILNADU CHIEF MINISTER, OPPOSES REVIVAL OF UPPER HOUSE

The newly elected Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said a firm no to the Legislative Council despite the parliament giving its nod for the revival of the Upper House. The previous DMK Government moved to revive the Legislative Council.

But, on the other hand, in west Bengal, Mamata Banerjee wants to revive the Upper House (White Elephant) to accommodate her sycophant ‘Dolodas’ intellectuals at the cost of PUBLIC MONEY.

SYRIA: DESTABILISATION ATTEMPTS

Yohannan Chemerapally

DESPITE the significant concessions offered by the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad to the opposition, including the repeal of the draconian emergency laws and the replacement of the prime minister, protests though waning in their intensity, have been continuing in the country since early March. A new law that has been introduced allows opposition parties to function openly. The government had justified the emergency laws because of the military threat posed by Israel. Israel while continuing to occupy Syrian territory has been trying to destabilise the government in Damascus, which it considers its main enemy in the region. Some years ago, Israel had sent its planes to bomb a Syrian military installation, claiming that it was a site where secret nuclear activity was going on.

In a televised speech to the nation in April, president Assad had said that with the introduction of the democratic reforms demanded by the opposition, there was no rationale left for continued protests and violent demonstrations. Though now confined to a few towns like Daraa and Latakia, the opposition has been emboldened by the open support it has been receiving from some governments in the region and from western capitals. Credible reports have emerged of American financial support for the various opposition groups, including the prominent “Barada” television channel based in London, that have been calling for the ouster of Bashar al Assad.

Wikileaks cables have revealed that $6 million was handed out to Syrian opposition groups by the Bush administration since 2006. US officials at the time were describing the Syrian government as a “ripe fruit ready to fall” into their lap. Syria has been a target for “regime change” for a long time. It had already been classified as a “state sponsor of terrorism” by the US and was targeted for military intervention. According to General Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander during the Bush administration, Syria was among the seven countries the US was preparing for regime change after the invasion of Iraq. The other countries were Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

Syrian media has published details in the last week of March of an alleged US-Saudi plan hatched in 2008 to overthrow the government. The plan as reported proposed the establishment of different “networks” comprising of educated unemployed, criminal groups, “ethnic-sectarian” groups and a “media network” acting in close coordination with media centres in the West. What has been happening in Syria since then seems to be following this script. Unemployed youth (Syria has a high unemployment rate) have been in the forefront of demonstrations. Snipers, presumably from criminal groups, targeting the security forces have been very active. Sectarian groups and the media have also apparently played their assigned roles. The goal of the US-Saudi destabilisation program according to the documents published in the Syrian media is to replace Assad with a “supreme national council” that would then cut relations with Iran and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

OASIS OF STABILITY IN THE REGION

Damascus continued with its principled support for the movements resisting Israeli occupation and aggression. 10 Palestinian factions have their offices in Damascus. The Hezbollah political movement today dominates the government of Lebanon and has been standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinians. Syria has strong bilateral relations with Iran, since the success of the Islamic revolution there. Washington has been trying unsuccessfully so far to persuade Syria to distance itself from Iran. Syria was the only Arab ally, Teheran had so far. But now things seem to be changing with the new government in Egypt apparently opting for normal relations with Iran.

There was an earlier attempt to isolate Syria internationally after the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri. The West had rushed to judgement that the Syrian government was behind his killing and had forced the Syrian peacekeepers in Lebanon to withdraw. But the government in Damascus came out of the crisis with its stature enhanced. Syria had emerged in the last few years as an oasis of stability in the region and a key player. Many in the West still acknowledge that Bashar al Assad continues to be popular among large swathes of the country’s populace. The western media acknowledged that a large rally attended by Assad on March 29 attracted “tens of thousands of supporters”.

In the last couple of months, there have been large counter-demonstrations in support of the young Syrian president. There is a sizeable percentage of minorities comprising of Alawites, Shias, Druze and Christians who support the government along with secular minded Sunnis. After Lebanon, Syria has the biggest Christian population in the Arab world. More than 1.2 million Christians peacefully coexist with their compatriots in the country. In neighbouring Iraq, the Christian population has dwindled after they were targeted by extremist groups following the ouster of Saddam Hussein. The “democracy movement” in Syria is mainly led by the Muslim Brothers. Among them are die hard Salafi Islamist elements. There is a lot of bad blood between the secular Baathist government and the Muslim Brothers. The city of Hama was flattened by president Hafez al Assad (Bashar’s father) in 1982 after an uprising there by the Brothers. More than 10,000 people were reportedly killed in that operation, which remains a painful chapter in the country’s recent history.

Initially, the Obama administration was caught off-guard by the fast paced developments in Syria. With its attention diverted to Egypt and Libya, Syria was low on the radar. Anyway Syria has been under US sanctions for a long time though there were signs that bilateral relations were slowly getting back on track. Washington’s closest ally –Israel, already rattled by regime change in Egypt did not want a similar thing happening in Syria, though the country is part of the “rejectionist” front since the Oslo peace accords were signed. Syria has maintained a tenuous peace with Israel despite its unlawful occupation of the Golan Heights.

Policy makers in Washington and Tel Aviv had initially feared that continued unrest in Syria could plunge the whole region into turmoil. Israeli officials had been privately saying that though Assad is not a friend of their country he is still preferable to the chaos that could ensue if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over. Turkey has warned that the civil unrest could once again encourage the Kurdish minority in Syria to rise in revolt and join their fellow secessionists across the border. Refugees fleeing the unrest have already started entering Turkey. Syria’s neighbours like Saudi Arabia and Jordan fear that the upheaval would encourage forces seeking political changes there. “Syria is the cockpit of the Middle East”, a leading analyst Rami Khouri has written. “The spectre of sectarian-based chaos within a post-Assad Syria that could spread to other parts of the Middle East is frightening to many people”, he said.

In recent weeks, both Washington and Tel Aviv have changed their stance. The Obama administration, under pressure from the Zionist lobby, has become more strident in its criticism of the Syrian government’s handling of its domestic affairs. The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, recently said that Israel has no reasons to be alarmed if Assad is overthrown. The US state department spokesman had in the middle of April, offered his condolence for the “martyrs” who died in the violent protests that had erupted. President Barack Obama had earlier condemned what he termed as the “abhorrent violence committed against peaceful demonstrators” as well as “any use of violence by protestors”. The Syrian army has moved in force into towns where soldiers and supporters of the government were brutally lynched. President Assad has said that government has proof that the protests are part of a foreign conspiracy to create sectarian strife.

In the small Sunni dominated town of Daraa on the border with Jordan, where the trouble first began on March 18, seven policemen and four civilians were killed. The protestors had burned down the local Ba’ath Party headquarters and the police station. Many of the demonstrators had fire arms. A Xinhua report of April 20 mentions “armed terrorist groups” attacking the homes of security personnel. In the second week of May, the Syrian government announced that it was permitting a UN fact finding team to visit the country to check on the humanitarian situation in the country. A Syrian government spokesman said that the government “is not worried as it had done nothing wrong”. The opposition has alleged that more than 300 people have been killed by security forces. The UN Human Rights Commission had on May 6 passed a resolution criticising the Syrian government for using excessive force against protestors.

PUNITIVE SANCTIONS

In the last week of April, after failing to get the UNSC to condemn Syria, the Obama administration issued more stringent sanctions against Damascus and called on its European allies to follow suit. In his latest speech on West Asia, Obama once again threatened the Syrian government. He said president Assad has only two options – “either lead a transition” to democracy “or get out of the way”. He announced more punitive sanctions on the Syrian government. Earlier, in a strongly worded letter to the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Obama said that Syria’s “human rights abuses constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States, and warrant the imposition of additional sanctions”. Obama even dragged Iran into the picture by accusing its government of being a party to the suppression of the democratic rights of the Syrian people. Obama’s language was similar in tone to the order he had issued against Libya in late February. A few weeks later, American planes were in action against Libya. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal had circulated a draft resolution similar to the one that was passed against Libya in the UNSC in the last week of April. The draft was opposed by Russia and China along with most of the non-permanent members of the Council.

Though the calls from the western capital for Assad to leave are getting louder by the day, the facts on the ground so far show that the secular Baathist government in Damascus is on the verge of overcoming the most serious challenge it has faced since coming to power in 1963. The Baath Party, the army and the security apparatus remain united behind Assad. Even Rifaat al Assad, the exiled uncle of Bashar, has called for unity among Syrians at this critical period. Rifaat for some time had become an outspoken critic of the government after he was exiled to France, following a political fall out with the then president, Hafez al Assad, thirty years ago.

Influential countries like Russia too have a stake in the stability of Syria. The Russian president Dmitry Medvdev, had visited the country last year. The long standing defence and strategic ties between the two countries remain strong. The Russian naval fleet uses the Syrian port of Tartus in the Mediterranean, helping it to significantly upgrade its operational capabilities. In an arms deal signed during the Russian president’s visit, Russia agreed to sell Mig-29 fighters, Pantsir short range surface to air missiles along with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. Syria still has friends in the international community.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy