Bangladesh says Stop the War

The Americans, along with all citizens of the world, witnessed helplessly the barbaric attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, the symbols of economic and military supremacy of the USA on 11 Sept. 2001. The heinous attack was condemned by all the peace loving citizens of the globe.

In such a fluid situation Bush unilaterally declared ‘war on terror’ without giving any chance for the United Nations or its Security Council to discuss the matter. Bush declared war against Afghanistan to topple the Government of Mollah Omar on the pretext of eliminating the fundamentalists and their followers. This ‘war on terror’ killed thousands of innocent men, women and children of the conflict ridden and war torn Afghanistan.

The attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and subsequent ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan by the Bush administration and its allies, not only killed and wounded thousands of innocent people in the USA and Afghanistan, but also adversely impacted all the people of the world and its economy. The worst sufferer of the post September 11 attacks and ‘war on terror’ are the innocent people of the developing world including Bangladesh. Of course, the common people of the so-called developed world also suffered the effects of the terrorist attacks and ‘war on terror’. But the severity of human sufferings varied from region to region and nation to nation based on their coping competence with economic recessions.

Bangladesh, like many other developing countries underwent colonial rule for hundreds of years. She has been struggling hard to clear the debris of destruction and damage inflicted on her by the Pakistani military rulers during the liberation struggle of 1971. In such a situation, perhaps Bangladesh became one of the most hard hit nations of the world following the massacre of September 11, and ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan.

About 75% of the foreign earnings (about $3 billion) of Bangladesh comes from the export of clothing (ready made garments). The clothing industries generated employment opportunities for about 1.5 million workers of whom 85% are women. Before they joined the clothing industries, most of the women were domestic workers: treated as slaves, tortured and molested by their employers and given very low wages. Rapid growth of the clothing industry in the 70’s and 80’s, lifted many of these workers from savagery to industrial workers. Although conditions are hazardous and exploitative, pay very low, and working hours 10-15 hours long, they preferred to be garments workers than to be so called domestic servants.

The major buyers of our clothing are the USA, Canada and the European Union. After September 11, exports of clothing came down sharply. Consequently, more than 1,000 garment industries were shut down and 300,000 workers lost their means of existence. Many of these garment workers after losing their jobs became domestic workers again and many were forced into prostitution. Many were trafficked out of Bangladesh and sold by the traffickers into brothels in India, Pakistan and Middle-Eastern Countries. Bangladesh with her weak economic foundation could hardly endure such disasters. The owners of clothing industries did not come to the assistance of those thousands of retrenched workers.

Before Bangladesh and other countries of the world, including the USA, could crawl out of the economic hardship created by the attacks of Sept. 11, Bush and Blair, on the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction, declared a war to disarm Saddam Hussain.

People in the USA are very much against war on Iraq. They know well who possesses weapons of mass destruction and who are the top exporter of tools of mass death and destruction. The world knows who killed millions of innocent men, women and children in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Guatemala, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, East Timor, Nicaragua, El-Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Somalia, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Panama and many more countries.

The present Bangladeshi Government has increased the price of fuels, imported from the Gulf countries, which are used in irrigation, lighting and transport, causing devastation to the common people of Bangladesh. If war against Iraq cannot be averted then it will bring massive socio-economic, ecological and environmental catastrophe not only for the people of Bangladesh alone but also for the people of the whole world.

Because of globalisation, the market economy, liberalisation and the anti-people policies and projects of the World Trade Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Multinational and Transnational Corporations, today at this moment more than 1 billion hungry people stretched their hands to get a piece of bread to extinguish their fire of hungers. Still today more than 4 billion people in the world live in poverty, more than 1.5 billion people are illiterate and are forced to stay away from schools and live in the darkness of ignorance, illiteracy and fatalism. 230 million children are child labourers and do not have the right to education; more than 120 million people are shelterless; 12 million children die because of malnutrition, poverty and lack of primary health care. 300 years of capitalism and exponents of democracy, human rights and the rule of law led by the West could not solve those basic problems of human beings.

Instead of healing the wounds of the global economy and eradicating poverty and hunger from the globe, the war lords, led by Bush, determine to wage war against Iraq, disregarding the democratic and humane solution to the problems. The unilateral decision to go for war to unseat Saddam Hussain by Bush and Blair will bring global catastrophe. The American and British people have not given Bush and Blair the license to kill and silence the people of the world including Iraq. The solution to the Iraq crisis must come through the Security Council of the UN, based on resolution 1441. Bush and Blair must be respectful of the general will of the global citizen body. They must have genuine regard and value for democracy and human rights. To attack a sovereign country to topple its Government is completely unacceptable, undemocratic and unethical although the Government of Saddam Hussain is despotic and dictatorial.

The world has not forgotten that the UK and USA not only supported many civil and military dictators and despots of the world including Bangladesh, but they also financed, trained and armed those dictators, despots, kings, sultans and monarchs to perpetuate their dictatorial rules decade after decade. There is plenty of evidences all over Asia, Africa and Latin America. Today’s Saddam Hussain, Mollah Omar, bin Laden, Al Quada, Talebans, Mujahedins and Muslim fundamentalists are the product of Anglo-American policies.

Unfortunately, Bush and Blair, instead of learning from the misdeeds of their predecessors, have followed their foot steps whilst using the language of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We ask them to be genuine, honest and coherent in their thoughts and actions. They must examine the writing on the walls, banners, placards and festoons. They must understand the language of the demonstrations against them in Washington, New York, London, Bonn, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Dhaka and many places of the world. They must listen to the slogans against them echoed against the walls of the White House and Downing Street.

We have experience that war is not at all a solution to problems. It kills and cripples people, destroys civilization, economy and ecology. It poisons water, air and soil. It destroys the means of human livelihood. It makes the world unlivable for all creatures. Therefore, we must avert war. As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said:

“I have seen war
I have seen war on land and sea
I have seen blood running from the wounded
I have seen the dead in the mud
I have seen cities destroyed
I have seen children starving
I have seen the agony of mothers and wives
I hate war”.

We unequivocally want the total destruction of all nuclear, biological and chemical weapons no matter whether the owners of such weapons of mass destruction are the USA, UK, Italy, Japan, Germany, China, Russia, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan or India. We demand genuine democratic solutions to the problems of Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. We want a world free from war, free from want, free from hunger, free from poverty, free from inequality, and free from all forms of disparity and discrimination. And that world will guarantee peace, human rights and genuine governance for its citizens irrespective of caste, creed, color and religion.