Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Source: openDemocracy.net, September 28, 2007

Myanmar - Monks - Buddhism - Protests and Demonstrations, New York Times, September 30, 2007

Burmese monks have taken part in protests in the past, against British colonial rule and against a half-century of rule by military dictatorship. The most notable recent occasion was in 1990.

Their militant resistance to the British produced the most prominent political martyr of Burmese Buddhism, U Wisara, who died in prison in 1929 after a 166-day hunger strike.

His statue stands near the tall, golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the country’s holiest shrine, which was a rallying point for the recent demonstrations and the scene of the first violence against the monks last week.

A Revival in Chechnya, Under an Iron Hand of Russia’s Proxy - New York Times, September 30, 2007Three years after a wave of guerrilla and terrorist attacks caused many analysts to say that Russia’s war against Chechen separatists could not be won, the republic has fallen almost fully under the control of the Kremlin and its indigenous proxies, led by Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the Chechen president.

Mr. Kadyrov’s human rights record is chilling, and allegations of his government’s patterns of brutality and impunity are widespread. Yet even his most severe critics say he has developed significant popular support, in part because of the clear changes that have accompanied his firm and fearsome rule.

Fighting has been sporadic and small in scale for a second year. A large rebel offensive did not materialize this summer, as the separatists had predicted. Buoyed by a sustained lull in fighting and flush with cash, Mr. Kadyrov’s government has rebuilt most of its capital and outlying areas….

The insurgency, though diminished, is still a factor. Mr. Malashenko said that as many as several hundred fighters remain, although they do not appear as well organized or equipped as before.

Sarah Mendelson, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said it was too soon to say that Chechnya had recovered. Its lingering problems, including the questionable loyalties of the former rebels now in power and the competition between the Kremlin and the Chechen government for oil, are significant enough that the republic could slip into disorder again.

Gideon Levy, The war for the house - Haaretz, September 30, 2007

Does the fact that the commander of the Popular Front in the camp lives in the house justify demolishing the entire five-story building? When will the IDF learn that the next terrorists will sprout from among these very ruins? Was not the urge for revenge aroused in the heart of the child who searched for the bicycle among the ruins of his home, who saw his world destroyed? Anyone wishing to become acquainted with the real “infrastructure of terror” is invited to travel to Nablus, to see the ruins of the home at the edge of the Ein Beit Ilma camp.