The Hindu : U.S. policies come under fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

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U.S. policies come under fire

By Anupama Katakam and Kalpana Sharma

MUMBAI, JAN. 18. President George Bush and the policies of the United States, not just in Iraq but in many countries around the world, dominated discussions at the World Social Forum today. They were also the subject of plays, processions, posters and slogans. While in conference halls, panels presented testimonies of the long-term impact of the U.S.-led warfare around the world on people's health and the environment, and on women, in the large maidan that had witnessed the opening of the WSF, over 10,000 people sat through presentations by Nawal el-Sadawi from Egypt, Arundhati Roy, Saher Saba from Afghanistan and Irene Khan from Amnesty International, on war against women and women against war.

Saher Saba, a women's activist from Afghanistan, urged the audience to publicise the plight of Afghan women. "If you want to know what war does to women, Afghanistan is a good example." Women have no rights, no security, no education and no peace." At a recent meeting, women's organisations were told not to raise social and equality issues because in Afghanistan two women amount to half a man. This was their culture and they would have to live within its regulations, the ruling government told them. The biggest crime of the U.S. in Afghanistan was to support jehadi groups.

Under a large red banner stating, "There's no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people," a coalition of anti-war organisations discussed U.S. occupation of Iraq as well as problems of Palestine and Afghanistan.

Michael Warshawsky, director of the Alternative Information Centre in Israel, suggested that there were no local wars any more in the 21st century. Instead, the world was seeing a global war.

The price for that resistance is often paid by many ordinary Palestinians... Men like Sharif Omar, a 60-year-old farmer from Jayyous in West Bank who is cheerfully manning the Palestine stall at the WSF. Omar says he attended the European Social Forum in Paris in November last year. But when he returned, he found that the security wall that the Israeli Government is building around Palestinian-inhabited areas had cut him off from 40 acres of his farmland. "I have a paradise," he said, "where I grow olives, 12 kinds of citrus and other fruits. Sharon must be wanting that paradise too!" For his outspoken opposition to the wall, Omar has been denied a permit that would allow him to access his land. "Tell people that we don't need any weapons in our battle. We should be given wings so that we can fly over that wall!"

Not everyone can find a lighter side in the tragedy that war has brought on their people. In other sessions, people who had been directly affected by the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War testified. Tran Dac Loi from Vietnam said the impact of millions of litres of toxic chemicals that had been sprayed during the war was still being felt. Speaking to The Hindu, he said, "Just 80 mg of dioxin is enough to kill the entire population of New York City. You can imagine what has happened in Vietnam when 366 kg of dioxin were sprayed there." He said the majority of the affected population had neurological disorders and that despite its best efforts, the Vietnamese Government was not in a position to treat all the victims.

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