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The Opium Wars...

The War, although entitled "The Opium War" was in fact not about opium at all. As President John Quincy Adams said, "The seizure of a few thousand chests of opium smuggled into China by the Chinese government was no more the cause of the Opium War than the throwing overboard of the tea in the Boston harbour was the cause of North American Revolution."

http://historyliterature.homestead.com/files/extended.html

The above is a long and detailed page. For a shorter account, see these:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiwar1.htm

http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/hongkong.html

For a chronology, see the following:

http://mojo.calyx.net/~schaffer/heroin/opichin1.html

For the Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (from Lin Tse-Hsü, prior to the start of the Opium Wars), where is mentioned the sinister grip of this drug on the Chinese people and where Lin appeals to the conscience of the Queen:

http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/com-lin.html

You will notice that the Western practice of supplying others what is forbidden in their country (drugs, chemicals, etc.) traces back this far in history if not further.

A copy of the above letter is kept here, because it is too important to lose if that site were to go down for whatever reason. 


Nanking

http://www.tribo.org/nanking/

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/1955/nanking.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nanking.html

http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/

The Other Holocaust: Nanjing

http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/japan.html

The Rape of Nanking

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.12.96/cover/china1-9650.html


Korean Opium for Japan's Wars; Japan's Opium Policy in Taiwan

http://www.kimsoft.com/korea-jp.htm


Eyewitness: A North Korean Remembers

http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/eyewit.htm


Outline of Japan's colonial history until its annexation of Korea:

http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/eyewit01.htm


List of main questionable passages and their revised versions of the draft of the textbook edited by the “Society” - Japanese source

http://www.korea-np.co.jp/pk/158th_issue/2001032811.htm


Korea Fighting for Independence since 1910 (kinda weird in my opinion):

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/100.html


Twentieth century timeline of Manchuria:

1942  Sep, More than 400 villagers died of bubonic plague in China's eastern Zhejiang province after Japanese warplanes of medical Unit 731 dropped germ bombs. Unit 731 was stationed on the outskirts of Harbin, China, until the Soviet Union entered the war. The unit deposited typhus into the water supply flowing into Manchuria.
 (SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C8)(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A12)(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A12)

http://timelines.ws/countries/MANCHURIA.HTML


Japan in Asia

http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/japaninasia.htm


Tibet: Genocide and Ecocide

by Dave Kopel

http://www.davekopel.org/env/entibet.htm

Tibet's Cultural and Religious genocide

http://www.fatherryan.org/holocaust/Tibet/


Self-confident Chinese perspective on Tibet - sense another streak of defiance of accusations of some sort?

"Tibetan Chinese are not American Indians - History According to Hollywood" by Bevin Chu

(...)

I have seen Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" once in the theater and several times on cable, and I never cease to be deeply moved by what screenwriting teachers term "a good story, well told." The same holds true of Neil Jordan's political biography "Michael Collins," about the famous, or infamous Irish revolutionary of the same name.

I do not however assume merely because I have enjoyed a well scripted and well produced two hours of entertainment that I have necessarily learned anything substantive about English, Scottish or Irish history. I retain enough presence of mind to recall Hollywood's record of playing fast and loose with historical facts, motivated by either commercial considerations or the filmmakers' political biases.

I certainly do not leave the theater convinced of either the rightness or wrongness of Scottish secession. Instead I remain scrupulously neutral. The issue of Scottish secession is one for the English and the Scots to settle between themselves. Why should I, who am neither an Englishman nor a Scots, behave like a damned busybody and stick my nose into something which is none of my business?

(...)

http://www.antiwar.com/chu/c120399.html

I wonder if our dear author takes the liberty to be deeply moved by a movie on the Tibetans. I mean, even I have been emotionally touched when watching Lawrence of Arabia. So what is his point?

DO read the whole. Highly suggested that you do so. Here's more on why:

Now that communism is dead, sympathizers of the Dalai Lama, many of whom were sympathizers of Mao Zedong, seem to have forgotten what communism was all about. Communism was a political ideology obsessed with economic equality. Communism adjudged who was good and who was bad on the basis of its fatally flawed economic theory. To communist true believers the relevant question was to which economic class do you belong. Are you a capitalist victimizer or a proletarian victim? Ethnicity to communism was always irrelevant.

Notice something peculiar in this paragraph?

The Chinese Communist Party IS NOT dead. It is alive and kicking arse (my opinion on Chinese leaders' wisdom despite their equally horrendous outlook on things). The principles of communism may have been abandonned, BUT Lenin's lamentations - that he was not able to form "a government of the people but [rather] one over the people" - hold true elsewhere. The Chinese government is one of oppression and repression whether for the better or for the worse in anyone's opinion - make no mistake about it!



"Green-Silence Over the Poisoning of East Turkestan"

http://www.tibettruth.com/greensilence.html

Read about the consequences of Chinese nuclear tests on the health of the Uighur/Uygur population in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang/Xinjiang - "East Turkestan":

http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/et_faq_p1.html#d1

More:

http://www.caccp.org/et/cnt.html


China’s Genocide in Tibet: No Fun and Games

http://www.tibet.org/sft/fungames.htm

Chinese official perspective on Tibet (note the reference to previously mentioned article above - "Tibetan Chinese are not American Indians - History According to Hollywood" by Bevin Chu):

http://www.index-china.com/index-english/Tibet-s.html

http://www.tibet.com/


TIBET: GIVE US LIBERTY AND PEACE

By Consul B. John Zavrel

http://www.meaus.com/Tibet_-_Give_Us_Liberty.html


World Tibet Network News
Thursday, March 30, 2000


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Dalai Lama Extols Nonviolence Despite `Cultural Cultural Genocide' (AP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW DELHI, India 30 Mar (AP)--The Dalai Lama said Thursday that China is
committing cultural genocide in his homeland, but Tibetans must continue
practicing nonviolence so that someday the two countries can live as
neighbors.

"Oppose the action, but not the person," said the spiritual and political
leader of most Tibetan Buddhists in a talk on "Ethics for the New
Millennium."

"In our own case we are practicing this as much as we can toward the
Chinese, who are our human brothers and sisters," said the Dalai Lama.

"We try to develop a sense of caring toward them," he said. "but toward
their actions, we always oppose. If necessary, we have to take
countermeasures, but without hatred toward the person."

Laughing often, and sometimes rambling, the 64-year-old monk address a
crowd of 600 Tibetans, Indians and foreigners on the lawns of the Indian
Cultural Center at the end of a week of Tibetan cultural festival.

"The situation in Tibet is that, whether intentionally or unintentionally,
some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," said the Dalai Lama.

He fled his opulent Potala Palace in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in 1959
with thousands of supporters after an abortive and poorly armed Tibetan
revolt. When he escaped, he was disguised as a Tibetan soldier with a rifle
on his shoulder.

=46rom his headquarters at Dharmsala in northern India, he has headed a
nonviolent struggle against Chinese rule ever since, and received the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1989.

An estimated 2,500 refugees still flee Tibet each year and make their way
to India, where about 130,000 Tibetans live.

Referring to Tibetans' efforts to be independent of China, the Dalai Lama
said that in order to live as neighbors in the future, "while we are having
this struggle, it's very essential to have this nonviolence."

Answering questions at the end of his discourse, the Dalai Lama said that
"theoretically, violence can be permitted" depending on the motive and if a
greater goal is sought.

"But in practice, it is very difficult," he said. "The nature of violence
is very unpredictable. ... In today's world, destruction of your neighbor
is destruction of yourself."

"Therefore, the only thing is compromise," he said.

Continuing - from Wikipedia:

Cultural genocide


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_genocide)

Cultural genocide is a term which is used by the Government of Tibet in Exile and its supporters to refer to the activities of the People's Republic of China which it claims is destroying Tibetan culture. The activities which the Government in Exile accuses the Chinese government of performing include closing Tibetan Buddhist temples and encouraging outside immigration into Tibet.

Opponents of the term argue that the PRC government while wishing to stop secessionist activity in Tibet does not actively desire to see Tibetan culture eradicated. They also point out that it is improper to use such a highly charged word as genocide to describe any cultural change, especially since Chinese policies in Tibet have been far less assimilationist than the policies of many nations which are making the criticism.


Women Face Cultural Genocide on the Roof of the World

(...)

Since then Tibetan women have been prime targets of human rights abuse. As documented by Asia Watch and Amnesty International, political prisoners suffer systematic torture and sexual violations. Detailed reports of forcible extraction of blood from female prisoners continue to emerge. Due to the courage and sacrifice of the Chinese human rights activist Dr Harry Wu, the West now knows about China's system of forced labour camps. Some of the most notorious of these are in Eastern Tibet and house countless numbers of women, who are exploited as slave labour. For women not involved in political activity, daily life offers little better. Unless they are able to speak the language of the occupying regime, the chance of finding even the most menial employment is almost impossible. In order to receive grain, women must carry a ration card bearing their name, date of birth and 'class'. The amount awarded is determined by a system of 'work points'. it is not therefore uncommon for women to be seen working in the fields from 6 a.m. to 8 pm. Half of their yield is often demanded by China through various taxes such as the 'Love of the Nation Tax' or the 'Surplus Grain Tax'.

(...)

Tibetan women struggle against China's male-dominated state, characterized by deeply held racist convictions that operate a system of apartheid, reducing them to second-class citizenship in their own land. A commonly used Chinese term describing occupied people is shung-nu - 'barbarian slave'.

(...) Tashi Dolma was a former health worker from Amdo in Eastern Tibet. In 1988 she became pregnant for the second time. Resisting initial pressures from family planning officials to have an abortion, she was fined 1500 Yuan (an enormous amount of money for most Tibetans). on hearing of her pregnancy, a Chinese doctor at the hospital in which she worked, pressurized her by saying: 'If you insist on having the child, the financial punishment is a small matter compared with the political crime you are committing. From now on, you will only get 30 per cent of your salary. Your salary will never increase. Your child will not have the right to claim his ration card, and will not be admitted to school.' Some four months into the pregnancy, Tashi collapsed under incessant pressure and submitted to 'menstrual termination of pregnancy (MTP)'. Tashi Dolma says about her operation: 'The complications and pain I suffered in the course of this operation were so terrible that I can't talk about it. However, it was nothing compared to what women suffer when they are operated on during their sixth and seventh months of pregnancy, which happens quite often at this hospital.

(...) For Tibetans these population policies not only violate human rights principles, but form a dangerous and potentially disastrous assault upon an already severely diminished Tibetan population.

Chinese population control abuses are now widely recognized, yet some demographers, presumably keen to maintain career links and/or research opportunities with China, choose to ignore the evidence of such violations. In Tibet and China, however, this is exactly what is happening, as the United Nations, governments, Britain's Department for International Development and multilateral population agencies ignore the wealth of evidence of these abuses, muttering absurd arguments about China having a potential for change. This reasoning could equally have been applied to Nazi SS units which forcibly sterilized countless numbers of 'racially inferior' women across Europe. (...)

(...) The resulting birth control programme has had a devastating impact on the Tibetan population, which, it is widely agreed, was around six million before China's invasion in 1950. Since then, some 1.2 million Tibetans are thought to have perished through famine, disease, and in the 'Twenty Year War' of resistance (1954-74). A serious population low must thus have occurred in the 1960s, which meant that China forced its population programme upon an already dangerously reduced population level.

(...)

http://www.ctcvan.ca/docs/FreedomCultural2.html


The Many Faces of Genocide in China

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6807/genocide.html


http://www.mongoliatoday.com/issue/6/culture.html


CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia were renowned for their their wealth and splendor, containing treasures of material and intellectual culture collected during the centuries of Buddhist religion development.

Full of life with crowds of pilgrims, believers and monks, they served as major centers of culture and education as well as the community life.Datsans or teological institutes and various schools offered education in all areas of Buddhist knowledge: pholosophy, medicine, astronomy, arts and mathematics.


Monasteries served as the main centers of cultural and social life attracting thousands of belivers.
"Their way of education is very open and relaxed. Everyday excercises in dialectics in front of class mates or important people, the atmosphere of freedom - all these make one very vivacious, eliminates shyness and teaches to be audacious, often on the brink of being daring..." described the monastery life at the turn of century B. Baradiin, a Russian researcher of Buddhism.

But 1937 arrived and nothing of this splendor and grandeur remained. Millions of religious canons, books, records were burned and monasteries destroyed.

The report of the Religious Affairs Department from August, 1939: "Out of 767 registered monasteries 724 have been demolished." This included more than 2,000 temples, 312 datsans or religious schools along with classes and libraries.

The final report notes that half of 5,500 buildings used for religious purposes were destroyed by 1939.

A rough estimation of the conficated property of monasteries can be concluded from the request for "1,006 trucks (three tons each) needed to transport" to the capital city. And this included only the most valuable items like golden and silver statues, precious stones.

Much of this property was send to the Soviet Union. Some available archive records indicate that 70 tons of copper and bronze statues were taken to Russia. Another document, a transportation permission, mentions 1,566 trucks full of Buddhist icons and statues taken in 1939 alone.


All gold and silver that once covered sacred temples and stupas was torn down, melted and taken away.
In 1941 the State Bank received 30.9 tons of gold and about 60 tons of silver. Religious chalices, icom lamps and statues alone accounted for more than 60,000 pieces and the number of saddles, harnesses, traditional knives, smoke pipes lavishly decorated with silver, gold and precious stones simply is not available.

Not much remains now of the flourishing Buddhist culture in Mongolia. Only two dozens temples remain as sad remainders of the former glory.

Under the communist regime nothing should have reminded future generations of the "builders of communism" about the past culture of the nation.


Japanese apologists trying to discredit Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking - note how they sound like Turkish apologists for the Armenian Genocide. International relations somehow gain top priority at instances like these when highly-publicized books and movies are discussed. They will inevitably ALWAYS make a mistake - to discuss and try to discredit the content by exhibiting their political and personal historical biases in the course of their nitpicking and/or they will add to the publicity of the works - both of which are counterproductive for them.

Nanking (Pinyin Nanjing) is only one of many places undeserving of and afflicted by Japanese wrath until Japanese defeat at the end of World War II.

http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/nanjing/ From A Tale of Two Movies Forum.

Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" is a book that fails to heal but rather sears all efforts for good international relations because it prioritizes passion at the cost of basic historical facts. We cannot ignore the book's inability and refusal, as witnessed by the usage of numerous doctored photos, to differentiate between fact and war-time propaganda.

We dedicate this site to all those who believe that constructive relations between nations and peoples should stem from an honest look at historical truths, not propaganda or twisting of historical materials for what appear to be political gains.

 

(...)

I was profoundly saddened by that story, which was saturated with offenses. Your newspaper published the story ahead of a visit to Yerevan by a delegation of our Institute, sustaining thus serious damages to Armenian-Turkish relations.

(...)

At the end I condemn you for you non-constructive approach, I condemn you not only for groundless accusations of me, but also for your blows to the efforts seeking to normalize relations between the two neighbor nations.

(...)

 


CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN EAST TURKISTAN - a summary

http://www.ccs.uky.edu/~rakhim/doc_files/abuse.html

Abuses of Religious Freedoms In East Turkistan - Uygur American Association

http://www.uyghuramerican.org/ET/religion/religion.html

East Türkestan ( Uyghuristan ) National Congress

http://www.uygur.org/etnc/

Chinese cultural Genocide in East Turkistan (1949-2001)

Professor Timur Kocaoglu

http://www.eastturkistan.com/brussels/

Taklamakan.org

  1. http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/u_archive.html

  2. http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/archive/9_4_1.html

  3. http://www.taklamakan.org/smongol-l/archive/genocide.html

  4. http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/archive/4_03_1.html

  5. http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/archive/4_03_3.html


Green-Silence Over the Poisoning of East Turkestan

http://www.tibettruth.com/greensilence.html

Read about the consequences of Chinese nuclear tests on the health of the Uighur population:

http://www.taklamakan.org/uighur-l/et_faq_p1.html#d1

More:

http://www.caccp.org/et/cnt.html


"Xinjiang” = “new land” (Ch.) is “ancient Chinese land”...
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/cenasia/hypermail/200010/0016.html


EAST TIMOR: Indonesia's actions 'genocide' says expert

http://abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s354635.htm

East Timor:  Genocide in Paradise

I was in high school when the war started. I had no political ties, didn't belong to any party. My friends and I were forced to join the Indonesian army. None of us wanted to, but if we didn't, we would have been killed. 
     I went on operations to kill other Timorese, ordinary people. I felt strange—none of us felt good. But after two or three years, it was easy.  You get used to killing. 
     I was forced to kill my best friend. I don't want to talk about it; I don't feel good when I think about it. They knew he was my friend so they forced me to shoot him. They do these things to test you.  

http://www.officeoftheamericas.org/books/genocide_in_paradise/genocide_contents.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/Timor/

http://www.motherjones.com/east_timor/


The Campaign to End Genocide - Indonesia

Indonesia and East Timor

Who: Civilians and PKI supports; East Timorese
When: 1965-66; 1972 & 1999
Where: Throughout Indonesian Islands (Java, Sumatra, Bali); East Timor
Estimated Numbers: Approx. 500,000 killed in Indonesia, 500,000 arrested; 200-300,000 killed in East Timor

http://www.endgenocide.org/genocide/indonesia.html

 


Bishop Belo accuses Indonesia of genocide in E.Timor

http://www.etan.org/et99b/september/5-11/10bishop.htm

 


Centre for the Prevention of Genocide according to hotspots:

Aceh:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/aceh.htm

Sulawesi:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/sulawesi.htm

Nepal:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/Nepal.htm

Timor:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/timor.htm

Borneo:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/borneo.htm

Papua New Guinea:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/papua.htm

Moluccas:

http://www.genocideprevention.org/moluccas.htm



Statistics Of Japanese Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources

By R.J. Rummel

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM 


The American experience in Vietname - My Lai Massacre

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/mylai.html


TIME, December 5, 1969:
Only a shadow of a doubt now remains that the massacre at My Lai was an atrocity, barbaric in execution. Yet almost as chilling to the American mind is the character of the alleged perpetrators. The deed was not performed by patently demented men. Instead, according to the ample testimony of their friends and relatives, the men of C Company who swept through My Lai were for the most part almost depressingly normal. They were Everymen, decent in their daily lives, who at home in Ohio or Vermont would regard it as unthinkable to maliciously strike a child, much less kill one. Yet men in American uniforms slaughtered the civilians of My Lai, and in so doing humiliated the U.S. and called in question the U.S. mission in Vietnam in a way that all the antiwar protesters could never have done.

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mylai2.html


COLD WAR Chat: Hugh Thompson
U.S. Army helicopter pilot at My Lai

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/thompson/


The forgotten hero of My Lai - Hugh Thompson:

http://www.acadianhouse.com/hughthompson/story.htm

Calley - the Butcher of My Lai:

http://www.dade.k12.fl.us/edison/calley.htm

Notice the many tiny variations...

http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/mylai.htm

The My Lai Cases:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm

 

Timeline of Indochina:

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/indochin.html

A little history of the end of French colonialism in Vietnam:

http://home.att.net/~r.hodgeman/history1.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215466/french_indochina.htm

History of Japan in the first half of the 20th century - in the words of a Japanese source:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2129.html

 

Cambodia:

Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University http://www.yale.edu/cgp/

http://www.fatherryan.org/holocaust/cambodia/JOE/INDEX.htm

http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/khmeryears/fall.html

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/hafa3/cambodia.htm

 


Bangladesh

http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html


Hindu genocide in East Pakistan

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/hindu_bangla.html


Hindu Kush means Hindu Slaughter

By Shrinandan Vyas

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/hindu_kush.html

Notice it mentions the no longer existing statues in Bamyan.


Torture and Genocide of the Sikhs 

http://www.khalistan.net/genocide.htm

 


http://www.fletcherledger.com/archive/2001-03-28/032601C-TalebanBuddhas.htm


Religion, Conflict and Cultural Genocide in Afghanistan

by Mustafa Popal, MALD '01

Afghanistan has once again made headlines for the wrong reasons with the recent destruction of the Buddha statues. For many observers of the region, the plight of that country's ongoing years of conflict seems endless. After nearly 22 years of war, Afghanistan has emerged in a form promising only to those extremist elements seeking ideological and physical sanctuary in a country that has seen its social fabric torn to shreds; and now is wracked by the forces of death, destruction and most recently, cultural genocide.

The Taliban decree ordering the destruction of all pre-Islamic artifacts came as a shock to the conscience of humanity worldwide. To understand the motives for such an action, it is necessary to address our own understanding of the ongoing conflict and to reconnect the historical occurrences that have brought Afghanistan to where it is today.

The decade-long war against the Soviet Red Army (1979-1989) pitted one of the world's poorest and most-underdeveloped countries against a global superpower; a modern-day "David and Goliath" depiction. The war took the lives of over a million Afghans, not to mention the lives of thousands of Russian soldiers. For the Afghan freedom fighters (mujahideen) and their supporters, the war was a holy struggle (jihad) for freedom and independence against the forces of atheism as embodied in communism. The Soviet defeat served as an added catalyst to the demise of communism in Eastern Europe and Central Asia culminating with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the USSR in 1991.

The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 left in place a fractured communist Afghan government under the leadership of President Najibullah. By 1992, ensuing internal divisions among the Afghan communists and the onslaught of Mujahideen attacks on Kabul forced Najibullah to step down as President. The removal of Najibullah ushered forth a period of continuous civil war, first between the seven warring Mujahideen factions and now between the Taliban and the United Front opposition representing a fractured coalition of former Mujahideen groups.

The Taliban's emergence from southern Afghanistan in 1994 represented a potential force for peace and stability in the war-torn country for many Afghans and international observers. By effectively disarming a majority of the warlords and, in effect, marching on Kabul in the name of Islam and peace, the Taliban's consolidation of power throughout the country marked a turning point in the civil war. In 1996 the Taliban seized Kabul and the imposed harsh social restrictions for the sake of religious piety. What had appeared to be a benevolent movement for peace, quickly came to be recast as one of the world's most repressive religious regimes.

Today, seven years after its inception, the Taliban movement remains isolated from the world community of states with limited chance for improvement anytime soon. Their religious ideology, while garnering great support among the more radical elements of Islam, in such countries as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, has failed to advance their cause among the international community.

In light of the ongoing conflict, it is important to realize that the civil war in Afghanistan remains a war by proxy. Competing regional interests between Afghanistan's neighbors (i.e. Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China) continue to fuel the flames of conflict. Far into the distant future, war in Afghanistan will remain a part of the psychological and physical reality of the country. The warring factions continue to receive substantial financial and military support from their respective benefactors in the region.

Continued war in the region entails grave consequences for global peace and stability. Many of the social malaises plaguing Afghanistan strike at the core of humanity's concerns. Environmentally, the Afghan landscape remains one of the most heavily mined areas in the world. Narcotics cultivation has quickly replaced wheat as the country's viable crop of choice. Demographically, Afghans form the largest refugee group in the world with over six million living abroad. Of these six million, over a third reside in refugee camps scattered across the borders of Pakistan and Iran. In addition, the three-year drought coupled with an equally devastating winter has forced many Afghans to flee their homes, often times dying as a result of starvation or cold. Politically, the country is ruled by fear and repression. Terrorism has found a safe-haven in the anarchy of Afghanistan. Socially, another generation of Afghan widows and orphans has come to define itself in terms of solitude, poverty and war.

In many ways, Afghanistan forces us to confront the extremes of humanity's perversions as they are implemented in the name of misguided religious, social and political ideologies. At the same time, however, the horrific images of death and destruction force us to question our own sensibilities as members of a global community. As much as some of our members would like to, the world community cannot and must not forget the suffering of the Afghan people. International indifference will only invite escalated regional interference and greater extremist actions at the cost of innocent lives.

We must avoid appearing more outraged by the destruction of artifacts than by the suffering of humans. Nothing would provide greater ammunition for extremist rhetoric than a global response that can be labeled as insensitive to human suffering. We can avoid such measures by urging greater and more consistent avenues of assistance for the people of Afghanistan. Peace and stability can return to Afghanistan, but the realization of this goal requires a collective effort on the part of humanity worldwide.


"The thought was going through my mind and my crew's mind, how these people got in that ditch and after coming up with about three scenarios, one of them being an artillery hit them, you wipe that out of your mind 'cause every house in Vietnam, I think, has a bunker underneath it. If artillery was coming there, they would go to the bunker, they wouldn't go outside in the open area. Then I said, well, when artillery was coming, they were going to leave and a round caught them in the ditch while they were going for cover. I threw that one out of my mind. Then something just sunk into me that these people were marched into that ditch and murdered. That was the only explanation that I could come up with."

-Hugh Thompson -- helicopter pilot who tried to stop the massacre

http://www.oz.net/~vvawai/sw/sw36/heroes-massacres.html

Last revised: Mon., Feb. 24, 2003