Hannan's comments
Shah Abdul Hannan is dead wrong and disingenuous when he claims that the war in 1971 was a civil war (DS, 28 October).
A civil war is a fairly prolonged brutal fight within a contiguous geographical area over core fundamental issue(s) of political arrangement and management between citizens of a country sharing some common characteristics principally of ethnicity, language, culture and certain shared values (e.g. adherence to rule of law).
Some examples will clarify. The English Civil War between Cavaliers and Roundheads was fought between monarchical and anti-monarchy forces. The US Civil War pitted unionists against secessionists. The Russian Civil War saw communists (Bolsheviks) and non-communists fight it out. The Spanish Civil War was a deadly duel between Falangists and Republicans while the Chinese Civil War was a two decade conflict between the CCP and KMT in tandem with the Japanese invasion of China.
The Bangladesh war was a fight between two groups with very little in common in terms of ethnicity, language, culture and social values, with one group fighting exclusively on the non-contiguous territory of the other group. Put simply, the cause of the war was the iniquitous state structure which saw political and economic power concentrated in an ethnic group mainly Punjabis living over 1200 miles from Dhakaa classic case of internal colonial exploitation.
It was to maintain that structure and foreclose meaningful reforms that the Pakistan army composed mainly of Punjabis and Pathans used deadly force commencing from 25 March 1971. This failed.
Our fight in 1971 was an anti-colonial struggle to liberate ourselves from foreign rule, and has more in common with Vietnam's national liberation struggle 1945-1975, and other post-1945 anti-colonial movements (e.g. Indonesia; Kenya; Mozambique), than the civil wars mentioned above.
How would Mr. Hannan categorise the periodic uprisings by Baluchis and the current fighting in NWFP? As civil wars? Insurrections? Or what? Because of Pakistan's geographical contiguity and Islamabad's superior resources, neither the Baluchis nor the tribal Pakhtuns are likely to get what they want, but containing them won't be easy.
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