THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230352
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By SANTOSH CHOUDHURY
LENGTH: 56 lines
Where are the days of the knights of shining armor when human beings fought face to face to show valor and strength?
Today we have bombs, plastic explosives and liquid nitrogen. But that's merely a change in technology! Human beings have not changed in shape or size. They still look the same, live the same way, eat the same, feel the same pain and pleasure, laugh with joy and cheer with ecstasy.
But a small portion of the human race does sordid deeds - and usually not face to face. Deeds such as throwing a disabled man in a wheelchair into the sea or killing innocent women and children, athletes or bystanders are not only heinous but beyond description. The count is long: Air India June 22, 1985, killed 329; Korean Airlines, Nov. 29, 1987, killed 115; Pam Am, Dec. 21, 1988, killed 259; Olympic Park, Atlanta, killed 1.
For the sake of the young, such sordid and insane killings by terrorists must stop immediately.
Once upon a time a terrorist would sacrifice his life to terminate another specific person but would not harm an ant. Times have changed for the worse. Terrorist acts are now more brutal, violent, inhuman and vulgar, and the victims are innocent, having nothing to do with the objectives of any terrorist anywhere in the world.
As innocent citizens of the community of nations, none of us in any part of the world feels safe and secure anymore. Terrorism has to stop and should be stopped no matter what it costs.
Sane societies never approved of terrorists or any of their sordid deeds, and yet without any mental gymnastics we can recall admirers of terrorists in the recent past. Despite their brutal and inhuman killings of innocent women and children, some are immortalized in time with marble tombstones, statues and whatnot as patriots and saviors.
The new generation should be shaded from violence and grow up as champions of peace.
Nations from A to Z are not free of blame. Dropping bombs on refugee camps and civilian areas, brutal torture of prisoners, occupation of territories, inhuman treatment of human beings in occupied lands, assassination plots and the supply of money, material, training and weapons by organized governments to the terrorists - all must be stopped at once.
For the sake of innocent humanity, all covert activities of all organized governments also must stop immediately.
It is one thing to punish dreadful terrorists, it's a another matter to stop and eventually eradicate terrorism from the globe.
In order to stop terrorism both sides - nations and groups of individuals - should rather shamefully come face to face and resolutely resolve disputes forever. In order to eradicate terrrorism, both sides need to sign irrevocable never-again treaties to stop killing of innocent women, children and citizens of the world. MEMO: Santosh Choudhury is professor of finance at Norfolk State
University. by CNB