Human rights: American insensitivity

ON Thursday the USA, accompanied by its crony the UK, launched an utterly outrageous attack on Iraq in flagrant disregard to the wishes of the UN. This speaks loudly of the Americans’ insensitivity to the rights of others as human beings. There was an absolute lack of humanness in their unholy act.

Undoubtedly, this naked act of aggression was nothing but a last-ditch effort by Mr Clinton to effectively divert the attention of his people from his misdemeanours.

It comes as no surprise that frustrated people in such a state of mind as Mr Clinton’s can ultimately prove highly unstable and dangerously unpredictable. Diplomacy is never the forte of such people. Their actions can lead to devastating consequences for the world around them. This can be particularly alarming when such people have their hands and mind on the buttons of all kinds, including those of nuclear weapons!

For eight long years, purely on the insistence of the USA, the innocent people of Iraq have had to suffer indescribable hardships. Countless people have died of hunger and disease. There is a severe shortage of essential medicines because of which the diseased fail to get the right treatment.

How can any self-respecting people, even those of a beleaguered nation, howsoever hardy, be made to silently suffer an endless compromise with the indignities of the kind constantly inflicted on the Iraqis by the USA and its so-called allies? All this has happened primarily on the obstinate, insensitive and arrogant insistence of the USA wanting to continue with the back-and-morale-breaking sanctions.

VIVEK KHANNA
Panchkula

US IMMATURITY EXPOSED: The missile attack code-named “Operation Desert Fox” by the USA on Iraq was indeed uncalled for and deserves to be condemned by the world community in the strongest possible terms. By this action, the USA has only exposed its own lack of perspective, maturity and insight.

The so-called super power would, however, do well to remember the words of William Penn: “Not to be provoked is best; for every stroke our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last.”

For Iraq, as told by Milton in his “Paradise Lost”:

What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.

K. GOPAKUMAR MENON
Sonepat

Unfair to monkeys

The HP government’s move to issue licences to kill monkeys is extremely shocking. Only three years ago a similar move to eliminate panthers had stunned the world. It seems we have not learnt lessons from the tragic episode of the tiger. Having declared the tiger as vermin, the British had almost eliminated this species. It is estimated that during the British period more than 50,000 tigers were killed. In that frenzy the Indian cheetah reached the stage of extinction. The English might have trodden that bloody path in their effort to crush our national pride, but Himachal has no such compulsions .

The Indian macaque or rhesus monkey is known as the best of its kind. In most part of the world they are disappearing at an alarming rate due to their persecution or trapping for experimental purposes. The Indian Government banned their export due to their dwindling population.

Monkeys prefer to live in forests in small groups. Unfortunately, due to the clearance of forests they have been pushed out to inhabited areas for bare subsistence.

The law does not allow the monkeys to be treated as vermin, and any attempt to issue licences en masse may prove dangerous. As a matter of fact, no animal can be killed in batches or eliminated at random to achieve any ulterior motive. A defenceless animal which can be scared away easily should not be shot dead for his pestering nature. This is the height of intolerance.

H. M. SAROJ
Chandigarh

Time to look within

This refers to the editorial “Time to look within” (The Tribune, Dec 14) in which Mr LK Advani has been castigated and the “proactive policy,” the term used by him, ridiculed.

For advocating this policy, Mr Advani was bitterly criticised by all non-BJP parties. It was alleged that he was spoiling all that had been achieved in the area of normalising relations with Pakistan. These very people ridicule Mr Bal Thackeray when he uses harsh language against Pakistan and its cricket team. It is beyond one’s imagination that these non-BJP parties would support a “proactive policy” if vigorously pursued, which can even lead to war. And wars cannot be won by any single party; there is need for solid support by all.

For the past 50 years our rulers have been living in a fools paradise, saying that India is so big in size that there is no need to prepare for self-defence against a small country like Pakistan. They have been proved wrong.

ANAND PRAKASH
Panchkula

Greeting cards & trees

Come December and it is time to send greeting cards, be it for Christmas or New Year.

Greeting cards are made from paper which is manufactured by using valuable wood as the raw material.

Environmentalists, hold your breath. Around 15 lakhs of trees are felled in India annually for the production of greeting cards alone!

No doubt, afforestation and planting of trees are important but, perhaps, more so is the protection of the existing forests from destruction.

Why can we not save our trees and convey our messages of greetings on the telecommunication network. Must we cut trees to greet others?

ROSHNI JOHAR
Shimla