Author: PTI
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: September 23, 2001
Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is
on US President George W Bush's target list along with other terrorist
movements like Irish terrorism and Basque terrorism, Secretary of State
Colin Powell has said unambiguously in an interview to the BBC.
"Is this a war against all terrorism,"
asked the BBC correspondent.
Secretary Powell: Yes. The president
sees this as a campaign that goes after terrorism as a curse in the face
of society.
Question: So that would include
Irish terrorism, Kashmiri terrorism, Basque terrorism?
Powell: I think that is correct.
Any organisation that is interested in terrorist operations overthrow legitimate
governments, democratically elected governments, or governments that represent
the will of their people is a threat. We should go after them. This is
not new for the US. We recently designated the real IRA, a terrorist organisation.
We have done the same thing with three organisations in Colombia, the FARC,
the ELN and recently their paramilitary, the AUC.
"So the US has been in the forefront
of going after terrorism. But in light of what happened on September 11,
we now needs a world-wide campaign not just the United States or even just
the UN, but rather everybody coming together.
Question: How will you judge that
war has been won?
Powell: I think we can make a judgement
that the war is being won or has been won when we don't see that kind of
terrorist incident occurring anywhere. Now, will we ever get there? I don't
know. Can we reduce the likelihood of these sorts of incidents as we go
after these terrorist outfits? The answer to that is clearly yes.
Question: But you are embarking
upon a war that you are not sure you can win?
Powell: We are embarking upon a
long campaign that we will win if we start to see these kinds of incidents
sort of disappear from public life. Will we ever get to a situation where
there is not a single terrorist left in the world willing to do this kind
of activity, I can't answer that, I can't say we will.
Question: But you are embarking
upon a war that you are not sure you can win?
Powell: We are embarking upon a
long campaign that we will win if we start to see these kinds of incidents
sort of disappear from public life. Will we ever get to a situation where
there is not a single terrorist left in the world willing to do this kind
of activity, I can't answer that, I can't say we will. PTI
