A Call for Justice

More than four weeks have passed since the print media first reported about a gang-rape of a lady doctor, allegedly by military personnel, at Sui. Not a single suspect has been apprehended yet. The shamelessness, the apathetic attitude of our top military command takes your breath away.

There is an old Bedouin legend that goes like this: An elderly Bedouin leader thought that by eating turkey he could restore his virility. So he bought a turkey, kept it by his tent and stuffed it with food every day. One day someone stole his turkey. The Bedouin elder called his sons together and told them: "Boys, we are in great danger. Someone has stolen my turkey." "Father," the sons answered, "what do you need a turkey for?"
"Never mind," he answered, "just get me back my turkey." But the sons ignored him and a month later someone stole the old man’s camel. "What should we do?" the sons asked. "Find my turkey," said the father. But the sons did nothing, and a few weeks later the man’s daughter was raped. The father said to his sons: "It is all because of the turkey. When they saw that they could take my turkey, we lost everything."

A failure to unambiguously denounce the Sui tragedy, shying away to take on the rapist regardless of their attire, not demanding justice for the downtrodden and not endeavouring to hinder such a sinister development AT ONCE will make us regret bitterly afterwards. The military has already stolen the metaphorical camel by now, this time even in West Pakistan. Their next step needs no further elaboration.

German pastor Martin Niemoller had been a submarine captain in WW I before becoming a leader in the Confessing Church. He voted for the Nazi party. By 1938, however, he was in a concentration camp. Afterwards, he analysed his indifferent approach and its consequences like this:

“First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out; Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out; Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

Therefore, fellow countrymen, it is our moral, democratic and not the least religious duty to stand up to the tyrants. Patsies who eagerly trot after the usurpers are themselves responsible for the tragic outcome. What is at the stake is not just the military-civilian power sharing but also the very survival of the civil society. Our apathy will become our death. Or murder. Or rape.

Keep quite today; there will be no one left to protest when the next victim of wadera A, SHO B, Captain X, Major Y, Colonel Z, will be your own daughter. In fact, gang-rapes will be the ultimate result, as long as people keep on guilelessly distributing mithai whenever army takes over, in supreme national interest – countless shortcomings of civilians notwithstanding. Please, for God’s sake, try to realize the power of ballot and the change even peaceful resistance can bring about.

Although there is little tradition of holding senior military commanders criminally accountable for abuses committed by their subordinates, anywhere in the world, one example would be worth mentioning here.

U.S. officials charged Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita with failing in his duty as a commander to prevent atrocities committed by Japanese troops in the Philippines in 1944 and 1945. Yamashita was executed in 1946. It could never be proved that Yamashita did explicitly order the things that went wrong.

It is extremely unlikely that anyone among the incumbent top command of the military would have passed down a written order to rape that hapless doctor. Their failure to prevent it happening, and much worse condoning subsequent attempts to hush up the incident nonetheless make them equally culpable. The least, they could have done was to ensure the locking up of that captain at some guard room until and unless he was proven innocent beyond doubt.

The despicable circus going on under the cover of judicial tribunal, TV interviews and so on is indicative of the entire top brass covering a monster without any qualms. Please, observe, it is gang-rape not breaking a red light at a traffic intersection we are talking about. Are we asking the generals to undo the public relations disaster of Sui? That can’t happen. But we can surely ask the defenders of our geographical and ideological borders to demonstrate, as a bare minimum, that when military officers commit dreadful crimes like gang-rape there are consequences. Sexual predators don’t go free at our officers’ mess is the least we as a nation are entitled to demand. That goal is easily achievable. This case will write history, affect the course of politics, shape the role of military and have a profound impact on the overall image of the military.

The U.N. tribunals have recently declared institutional, systematic rape a crime against humanity. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute, commonly referred as the Rome Statute unequivocally declares rape as a crime against humanity under its Article 7, paragraph 2(f).

Regrettably, Pakistan is not one of the 97 countries which are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and hence doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the court. Still, in case the army fails to charge the main suspect, the lady should try to take her case to the ICC, implicating even the senior military generals as well for condoning and protecting a rapist, at least to highlight the dismal state of affairs, if nothing else.

Individuals who are tempted to commit abhorrent crimes like this one under the cover of their mighty institution must be deterred, by the knowledge that one day they will be called to account. That deterrence has been missing until now. It is needed today as much as ever, and it will be needed in the future. Therefore, no stone should be left unturned to dispense justice in this case. And it is of fundamental importance, that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

In a Nov. 14, 2003, statement, a U.S. soldier said he "saw what I think were war crimes" while assigned to a Baghdad facility known as Camp Red. In the statement, the soldier reported seeing U.S. troops assault detainees at the camp and the use of prolonged hooding, exposure to heat and cold and excessive restraints.
"In my mind," the soldier said, "my chain of command did nothing to stop these war crimes, and allowed them to happen." (L A Times - Jan 25, 2004)

Compare this statement with the actions taken so far by the fellow officers of Pak army in the said case of gang-rape. The U.S. is not a superpower only because of its unlimited firepower. Think about it. What a tragedy that not one officer, yeah not even a single officer has, as far as we ordinary mortals know, had the gumption or spine, to say enough is enough. Everyone is harping on just one mantra, innocent until proven guilty. Has this principle ever applied in the land of pure when the accused is not on the payroll of the GHQ?

Mr. Blair and his adversaries seem united in ascribing the abuses in Basra by British military personnel to a tiny minority of British troops. Berlin’s left-wing Tageszeitung asked in its editorial, "How many bad eggs do you need in order to describe the entire basket as bad?"

Likewise, it would be quite appropriate to ask: How many rogue elements do we need to classify our army as a bunch of power-hungry, callous, wicked officers. How many Admiral Mansoor ul Haqs, General Zia ul Haqs, General Niazis, Captain Hammads it takes to make the whole basket statistically useless, strategically worthless.

Without justice, peace, political and social stability, national unity, nothing is attainable. It is absolutely no comfort, as some people say in defence of army that a lady doctor is more likely to be raped by a feudal sardar than a captain. Army, fond of pronouncing judgemental verdicts on everyone, grading everyone’s patriotism have got to come up with a better example. Saviours, indemnified under doctrine of necessity have no room for any error, what to talk about gang-rapes.

Lest someone points out that tragically this rape is neither the first one in the chequered history of Pakistan and most probably neither the last one, then why this unprecedented hue and cry. I explain. Consensual sex between a couple is termed as “love making”. The same physical activity forced on a minor by his/her father is called incest - perhaps the most dreadful sin, the most reprehensible crime. Though, it would be totally idiotic to grade crimes but if you have to, a gang-rape committed by a captain because the institution he belongs to is beyond the ambit of the law of the country is not compatible to the one perpetrated by a lunatic on the spur of the moment.