State of fear the global attack on rights: Richard Swift wonders if we will all end up under occupation

New Internationalist, March, 2005

Occupied world

In a sense the entire world is falling under security occupation--a rapidly expanding network of what are now over 700 US military 'installations' circles the globe. It forms part of an increasingly militarized globalization where the stability of the corporate order is ensured by (mostly US) force. Military bases constantly generate tension with local residents over misuse of land, cultural arrogance, base security measures or prostitution. New US military bases post-9/11 have reverted to the old Cold War pattern of propping up autocratic states, as with the Central Asian bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kyrgyz leader Askar Akaev have sordid histories of corruption and suppressing human rights and religious dissent, and are thus ready targets for fundamentalist attack.

Warriors on terror (in the US and elsewhere) have pushed nation-states everywhere to ramp up their security apparatus. Fragile freedoms are under pressure in virtually every corner of the globe. The US Patriot Act, which allows widespread surveillance and preventive detention as well as limiting legal defence, has become the template for similar legislation. Almost everywhere budget resources are being channelled away from food and health security to state security. As usual, the vulnerable--refugees, immigrants, dissenters, heretics, people from minority communities, those that are 'different'--are the targets.

The fight over security legislation has become a decisive political issue in dozens of countries since 9/11. Desperate citizens are trying to hold back a tide of arbitrary police power that would allow national security forces to act like occupying powers at home. Zimbabwe, Uganda, Colombia, Morocco, Belarus, Pakistan, Kenya, Russia, Indonesia; and, on slightly different political terrain, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand/Aotearoa, to name but a few: all of these continue to witness a tug-of-war between advocates of civil freedom and those of state security.

In some cases, resistance has been sharp. Two Presidents of the tiny Indian Ocean country of Mauritius resigned rather than sign post-9/11 security legislation. In South Africa and South Korea repressive legislation was beaten back, at least partially, by broad-based coalitions familiar with how such legislation stifles dissent and cripples popular organization. In India there is an ongoing struggle between supporters of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and its 'reformed' offspring and those who fear the arbitrary use of such power.

The way the Israeli Defence Force operates in Rafah or the Russian Army in Dagestan is, it is true, qualitatively different from the restraints still imposed on the tactical squads and intelligence units in Western countries. But what we have here is a continuum--at the back of both is a certain zero-tolerance mindset which sees fundamental opposition and difference as a lethal challenge to be met with all necessary force.