Terrorism - Lessons from Israel & Russia

What do Israel and Russia have to offer for us, the Indians? Indeed many things especially when it comes to dealing with terrorism. They have demonstrated to the entire world what they are capable of. We, the Indians have got to learn a lot from these two nations in dealing with terror and be able to project & protect a strong image of our nation for the terrorists and the rest of the people of the world. Not the present day image which is quite a squashy one. No wonder the terrorists are making us the soft targets.

                Both the countries have been the targets of most horrible terrorist acts from many notorious terrorist organizations. But the way in which they have handled the situations and the way in which they have avenged back make us adulate them. Adulation alone won’t serve any purpose unless lessons are learnt. It is a sad fact that even though Russia and Israel are the largest suppliers of arms to India, India has failed to tackle terrorism like these countries do. My wish is just that India instead of being just politically correct it better take all the measures necessary to guard & uphold its sovereignty.

                Here, I just want to discuss some of the bold measures that are taken by the two countries, their attitude towards terrorism with some examples

Russia

Though the Russian terrorist problem is not as diverse and as complicated as us, it is still a big threat to them.  Initially, the response of Russia was blamed and also the counter-terrorism strategy was much criticized. Because of changed & newly adopted counter-terrorism policy, Russia was able to shed its previous image and come back strongly. The main threat that Russians face is from Islamic militants in Chechnya and the broader North Caucasus region.

                They have shown their conviction to halt terrorism by taking severe measures. In 1998, they came up with federal law to combat terrorism. The law defined terrorist activities omitting political motivations for it. As we know, Russia’s intelligence agency (Federal Security Service, the successor of the world-famous KGB) is one of the world’s best. That, along with Ministry of interior is responsible for combating terror.

Russia, being a communist country has got much more freedom in acting fully against anything that is deterrent to the interests of the nation. Of course there have been cases of human rights violation. But they are not in a pitiable state our nation where there are many human rights activists who fight for the fair treatment of terrorists. This kind of phony people (in our country there is no dearth for these kinds) are more dangerous than terrorists. There are multiple factors which make us look weak. Whereas Russia guarantees its citizens “For the Russian, a strong state is not an anomaly, not something with which he has to struggle, but, on the contrary, a source and a guarantee of order, as well as the initiator and main moving force of any change”. This kind of a stance from the government is what any citizen can rejoice and the citizens would feel secure in living in such a country.

Zero- Tolerance policy for the terrorists, hostages: Russia has a hard policy when it comes to dealing with any kinds of terrorist activities. During Beslan crisis in 2005 where terrorists stormed a small school taking more than 1200 people as hostages, Vladimir Putin, the then president of Russia announced to the press “Russia does not tolerate terrorism. We deal with terrorists swiftly and completely. This is a warning to terrorists, hostages, rescue workers, bystanders...all those involved in terrorist activities: You will be shown no mercy.” Have we seen any such strong statement from our politicians ever? Even if we hear, have we seen those words translating into actions? The answer would be a resounding NO. In Moscow theater crises of 2002 or in the Beslan crisis of 2005, Russia has demonstrated its strong stance against terrorism.

Moscow theater hostage crises: In the year 2002 (October 23 to be precise) a crowded theater in Moscow was seized by Chechen separatists. They held 850 people as hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. The terrorists gave the government a deadline of a week to withdraw the forces failing which they would start killing the hostages after the deadline.

The plot of the theater

 The government came to know that the terrorists had grenades, mines and many other explosive devices lashed to their bodies (a few of them which were later found to be dummies). Over the next three days, a few hostages were released but neither the government nor the terrorists budged and the deadlock continued. What happened after that is truly unbelievable.

The government, instead of negotiating with the terrorists, had decided to take them head on. They pumped a mysterious (poisonous) gas into the theater. After the effect had taken place, the assault on the building began. The encounter between the terrorists and the military lasted for a few hours. The theater was eventually freed but with a cost. The report said that there were 162 deaths (33 rebels, 129 hostages). The striking point here is that the government never tried to negotiate with the terrorists at all. It is their policy which is very clear.

 Just contrast this incidence with Kandahar hijack crisis that we faced in 1999. We negotiated with the terrorists and budged to their demands and released the notorious terrorists. All those released terrorists are coming back strongly on India with one attack after another. Did we err? We can’t say if we assume the hostages to be our close ones.
I am fond of saying this – Every country (i.e. people of the country), especially in a democracy gets a government that it deserves!

Next, I will write about Israel which is even more fascinating.