ANITA WEISS
Co-editor of Power and Civil Society in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 2001) and professor of international studies at the University of Oregon, Weiss said today: “If this situation is not diffused and tensions escalate further between India and Pakistan, it will play into the hands of extremist and sectarian groups in Pakistan. Many people in Pakistan feel they have been good allies to the U.S., but I doubt the U.S. will come to Pakistan’s assistance, militarily, against India. The ensuing social unrest will further exacerbate an already tense situation and the result may well be politically and economically worse than what occurred after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the U.S. abandoned Pakistan in the early 1990s…. The current BJP Indian government has aggravated relations and made provocative statements that are further inflaming tensions between the two countries.”
JAY TRUMAN
Truman is author of “India — Villain, Hero or Scapegoat?” and director of the Downwinders organization. He is closely monitoring both the Indian and Pakistani press in the current crisis.
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DONALD WAGNER
Author of Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000, Wagner is a professor of religion and executive director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University in Chicago. He said today: “Sharon is demanding seven days without violence from the Palestinian side while Israel assassinates leaders and kills innocent civilians. Last week Israel announced the expansion of existing settlements and expropriation of more Palestinian land. Sharon’s policies are accelerating the dramatic decline of the Israeli economy and the movement of Israelis to the West.”
LARRY BIRNS
Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Birns is co-author of the recent article “Argentina: Penniless, Friendless, Soulless.”
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BEVERLY KEENE
Coordinator of Dialogue 2000, a coalition representing human-rights and other groups in Argentina, Keene said today: “At least 35 persons killed, hundreds more wounded and/or detained, five presidents in 12 days — by any accounts a somber toll for a crisis that has been in the offing for months, if not years, and yet another tragic manifestation of all that the IMF, World Bank, and creditor governments and institutions preach gone wrong. Because for as much as the Argentine political leadership has shown its ineptitude, at best, in designing and implementing economic and social policies responsive to the needs and basic human rights of the population, it should not be forgotten that for nearly a decade now, Argentina has been touted as a showcase for all that the free-market, neoliberal ‘Washington consensus’ agenda could promise.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; Norman Solomon, (415) 552-5378
