Read Article 1 given below quickly and find answers to the following questions.1. What kind of people are suicide bombers? 2. What circumstances bring about suicide bombings in a country? 3. What role does religion play in suicide bombings? 4. How did Turkey deal with the problem of suicide bombings?
Article 1 Suicide Bombers Can Be Stopped It’s relatively easy to understand why someone kills another human being. Human beings have done it forever – in war and in peace. It is far more difficult to fathom why someone would kill himself – or herself. Many people today are asking just this question, as they have witnessed a rash of suicide bombings. In the last few years, suicide bombers have detonated explosives that have taken 165 lives, including their own. What made these people not merely kill but die? Scholars who have studied this phenomenon tend to look at the personal profiles of suicide bombers for signs of a pattern. Generally, they are Muslim (with the exception of Sri Lankan rebels), young, single and have some religious education. They are usually not newcomers to their political cause, or terror tactics. All this is interesting, but why do some choose this path and not others? After all, there are tens of millions of young, single Muslims and only a few hundred brutal suicide bombers, who are found in a few specific places. Looking at things now, one has to ask, is there a way to prevent suicide bombings? Turkey’s experience with the Kurds suggests that there might be. In the mid-1990s, Turkey was racked by suicide bombings. The leader of the Kurdish rebel group PKK explained in a 1997 interview that “suicide bombings are very much [our] tactics.” Between 1996 and 1999 there were more than 20 such attacks all over Turkey. But in a few years they began to peter out. Today, apart from an isolated incident here and there, suicide bombings have largely disappeared from Turkish life. Why? A combination of reasons: first, the Turkish military hit the rebels hard, crushing the PKK, closing down international support for them and eventually arresting its leader. But the army directed its fire at the rebels and not the surrounding population. In fact, the Turks worked very hard to win over the Kurds, creating stable governing structures for them, befriending them and putting forward social-welfare programs – to improve agriculture and women’s education, for example. The Turkish government made a massive investment (totaling over $32 billion) in the Kurdish southeast. On a per capita basis, it has invested more in the Kurdish region than in any other part of Turkey. It also had agreed to a number of Kurdish demands on language, cultural freedom and educational reforms. These concessions were dramatically accelerated as a result of European pressure over the last few years. We treat suicide bombers as delusional figures, brainwashed by imams. But they are also products of political realities. There are many differences between the Kurds and the Chechens. But both are Muslim populations that have political grievances. In one case, the grievances and tactics grew more extreme and violent, culminating in suicide bombing. In the other, suicide bombing gave way to political negotiations and even coexistence. There is a lesson here. (From ‘Newsweek’, abridged)
14. Read Article 2 quickly and find concrete examples to support the statement: “Violence breeds violence.” Article 2 And It All Goes up in Flames On June 4th, 2003, Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister agreed to walk the first steps of the road to peace. Seven days later, on June 11th, the road was flooded in blood. A suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing 16 people. In retaliation, Israel carried out a series of attacks on Gaza from helicopter gunships, killing at least 14 people, perhaps five of them Hamas men. The road started to buckle when Palestinian militants, in a concerted ambush on an Israeli army post in Gaza on June 8th, killed four Israeli soldiers. Then, on June 10th in Gaza, the Israeli fired five rockets at the car of Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, a paediatrician and top Hamas politician. Dr Rantisi leapt out in time but three Palestinians, including a woman and child, were killed. In response, Hamas fired a missile at an Israeli town on Gaza’s northern border. Israel then killed three civilians in a rocket attack on Jabalia, the most densely-populated refugee camp in the occupied territories. Thus the violence continued, reaching its bloodiest point with the Jerusalem bus bomb. The USA vigorously condemned the bus bombing. But, earlier, the president had responded swiftly to the attempted assassination, rebuking Israel. A statement from his spokesman said that he was “deeply troubled” by the timing, fearing it would undermine Palestinian efforts to bring an end to terrorism. The US president himself said that he did not believe that such attacks “help the Israeli security”. Indeed not. Mr Abbas called on America to prevent a repetition of assassination bids which, he said, were “intended to obstruct and sabotage the political process.” The prime minister needs all the help he can get. Since the summit in Aqaba, he has been under a torrent of Palestinian criticism for repeating the American script that denounces terrorism against Israel, while not reaffirming Palestinian lore that says peace will come only with Israel’s withdrawal from the land it occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, and a “just” resolution of the refugee question. It was in response to those omissions that Hamas called off talks with the Palestinian Authority on arranging a ceasefire. (From ‘The Economist’, abridged)
Vocabulary. Now read the articles carefully, find the following word combinations in the text and learn their meaning. Make it a particular point to use theseexpressions in the further discussion of the problem.
Article 1. To detonate explosives, to take smb’s life, a personal profile, brutal, to win smb over, to befriend smb, to brainwash smb, coexistence. Article 2. In retaliation, an ambush, an attempted assassination, to rebuke smb, to undermine efforts, to obstruct a process, to denounce smth, to reaffirm smth, to arrange a ceasefire.
Discussion
1. Do you think the grounds for suicide bombings are political, economic, religious or personal? 2. Why do women (mostly) become suicide bombers? What is your personal opinion on the problem? 3. Do you think there is a difference between suicide bombers and Japanese kamikaze? 4. Do you think the countries against which terrorist attacks are carried out should act likewise? If not, what retaliation should there be?
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