Daily Times

The United Kingdom is
offering technical ways and mechanisms for peaceful resolution of ethnic and sectarian conflict to several Asian states including Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the country’s successive governments have never been able to eradicate the roots of extremism, international terrorism, racism, ethnic and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and Scotland. We often read heartbreaking statements of police and intelligence chiefs about the looming threat of international terrorism, cyber attacks and experience numerous changes in the National Security Strategy since 2007, but no proper solution has so for been sought.

Recently, Home Secretary Teresa May once again warned that the law enforcement agencies must prepare to tackle a lone gunman or Mumbai-style attack on the streets of Britain. Extremist and terrorist networks are very strong and often challenge the national security of the country, but the Home Secretary and her administration have failed to control the subversive activities of extremist forces in Britain. The recent wave of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has now become a bigger national security challenge where terrorists and anti-state elements target the police and innocent civilians.

Sectarian violence in the province is deeply enigmatic. The conflict is purely sectarian but religious affiliation defines the boundaries of rival groups. Although sectarian violence has been relatively low in intensity but it has badly affected peacemaking in a positive way. The author Mari Fitzduff in her book Conflict Resolution Process in Northern Ireland (2002) has analysed the basic roots of violence in the province and revealed some important facts.

A major supporter of violence and terrorism has been the IRA. In 1969, the Provisional IRA was formed after republican ranks split in Belfast. Differences had arisen as a result of dramatic events in August that year when the state used force to quell the reform movement. This event caused militarization of the province. The state of Northern Ireland was ultimately a militarized state from its inception due to the external threat. One of the enduring factors of the conflict there was the failure to produce a political framework that both unionists and nationalists could support. The issue of peace walls has been the centre of considerable attention of international media and intellectual forums since long.

During my flights of thought to Belfast streets, my brain waves travelled from one end to another and collected amazing stories of local communities resolved to demolish all peace walls and join their cousins in promoting peace and stability in the province. Before my mental tour of the region, sectarian violence had ruined the streets of Belfast a month ago. My thoughts met various groups reacting to police caused injuries and annoyance.

Racial walls have never been considered an instrument of peace in any religious conflict of modern history. Walls cannot separate a brother from brother, mother from son and friends from friends. Walls cannot divide minds, hearts, ethnic and linguistic relations. We can separate human beings by any means but we cannot undermine human values, relationships and a traditional way of life. Walls in Northern Ireland are an ugly blot on the face of Britain’s social history that present an intolerant picture of the United Kingdom abroad.

These more than 90 racial walls that separate communities, sects and cultures have badly affected the colourful features of British society. How long can we keep citizens separate through these racial walls? In reality, we make the issue worse and create more loathing, more alienation, more mutinies and more distances across the province. These walls must end now, Peter Robinson warned in his November 25 speech. In his speech in Castlereagh, Robinson warned, “We cannot hope to move beyond our present community divisions while our young people are educated separately…The reality is that our education system is a benign form of apartheid, which is fundamentally damaging to our society.”

In June 2011, Reuters reported Prime Minister David Cameron demanding the end of segregation between communities: “A crucial area where I believe we need to move beyond the peace process is in tackling the causes of division within society here,” the PM said. The Prime Minister criticised the increase in the so-called peace walls and said, “Given the history of Northern Ireland I don’t for one minute underestimate the scale of the challenge but it is a depressing fact that since the 2006 St Andrews agreement, the number of so-called peace walls have increased from 37 to 48.”

Significant failures of the local administration in tackling the issue through negotiation and community level in the past caused more misunderstandings about the conflict resolution mechanism of the central government. Low quality religious education, sectarian feelings at school and college level, terror attacks, bomb blasts, all these unwanted misadventures caused violence in the streets, markets and parks. The danger is approaching as the issues of ethnicity, racism and sectarianism have taken root across the country. Religious violence and racism causing the death of innocent lives are well documented, and the killings of policemen and innocent civilians are not new.

The recent clashes between Loyalist and Republican, and police and sectarian elements in Northern Ireland left a large number of police officers injured. According to the Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report for 2012, “There is no occasion in Northern Ireland when people stand together…to experience the sense of being one people with a single, shared identity.” This precarious reverse of confrontational politics is an immediate warning for both the law enforcement agencies and the local administration. Government and its administrative machinery are in hot water as the street violence across the province has threatened the peace process. Moreover, recent independent and government reports indicate that the threat of sectarian terrorism remains serious. Violence in the province is complicated and cannot be separated from political, geographical and cultural contexts. There are many ways of reconciliation and elimination of violence and the deepening social crisis if the local government adopts a multidimensional security approach.

The writer is the author of Punjabi Taliban, can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com