The Hindu Business Line : Terrorism: Fear over the city

Our nation has lost over 53,000 lives to terrorism over the last decade, according to a recent article in a national newspaper. But a widely used Web site on terrorism says that domestic and international terrorist attacks have caused a little over 43,000 fatalities across the globe in the past decade. These numbers reflect the difficulty in arriving at a precise figure on terrorist killings.

Johnston’s Archive, a popular Web site designed by a doctoral student in space physics at the University of Texas, provides useful information on several topics such as space exploration, nuclear energy and terrorism. The site had close to 11 million ‘hits’ during 2001-07. It provides a lot of useful information on terrorist attacks. For instance, notwithstanding the problem of what constitutes a terrorist attack, in a statement on deadly attacks resulting in 100 or more fatalities, one could count 56 instances over the period May 1973 through August 14, 2007.

The May 1973 incident refers to the mid-air bombing of an Aeroflot airliner, while the last one was the multiple car bombings in Iraq.

The list indicates that the deadly attacks have been on the increase over time.

While only four occurred in the 1970s, the number progressively rose to 10 in the 1980s, 16 in the 1990s and 26 since mid-2001.

Living in Fear

Insecurity is not exclusive to a Mumbai or a New York. It can spread easily.

Hyderabad has seen one of the worst terror attacks, one a couple of months ago and another more recently, where the targets were a popular park and eat-out.

In such attacks, innocent people get killed. Any amount of discourse on the virtues of democracy, freedom and humanism will fail in consoling the concerned.

“One of the most significant causes of fear and insecurity in many cities today is crime and violence”, notes UN Habitat, while pointing out that in just one decade, between 1990 and 2000, incidents of violent crime per 100,000 persons have gone up by close to 50 per cent, from six to a little less than nine.

International Attention

In the brochure released on World Habitat Day, which is observed on October 1, the Executive Director of UN Habitat Anna Tibaijuka states thus: “We are now at a very significant turning point in history: The year 2007 will be the year in which for the first time, half of humanity will be living in towns and cities. It marks the beginning of a new urban era.

It is projected that by 2030 that figure will rise to two-thirds. The cities growing fastest are those of the developing world. And the fastest growing neighbourhoods are the slums.”

The theme for this year’s Habitat Day is ‘A Safe City is a Just City’. Coinciding with this, there will be an International Conference on the State of Safety in World Cities during October 1-5 at Monterrey, Mexico. Representatives of government, local authorities, law enforcers, civil society organisations, including youth organisations, academicians, the private sector, and international organisations will attend the Conference. The participants are to discuss ways of making the world’s cities safer and come up with “an international framework to support cities in their efforts to address urban crime and violence.”

In specific terms, the Conference has a three-pronged agenda. First, it will look at global, national and local trends and aspects of urban governance, planning and management that assist in crime prevention.

Second, it will discuss how urban planning and management can be used in crime and violence prevention, in particular, “the role of the city governments in coordinating local partners, including criminal justice systems and civil society organisations, to develop and implement multi-sectoral local crime prevention strategies.”

And, finally, it is expected that the conference will develop a strategic vision, which integrates crime prevention, urban governance, urban management and urban poverty issues to provide guidance for the future work of UN Habitat and Habitat Agenda partners on how to address crime and insecurity.

In addition, the Conference is expected to come out with “a framework with concrete tools to help cities address crime and insecurity.” If such international attention and help are forthcoming, it will go beyond the usual outcomes of international conferences, namely, tomes of reports that pave the way for more conferences and less action.

(To assist in the Conference Deliberations, the UN Habitat has completed or about to complete a report titled Global Report on Human Settlements 2007: Enhancing Urban Safety and Security.

From the information available so far, it appears that the report has to be bought and is not downloadable for free. This is unfair, especially because the organisation is part of the UN family.)

Despite the hope about a global conclave fighting terror wherever it occurs, a lot must be done at home to ensure freedom from fear.

Freedom from Fear

It is a sad commentary on development if residential communities are not allowed to come up and when they do, not knowing the community in which one lives. If everyone knows everyone else, part of the problem, which is harbouring a terrorist or the indigenous evolution of a terrorist, will disappear.

India has a long way to go to build residential communities which, in essence, provide equality in housing, schooling and health. If we the electorate and our esteemed leaders ignore this vital dimension of ‘development with equality’, then we are collectively committing a blunder and we will be susceptible to insecurity for a long time to come.

We in India have not yet achieved freedom from fear. It is not the philosopher’s fear of the unknown. It is the fear of the known — terror can strike any time, anywhere and anyone could be the target.

Every incident, like the Hyderabad bombings for instance, injects fresh fear in the minds of those who have perhaps just stopped worrying about their city being a target.

(The author is a Visiting Faculty at Sri Sathya Sai University, Prasanthi Nilayam. He can be reached at bhanoji@gmail.com)

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