The reason for the conflict? “Who stands on the bridge?”
This day, 32 years ago
3rd January 1994
#memoriesfromdiaries
“The air smelled of sulfur” | “The sky was always gray with smoke.”
“unnecessary secrecy” | “criminal insurgency”
Well, eminent journalists like M. V. Kamath would have us believe that, today’s newspapers are the “first rough draft of history.”
That means, when a newsworthy event happens today, it is news that provides the raw data for tomorrow’s history. Days or months later, they become documents or primary sources for future historians, literarians or creative artists, who would want to look at the newspapers we read today to understand the defining ‘mood’ of our times, when they jot down their own perspectives to the event.
Five such newsworthy items donned the day’s newspapers on this particular day, which later went on to become such powerful documents – as novels, movies and as memoirs.
The first one is on the eagerly awaited Indo-Pak Talks. The entire world was looking with bated breath at the upcoming Indo-Pak Talks, that was scheduled to happen after a long time - in over 15 months, between Indian Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shaharyar Khan.
Secondly, rockets kept exploding in Kabul.
The rockets exploding in Kabul on 2nd January 1994, were part of the military offensive that escalated the Afghan Civil War. Just on New Year’s Day 1994, a sudden coup attempt was made against the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his military commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud.
This January 1994 offensive eventually paved the way for the rise of the Taliban, who gained popularity later that year!
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns covers the 1994 incident in a very realistic manner.
The protagonist, Laila’s house is hit by a rocket, killing her parents instantly. This reflects the reality of January 1994, when indiscriminate rocket fire from the hills around Kabul (fired by Hekmatyar’s forces) levelled residential neighbourhoods like hers.
Reproducing
that particular episode from Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns that’s
now become part of a memorable literary archive –
EARLY THE FOLLOWING YEAR, in January 1994, Dostum did switch sides. He joined Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and took up position near Bala Hissar, the old citadel walls that loomed over the city from the Koh-eShirdawaza mountains.
Together, they fired on Massoud and Rabbani forces at the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace.
From either side of the Kabul River, they released rounds of artillery at each other. The streets became littered with bodies, glass, and crumpled chunks of metal.
There was looting, murder, and, increasingly, rape, which was used to intimidate civilians and reward militiamen. Mariam heard of women who were killing themselves out of fear of being raped, and of men who, in the name of honor, would kill their wives or daughters if they’d been raped by the militia.
Aziza shrieked at the thumping of mortars. To distract her, Mariam arranged grains of rice on the floor, in the shape of a house or a rooster or a star, and let Aziza scatter them. She drew elephants for Aziza the way Jalil had shown her, in one stroke, without ever lifting the tip of the pen.
Rasheed said civilians were getting killed daily, by the dozens. Hospitals and stores holding medical supplies were getting shelled.
Vehicles carrying emergency food supplies were being barred from entering the city, he said, raided, shot at.
Mariam wondered if there was fighting like this in Herat too, and, if so, how Mullah Faizullah was coping, if he was still alive, and Bibi jo too, with all her sons, brides, and grandchildren. And, of course, Jalil. Was he hiding out, Mariam wondered, as she was? Or had he taken his wives and children and fled the country? She hoped Jalil was somewhere safe, that he’d managed to get away from all of this killing.
For a week, the fighting forced even Rasheed to stay home. He locked the door to the yard, set booby traps, locked the front door too and barricaded it with the couch. He paced the house, smoking, peering out the window, cleaning his gun, loading and loading it again. Twice, he fired his weapon into the street claiming he’d seen someone trying to climb the wall.
“They’re forcing young boys to join,” he said. “The Mujahideen are. In plain daylight, at gunpoint. They drag boys right off the streets. And when soldiers from a rival militia capture these boys, they torture them. I heard they electrocute them—it’s what I heard—that they crush their balls with pliers. They make the boys lead them to their homes. Then they break in, kill their fathers, rape their sisters and mothers.”
Even his Kite Runner captures the horrors of this era. In such vivid detail, he captures the uninterrupted fighting and the rockets raining down on Kabul as the reason why characters like Rahim Khan describe Kabul as a place where “the air smelled of sulfur” and “the sky was always gray with smoke.”
The third important news of the day is, Israeli PM Rabin sets new terms for Talks.
Well, this event is called the infamous and quite funny “bridge dispute” of January 1994! 😊
The duel was centred on the Allenby Bridge (the crossing between the West Bank and Jordan) and the Rafah Crossing (between Gaza and Egypt).
The reason for the conflict? “Who stands on the bridge?” 😊
The Palestinian side under Yasser Arafat insisted that Palestinian police officers must be the ones to greet travellers, stamp passports, and fly the Palestinian flag at the border.
The Israeli demand was equally stern! Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin insisted that Israel must retain “exclusive control” over the international borders.
The argument got down to the level of centimeters and floor plans.
Should the Palestinian booth be in front of the Israeli one or behind it?
Could the Palestinian flag fly at the entrance to the terminal, or only inside the building?
The dispute reached a boiling point on 2nd January 1994, because the December 13th deadline for withdrawal had already been missed.
Rabin’s “new terms” on 2nd January 1994, were meant to convey the message that he was the boss!
Israel would not move a single soldier out of Gaza or Jericho until the “Bridge Protocol” was signed exactly as per his specifications, he roared.
The dispute wasn’t fully resolved until the Cairo Agreement in February 1994. The comprise was that -
Travellers would pass through a Palestinian wing (for the symbol of dignity) and an Israeli wing (for the reality of security).
A Palestinian flag was allowed at the terminal, but Israel would remain the “ultimate authority” at the physical bridge itself.
The movie Oslo starring Andrew Scott dramatises these quirky moments. It features the dinners, the jokes, and the mounting tension of these secret rooms.
The book titled, The Process by Uri Savir, is the ultimate reference book that details these funny yet tense stories!
Fourthly, in Sri Lanka, President D.B. Wijetunge’s words on January 2, 1994, represented a significant hardening of the government’s stance toward the Tamil conflict.
President Wijetunge of Sri Lanka had infamously said that there was no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, only a criminal insurgency led by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)
This hardline stance eventually backfired politically. Later in 1994, the Sri Lankan public voted overwhelmingly for Chandrika Kumaratunga, who promised to reverse Wijetunge’s “new terms” and restart peace talks in earnest.
Fifthly and finally, the 81st Indian Science Congress, that took place in Jaipur, had a lot of shocks and one silverline as their outcome!
General President of the Indian Science Congress, Dr. P.N. Srivastava lambasted the bureaucracy for the “sorry state” of science education.
Planning Commission member M.G.K. Menon accused both the government and scientists of fostering an atmosphere of “unnecessary secrecy” that hindered innovation.
The Prime Minister Mr.
Rao warned that unless Indian scientists improved the quality of basic research
and produced superior, competitive goods, India risked becoming a left out in
the new world order.
While everyone including the Prime Minister was busy attacking and lambasting the state of affairs on the plight of Indian science and research, one particular presentation by a Scientific Advisor to the Defence Ministry sounded very positive.
He was none other than Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – the then Scientific Adivsor to the Defence Ministry. He demonstrated how defence research was being used for the public good.
He also proudly demonstrated it by showcasing artificial limbs and low-cost cardiac pacemakers that had been developed using carbon-fibre technology originally meant for India’s missile programs (like the Agni and Prithvi).
For the first time, in this edition of the Indian Science Congress, a session titled, “Women and Science” was held. However, none of the men took any interest in attending the session, and the session had only women participants.
PS: You may want to read Dr. Abdul Kalam’s Noble & Inspiring Visions for India on our past blogpost HERE.
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