Two baldies and a comb

Over the years, sensible men of foresight held their heads in their hands over the sheer stupidity of this stand-off.

“Talks hit stalemate on Siachen demilitarisation” read a front page headline in this publication on June 1, the day after it had come out with a pretty comprehensive editorial on the ridiculous Siachen issue —of all the glitches between Pakistan and India, by far the most ludicrous.

To quote Stephen Cohen of Brookings, writing on the Siachen Glacier conflict in the Wall Street Journal as long ago as 1999: [It] might be thought of as just another low-intensity border war — were it not being fought between the world’s two newest nuclear powers. This combat over a barren, uninhabited netherworld of questionable strategic value is a forbidding symbol of their lingering irreconcilability. [The Siachen conflict is like] a struggle of two bald men over a comb... [it is] the epitome of the worst aspects of their relationship.”

Over the years, sensible men of foresight have held their heads in their hands over the sheer stupidity of this stand-off. Siachen is known as the ‘Third Pole’ and is the world’s highest glacier outside the North and South Poles — it is the world’s highest battleground.

Surely there is someone on either squabbling side who can indulge in some clear thinking and is endowed with sense enough to recognise the absurdity (as the editorial termed it) of the situation.

Siachen actually means the place of roses (in the Balti language, sia — rose, chen — abundance). How ironic. Thanks to India and Pakistan, it is now a polluted wasteland where thousands of soldiers have existed for decades, more dying from frostbite than from bullets. It is polluted intensely with human waste, medical waste, guns, arms and ammunition, shells, fuel containers and the like. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tons of garbage are dumped into crevasses, which eventually flow into the water supply — from the Nubra River into the Shyok River and in turn into the Indus, upon which millions of Pakistanis depend.

Over the decades, several thinking people from neutral countries have suggested that the glacier be converted into a transboundary peace park. If, miraculously, such an agreement could be arrived at, both Pakistan’s and India’s armies could withdraw without ‘losing face’ (most important in this subcontinent). It would be a tremendous confidence build-up, even affecting the other areas of dispute including the famous, now overplayed, ‘core issue’.

It is a recognised, universal fact that the environment of the world is endangered. Let India and Pakistan, if they have it in them, cease from purposefully destroying the Siachen ecosystem. It is possible, with will and intent — and with the understanding of both sides of the futility of it all, of the massive waste of money and manpower, all literally for nothing, for a stretch of wasteland the possession of which cannot benefit the people of either country. The Siachen ecosystem does not recognise national borders.

The setting up of a Siachen peace park could play a historic role — helping save and protect for future generations, a unique and spectacular ecosystem.

Afterthought: As absurd is the setting up of a commission to find out what is what when it comes to Osama bin Laden and Abbottabad. The leadership is purposefully naive. The truth would be required. Truth is alien to Pakistan — to its politicos and its military. And in this particular case they will not, because they cannot, divulge anything vaguely approaching the truth.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2011.