A piece written by an outsider/insider:
Other People's Wars
by Sajha Pun (pen name)
2 September 2004
When a bomb went off in Kabul on 29 August, at least 10 people were killed. Among the dead were three Americans, two Afghans, and three Nepalis. One may expect Afghans to be in Afghanistan. One may also expect Americans to be there, considering that the U.S. launched the war. Why would three Nepali men be in Kabul, and why would they be a target of a bomb attack by Afghan militants?
Nepal was racked by grief on August 31 and then convulsed in communal violence on September 1, after the gruesome murders of 12 Nepali hostages in Iraq. What common factors lie behind both of these horrible incidents? I would like to present some thoughts. Call them perspectives from an outsider.
"Other people" have no names
The New York Times reported on 31 August:
"KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 30 - Security was tightened across Kabul on Monday in the wake of a vehicle bomb on Sunday that killed three Americans working for an American contractor and at least four other people."
At least four "other people"...
The story goes on to list the names, ages, and hometowns of the three U.S. citizens who were killed. But the story is not even clear whether one or three Nepali people were killed. Certainly there are no names, ages, or hometowns. The story reads, "The office of President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that three Nepalis had been killed, but that could not be confirmed. American officials said Monday that a British citizen had been critically injured."
At least two Nepalis were also critically injured. This is also not mentioned in the story.
The New York Times reported on 1 September 2004: "BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 31 - In the single largest set of executions of foreign captives by Iraqi insurgents, an Islamic militant group announced on Tuesday that it had killed 12 Nepalese hostages."
Strangely, the New York Times story on the 12 Nepali hostages who were killed gives the name of only one of the hostages, Ramesh Khadka. Yet the same story mentions the names of the U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg, the Italian hostage, Enzo Baldoni, and the two French hostages, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot.
What does this say? Is it simply that 12 names are too many to print in the New York Times, but one or two can be printed? Or is it possible that somehow the names of Nepali people are less important to the western audience addressed by the New York Times? The names certainly were not to difficult to find out.
The U.S. armed forces do not even attempt to confirm numbers of, let alone name, innocent victims of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. press does little better. Those people from certain "other" countries who are involved in the war by economic necessity do not typically merit the dignity of being named even in their death.
Names are important. They keep us from viewing people as members of categories, as members of some group of "others" far on the horizon. The first step in dehumanizing any person or group is to strip them of their names.
