In the name of controlling terrorism, governments around the world are moving at "a frightening pace" to introduce measures that restrict and undermine rights, freedoms and democracy, said a researcher, urging greater vigilance by civil society groups.

Ben Hayes of the UK-based Statewatch, which monitors the state as well as civil liberties, warned that civil society groups should be alert for security-based state controls rather than only protest the military aspects of the global war on terror.

He was among speakers at a workshop held last week during the 5th Asem People's Forum - a biennial gathering of people- and community-based organisations, social movements, trade unions and non-governmental organisations in Asia and Europe.

This alternative Asem attracted 700 participants and journalists from Europe and Asian countries ahead of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) to be held in Hanoi from Oct 8-9.

Resolutions demanding for concrete policy changes at national, regional and international level by the People's Forum will be presented to ministers attending the summit.

Based on observations of domestic policy responses in Europe, Hayes outlined seven security issues themes that have unleashed their own form of terror on citizens - including increased policing, institutionalising anti-Muslim racism, preventive detention, global surveillance and control, and pockets of resistance.

"The whole of London has officially been on 'emergency alert' since Sept 11, 2001 giving extended powers to the police to stop, search and detain people," he told participants.

During widespread demonstrations and direct actions against the invasion of Iraq, for example, anti-terrorism legislation was used for public order and to detain activists.

Repressive measures

Hayes said European governments have introduced new investigative techniques meant to combat terrorism, but which have since been built into routine policing. This has given the military a new role in domestic policing.

"There are plans to fingerprint the whole world, and this is not an exaggeration. A global identification system is being developed partly through the International Civil Aviation Authority, a United Nations body that is setting the standard for biometric technologies," he said.

He said that, in addition to the US, the EU has formally proposed the fingerprinting of all holders of EU passports, residence permits and visas. Asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Europe are already being fingerprinted.

"Biometrics also appear in the clamour for ID cards from many governments around the world, resulting in hundreds of millions of people being biometrically profiled with a wealth of personal information stored in government data bases."

Telecommunication surveillance is another global initiative which has pushed through proposals for mandatory retention of all communications traffic data.

Equating such measures with stronger social control by the state, Hayes said domestic laws are now handing 'emergency powers' to governments over established state, civil administration and economic and social structures.

"In the UK, the unprecedented powers planned in the Civil Contingencies Bill will mean that in times of 'emergency', Parliament will simply bypass by the government, sidelining (that) cornerstone of democracy."

He warned that the state would get more repressive unless citizens embrace civil liberties.

"The next time Europe sees a mass demonstration similar to the global anti-war protests in March last year, the European Union will adopt laws barring cross-border travel," he warned.

"Furthermore, the governments are already looking into microwave crowd control (using microwave energy beams to 'zap' protestors), which may be introduced in Southeast Asia in time to come."

Resentment fuelled

The war on terror, he said, has also re-cast Arabs and Muslims as a 'suspect population', paving the way for a disproportionate use of new police powers against these communities.

As an example, he cited the sharp 285 percent increase in the stop-and-search of Asians in the UK last year.

"This, of course, has the effect of fuelling resentment in already alienated communities. State or 'institutional racism' both promotes and feeds off popular racism," he said, adding that Europe is currently seeing a dramatic shift away from hard-fought multi-culturalism.

Hayes said Canada and Russia have 'interned' people under preventive detention for suspected involvement with terrorists, similar to the 16 people the UK has detained without charge or trial in Belmarsh prison post-Sept 11.

"That's four (US, UK, Canada and Russia) of the G8 countries, the most developed in the world. The US is now lobbying for the introduction of 'pre-terrorist' offences in jurisdictions across the world based on secret intelligence reports," he said.

"And where does some of this intelligence come from? It is from the developments in Guantanamo, Bagram (Afghanistan), Belmarsh and the like, and from co-operation between some of the world's least trusted and most ruthless intelligence agencies."

More than 50 groups and individuals connected with 'terrorism' have been banned by the EU, making it illegal to support any of them.

He said there is no mechanism of appeal for the listed groups, no democratic input in compiling the list and no debate on whether they are in fact terrorists or liberation struggles, legitimate resistance to occupation or state repression.

Hayes also noted the central theme of the EU's development policy - global migration control - where member countries are increasingly preventing migration from the Third World and turning migrants and refugees back home.

Panelist Dr Chandra Muzaffar, president of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Movement for a Just World, said the law and order approach preferred by the state results in the loss of lives and truth.

"In the recent Russian school massacre, the state tried to use maximum terror in the hope that the hostage-takers would cave in. This is the line taken against militants but it didn't work there."

He said in the fight against terrorism, the response of the people and state should be to participate in active non-violence peace or anti-war movements.

"People should oppose injustice but support minimum violence in self-defence. However, there is no way to have a total non-violence situation," added Chandra.
CLAUDIA THEOPHILUS, a malaysiakini journalist, attended the Asem Alternative Summit. Her trip was sponsored by the Transnational Institute, a Netherlands-based organisation for scholar-activists, and the Institute for Popular Democracy, a political research and advocacy institute in the Philippines.