Anti-terrorism legislation is being used to quash all kinds of political dissent, writes matthew carr |
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Terrorism has always had a morbid tendency to bring the most reactionary instincts of governments to the surface. From the so-called 'anarchist terror' of the 19th century to the 9/11 attacks, states have responded to real or fabricated threats with authoritarian legislation, states of emergency and attacks on civil liberties.
Often, draconian anti-terrorist legislation can mean virtually any form of political protest or dissent is criminalised.
In the 'changed world' of 9/11, these tendencies have been borne out on a global scale. The exceptional procedures introduced by the Bush administration are well known, from the Patriot Act and Guantanamo, to extraordinary rendition.
Less attention has been given to the way numerous governments worldwide have enacted similar emergency measures, using the world's most powerful democracy as a template. In the aftermath of the 9/11 |
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Governments criminalised a new range of political activities as terrorist acts in order to realise long-term agendas
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attacks in 2001, a host of governments across the world rushed through new anti-terrorist legislation, from Britain and Spain to China, Belarus and Uzbekistan.
In few cases was the introduction of new charges or harsher penalties for providing material or rhetorical support for 'terrorist organisations' accompanied by any definition of terrorism. Governments criminalised a new range of political activities as terrorist acts in order to realise long-term political agendas.
In China, the regime used the threat of al-Qaeda to crack down on Uighur separatists in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regions (XUAR), using new post-9/11 legislation that aimed to 'punish terrorist crimes, ensure national security... and uphold social order'.
In El Salvador, the Salvadoran security forces and their paramilitary allies once slaughtered tens of thousands of their political opponents as 'terrorists' and 'subversives' during the country's brutal civil war. Many of these killings were sanctioned and ordered by the Arena party, founded by a psychotic army officer named Roberto d'Aubuisson. Since the 1994 peace accords, 
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