Terrorism and Armed Resistance

The Philippine Congress just passed the "Human Security Act of 2007", otherwise known as the anti-terrorism bill. According to the Inquirer, it defines terrorism as "those crimes committed with the purpose of sowing and creating widespread and extraordinary fear and panic in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand". Moreover, the report says, the list of crimes includes "piracy in general, mutiny in the high seas, rebellion, coup d’etat, murder, kidnapping, destruction of property through arson, highway robbery, hijacking, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives".

I will not tackle here the government's propensity to use the law to stifle legitimate opposition-- that issue has been adequately argued by many groups. My problem with this law is that it does not distinguish between legitimate acts of war (or insurgency) and terrorism. It does not distinguish between attacks on military or police installations and attacks on civilians.

Now, I'm not advocating the use of arms against the State (I'll tackle that in another post), but I don't agree that all forms of armed resistance should be clumped as terrorism. Under the above definition, the Katipunan was a terrorist group and the Storming of Bastille was a terrorist act.

Here is how I define terrorism: The use of violence on civilian populations or installations for political ends. By civilian, I mean those not directly involved with the State's apparatus for the use of force; i.e., miltary, police, intelligence operatives, defense departments, and top government officials. Thus, Hezbollah offensives on IDF camps are not acts of terrorism, but Katyusha rocket attacks into Haifa are. Israel's boming of Hezbollah camps is not terrorism, but its carpet bombing of Tyre is. NPA attacks on AFP detachments are not terrorist acts, but those on cell sites and passenger buses are. The AFP's shelling of rebel camps is not terrorism, but hamletting of villages is.

Armed resistance, under certain conditions, can be justified; terrorist acts, under any condition, can not.