Acts of terrorism are closely linked to the high worldwide rates of abject poverty, said international human rights lawyer William Pepper told about 40 students and faculty members in the Copley Formal Lounge Tuesday.
According to Pepper, 447 individuals alone control more money than over 2.5 million people and the gap between rich and poor is rapidly increasing daily.
Poorer areas in the Middle East, Pepper said, provide terrorists with a source for future recruits. Impoverished young people, he said, are eager to join organizations that give them a sense of purpose and and security.
“They come from the most despicable poverty and they are given a home,” Pepper said. “They owe everything to that home.”
The Pakistani people have been “robbed and stolen from,” according to Pepper, who serves as legal adviser to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s regime.
Most people in the West can’t adequately comprehend the miserable conditions in which millions of non-Western people live, Pepper said.
“It is very difficult to put yourself in the place of the victim?indeed, almost impossible,” Pepper said.
According to Pepper, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks highlighted the feelings of hatred that millions of people feel toward the West and the United States in particular. Pepper pointed specifically to Osama bin Laden, who publicly declared in October that past Western colonial practices are to blame for his people’s current misery.
“He was giving us the most valuable lesson anyone in this room could ever receive,” Pepper said.
The current U.S. military campaign against Afghanistan might succeed in neutralizing bin Laden and his terrorist network, Pepper said, but it won’t secure the country’s long-term interests in stopping terrorism.
“Are we foolish enough to think that military action is going to stop this forever?” Pepper said.
Pepper called on the United States to do more in reducing worldwide poverty. He also said that the United States should do more to respect the political wishes of non-Western peoples, even if they choose to elect leaders who might oppose U.S. policies.
For all the country’s clamoring about democratic values, Pepper said. “The U.S. historically has preferred to deal with dictators than with democrats.”’
Pepper’s speech was sponsored by the Lecture Fund.
