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Pakistan's Application of Justice
By Byron A. Ellis – June 22, 2010

According to CNN, Gary Faulkner, a white American detained in Pakistan for hunting bin Laden is on his way back to the United States with no charges filed against him.

Pakistani police reported that Faulkner was armed when he was detained near the border with Afghanistan's Nuristan province.

The five American students of color detained last year in Pakistan, however, are not as fortunate as Mr. Faulkner; they will not be returning home. At the time of their detention, Pakistani authorities said the American students wanted to join militants in Pakistan’s tribal area.

Unlike Mr. Faulkner, the American students were not detained with weapons. So, it must be difficult for their families to reconcile Faulkner’s release and their continued detention in Pakistan.

The different application of “justice” is perhaps due to whom Faulkner and the students intended to harm. Faulkner’s harm was intended for bin Laden; the American students claimed that their intent was to defend Muslim land and their actions could potentially harm members of the international coalition. However, Pakistan is not an official member of the coalition.

Therefore, from the perspective of an outside observer, the application of Pakistani justice would require that Mr. Faulkner remain in detention like the students or like Mr. Faulkner the American students are sent home.

However, if Pakistan sends the students back to the United States, the United States would be forced to imprisoned them and most likely indefinitely. Conversely, it is unlikely that Mr. Faulkner would be detained and imprisoned indefinitely upon his return to the United States.

Thus, the construct of the war on terror is subjective and does not appear to embody procedural justice. Procedural justice would require equal treatment for Mr. Faulkner and the American students.

It is this lack of procedural justice that deepens hostility and prevents peaceful resolution of conflicts. The root cause appears to be the process of human valuation; the sense of superiority and inferiority between conflicting parties, which leads to the unwillingness to listen, to understand and to resolve grievances.

This superior-inferior posture is also manifested in countries that practice ethnic cleansing, such as Israel, Kyrgyzstan and Sudan.

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