9 Nationalism and Secession
Introduction
In most regions of the Third World there are political movements campaigning,
in many cases through armed struggle, for political self-determination on
behalf of minority groups. In the Western Sahara, Polisario fights for libera-
tion from Morocco. In Western Somalia the Liberation Front aims to restore
the Ethiopian Ogaden to Somalia. The Kurds of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria
seek an independent and united Kurdistan. The National Resistance Council
in Iran aims to establish an autonomous Baluchistan. In India there are
movements for autonomy among the Sikhs, Nagas, Mizos and Tripuras as
well as in Kashmir. The Shanti Bahini of Bangladesh seek autonomy for the
Chittagong tribes. In Burma the programme of the Federal National
Democratic Front includes a federal union based on self-determination for
the Shan, Karen, Mon, Arakan, and Kachin peoples. The Tamil minority in
Sri Lanka have been waging civil war with the objective of forming a sepa-
rate state in the north of the island. Indonesia has movements struggling for
independence in West Papua and Acheh. In the Philippines the Moro
National Liberation Front seeks independence of the Muslim Moros in the
south. There has been a strong ethnic revival since 1960 and a corresponding
growth of interest among social scientists (Brown, 1989, p. 1).
Such organizations should be distinguished from revolutionary move-
ments seeking to overthrow the incumbent regime. Secessionist movements
do not want to overthrow national governments: they want to withdraw from
their jurisdiction. This, from the perspective of the centre, may appear very
revolutionary; and the movement itself may have a revolutionary agenda in
addition to independence, though this is not inevitable. Only in Latin
America are revolutionary movements almost exclusively concerned with a
different kind of independence – that of a whole country from repression by
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