Violence is overwhelmingly committed by the powerful against the powerless.
No one questions the right of the powerful to be violent; but if the powerless victims of their violence become violent themselves, we hear condemnations of violence and calls to be peaceful.
No. We are peaceful whenever possible, but where there is violence, already there is no peace. There is no peace to disturb or preserve when the bullets are already flying.
All we can do is try to adopt a strategy that will bring about peacefulness as quickly and effectively as possible, and minimize the victimization of our people.
The only way to do that is by imposing consequences on power that they cannot tolerate. They can tolerate violence against the security services. That’s what the security services are there for.
What power cannot tolerate is disruption of their material interests. We have to adopt a strategy based on what will actually achieve results.