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| India-Pakistan |
| Falsehoods about Waziristan |
| 2006-04-09 |
| The government’s policy to cleanse the tribal agencies, especially South and North Waziristan, of hardened extremist Taliban and Al Qaeda elements has drawn increasing flak from various quarters. The political opposition, including the religio-political alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, says the policy is being pursued under pressure from the United States. The MMA also says there are no foreign elements in the area and the security forces are killing Pakistani tribesmen. On the other hand, non-religious and even some liberal elements want the government to remove the blanket cover on the region. They also want the violence to end and advocate a political dialogue with the leaders of the local people. For good measure the issue of reforms is also brought up time and again. The media, while reporting on incidents of violence and other newsworthy developments, is largely at sea when commenting on the situation. This is partially because there is not much access to the area and partially because large sections of the media are not convinced of the appropriateness of the current policy. This also comes through in talk shows and other programmes on TV. What is the truth? Let’s take the issue of foreigners in the area. The MMA and other political elements simply lie when they deny the presence of foreign elements in the tribal agencies. Three years of arrests of various Al Qaeda elements from NWFP, Punjab and Sindh should be enough proof of how many of them were around and how many may be still hiding. The army and paramilitary troops have killed dozens in various encounters. Intelligence reports show their presence, as do the accounts of those who have been to the area. General Pervez Musharraf has admitted to foreign presence on many occasions. It is also corroborated by statements of political and assistant political agents and other administration officials. There is no use denying a fact as glaring as that. As for a political dialogue, again, the truth is that the government has made numerous efforts to engage the local people, tried to cut deals with them, even looked the other way when they have acted in bad faith. But the Taliban penetration in the area is too deep and nothing has really worked. The MMA has played the worst part in the whole affair: its members have resorted to petty and self-serving tactics. While ostensibly allowing the federal troops to operate in the area — to save the provincial government — the MMA has done everything on the ground to trouble and harass the federal government. The reason is simple: it has sympathy for the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements and it wants to retain the profitable status quo in the region. This has forced it into double-speak and double-dealing. Therefore the MMA is not the military’s partner when it comes to dealing with the tribal agencies because it is part of the problem. Thus while dialogue is important and the government must never fear to talk and negotiate, it is counterproductive to talk and negotiate with terrorists out of fear. And, given the situation, the space for a dialogue is increasingly shrinking. Have local people died in the clashes? Yes, they have. But such deaths need to be put in context. Most tribesmen are sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and are anti-army. All are armed. It is extremely difficult for the army to know exactly who is who when it is fired upon. These people do not wear uniforms and they cannot be identified. It is very easy to criticise the army from afar but those who have any experience of such operations know how difficult it is to control “collateral damage” in such situations. This is why the government has now directed in some areas within the region that people should not bear arms — a policy that is being criticised by some people on the pretext that the NWFP has an entrenched gun culture. The argument that the government should not indulge in violence and the people must not be deprived of their arms because bearing arms is their tradition is ridiculous. This is what Maulana Abdur Rehman, general secretary of JUI-Fazl in North Waziristan told a jirga in Mir Ali on Friday. This is also the misplaced line taken by various commentators when they talk about engaging the tribesmen through traditional channels. Well, the fact is that the government has tried to engage them through jirgas but nothing much has come out of it. This has reached the point where pro-Taliban local tribesmen have started demanding that the army should withdraw from North Waziristan. These are the same elements that, sometime ago, directed the prayer leaders in the two agencies to enforce the literalist brand of Islam favoured by the Taliban. Now they are clamouring against the army’s presence in the area because they cannot move and operate freely with the army around. It is ironic that they are being supported by the moderate political opposition which wants to put the squeeze on General Musharraf for other reasons. Those who are still not convinced of what the troublemakers are doing would do well to note a statement by tribal militant commander Baitullah Mehsud who said that those killed on Wednesday were “mujahideen” returning from “operations in Afghanistan”. Mr Mehsud has also demanded that the army should withdraw from Waziristan. “It is part of our deal with the government that forces will be withdrawn,” he told the media from an undisclosed location. This should be enough proof that those who want the status quo and those who want to trouble the government are not ready to listen to reason. The war against terrorism is Pakistan’s war first and then America’s war. |
| Posted by:ryuge |