05-12-2006, 06:12 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Violence and Pak image in Afghanistan </b>
FT
Imtiaz Gul
<b>While good will for India is on the rise, Pakistan has a mountain to climb to rehabilitate its image in Afghanistan </b>
Henry Crumpton, the United States counter-terrorism coordinator, delivered more blows to Pak-Afghan relations when he declared on May 6 in Kabul that Pakistan was ânot doing enough in the war on terrorâ. This declaration clearly flew in the face of a statement by Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, who, in a May 2 interview with Asia Society, lauded Pakistanâs role as âa great allyâ in the war on terror.
Crumpton clearly does not think so.
<b>On the other hand, Indiaâs presence in Afghanistan is welcomed and its reconstruction efforts widely acclaimed. However, some Indian commentators have proposed that New Delhi should begin to reach out to the Taliban now; the effort is to be presumably directed towards convincing the Taliban that they should participate in governance rather than allying with Al Qaeda to disrupt the ongoing effort to put the country back on the rails.</b>
Pakistan, of course, continues to draw flak though some like Eikenberry do give credit where it is due. â<b>If you look at Pakistanâs actions over the last several years, Pakistan has arrested and killed more Al Qaeda members than any other country. Pakistan is a great ally in the war on terror,â </b>said Eikenberry, going on to talk about what was being done for Afghanistan and how Pakistan and the US were working together to solve a problem (terrorism) that was creating trouble for all three in equal proportions.
âThere are, first of all, the practical challenges of coordinating and cooperating our activities in what is geographically a very challenging area. This includes eastern, southern and southeastern Afghanistan and corresponding border areas of Pakistan. This is a tough terrain to operate in,â Eikenberry said of the degree of difficulty in cleansing the area.
A visit to the 10,380-foot high Kundi Ghar in the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan confirms Eikenberryâs observation about the physical challenge the area poses. Winding valleys, forested mountain peaks and passes are all but some of the natural obstacles that security forces have to negotiate in their hunt for the elusive Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.
âKeeping troops deployed and maintaining posts at such inaccessible altitudes is a formidable challenge. Pakistan is doing exactly that but is still coming under fire from certain US lobbies who continue to downplay its efforts,â said an observer.
A look at what Pakistan has done in and for Afghanistan since the Tokyo conference in January 2002 is revealing. Islamabad has spent about US$167 million on a variety of projects, donated about 200 trucks, 45 ambulances and 10 buses to the Universities of Kabul and Nangarhar as well as 34 computers to the Afghan government. The 75-kilometre-long Torkham Jalalabad highway, destroyed by incessant warfare, is also close to completion.
A 150-bed hospital and thalassemia centre in Kabul, a 100-bed hospital in Logar province and a complete academic block at the Kabul University and the Rehman Baba High School are other features of the reconstruction package Pakistan has offered. Islamabad also awaits the final nod from Afghan authorities for the construction of the 107-kilometre Chaman-Kandahar railway line which, it is hoped, will boost trade and communication with Iran and, also, Turkmenistan.
<b>Archrival India is also omnipresent in Afghanistan. With consulates in Jalalabad, Kanadhar, Herâat and Mazar-i-Sharif, India has reportedly established other representative missions also to facilitate Indian private and state-sector companies involved in reconstruction. This involvement spans from school and hospital buildings to road construction and telecommunication works, all funded by the Indian government. India is also constructing the new Parliament House near the Kabul museum, which will most probably crown Indian efforts to regain a foothold in Afghanistan.
Sources in the Ministry of Information say besides providing satellite transponders to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defence as well as Afghan Radio & TV (RTA), the Indian government has now provided 24 channels and one of its satellites to enable RTA to beam its radio and TV stations to a maximum number of Afghan provinces.</b>
While participation in reconstruction efforts offers its dividends to both countries, during a recent international conference on the role of neighbouring countries in the reconstruction and security of Afghanistan, it was made abundantly clear that while good will for India is on the rise, Pakistan has a mountain to climb to rehabilitate its image in Afghanistan.
In fact, Pakistan-bashing is a favourite pastime of several Afghan leaders and the intelligentsia. Even during the conference, organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Hans Seidel Foundation (HSF), Pakistan drew quite a bit of flak from people in high places.
The diatribe began, for instance, with Minister for Defence General Abdul Rahim Wardak. He did not name Pakistan but made it clear who he was hitting out at. âOur enemy continues to receive recruits and resources from outside the country and retains the ability to disrupt daily life and inflict casualties on soft targets,â Wardak said. âWe know our country had been turned into the centre of international terrorism but the Afghan government and people are determined not to allow this to go on,â he added.
A young officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yasin Rasooli, also sounded venomous when talking about the Taliban and Al Qaeda in his presentation about the security situation in Afghanistan. âThe Taliban have their ideological base in Pakistan,â he said, later referring to the Durand Line as an âartificial borderâ. Rasooli said that Pakistan was still providing the Taliban with sanctuaries and other help to disrupt the rebuilding process in Afghanistan. His presentation was quite upsetting for its semantics and sounded like a public indictment of Pakistan.
An MP from Khost province, Haji Sabir Hussain, was equally critical of Pakistanâs alleged involvement with the Taliban. âWhy donât you [Pakistanis] shut down training camps in Quetta,â he asked with reference to Pashtunabad settlement in Quetta, which houses mostly Afghans.
Away from the conference venue, private and official TV and Radio stations daily churn out information on reported arrests and killings of Pakistan-backed insurgents near the border regions. âPakistan seems to be in a tight spot. Official as well as common Afghans fail to distinguish between what individual pro-Taliban elements are doing in the border regions and what the Pakistani government is doing to stem the flow and activities of these militants,â said an observer.
Pakistani diplomats say Afghan officials who are constantly bashing Pakistan are doing so under external pressure and influence. One such official also said that several ex-Mujahideen leaders are now either part of parliament and the government or are opposition MPs. A majority of them is angry at Pakistan âfor abandoning themâ.
In the past, a number of Afghan leaders have benefited from Pakistanâs largesse, particularly from the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan up until 9/11. However, Pakistan has been most ruthlessly criticised only after the Taliban defeat.
âApparently, the new situation seems to have put Pakistan on the defensive and we now see it going from the pro-active approach before 9/11 to a reactive one based on what Kabul needs and demands as far as reconstruction and trade is concerned,â said an observer.
Development consultants say that for political and trade relations to grow, the anti-Pakistan rhetoric has to give way to friendly, accommodating and forward-looking gestures. âSimply blaming internal problems on external factors will not help in the reconstruction of this country,â said one consultant currently working on security issues.
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FT
Imtiaz Gul
<b>While good will for India is on the rise, Pakistan has a mountain to climb to rehabilitate its image in Afghanistan </b>
Henry Crumpton, the United States counter-terrorism coordinator, delivered more blows to Pak-Afghan relations when he declared on May 6 in Kabul that Pakistan was ânot doing enough in the war on terrorâ. This declaration clearly flew in the face of a statement by Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, who, in a May 2 interview with Asia Society, lauded Pakistanâs role as âa great allyâ in the war on terror.
Crumpton clearly does not think so.
<b>On the other hand, Indiaâs presence in Afghanistan is welcomed and its reconstruction efforts widely acclaimed. However, some Indian commentators have proposed that New Delhi should begin to reach out to the Taliban now; the effort is to be presumably directed towards convincing the Taliban that they should participate in governance rather than allying with Al Qaeda to disrupt the ongoing effort to put the country back on the rails.</b>
Pakistan, of course, continues to draw flak though some like Eikenberry do give credit where it is due. â<b>If you look at Pakistanâs actions over the last several years, Pakistan has arrested and killed more Al Qaeda members than any other country. Pakistan is a great ally in the war on terror,â </b>said Eikenberry, going on to talk about what was being done for Afghanistan and how Pakistan and the US were working together to solve a problem (terrorism) that was creating trouble for all three in equal proportions.
âThere are, first of all, the practical challenges of coordinating and cooperating our activities in what is geographically a very challenging area. This includes eastern, southern and southeastern Afghanistan and corresponding border areas of Pakistan. This is a tough terrain to operate in,â Eikenberry said of the degree of difficulty in cleansing the area.
A visit to the 10,380-foot high Kundi Ghar in the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan confirms Eikenberryâs observation about the physical challenge the area poses. Winding valleys, forested mountain peaks and passes are all but some of the natural obstacles that security forces have to negotiate in their hunt for the elusive Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.
âKeeping troops deployed and maintaining posts at such inaccessible altitudes is a formidable challenge. Pakistan is doing exactly that but is still coming under fire from certain US lobbies who continue to downplay its efforts,â said an observer.
A look at what Pakistan has done in and for Afghanistan since the Tokyo conference in January 2002 is revealing. Islamabad has spent about US$167 million on a variety of projects, donated about 200 trucks, 45 ambulances and 10 buses to the Universities of Kabul and Nangarhar as well as 34 computers to the Afghan government. The 75-kilometre-long Torkham Jalalabad highway, destroyed by incessant warfare, is also close to completion.
A 150-bed hospital and thalassemia centre in Kabul, a 100-bed hospital in Logar province and a complete academic block at the Kabul University and the Rehman Baba High School are other features of the reconstruction package Pakistan has offered. Islamabad also awaits the final nod from Afghan authorities for the construction of the 107-kilometre Chaman-Kandahar railway line which, it is hoped, will boost trade and communication with Iran and, also, Turkmenistan.
<b>Archrival India is also omnipresent in Afghanistan. With consulates in Jalalabad, Kanadhar, Herâat and Mazar-i-Sharif, India has reportedly established other representative missions also to facilitate Indian private and state-sector companies involved in reconstruction. This involvement spans from school and hospital buildings to road construction and telecommunication works, all funded by the Indian government. India is also constructing the new Parliament House near the Kabul museum, which will most probably crown Indian efforts to regain a foothold in Afghanistan.
Sources in the Ministry of Information say besides providing satellite transponders to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defence as well as Afghan Radio & TV (RTA), the Indian government has now provided 24 channels and one of its satellites to enable RTA to beam its radio and TV stations to a maximum number of Afghan provinces.</b>
While participation in reconstruction efforts offers its dividends to both countries, during a recent international conference on the role of neighbouring countries in the reconstruction and security of Afghanistan, it was made abundantly clear that while good will for India is on the rise, Pakistan has a mountain to climb to rehabilitate its image in Afghanistan.
In fact, Pakistan-bashing is a favourite pastime of several Afghan leaders and the intelligentsia. Even during the conference, organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Hans Seidel Foundation (HSF), Pakistan drew quite a bit of flak from people in high places.
The diatribe began, for instance, with Minister for Defence General Abdul Rahim Wardak. He did not name Pakistan but made it clear who he was hitting out at. âOur enemy continues to receive recruits and resources from outside the country and retains the ability to disrupt daily life and inflict casualties on soft targets,â Wardak said. âWe know our country had been turned into the centre of international terrorism but the Afghan government and people are determined not to allow this to go on,â he added.
A young officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yasin Rasooli, also sounded venomous when talking about the Taliban and Al Qaeda in his presentation about the security situation in Afghanistan. âThe Taliban have their ideological base in Pakistan,â he said, later referring to the Durand Line as an âartificial borderâ. Rasooli said that Pakistan was still providing the Taliban with sanctuaries and other help to disrupt the rebuilding process in Afghanistan. His presentation was quite upsetting for its semantics and sounded like a public indictment of Pakistan.
An MP from Khost province, Haji Sabir Hussain, was equally critical of Pakistanâs alleged involvement with the Taliban. âWhy donât you [Pakistanis] shut down training camps in Quetta,â he asked with reference to Pashtunabad settlement in Quetta, which houses mostly Afghans.
Away from the conference venue, private and official TV and Radio stations daily churn out information on reported arrests and killings of Pakistan-backed insurgents near the border regions. âPakistan seems to be in a tight spot. Official as well as common Afghans fail to distinguish between what individual pro-Taliban elements are doing in the border regions and what the Pakistani government is doing to stem the flow and activities of these militants,â said an observer.
Pakistani diplomats say Afghan officials who are constantly bashing Pakistan are doing so under external pressure and influence. One such official also said that several ex-Mujahideen leaders are now either part of parliament and the government or are opposition MPs. A majority of them is angry at Pakistan âfor abandoning themâ.
In the past, a number of Afghan leaders have benefited from Pakistanâs largesse, particularly from the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan up until 9/11. However, Pakistan has been most ruthlessly criticised only after the Taliban defeat.
âApparently, the new situation seems to have put Pakistan on the defensive and we now see it going from the pro-active approach before 9/11 to a reactive one based on what Kabul needs and demands as far as reconstruction and trade is concerned,â said an observer.
Development consultants say that for political and trade relations to grow, the anti-Pakistan rhetoric has to give way to friendly, accommodating and forward-looking gestures. âSimply blaming internal problems on external factors will not help in the reconstruction of this country,â said one consultant currently working on security issues.
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