Collective Punishment In South Waziristan?

By Steve Hynd

Anyone who cared to look already knew that the Pakistani military doesn't practise anything akin to "population centric counterinsurgency". But their assault on TTP strongholds in South Waziristan seems to be taking matters to a whole new level. A level in which the phrases "collective punishment" and "ethnic cleansing" are beginning to seem apposite.

Exclusive footage from Al Jazeera shows the kind of indiscriminate shelling and bombing going on in South Waziristan.

The Pakistani army has put a total exclusion on foreign journalists and aid organisations entering the combat zone, although Al Jazeera has obviously broken that. In addition, almost all the Pakistani journalists who had been in the area have now left. That has led to a situation where anything could be going on.

The army knows how many men it's lost. Every day it gives new figures for the number of Taliban it claims it's killed. But no-one seems to know how many innocent civilians are being killed in this conflict.

McClatchy also notes reports of indiscriminate attacks on the towns of Makeen, Tiarza and Ladha. Eyewitnesses have spoken of such attacks too.

Kasheed Khan said he carried his 90-year-old mother during a two-day journey out of Makeen, one of the main Taliban hubs. "They were targeting the civilians. I saw it myself. They were hitting vehicles and houses," he said. "They even demolished the main bus stand in Makeen." Now, he said, he was staying in a relative's house along with 50 other people.

"Not a single Taliban has been targeted. It's only the civilians who have been hit," said Marjan, a man with a henna-tinged beard from Tiarza Narai. But when he criticised the Taliban another man sidled alongside him and chastised him for speaking against the Taliban, sparking a row that almost came to blows.

And:

"I decided to leave when my neighbour's house was destroyed by jet fighters," said Rahim Dad Mehsud, a labourer from Tiarza who said he walked three days to leave South Waziristan with 12 relatives.

Mehsud, who comes from the same tribe as Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and whose members are a leading faction in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, said ordinary civilians were the victims of a pointless operation.

"The Taliban cannot be eliminated through a military operation. Both are killing us," he added.

...Shah Barat, a labourer from Ladha, a Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan, told AFP he and 11 relatives took two days to reach Dera Ismail Khan on Saturday, the day the operation began.

He said clashes between security forces had intensified and several houses were destroyed in air strikes, killing mostly women and children.

"Mostly innocent tribesmen, women and children are being killed. The Taliban have their hideouts in the mountains, but mostly houses have been hit in jet strikes," Barat said in Dera Ismail Khan.

And:

�The situation is very bad. Our family and children are in trouble. We were facing bombardment, mortar fire,in the area. All the main roads are closed and the people are coming out from the mountain roads instead,� said Shuger Jan Mehsood one of those on the move.

Outside the conflict zone, refugees are getting the short end of the stick too.

In Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, the two towns on the edge of South Waziristan, some 45,000 people have been registered as displaced in the last few days, adding to around 135,000 who'd registered with the authorities in recent weeks, local officials said.

The refugees are being offered no food, blankets or other aid, however, no camps have been set up for them and resentment against the government and army is growing fast. The government halted aid in September, apparently in an attempt to prevent it from making its way into the hands of the Taliban. People started leaving South Waziristan in June, when the military began aerial attacks.

"Our relatives here may be able to feed us and keep us for a month or two, but what happens after that?" said Mohammad Nawaz, who left the Tiarza area of South Waziristan, a Taliban hotbed, for Dera Ismail Khan. "Before the operation, it was peaceful. We just want peace."

Jalat Khan, a laborer who recently arrived in Dera Ismail Khan from South Waziristan, said, "The Taliban don't say anything to us; they have a problem with the government, not us."

The journey takes three to four days, mostly on foot, with large extended families -- including women, children and the elderly -- climbing over mountains to reach safety. Many complained that they were harassed or robbed by the rival Bhittany tribe as they exited South Waziristan at the town of Tank. Local warlord Turkistan Bhittany is allied with the government against the Taliban.

"It is the government that bombs us, and Bhittany who loot us on our way out," Khan said.

The town of Tank is a major staging point for the Pakistani military's assault, so these robberies are happening under the noses of Pakistani troops who appear to be doing nothing to prevent them.

Mehsud Tribe politicians have complained bitterly about the Pakistani government's indifference. The parallel to other examples of collective punishment is an obvious one and provides a potentially powerful narrative for the militants.

Mehsud politicians, elders and refugees said that they saw no evidence of assistance and accused authorities of punishing their tribe for the crimes of 10,000 militants. Some also warned that the Government�s indifference was pushing civilians into the arms of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Taleban leader. �The Government is dealing with the refugees like the Israelis� attitude to the Palestinians,� said Saleh Shah, a senator from South Waziristan.

Amnesty International has accused the Pakistani government of not doing enough for those displaced by the fighting while the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that as many as 220,000 people may be refugees.

There are few real-world signs that the asault is going as well as the military says it is - the Taliban have retaken the town of Kotkai, for instance. With winter coming in just a few short weeks the fighting looks certain to stretch into months, creating an even worse humanitarian crisis; it looks like the Mehsud tribe's hardships have just begun and that this may be by design on the part of military planners rather than by accident. Certainly, complaints of deliberate victimization begun months ago.