By Steve Hynd
In the midst of a military assault on the South Waziristan territory of the TTP-aligned Mehsud clan and a series of panic-inducing terrorist attacks across the country, Pakistan appears to be reaching for that old standard response to fear - hate of "the other".
I've already written about how the South Waziristan operation is using indiscriminate shelling and a deliberate failure to provide adequate refugee aid as collective punishment of the Mehsud tribe. But that follows on from an order by the region's political agent that Mehsud tribespeople be arrested and their property confiscated anywhere in the country. The order is being challenged as unlawful, but is a clear indication of an attampt to demonize and persecute the tribe as a whole for the sins of its members in the TTP.
Now, Dawn reports, the Pakistani government has decided to brand Afghans as "the other" too.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has issued a 72-hour notice for illegal Afghans living in Islamabad to leave the capital.
The interior minister issued the ultimatum following today�s militant attack on a senior military official in Sector G11, a residential area that is located near an illegal Afghan settlement.
Rehman Malik has also ordered a door-to-door search in five major sectors of the capital, including G9, G10 and G11. The objective of this search is to hunt down illegal Afghans and terrorists.
Hundreds of "suspects" have already been arrested in Pakistan in recent weeks - and many if not most are either Afghan or members of the Mehsud tribe and thus Pashtun.
This cannot end well. As history attests, collective blaming of any minority leads to atrocities. In Pakistan's case, it will also lead to further ethnic fracturing of the state and even more terrorism.
Update: Amnesty International has issued a plea for the Pakistani military to stop its harassment of civilians from the Mehsud tribe.
"Mehsud tribespeople, including women and children, are being punished on the roads as they flee simply because they belong to the wrong tribe," said Sam Zarifi, director of Amnesty International�s Asia-Pacific programme. "This could amount to collective punishment, which is absolutely prohibited under international law."
One Mehsud man outside the town of Tank told Amnesty International that he had left his home with his family after army bombing of his area last week.
His family was part of a group of five families, constituting about 20 men, 15 children and 17-18 women with their luggage, who were travelling on donkeys. They were trying to get to their relatives in Tank but were afraid of the army because of the restrictions imposed on Mehsud tribespeople using the road.
The man told Amnesty International:
�We are not allowed to use the roads, the army does not allow any Mehsud to come to the road and use it�When we left our homes we took some food which we used the first two days and after that we had nothing at all and what ever was left we gave to the children, we only drank some tea and water. We had to spend the nights under the open sky. As we were not allowed to use the road we had to walk in the mountains�we lost our way twice.�
�When we reached Murtuza area we hired a pickup and wanted to go by road as the women and kids were very tired and it was very difficult for them to walk any more, but when we reached near Korr there was an army check post where we were stopped by the army soldiers. They asked us why we were on the road, and said that Mehsuds are not allowed on the road. They made us walk back and away from the road, they also abused the driver, who was not a Mehsud but was from the Marwat tribe. He was first beaten by the soldiers and then they told him not to drive anyone from Mehsud tribe.�
�The Pakistani government must immediately investigate this targeting of members of the Mehsud tribe by the army and put an end to it. The group has already suffered years of fear and oppression under Taleban control in their region � the government should help to find a path for them to safety and a solution to their problems � not exacerbate them,� said Sam Zarifi.
It seems the FBI's investment is paying off in particularly stupid ways. One of the US initiatives after 9/11 was significant support of a computerized national identification program which goes under the name of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). Unlike most of the Pakistani government NADRA operates with surprising efficiency and claims to have registered close to a 100 million people. In Pakistani cities the level of registration is particularly high because you need the computerized identification card in order to get basic services like telephone and electricity. Without these ID cards figuring out which Pashtun is Afghan and which is Pakistani would have been difficult and this disastrous policy would have been impossible.
ReplyDeleteWhile NADRA may make it technically feasible to separate out Afghans in the population, practically speaking this is a truly moronic enterprise. The different response of the provinces to the refugees from Swat was already causing grumblings among the Pashtuns. This will only exacerbate the situation. There are significant Pashtun populations in all of Pakistan's major cities and this crackdown will significantly raise hostility levels between the Pashtun populations and the "locals." Just a short while ago there was almost open warfare in the biggest city in Pakistan, Karachi, between Pashtun's and other ethnic groups. I can just imagine the response of the Pashtuns if the police in Karachi started checking ID cards of Pashtuns.
Musharraf may have been awful in many ways but Zardari and his thugs are a disaster. This particular policy seems like it came out of some US think tank which Zardari is then carrying out. I can't imagine anyone who knows anything about local conditions would have prepared this.