Pakistan has failed to take effective action against Taliban: ICG
Dated 13/12/2006
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Pakistan's claim of putting the best effort to deny the Taliban safe haven in its land has got a major jolt with the International Crisis Group (ICG) saying that Islamabad's ambivalent approach and failure to take effective action in this regard is destabilising Afghanistan.
The ICG has said in a report that the military operations launched by Pakistan since 2004 in South and North Waziristan Agencies to curb cross-border militancy have failed, largely due to an approach alternating between excessive force and appeasement.
Pakistan's agreements reached with groups in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan have boosted Taliban fighters sheltering in the area, the report says.
"The government reached accords with pro-Taliban militants in April 2004 in South Waziristan and on 5 September 2006 in North Waziristan. These were brokered by the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), the largest component of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the ruling six-party religious alliance in Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and Musharraf's coalition partner in the Balochistan provincial government," says the report.
The ICG further says that following the September accord, the government released militants, returned their weapons, disbanded security check posts and agreed to allow foreign terrorists to stay if they gave up violence.
"While the army has virtually retreated to barracks, this accommodation facilitates the growth of militancy and attacks in Afghanistan by giving pro-Taliban elements a free hand to recruit, train and arm," it says. Taliban and other foreign militants, including al-Qaeda sympathisers, have sheltered since 2001 in Pakistan's Pashtun-majority Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), seven administrative districts bordering on south eastern Afghanistan.
The group says that using the region to regroup, reorganise and rearm, Taliban and other foreign militants are launching increasingly severe cross-border attacks on Afghan and international military personnel, with the support and active involvement of Pakistani militants.
The report goes on to say that badly planned and poorly conducted military operations are also responsible for the rise of militancy in the tribal belt, where the loss of lives and property and displacement of thousands of civilians have alienated the population.
"The state's failure to extend its control over and provide good governance to its citizens in FATA is equally responsible for empowering the radicals," it says, adding that the only sustainable way of dealing with the challenges of militancy, governance and extremism in FATA is through the rule of law and an extension of civil and political rights.
"Instead, the government has reinforced administrative and legal structures that undermine the state and spur anarchy". The ICG has also given out some recommendations to Islamabad such as integrating the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), removing restrictions on political parties in FATA and introduce party-based elections for the provincial and national legislatures, implementation of Article 8 of the constitution, which voids any customs inconsistent with constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, and re-establishment of the writ of the state and counter militancy in the FATA.