Author: ANI
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: May 26, 2006
URL: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/us-must-stop-aid-to-pak-expert/11513-2-1.html
Noted American expert on South Asian Affairs,
Selig Harrison, has urged the Bush Administration to withhold US aid to Islamabad
until Pakistan ceases military activity in Baluchistan.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the US
Institute of Peace, Harrison, who is the director of the Asia Program at the
Center for International Policy, said, "In my view, future US military
and economic aid to Islamabad should be withheld until Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf stops his military repression of Baluchistan and enters into
serious negotiations with Baluch leaders."
Harrison added "Pakistan is likely to
become increasingly ungovernable in the absence of a political settlement
with the Baluch."
He warned that continued military confrontation
in Baluchistan could well intensify the long-simmering ethnic unrest in neighbouring
Sindh and involving a variety of anti-Musharraf groups around Pakistan.
But despite the serious international implications
the Baluch issue has not found mainstream attention in Washington.
Harrison blamed the lukewarm response to the
near isolation of the region, particularly by the military, which has led
to a huge sense of ambiguity about Baluchistan.
Harrison said with conflicting reports and
disputed claims of chemical weapons and rights abuses, it's tough to know
exactly what's going on.
"This time it is harder to pin down the
facts. We know that Pakistan still gets Sui gas from Baluchistan to meet 22
per cent of its gas needs. We know that the central government has consistently
refused to pay fair royalties for that gas to Baluchistan for its development."
"But just what is happening militarily
right now in Pakistan and Baluchistan is really not clear, because the army
itself doesn't even officially acknowledge that there is an operation in Baluchistan
and hasn't admitted that and so its been able to keep most journalists out,"
he said.
But Harrison is convinced it is a policy the
US needs to change as a stable Pakistan was in Washington's strategic interests,
particularly with respect to its war on terror.
"This policy in my view should be reversed,
not only to stop the carnage, but also because the US has a major strategic
stake in a peaceful accommodation between Islamabad and Baluch leaders,"
Harrison said.
Frederic Grare, an expert attached with the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace further said the issue could become
a cauldron of fresh tension with neighbour Afghanistan, which has been at
a bitter war of words with Musharraf over the rebel issue.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan
deteriorated sharply this year after Afghanistan said Taliban insurgents were
able to operate from the safety of Pakistani soil.
Many Afghans blame Pakistan for supporting
the Taliban and turning a blind eye to Taliban operating from Pakistan lawless
border regions.
Pakistan, which is battling Taliban and al-Qaeda
linked militants on its side of the border, denies helping the Taliban.
"A number of people refuse to see the
reality of the problem and this is much more important than any foreign intervention
per se. You know the risk...of mutual recrimination between Afghanistan on
one side, Pakistan on the other, because of this Baluch issue may eventually
degenerate and clearly it will be an additional incentive for the two countries
to continue this war of words and again, we know where we are now, we don't
know where we will be in some time to come, so this is definitely something
I would not take lightly," Grare said.
Many of the tribals in the area have taken
up militancy and have been fighting for more autonomy and control over Baluchistan
oil and gas resources for decades but they intensified their campaign over
the past year.
In a taped message senator Sanaullah Baluch,
a top leader of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), said the message was
clear that his people must have the ownership of their homeland.
"There is a clear demand from the Baluch
intelligentsia, Baluch politicians, Baluch political workers that the international
boundaries created between Baluchistan, that divide Baluchistan should be
softened and the people of Baluchistan be allowed to govern their territory
and their regions and their state declared as a non-nuclear region, a de-militarized
region and the ownership of the resources of the region should be accepted
for the people of Baluchistan," he said.
The Pakistani military launched a major crackdown
against militants in Baluchistan after a rocket attack on December 14 during
a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to the town of Kohlu.
Baluch nationalists say almost 200 people
have been killed. The government has not commented on casualties but analysts
say the militants' figure could be exaggerated.
The crackdown has coincided with the announcement
of plans to privatise two gas distribution firms in Baluchistan, which is
home to Pakistan's main gas fields.
Pakistan's top rights group as well has slammed
Musharraf's regime over the "war-like situation" prevailing in the
region.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
last month rejected government claims that it was not using regular armed
forces in a crackdown in the southwestern province launched last month after
rocket attacks by tribal militants.
The group said it had "received evidence
that action by armed forces had led to deaths and injuries among civilians"
and that "populations had also been subjected to indiscriminate bombing".
The HRCP team has also found widespread instances
of 'disappearance', of torture inflicted on people held in custody, and on
those fleeing from their houses.
