| November 20, 2001 | Tuesday | Ramazan 4, 1422 |
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Pakistanis in Eritrea
Assault on newsman
DESPITE clear signals from the Northern Alliance that it stands for a broad-based government, diplomats seem to be still not clear how precisely to get along with those now in effective control of Kabul. On his return to the Afghan capital on Saturday, Burhanuddin Rabbani denied that the Northern Alliance wanted to monopolize power. In fact, the former president went a step further and said if there was a delay it was because of the UN and “we should not be blamed.” Another misunderstanding has also disappeared: press reports had said that James Dobbins, President Bush’s special envoy, was avoiding a meeting with the Northern leadership. However, on Sunday he met NA Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, and the two seemed to have hit it off well. Often, the Northern Alliance had given an impression as if it wanted a meeting of all Afghan factions to be held in Kabul. Given the fact that it is the NA militia which controls the city, other leaders understandably seem reluctant to gather in the Afghan capital. However, after meeting Dobbins, Abdullah said the Alliance was ready for a conference elsewhere — possibly in Geneva.
While these are all positive signs, reports emanating from Washington seemed to blame the Alliance for the delay in getting the talks moving. As Colin Powell said in a TV interview, “the hold-up” had been caused by the Northern Alliance, while in Rome a spokesman for Zahir Shah blamed the NA leaders for the slowing down of the diplomatic process. The Alliance, he said, had “always set forth excuses” for avoiding the meeting.
Nevertheless, in the very breath that Secretary Powell blamed the Alliance for the “hold-up,” he indicated that the NA leadership had agreed to participate in the UN-brokered talks. This brings us back to the question why the talks are nowhere near a start.
The truth is that the Northern Alliance seems to be giving too much importance to the fact that it is in control of most of Afghanistan. The tottering Taliban rule is now confined to Kandahar and Kunduz, both of which may surrender any moment. This would make the Northern Alliance’s victory complete. What the Alliance, however, forgets is that its infantry could not have won the amazing victories it did without the American aerial strikes. While it is true that the NA forces were also armed by Russia and India, and to a certain extent by Iran, it is the devastating carpet-bombing by B-52 bombers and carrier-based planes that reduced the Taliban defences to rubble. Besides, the NA forces were part of the overall strategic planning by the US-led coalition. On their own, they could not have broken out of the five per cent of the territory they were holding before Nov 7, when the Anglo-American strikes began.
It is time the Alliance was made to realize that it should not attach too much importance to its physical control of most of Afghanistan. As it is, the NA consists of Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras, and conspicuous by their absence are the Pakhtoons, who constitute 40 per cent of the population. Obviously, no Afghan government can work, or be considered a representative of the people, if the Pakhtoons are not there. In fact, ignoring the Taliban government’s obscurantist policies, one of its major weaknesses was its all-Pakhtoon set-up. Surely, in the interests of the Afghan people, nobody would like to repeat such a mistake. There is another danger, too, which should prompt quick negotiations: many non-Taliban Pakhtoon commanders are waiting for the final disappearance of the Taliban regime in east and south-east. In the absence of any agreement on power sharing, they may become autonomous rulers. Kabul, obviously, will not recognize their authority, and this could throw Afghanistan into a new round of civil war.
EIGHT Pakistanis who had gone to Eritrea in 1993 to preach have yet to return home. According to a report, all of them were arrested soon after reaching that East African country, which was in the throes of its independence struggle at that time against neighbouring Ethiopia. Clearly, that was not a good time to go, especially since foreigners are often the first to get caught in such situations. In any case, the eight Pakistanis were immediately arrested on a charge of terrorism and sent to jail. It took four long years before the Pakistan government even got to know that some of its nationals were whiling away their time in jail in Eritrea on a charge that had yet to be proved in a court of law.
Now it turns out that two of these Pakistanis actually died last year in the prison, while the case of the other six has been put on hold indefinitely because, according to an official, the Eritrean government has taken a “tough” stance on the issue. All too often we find that Islamabad tends to overlook the plight of those Pakistanis who might be facing difficult times in foreign lands. Usually, such inaction is justified by officialdom on the grounds that the government does not have the financial or consular resources to be able to do anything substantial in such cases. That is a flimsy excuse. The government should pursue the case of the six remaining Pakistanis in Eritrea with the urgency it deserves and bring them home. The Foreign Office should impress on the Eritrean authorities one obvious truth — eight years in jail for unproven charges is quite a hefty punishment. At the same time, Pakistanis who go abroad should also remember that it helps to abide by the laws of the land they happen to be in.
THE unprovoked physical assault on a Dawn reporter is a reprehensible act deserving condemnation. And condemnation has indeed been duly voiced all around by the journalist community, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and major political parties. The reporter, Faraz Hashmi, was assaulted by an army major in Islamabad following a minor traffic accident. The assault was completely uncalled for, especially when there was no verbal provocation whatsoever on the part of the reporter. In fact, the reporter was merely surveying the damage, which was minor, when the major suddenly dealt him a blow. Faraz fell back and bled from a deep cut below the left eye. The police have so far refused to register an FIR against the major, despite requests to do so backed by medical reports. It is the right of every citizen who has been attacked to lodge a complaint with the police and it is the latter’s duty to act without fear or favour. Unfortunately things normally do not go according to the book. Invariably, citizens find the police reluctant to register FIRs if the guilty party is influential — an army officer in this case. This is highly unprofessional. All the grandoise plans about police reform come to nought when one finds the police unable to perform a simple duty like registering an FIR for an aggrieved citizen.