| 26 June 2004 | Saturday | 07 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Combating drug addiction
Lawlessness in Lyari
Will the transfer of power to Iraq's provisional government take place next week? As the fateful day - June 30 - approaches, violence escalates. On Thursday, 100 people lost their lives as resistance groups struck across the country. The worst attack was in Mosul, where an explosion triggered by a suicide car-bomber killed 44 people. Blasts and attacks also rocked four other cities - Fallujah, Baquba, Ramadi and capital Baghdad.
In all these attacks, police, police recruiting centres and government buildings were targeted. In Ramadi, guerillas attacked the governor's house, while in Baghdad several Iraqi national guardsmen were killed in a car-bomb blast.
Provisional Prime Minister Iyad Allawi blamed "remnants of the ex-regime" for the attacks, but witnesses said the guerillas wore yellow head-bands. This indicated that they were loyal to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian who is believed to have links with Al Qaeda.
The reason behind targeting the police and government buildings is obvious: the Iraqi resistance regards the police and the Iraqi army as collaborators. In fact, the contempt the resistance has for the collaborators is reflected in the statement issued by the Zarqawi group. Claiming responsibility for Thursday's attacks, it spoke of "apostate police agents and spies" who were working for "their American brothers".
Like the now defunct Interim Governing Council, the provisional government too is manned and led by people whom most Iraqis regard as American loyalists. Mr Allawi himself once worked for the CIA and was referred to by Mr Zarqawi as the "Iraqi Karzai." No wonder, hours after the unfortunate beheading of a South Korean, Mr Zarqawi vowed to assassinate Mr Allawi.
With the transfer of power only three days away, the provisional government and the US-led coalition authorities seem to be groping in the dark with regard to the security situation. There is now talk of the Americans and the Allawi government imposing martial law in selected areas prior to the June 30 ceremony.
Martial law may arm the American authorities and the PG with sweeping powers to arrest suspects and search homes, but that is unlikely to have the intended effect and improve the security situation. The guerillas are well-armed and seem in a position to strike at will. As statistics show, this month alone violence left over 300 people dead (including 22 killed in a US attack on a 'safe house' in Fallujah).
The truth is that the transfer of power will at best be a ritual. Beyond that even the most optimistic in the Allawi set-up do not believe that the Provisional Government will be able to give Iraq peace and start a process of the country's reconstruction.
In his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a super neocon, said American troops were likely to stay on in Iraq "for years" pointing to Bosnia where the US troops have been for eight years now.
President George Bush himself said last November that US troops would stay in Iraq until the country was "free and peaceful". Such statements only add to the anger and resentment which large sections of the Iraqi people feel towards America and its polices.
Unless Washington makes a realistic plan for withdrawing the US-led forces, it will find itself trapped deeper and deeper in the Iraqi quagmire. Bypassing the UN for a major role in Iraq has cost America dearly. The only way Iraq can achieve peace and start rebuilding itself is through an election held under the supervision of the world body.
Combating drug addiction
For those among Pakistan's five million or so drug addicts who want to kick the habit, this year's UN-sponsored "International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking" holds a message of hope: that "treatment works".
The UN maintains that drug abusers, at different stages of addiction, can combine or choose from a variety of services - ranging from medication to counselling - that could help them overcome their dependence on narcotics and return to a normal life. For this, however, it is important that they actually have access to these services which should be available all over the country.
This, unfortunately, is not the case in Pakistan where there are insufficient treatment and rehabilitation facilities to cope with the number of drug abusers, that includes 500,000 heroin addicts, in the country. True, some hospitals and clinics are equipped to handle cases of drug addiction, but, compared to the large number of drug abusers, only a few rehabilitation centres exist. This deficiency is in contrast to Pakistan's untiring efforts to curb drug trafficking and to control poppy cultivation within the country, and makes it necessary for the government to create and equip more detoxification and rehabilitation centres before the number of addicts shoots up.
This is particularly important in view of the sharp spurt in opium production in neighbouring Afghanistan, the major source of global drug trafficking today. Given a porous border, its consequences are being felt in Pakistan as the quantity of drugs passing through the country or finding its way to local markets increases.
That is the reason why greater border vigilance and more coordination between Afghan and Pakistani officials to bust the growing narcotic trade is needed. Additionally, there must be relentless pressure from Pakistan on the Afghan government to tackle the lawless warlords that hold sway over large tracts of the country where poppy cultivation is widespread. Unless this is done, there will be little reprieve for Pakistan where the number of addicts will continue to outpace the setting up of new rehabilitation centres.
Lawlessness in Lyari
A reign of terror has been unleashed on Karachi's Lyari Town by warring gangs of hardened criminals, which has resulted in the killing of four people and injuries to many others over the last three days. Turf wars and armed clashes among gangs and drug peddlers have claimed more than 50 lives since the beginning of the year, making Lyari a dreaded, forsaken place. No other locality of Karachi is home to so many criminal elements, drug addicts as well as a plethora of civic and social problems as the city's oldest quarter.
Besides having a high crime rate, Lyari faces acute water shortages, a near total lack of sanitation facilities and prolonged power failures. Illegal construction and unlawful occupation of buildings by the land/drug mafia and a road system that exists only in name have compounded these problems. Lack of open spaces, recreational facilities, and the presence of several hundred warehouses and factories storing and manufacturing hazardous materials have condemned Lyari's one million residents to living under extremely unsafe and stifling conditions.
This pathetic state of affairs has come about as a result of continued apathy on the part of the relevant authorities and the civic agencies. The Lyari Town administration, which took charge of the 11 union councils in its jurisdiction following local-body elections in 2001, has been totally ineffective in tackling the many civic and social problems.
The last thing the residents there needed was armed gangs indulging in gun battles and going around firing indiscriminately, killing and maiming innocent people.
It is time the city Nazim took note of the serious lawlessness in Lyari and deployed additional law enforcement personnel to crush the immediate threat posed to public life and property by the warring gangs. An all-out campaign against such elements is called for.