Vol. 73/No. 39      October 12, 2009

Women and children residing in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are among the 44 confirmed killed in five U.S. drone strikes this month.

Between 2004 and 2007 there were 10 drone strikes. In 2008 there were 34 such attacks. There are been 40 so far in 2009.

The attacks have been more deadly this year than last, killing about 50 percent more people on average. Throughout 2008 and early January 2009, under the George Bush administration, 36 drone strikes killed at least 295 people. The 38 strikes since then have killed at least 460.

These figures are based on press accounts compiled by the Militant, mostly from Pakistan’s Geo TV online news service. They are usually initial counts, before wounded die and others are unearthed. When articles reported both “official” estimates and the accounts of local residents—which were always higher and tend to include many more civilians—the official figure was used.

While public opinion in Pakistan has largely turned against the Taliban and al-Qaeda over the last year, opposition by Pakistanis to the U.S. attacks is widespread, a reality substantiated by a recent Pew Research Center survey. More than 90 percent surveyed said the drones kill too many civilians. The survey also says that “64% of the public regards the U.S. as an enemy,” a political fact that complicates the Pakistani rulers’ close alliance with Washington.

Islamabad and Washington share intelligence and otherwise collaborate in a joint war against those elements of the Taliban that oppose the Pakistani government. In reward for this cooperation, the Senate approved a $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan September 24.

At the same time, Washington has been pressing Islamabad to broaden its internal war against a wider range of Taliban forces, while rebuffing requests by the Pakistani government to exercise some control over the drones.

Distrust of Washington within sections of the Pakistani government, particularly below the top echelons, has recently been exacerbated by concerns over the U.S. personnel expansion of its 38-acre embassy in Islamabad. Pakistani news accounts have said the expansion will include 1,000 U.S. Marines along with additional spies and that the U.S. military has hired private mercenaries for assassination missions in the country. U.S. officials deny the accounts.

Increased tension has manifest itself recently in the rejection by Pakistani officials of at least 180 U.S. government visa requests, citing “incomplete” applications.  
 
Pakistani army’s war against Taliban
The Taliban are one of the reactionary Islamist military formations the Pakistani government has backed and used in its contest for influence in Afghanistan and to counter struggles by oppressed people within its borders.

But Islamabad lost its ability to control much of the Taliban after pledging support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that began in 2001. Sections of the movement based in Pakistan turned against the government.

Islamabad launched a more than one-month offensive in May against Taliban forces in the country’s Swat District north of the FATA, inflicting great hardship on millions. More than 2 million were displaced and many homes were burned to the ground. Those who couldn’t flee the war zone were confined inside their homes without food, water, or sanitation for weeks at a time during shoot-to-kill curfews.

The Pakistani military could be preparing a similar offensive in the FATA where they have been conducting air strikes and ground battles against Taliban forces.

“Whether we really need a real good big operation like Swat in North Waziristan, in South Waziristan, we are considering it and at the appropriate time we are going to take action,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.

The FATA is administered under the executive authority of the president through government-paid maliks or chiefs. In some tribes, such as the Mehsud, Taliban fighters have displaced the government agents, making members of the tribe targets.

A Mehsud council meeting September 27 protested that the military made no distinctions between Taliban and non-Taliban members of the tribe and demanded the government provide aid to displaced residents, open roads, and bring an immediate end to drone attacks.

At least three federal ministers and two parliamentary secretaries in the FATA handed in their resignations September 28 against the “killing of innocent people” and failure to provide promised funds for economic development in the area. They demanded the release of innocent people in jail and the removal of the governor.

Draconian criminal codes established in the FATA by the British colonial power in 1901 are still in place. Under the strict laws, people are imprisoned for years without cause and collective punishments are meted out for members of families and tribes.  
 
 
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