Vol. 74/No. 33      August 30, 2010

Mangiani was one of hundreds of villagers who blocked a major highway in Sukkur, Pakistan, August 16 to draw attention to the government’s failure to get relief aid to the millions displaced by the worst flooding in the country’s history. Demonstrators said officials were only giving out food when the media showed up.

Peasants in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh also held protests. Some said they had received no aid at all.

More than 20 million people have been affected by the flooding with one-fifth of Pakistan under water. At least 2,000 have died. Yet two weeks after the floods began, hundreds of thousands of people have yet to be reached by any aid workers.

The United Nations World Food Program says it has gotten food to less than 1 million people and tents to a mere 98,000. UN officials warned that 3.5 million children are at risk of contracting cholera or other diseases.

Most of those affected are peasants, many of whom grow just enough food to feed their families. The loss of farms, crops, and livestock will have a giant impact on the country as a whole, where farming is 23 percent of the gross domestic product.

For peasants in the Swat region in northern Pakistan, this is the second time in two years that they have been uprooted. In 2009, 2 million were forced to leave their villages when the Pakistani army launched an offensive against Islamist rebels based there.

Despite the staggering scope of the social disaster, the UN has appealed for a mere $459 million in international aid. Only a quarter of that has been delivered.

Washington has sent 19 helicopters and 1,000 marines. It pledged $75 million in aid. Meanwhile, it has kept up its drone attacks on Pakistani targets suspected of harboring Islamist fighters. On August 14, a U.S. drone assault in South Waziristan killed at least 16 people.

The callous indifference of the imperialist powers to Pakistani working people is matched by Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, who took a trip to Europe after the floods began, later claiming he was raising international funds for relief.

Seeking to take advantage of the deep resentment of the Pakistani government’s handling of the disaster, the Taliban and other Islamist forces are setting up their own aid programs for the millions desperate for food, water, and shelter.

“The government should not accept American aid,” Azam Tariq, a spokesperson for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, said. “We condemn American and other foreign aid and believe that it will lead to subjugation.” He said the Taliban would provide $20 million in relief if Islamabad turns down outside aid.
 
 
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