MIRANSHAH, North
Waziristan - All seven Pakistani tribal agencies,
especially North and South Waziristan, are extremely
traditional societies, despite the arrival of modern
facilities, such as electronic goods and satellite
telephones. Similarly, their ethnic Pashtun cousins in
the tribal areas across the border in Afghanistan have
the same traditional roots, and people prefer to live
life as they have done for centuries, essentially beyond
the control of any interfering government.
Since
September 11, however, much has changed in Pakistan's
tribal regions as they have become a key frontier in the
US's "war on terrorism", first as a base for operations
into Afghanistan to crush the Taliban regime, and
subsequently as a target themselves for the sanctuary
they provide to foreign jihadis.
The presence of
thousands of US-led forces just across the border in
Afghanistan, and more recently the presence of thousands
of Pakistani troops in the tribal areas, has changed the
dynamics of the area: overnight almost, the remote and
fiercely independent tribal societies have fallen into
the world's spotlight, and the attention is not
welcomed.
The recent Pakistani military
operations in South Waziristan amply illustrate the
changes that are under way.
In the past, the
army has operated in the tribal areas, and soldiers have
been welcomed. Only last year, the army conducted
several small missions in South Waziristan in which a
few foreign fighters, including Chechens, Uzbeks and
Arabs, were arrested, while a number were killed in
shootouts.
Last month's operations in South
Waziristan were a very different matter. At the
insistence of the US, Islamabad sent thousands of troops
to track down foreign fighters. But instead of being
welcomed and assisted by the tribals, they encountered
bitter resistance, and scores of soldiers were killed.
The army basically had to back off after negotiating a
lame ceasefire, in terms of which the tribals went
unpunished.
Tribal troubles Pakistan
has seven tribal areas, known as Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA), which have a virtually separate
status from the rest of the country. These are Khyber
Agency, Mohmand Agency, Orakzai Agency, Bajur Agency,
Kuram Agency, South Waziristan Agency and North
Waziristan Agency. All seven are situated in North West
Frontier Province (NWFP), on the Afghanistan border.
According to a 1998 national census, the FATA
has a population of nearly 5.7 million. The whole region
is the size of Belgium, and its approximately 27,220
square kilometers include a porous border of 450
kilometers with Afghanistan.
Through this
border, arms and resistance fighters have defended the
sub-continent's back door to Central Asia and the West
for thousands of years. Alexander the Great's armies
struggled in its mountains in the fourth century, BC.
Some Afghan tribes still have distinctly Caucasian
features, believed to originate from lost divisions of
Alexander's armies.
The British suffered
devastating defeats trying to subdue the tribal areas
during two Afghan wars in the 19th century. In the end,
they settled on a policy of containment rather than
control, creating in 1901 the unique arrangements that
"govern" the territory today.
Waziris are the
most warlike tribes in the FATA. They have blood and
ethnic relations with Kandahari Pashtuns across the
border which make a mockery of the arbitrary Durand line
that separates the two countries. Waziris and Mahsuds
(another tribe) have been described by the former
governor of the NWFP under British India, Sir Olaf
Caroe, as "panthers" and "wolves" respectively.
Similarly, John Masters, a British novelist, called them
"physically the hardest people on earth", as in 1920
they mauled a British brigade, killing 400 men,
including 28 British and 15 Indian officers. The biggest
of the sub-clan is the Zalikhel tribe, famed for
resistance against the British in the 19th century.
Today, they possess heavy weapons, mortars and machine
guns and are a tough nut to crack.
On partition
of the sub-continent in 1947, the tribal leaders agreed
to be a part of Pakistan, but with special terms and
conditions. Since then, apart from the notable exception
of Fakir of Api (Mirza Ali Khan), tribal leaders have
remained loyal to the Pakistani establishment. In 1948,
when the Pakistan army leadership refused to forcibly
annex Kashmir from India, Pakistan's tribals volunteered
for the job, and prized away what is today known as
Pakistan-administered Azari Kashmir, or Free Kashmir.
Tribal loyalty, it should be pointed out, has in
part resulted from the generous benefits that the
government of Pakistan has given the region over the
decades.
The tribal areas are often described at
being "beyond the writ of the federal government". This
is true in a strict legal sense. No Pakistani laws apply
in the FATA. It has a separate code called FCR 40, a
legacy of British rule devised in 1901 and perpetuated
on partition.
In terms of this, a political
agent, a junior bureaucrat of Pakistan's elite District
Management Group, has complete and unchallenged powers -
from the distribution of funds to other matters - which
he exercises with a nexus of local tribal chiefs. Over
the past years, after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in
1979, to charm the local tribes and to inure them
against the influences of Pashtun nationalists who were
hand-in-glove with the communist regime in Kabul,
Islamabad gave even more benefits to the region,
including generous purses to tribal chiefs, turning a
blind eye to smuggling on the Afghan border, and above
all, free electricity. In other parts of the country,
power costs average 30 percent of a household's
expenses.
As a result, in comparison to other
parts of Pakistan and certainly across the border, there
is widespread prosperity. Most common people have
private cars. A Japanese-made 1600cc car, which is
available for about US$20,000 elsewhere in Pakistan, is
available in the FATA for just $4,000 to $5,000 as they
are either smuggled via Afghanistan to avoid duties or
stolen from Pakistan. Most houses have air-conditioning,
and other utility costs are negligible.
The
political agent also turned a blind eye to other crimes
- such as possession of firearms - one can count on one
hand the number of tribals who don't carry a weapon -
and kidnapping, a lucrative pasttime. Basically, the
agent is there to ensure loyalty, and prevent the tribes
from fighting each other.
Signs of
change Until only a few months ago, a visit to the
office of the political agent quickly dispelled the myth
of the rebellious nature of the tribal areas. Separate
and different, yes, but they knew on which side their
bread was buttered, and they certainly did not want to
offend the hand that literally was feeding them.
From morning to evening, a mob of tribal elders
sat outside the agent's office to convey grievances to
the young officer. As trained in the old colonial style
of working, the agent rarely appeared before the elders
to personally give an ear. Instead, through his staff,
he distributed the privy purses and bribes as he saw
fit. Under no circumstances would the elders dare to
enter the agent's room.
Even when US-led troops
invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, and Pakistan dropped
its support of the Taliban in favor of the "war on
terror", against many expectations, the tribal areas
remained calm, with only a few peaceful demonstrations.
Last month's South Waziristan operation was
another story, indicating a radical change in the tribal
belt which has broken the writ of the political agent -
his orders are now being defied - and set off alarm
bells in Islamabad. Censored stories from Wana in South
Waziristan told of small elements within a small region
of the agency resisting the Pakistani army and refusing
to cooperate in the hunt for foreign fighters. In fact,
as Asia Times Online has learned from visiting the
region, there was wide-ranging collaboration in the
insurgency all over the tribal belt.
All
political and religious organizations in the tribal
areas have traditionally been heavily under the thumb of
the state, yet recent developments smell of a powerful
underground network of jihadi organizations penetrating
the region, especially South and North Waziristan.
A compact disc (CD) is widely in circulation all
over the tribal belt, including Miranshah's bazaar. The
CD has video film with shots of attacks by tribals on
the Pakistan army, seemingly shot by an amateur with a
digital camera.
The significance of the CD is
its Pashtu commentary, in which tribals are urged to
rise up against the Pakistani armed forces, which are
called "Firqa-i-Pervezi" (Pervezi sect - that of
President General Pervez Musharraf) , and Musharraf
himself is labeled an ally of the "Crusaders".
Ordinary CDs are available in Pakistani markets
for US$1 to $1.50, but due to heavy demand, the CD in
question in Miranshah and in neighboring tribal areas
costs up to $4.
Similarly, "Message to
soldiers", an Urdu-language pamphlet, is being widely
distributed and read. The two-page missive appreciates
the Pakistan army's services in defense of the country,
and then says: "... these services for the country and
nation apart, after the fall of the Islamic Emirates of
Afghanistan, the reins of the Pakistan army is the hands
of a person who is a stigma on the forehead of the whole
Muslim nation and who has darkened the bright past
traditions of the Pakistan armed forces.
"...
Your motto used to be faith, unity, god-fearing and
jihad. Oh soldiers of the Pakistan army, why are these
words meaningless now? You are now contrary to these
slogans. Your general has faith in [President George W]
Bush and is part of the infidel's coalition. His
god-fearing is dependent on the will of Jews and
Christians, and he wants to decorate you [soldiers] with
a medal of bravery by the genocide of the tribal people.
This is not the jihad fi Sabilillah [ war in the
way of Allah] but the war in the way of satan."
After long citations from the holy Koran and
then their interpretations, the pamphlet says: "Come to
your senses. Are you not the same ones who helped Afghan
and Arab fighters and who God bestowed you victory
against a superpower [USSR]? Why are you staining
yourself, and say now what is the difference between you
and the hypocrites defined in the Koran? Killing all US
coalition partners is a virtuous act. Yet you are a US
coalition partner.
"Remember! This is advice
from your Muslim brothers. Use your vision and give up a
job under which you are forced to obey a black American
like Pervez Musharraf, and do some business in which God
will bless you ... otherwise we will take revenge that
the world will remember, and also your next seven
generations. So far, only 300 army soldiers have been
killed [in South Waziristan], three armored personal
carriers and 15 army trucks destroyed ... we warn you
just stop, and remember the US and their partners cannot
do anything against us. From Waziristan tribals."
In another, sinister, development, and which has
not been much reported, a number of people have been
murdered in the tribal areas over the past months. Each
time, the body is left with a note: "The final end of a
tout against the Taliban."
Taken together, the
resistance in South Waziristan to the Pakistan army, the
flouting of the political agent's rulings, the
popularity of inflammatory CDs and pamphlets, and the
bodies of informers, point to a sea change in the tribal
areas.
It is in this changing environment that
Pakistan troops are once again expected to launch fresh
operations in the tribal areas as the US continues to
lean heavily on Musharraf to deliver up foreign fighters
and the al-Qaeda leadership believed to be hiding there.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
May 14, 2004
No
material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form without written
permission.
Copyright
2003, Asia Times Online, 4305 Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Rd,
Central, Hong Kong
Part 6: Trouble in the
tribal areas
