Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
February 27, 2008 By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The secular party that won last week's elections in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province plans to open peace talks with al-Qaeda-allied Islamic insurgents, a drastic departure from the military crackdowns that the national army has pursued for five years with U.S. backing.
The Awami National Party says army offensives in the tribal region abutting the province have killed, maimed and displaced untold numbers of civilians, driven recruits into the arms of the radicals, and fueled a surge in suicide bombings.
"The war against terror has failed," said Haji Mohammad Adeel, one of the party's most senior leaders. "So there should be no war."
To persuade militants to quit the insurgency, and to weaken the popular support that allows al-Qaeda to maintain a sanctuary in the region, the party pledges to build clinics, schools and roads for the area's three million desperately poor people.
The party also wants to end the colonial-era system under which seven Federally Administered Tribal Agencies are run and fold them into the province, where they would be subject to Pakistan's political, legal and economic systems.
The party's plan and the support it has drawn from other parties may help explain why the White House continues to advocate a key role for Pakistan's much-reviled president, Pervez Musharraf, despite the defeat of his allies in the elections Feb. 18.
The Bush administration has lauded the former general as an "indispensable ally" in the fight against Islamic extremism for deploying 85,000 troops in the tribal areas.
The Bush administration distrusts peace deals because several accords reached under Musharraf collapsed, freeing militants to join the guerrilla war in Afghanistan.
The secular Awami party represents ethnic Pashtuns. It captured a plurality of the seats in the North West Frontier Province Assembly, trouncing Islamic parties that had governed the province since the 2002 vote, which was rigged in their favor.
The party is negotiating with the Pakistan Peoples Party of the slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to form a coalition to govern the province. It is also expected to join Bhutto's party, which won the largest share of National Assembly seats, in a federal coalition government.
Many people are skeptical the Awami peace strategy will work. They point out that many of the elders required for tribal assemblies are too terrified to participate.
"Doing a peace deal with the Taliban is not possible," said Ali Shah, the brother of a tribal chief who is working with the government to prevent militants from entering his territory in the insurgent-infested North Waziristan tribal agency.
Adeel acknowledged the hurdles in the path of his party's peace plan.
"It's not easy," he said. "But we have to start. We have to take the first step. The basic problem is the Pakistani army, the Pakistani establishment and the Americans. You can't fight for another 20 years."
February 27, 2008 By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The secular party that won last week's elections in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province plans to open peace talks with al-Qaeda-allied Islamic insurgents, a drastic departure from the military crackdowns that the national army has pursued for five years with U.S. backing.
The Awami National Party says army offensives in the tribal region abutting the province have killed, maimed and displaced untold numbers of civilians, driven recruits into the arms of the radicals, and fueled a surge in suicide bombings.
"The war against terror has failed," said Haji Mohammad Adeel, one of the party's most senior leaders. "So there should be no war."
To persuade militants to quit the insurgency, and to weaken the popular support that allows al-Qaeda to maintain a sanctuary in the region, the party pledges to build clinics, schools and roads for the area's three million desperately poor people.
The party also wants to end the colonial-era system under which seven Federally Administered Tribal Agencies are run and fold them into the province, where they would be subject to Pakistan's political, legal and economic systems.
The party's plan and the support it has drawn from other parties may help explain why the White House continues to advocate a key role for Pakistan's much-reviled president, Pervez Musharraf, despite the defeat of his allies in the elections Feb. 18.
The Bush administration has lauded the former general as an "indispensable ally" in the fight against Islamic extremism for deploying 85,000 troops in the tribal areas.
The Bush administration distrusts peace deals because several accords reached under Musharraf collapsed, freeing militants to join the guerrilla war in Afghanistan.
The secular Awami party represents ethnic Pashtuns. It captured a plurality of the seats in the North West Frontier Province Assembly, trouncing Islamic parties that had governed the province since the 2002 vote, which was rigged in their favor.
The party is negotiating with the Pakistan Peoples Party of the slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to form a coalition to govern the province. It is also expected to join Bhutto's party, which won the largest share of National Assembly seats, in a federal coalition government.
Many people are skeptical the Awami peace strategy will work. They point out that many of the elders required for tribal assemblies are too terrified to participate.
"Doing a peace deal with the Taliban is not possible," said Ali Shah, the brother of a tribal chief who is working with the government to prevent militants from entering his territory in the insurgent-infested North Waziristan tribal agency.
Adeel acknowledged the hurdles in the path of his party's peace plan.
"It's not easy," he said. "But we have to start. We have to take the first step. The basic problem is the Pakistani army, the Pakistani establishment and the Americans. You can't fight for another 20 years."