| |
US asks Pakistan to live up to pledge
Bring tribal areas security under control
Washington—The United States has said it wanted
Pakistan to live up to its commitment of urgently bringing security
under control in its remote tribal areas allegedly used as safe
haven by Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The call came amid worries in Washington that the new coalition
government led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, which is
negotiating with a Taliban commander, may strike a deal with
militants and undermine a long “war on terror” partnership.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Islamabad recognized
that bringing the mountainous and unpoliced Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) under control was an urgent priority for
Pakistan’s own sake.
“But let me be clear: we will not be satisfied until all the violent
extremism emanating from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is
brought under control,” he said Monday at a forum of the
Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy.
“It is unacceptable for extremists to use those areas to plan, train
for, or execute attacks against Afghanistan, Pakistan, or the wider
world,” he said. “Their ongoing ability to do so is a barrier to
lasting security, both regionally and internationally.”
Negroponte said Pakistan’s government “must bring the frontier area
under its control as quickly as possible,” pointing out that
Washington was prepared to provide “appropriate assistance” in order
to achieve that objective.
Gilani’s government, formed after the backers of key war on terror
ally President Pervez Musharraf were defeated in elections in
February, has pledged to completely overhaul Islamabad’s counter
terrorism pursuit.
Negroponte warned that Americans “don’t want to see the tribal area
being used as a platform for plotting and executing international
terrorist activity against the West.
“So any kind of agreement or understanding which might be
negotiated, we would have to look at in the light of those
imperatives for United States policies,” he said.
The administration of US President George W. Bush has warned that
Al-Qaeda was rebuilding itself in Pakistan’s FATA and North West
Frontier Province, both on the border with Afghanistan.
The FATA is also seen by Washington as a staging area for Al-Qaeda
attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where US and NATO
troops have suffered heavy casualties battling a long drawn
insurgency.
Negroponte said the United States expected Pakistan’s civilian and
military leadership to be “strong partners against violent
extremists in Pakistan’s frontier areas.”
To help extend the Pakistani government’s authority into those
regions, he said, the United States was implementing a multi-year
program to expand, equip, and train local security forces in the
tribal areas.
A successful strategy in the tribal areas, he said, must include not
only the possibility of military operations but also a serious and
sustained economic development program and improvements in education
and governance.—AFP
|
