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Tribal Leaders in Pakistan Warn the U.S. to Keep Out
Posted on Saturday, April 13 @ 04:28:44 EDT by
Peshawar: Tribal leaders from the treacherous mountainous areas along the border with
Afghanistan have an unambiguous message for American commanders who have suggested
that they might enter the region in pursuit of Al Qaeda fighters: Don't. One tribal
leader, wagging his finger for emphasis, said that tribal elders saw America as the
enemy and that his people would sacrifice their lives to keep American soldiers off
their land.
A more moderate leader, a well-educated man, said more calmly that no foreigner may go
into the tribal areas without permission. That warning must be taken seriously; ages
ago, Alexander the Great was turned back, and for the last 53 years, until December,
no soldiers, not even Pakistanis, were allowed in.
In separate interviews, the tribal leaders, Pashtun Muslims, expressed other views the
Bush administration would certainly find discouraging: that the core of American
policy is a hatred of Muslims and that Osama bin Laden was not responsible for the
Sept. 11 attacks.
Such sentiments portend great turbulence for Washington and for Pakistan's leader,
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has cast his lot with the United States and the war on
terrorism.
The war in Aghanistan will drag on for a long time if the tribal areas, which share a
porous 450-mile border with Afghanistan, become a safe haven for Taliban and Al Qaeda
fighters to rest and regroup. This is exactly what American officials believe the
fighters are doing, with some reason, because men from those regions poured into
Afghanistan to fight early in the war.
Last week a senior American commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck,
raised the possibility that American forces might cross into Pakistan in "hot pursuit"
of fleeing Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
American officials have raised the possibility of such an operation with General
Musharraf, and when General Hagenbeck's remarks were reported here, there was no
denial or reaction by the government, a tacit message of assent.
But the dangers lurk. Politically, General Musharraf, who faces vocal and violent
opposition to his alliance with Washington, cannot afford unrest in the tribal areas,
Pakistani political observers say.
The Federally Administered Tribal Area consists of seven defined tribal agencies, home
to some five million people, in northwest Pakistan. The agencies have their own
councils, courts and law, and the rule of the leaders is absolute. On Friday, an elder
who dissented from the ruling of the grand council of the Orakzai tribe had his house
burned down as punishment.
It was only after intense negotiations and promises of substantial amounts of
development money (and other money that is not publicly discussed) that the tribal
councils even allowed the Pakistani Army to enter the region, in December. Pakistan
now has 12,000 troops patrolling the border, concentrated on a 50-mile stretch of
mountains overlooking a region of Afghanistan where American troops have been engaged
in some of the fiercest fighting.
"We have completely sealed off the border," said an army spokesman, Maj. Amir Uppal.
There is "no possibility" that Al Qaeda soldiers are hiding in the area, he said in an
interview.
Few take that claim seriously. While it is easy to patrol the major road crossings
(there are only a handful), the mountains hide thousands of trails, worn by men,
women, families and donkeys over centuries. A Western diplomat in Islamabad noted that
the United States, with all its trained law enforcement officials, ditches, canals,
fences and sophisticated sensors, could not seal the relatively level border with
Mexico.
The border may be harder to cross now than four months ago, but it is by no means
impossible.
Ibrahim Khan, 19, said he crossed on Friday. Standing beside mud huts in a refugee
camp where horses pulled wooden carts loaded with firewood, he said that at one point
he and two friends were spotted by Pakistani soldiers, who fired on them with machine
guns. They found easy cover in the mountains and, when it was safe, they finished
their journey.
Another man, in the central market here, said he and his family had been able to cross
after paying Pakistani soldiers. Before he could continue, a man selling shoes and
T-shirts told him he should not speak about such things. Other refugees fleeing
Afghanistan have said that the going rate is $200 a family.
Men have been crossing the border to fight in Afghanistan for years. When the United
States began bombing the Taliban, men from the tribal areas again went over to fight.
"Unfortunately, we did not have the means and resources to fight such a large and
sophisticated army like the Americans," said Shakirullah Jan Kokikhel, a chief of the
100,000-member Kokikhel tribe.
Tribal people are famously proud, tough and self-confident, and Mr. Shakirullah, 69,
with a grizzled beard, is all of those. He is no political neophyte. For 20 years, he
fought for adult suffrage in the tribal areas, where until 1997 only the tribal chiefs
could vote, and on Saturday he was headed to Islamabad to march in a demonstration
against General Musharraf.
"Listen to me," he said, pointing his finger and switching from Pashtu to English.
"There was a time, when Russia was in power, we liked Americans." Indeed, when the
Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, men from the tribal areas joined the guerrilla army
that was backed by the United States. "Now we hate Americans. Under our tribal rules,
we designate an enemy. America is now the enemy."
Under tribal rules, once the elders have spoken, everyone falls in line.
His views, however harsh, are widely held in Pakistan and throughout Muslim Asia and
Southeast Asia.
"We don't hate individual Americans, like yourself," he went on. The problem is the
policy of the American government. "It is against Muslims," he said several times,
categorically.
As proof, Mr. Shakirullah cited East Timor, where the United States backed a
referendum on independence "because they are Christians." The United States does not
demand the same in Kashmir, he said, because they are Muslims.
Mr. Shakirullah insisted that there were no Taliban or Al Qaeda forces in his area.
But what would happen, he was asked, if the American forces, not believing that,
entered the area?
"There is already hatred of Americans among our elders," he answered, "among our women
and children, but then that hatred will reach its peak, and then we will fight them."
What about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon? Was Mr. bin Laden
responsible? "Our research has shown that the Jews did it," he said, without any
doubt.
In a far milder way, Ajmal Khan agreed with Mr. Shakirullah. A leader of the Maddakhel
tribe, Mr. Ajmal, 50, was in Peshawar to meet with the provincial governor, a meeting
that shows he is far more amenable to the government.
Like Mr. Shakirullah, Mr. Ajmal, dressed in an immaculate white, loose fitting
waistcoat and trousers and a large turban, said there were no Al Qaeda or Taliban
fighters in his area. If the Americans had evidence to the contrary, they should share
it with him, and he and the elders would round them up.
Asked who was responsible for the World Trade Center attacks, Mr. Ajmal, a university
graduate, former military officer and former minister of sport, grew uneasy. "It must
be the Jews," he said.
He said he knew that President Bush had convinced General Musharraf that Mr. bin Laden
was responsible for the attacks, but "he didn't convince me."
www.Taliban-News.Com
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