Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: times of India
Date: November 29, 2001
Washington: In all but name, the
United States is at war with Pakistan.
Despite all the protestations about
military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf's "bold and courageous stand" and
Islamabad's status as a frontline ally, there is a growing sense in Washington
that Pakistan has worked against US interests in Afghanistan. There is
also anger in sections of the administration over what is seen as Pakistani
perfidy over issues ranging from deployment of its troops, agents and private
militia in Afghanistan to its dangerous game of nuclear weapons proliferation.
As a result, the Bush administration
has begun to quietly punish Pakistan even while publicly upholding a facade
of goodwill, just as Islamabad is also maintaining a pretense of cooperation
in the fight against terrorism while pursuing its own agenda. Several incidents
bear this out, including the latest episode involving two prominent Pakistani
nuclear scientists, who have now been detained again at Washington's insistence
over suspicion that they were involved in planning an "Anthrax Bomb."
The US has also allowed the Northern
Alliance to decimate those euphemistically known as "foreign fighters"
- who it now turns out are mostly Pakistani irregulars and jehadists with
some serving army personnel and agents directing them. Western journalists
in the region have now exposed the smokescreen that referred to these fighters
as "Arab, Chechen and Pakistani," by reporting that they are almost exclusively
Pakistani. In some cases, Washington itself has joined in by using air
power to bomb the Pakistani fighters. US air power has also been directed
against jehadis operating in the tribal areas within the Pakistani borders.
While publicly continuing to endorse
and applaud the military regime of Gen. Musharraf - to the extent of ignoring
his announcement that he will continue to be Pakistan's president even
after the proposed October 2002 elections - Washington has begun to ignore
a growing list of Pakistani gripes. Starting with Musharraf's plea to shorten
the bombing campaign to not to bomb the Taliban frontlines and not to allow
the Northern Alliance to take over Kabul, it now extends to the request
to allow evacuation of Pakistani fighters trapped in Afghanistan.
In each case, the US has gone ahead
and done pretty much what suits its war aims, forcing Musharraf to fall
in line and handle the domestic fall-out. On the issue of safe passage
to Pakistani fighters though, there appears to have been a split in the
administration. Reports that the US winked at Pakistani aircraft evacuating
from Kunduz its armed forces personnel, agents, and jehadis with domestic
connections, persist. Officially, state department mandarins insist they
have no knowledge of any such evacuation but western reporters in the region
have confirmed the evacuation based on first-hand accounts from locals.
However in the case of other fleeing
Pakistani fighters, US officials, especially those manning the war machine
and therefore less connected to diplomatic concerns that the state department
is sensitive to, have made it clear they would rather see them surrender
or die than head back home to Pakistan. Comments to this effect, especially
one from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has raised hackles in Pakistan
where some officials termed it "callous." In one instance at least, accounts
by Northern Alliance fighters that they executed scores of Pakistani fighters
"before the eyes of US military personnel," after they refused to surrender,
has enraged Islamabad. Several prominent Pakistani commentators have called
for an investigation into the episode. But US officials in Islamabad say
the deaths occurred in a pitched battle and not in a massacre. "To try
to make it appear as a massacre does not accord with the facts," spokesman
Kenton Keith told reporters.
The strange dissonance between the
official positions of the two sides and the private differences is the
subject of much discussion in Washington diplomatic parlours and among
its power brokers. "It's like a bad marriage. Or like two colleagues who
mistrust each other but are forced to work together," a Congressional aide
who works on regional issues said.
Pakistanis are working overtime
to salvage the situation. It's energetic ambassador Maleeha Lodhi is turning
on the charm and deploying its familiar supporters and lobbyists, many
of them relics from the Cold War era who are tapping into their old contacts
in the Republican establishment.
But they are weighing against the
overwhelming reports coming in everyday from the war front showing Pakistanis
fighting the US, with or without official connivance. "It's not a happy
situation," one US official conceded in private. "We have to work our way
through a lot of problems."
