A national tragedy (Swat Region)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Editorial
The News International, Pakistan
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
As the fierce military operation continues in Swat and other areas, tens of thousands of people continue to flee the fighting. The brief lifting of a curfew imposed in Swat saw hundreds of desperate families pile belongings into trucks, vans, cars or hand-pushed trolleys and try to make it down to safer locations, even if they had to do so on foot. The plight of Pakistan's displaced people is terrible to witness. Already, the immense humanitarian crisis unfolding in our midst has been taken note of by international organizations in many places. Yet there is still a kind of disconnect between the people forced to take shelter where they can and the mainstream of society in our country. This is a continuation of the isolation of different parts of the Federation that began some three decades ago and was deliberately created in order to maximize the power of an autocrat. It is this mental distance, which extends far further than the actual number of kilometres, which has allowed militants to take hold of certain areas in the first place, while the rest of us waited and watched, often with indifference. Now we seem content to be mere onlookers once again while small children driven from homes by no fault of their own scramble for a few crumbs of food or women who till now have lived lives of dignity scrounge through garbage heaps in the hope of finding something to feed famished families who struggle to survive.
The catastrophe is one that in magnitude is as vast as the earthquake of 2005. So far no figures are being given for civilian casualties, but we all know, in our hearts of hearts, that some non-combatants at least will die. The kind of war being fought means this is in fact almost impossible to avoid – though of course the government must attempt to minimize what we have learned to call 'collateral damage'. It is the danger of such a death that has brought desperate people pouring out of homes. We need mobilization of the kind seen three and a half years ago, in the days that followed the quake. We need everyone in a position to give or to help in other ways to be involved in the effort to prevent still more misery for displaced persons. The need to avert human suffering is of course irrefutable, but the fact also is that we need to create a 'connect' between people from the northern areas and the mainstream of our country. Building bridges that can close the existing chasms between different parts of our country may eventually prove just as crucial to winning the war against militants as the actual military operation. Success on both fronts is indeed interlinked and this reality should not be ignored. We need action to help displaced people, so that the process of winning over hearts coincides with that of regaining control over tracts of territory and may be the factor that enables the state to retain a grasp of these lands over a longer frame of time.
The News International, Pakistan
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
As the fierce military operation continues in Swat and other areas, tens of thousands of people continue to flee the fighting. The brief lifting of a curfew imposed in Swat saw hundreds of desperate families pile belongings into trucks, vans, cars or hand-pushed trolleys and try to make it down to safer locations, even if they had to do so on foot. The plight of Pakistan's displaced people is terrible to witness. Already, the immense humanitarian crisis unfolding in our midst has been taken note of by international organizations in many places. Yet there is still a kind of disconnect between the people forced to take shelter where they can and the mainstream of society in our country. This is a continuation of the isolation of different parts of the Federation that began some three decades ago and was deliberately created in order to maximize the power of an autocrat. It is this mental distance, which extends far further than the actual number of kilometres, which has allowed militants to take hold of certain areas in the first place, while the rest of us waited and watched, often with indifference. Now we seem content to be mere onlookers once again while small children driven from homes by no fault of their own scramble for a few crumbs of food or women who till now have lived lives of dignity scrounge through garbage heaps in the hope of finding something to feed famished families who struggle to survive.
The catastrophe is one that in magnitude is as vast as the earthquake of 2005. So far no figures are being given for civilian casualties, but we all know, in our hearts of hearts, that some non-combatants at least will die. The kind of war being fought means this is in fact almost impossible to avoid – though of course the government must attempt to minimize what we have learned to call 'collateral damage'. It is the danger of such a death that has brought desperate people pouring out of homes. We need mobilization of the kind seen three and a half years ago, in the days that followed the quake. We need everyone in a position to give or to help in other ways to be involved in the effort to prevent still more misery for displaced persons. The need to avert human suffering is of course irrefutable, but the fact also is that we need to create a 'connect' between people from the northern areas and the mainstream of our country. Building bridges that can close the existing chasms between different parts of our country may eventually prove just as crucial to winning the war against militants as the actual military operation. Success on both fronts is indeed interlinked and this reality should not be ignored. We need action to help displaced people, so that the process of winning over hearts coincides with that of regaining control over tracts of territory and may be the factor that enables the state to retain a grasp of these lands over a longer frame of time.
Labels: Army Operation, Internally Displaced Persons, Pakistan, Swat, Taliban, Terrorism
posted @ 11:24 AM,
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