EEUU, Pakistán y la Línea Durand
Por Gabriel Reyes, coordinador de Proyectos, Programa de Oriente Medio y del Mediterráneo, Centro Internacional de Toledo para la Paz (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 13/11/08):
Tema: Frustrado por la falta de resultados en su campaña afgana, EEUU ha decidido cruzar la Línea Durand que delimita la frontera entre Afganistán y Pakistán a lo largo de 2.400 km, en su intento de neutralizar a los elementos yihadistas afincados en territorio paquistaní. Esa estrategia unilateral de incursiones transfronterizas ha llevado a las relaciones con Pakistán a su punto más bajo desde 2001.
Resumen: Si bien el incremento de actividad insurgente en Afganistán por parte de yihadistas con…
What do you mean, bin Laden doesn’t exist?
By Anthony Loyd (THE TIMES, 06/11/08):
America’s President-elect was being watched a lot closer to the front lines of the US War on Terror than he may have been aware on Saturday night.
As Barack Obama’s face shone from a huge wide screen television into the officers’ mess at a Pakistani army fortress in Khar, in the tribal area of Bajaur, the room shook to heavy artillery blasting from gun positions at the gates. Barely a mile up the road Pakistani troops traded fire with Taleban raiding parties.
“I want to increase non-military aid,” Mr Obama, interviewed on CNN, announced to a handful of…
A Quiet Deal With Pakistan
By David Ignatius (THE WASHINGTON POST, 04/11/08):
Pakistan is publicly complaining about U.S. airstrikes. But the country’s new chief of intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, visited Washington last week for talks with America’s top military and spy chiefs, and everyone seemed to come away smiling.
They could pat themselves on the back, for starters, for the assassination of Khalid Habib, al-Qaeda’s deputy chief of operations. According to Pakistani officials, he was killed on Oct. 16 by a Predator strike in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan. Habib, reckoned by some to be the No. 4 leader in al-Qaeda, was involved in…
Wrong Way in Pakistan
By Marvin G. Weinbaum, a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department intelligence and research analyst on Pakistan and Afghanistan (THE WASHINGTON POST, 27/10/08):
In its eagerness to reverse the mounting insurgency in Afghanistan, the United States has embarked on a policy course that could shatter our vital strategic partnership with Pakistan. By allowing American combat forces to freely conduct raids into Pakistani territory, a move that President Bush authorized in July, the United States intends to pressure Pakistani leaders to step up the fight against militants ensconced in the borderlands. But this policy threatens cooperation…
Reforming the Judiciary in Pakistan
Asia Report N°160 (CRISIS GROUP, 16/10/08):
Pakistan’s return to civilian government after eight years of military rule and the sidelining of the military’s religious allies in the February 2008 elections offer an opportunity to restore the rule of law and to review and repeal discriminatory religious laws that restrict fundamental rights, fuel extremism and destabilise the country. Judicial reforms would remove the legal cover under which extremists target their rivals and exploit a culture of violence and impunity. Ensuring judicial independence would also strengthen the transition to democracy at a time when it is being undermined by worsening violence.
Laws that discriminate…
Casualties of another war
By Tariq Ali, the author of The Duel: Pakistan On the Flight Path of American Power (THE GUARDIAN, 23/09/08):
The deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Hellfire missiles, drones, special operation raids inside Pakistan and the resulting deaths of innocents have fuelled Pashtun nationalism. It is this spillage from the war in Afghanistan that is now destabilising Pakistan.
The de facto…
High stakes in Islamabad and Washington
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 23/09/08):
George Bush and Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, have more in common than one might think. As younger men, both had reputations as playboy hell-raisers. As the current, more sober leaders of their respective countries, both are deeply unpopular with large numbers of fellow citizens. For his part, Bush is on his way out. And if the Islamists who bombed the Islamabad Marriott at the weekend have their way, Zardari, husband of the murdered Benazir Bhutto, will surely follow him – one way or another.
The stakes for this odd couple are high. Zardari is engaged in an…
Urge una estrategia regional contra el terrorismo islámico
Por Ahmed Rashid, periodista y escritor paquistaní, autor del libro Los talibán, Editorial Península (EL MUNDO, 22/09/08):
El devastador camión bomba que estalló en el Hotel Marriott en el centro de Islamabad, acabando con la vida de más de 50 personas e hiriendo a 150, es una señal más de que Pakistán se ha convertido en el epicentro de una tormenta de fuego, que ha sumido Asia central y meridional en el enfrentamiento de consecuencias más imprevisibles con los extremistas talibán desde el 11-S. La ofensiva a gran escala de los talibán en Afganistán y Pakistán, los atentados en la India…
Facing Islamist chaos and America’s Rambo, Pakistan is turning to No 10
By Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, the authors of Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy (THE GUARDIAN, 16/09/08):
After claiming to have spent nine years nurturing democracy in Pakistan and festooning the country’s military dictatorship with $11bn in aid, the Bush administration’s policy is careering out of control, as US soldiers trade bullets with the forces of what was once a most-favoured ally in the “war on terror”. On Sunday night, Pakistan border troops fired on a raiding party of American commandos emerging from two Chinooks in an attempt to cross on foot from Afghanistan into the…
Pakistán, ‘el Padrino’ en la presidencia
Por Tariq Alí, novelista y ensayista paquistaní; su último libro, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, será publicado próximamente. Traducción de Jesús Cuéllar Menezo (EL PAÍS, 16/09/08):
Asif Alí Zardari -que, elegido por el destino para convertirse en esposo de Benazir Bhutto, hizo posteriormente todo lo que pudo para evitar caer de nuevo en el olvido- no tardará en ser el nuevo presidente de Pakistán. Los empalagosos parásitos que tanto abundan en el país montarán unas cuantas celebraciones y las lenguas siempre prestas de los antiguos compinches (algunos ahora nombrados embajadores en capitales occidentales) hablarán de cuánto ha…
Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 12/09/08):
A secret order issued by George Bush giving US special forces carte blanche to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistani territory raised fears last night that escalating conflict was spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan and could ignite a region-wide war.
The unprecedented executive order, signed by Bush in July after an intense internal administration debate, comes amid western concern that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and its al-Qaida backers based in “safe havens” in western Pakistan’s tribal belt is being lost.
Following Bush’s decision, US navy Seals commandos, backed by attack helicopters, launched a ground raid into…
A doomed presidency
By Peter Preston (THE GUARDIAN, 08/09/08):
Forget labels. In reality, two giant parties struggle perennially for power in Pakistan. One is the politicians’ party, whose candidate, Asif Ali Zardari, has just been elected president. The other is the army party, which prefers bazookas to ballot boxes. Democracy in this pivotal country is a frail blossom. And Zardari is as frail as they come.
The crude apology for a party system in Pakistan is 60 years old and shows scant sign of changing. First, the politicians have an election and govern for a while. When they falter, the generals take over. Ayub Khan, Yahya…
Zero hour for Zardari
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 04/09/08):
By common consent Pakistan stands at a critical juncture. The Islamist insurgency in Afghanistan has spread into its western tribal areas, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants are now firmly established. The “war on terror” alliance with the US is under severe strain as Washington noisily criticises the army’s failure to curb extremism.
Meanwhile 71% of Pakistanis, according to a recent poll, believe all counter-terrorism cooperation with the US should be halted.
Chronic poverty among an expanding population of about 160 million is being exacerbated by sharply rising food and energy prices that if unchecked, may provoke civil disturbances and further…
Democracy Within Our Reach
By Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (THE WASHINGTON POST, 04/09/08):
Pakistan is at a crossroads. The gravity of the situation has led me, at the insistence of my Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), to run for president in Saturday’s elections. My children and I are still mourning our beloved leader, wife and mother, Benazir Bhutto. We did not make the decision for me to run lightly. But we know what is at stake. Chief among the challenges that all Pakistanis face is the threat of global terrorism, demonstrated again in this week’s assassination attempt against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza…
Reported US attack pushes Afghanistan war into Pakistan
By Simon Tisdall and Saeed Shah (THE GUARDIAN, 03/09/08):
The war in Afghanistan spilled over into Pakistani territory for the first time today when heavily armed commandoes, believed to be US special forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.
The early morning attack on Jala Khel killed between seven and 20 people, according to a range of reports from the remote Angoor Adda region of South Waziristan. The village is situated less than a mile from the Afghanistan border.
Local residents were quoted as saying most of the dead were civilians and included…
A Jihad Grows in Kashmir
By Pankaj Mishra, the author, most recently, of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 2/08/08):
For more than a week now, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have filled the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir, shouting “azadi” (freedom) and raising the green flag of Islam. These demonstrations, the largest in nearly two decades, remind many of us why in 2000 President Bill Clinton described Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan, as “the most dangerous place on earth.”
Mr. Clinton sounded a bit hyperbolic back then.…
Take this war into Pakistan
By Jawed Ludin, the Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Oslo (THE GUARDIAN, 27/08/08):
If the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf represented a step forward for Pakistan’s nascent democratic transition, the collapse of the ruling coalition this week underlined its delicacy. This is a crucial time for the international community, and the United States in particular, to review its relationship with Pakistan - especially when it comes to a strategy for defeating the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and the terrorist threat across the wider region.
To begin with, the US must invest more confidence and resources in Pakistan’s civil society and its civilian, democratic leadership.…
Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it
By Mohsin Hamid, the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (THE GUARDIAN, 22/08/08):
Given the bleak economic and security situation in Pakistan, it is easy to forget that 2008 has also been a year of positive events for the country. February’s elections proved that it is possible to hold free and fair polls in Pakistan, that in such circumstances undemocratic leaders such as Musharraf and his allies will be trounced, and (yet again) that the notion of broad public support for the parties of the religious right is a myth.
In the subsequent six months, the electorate has demonstrated another quality: patience. Despite sky-high…
Beyond Musharraf
By Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and the author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/08/08):
The resignation of President Pervez Musharraf yesterday after nine years in office is a major victory for Pakistan’s long-battered and still fragile democratic forces. But particularly given the meltdown the country has endured in recent weeks, there are still many obstacles to effective civilian governance. Although the United States will expect things to change in a hurry, they are unlikely to do so right away.
Three of Pakistan’s past four military rulers…
Musharraf was the last to read the writing on the wall
By Kamila Shamise, the author of Broken Verses (THE GUARDIAN, 19/08/08):
Over half an hour into President Musharraf’s address to the nation I texted a friend to say: “This is a resignation speech, right?” She wrote back: “I don’t see what else it could be.” Neither could I, but to the last Musharraf had the air of a man so strongly convinced that he was indispensable to Pakistan that it was hard to believe the former commando would resist one final assault on his political rivals. When it came to it, though, the assault was merely rhetorical - the man of action…
