ABU DHABI, UAE – The England cricket team again snatched defeat from the brink of victory when the batting collapsed to 72 all out in the second test against Pakistan, 28 January. It looked like England had a good chance of leveling the series when Monty Panesar celebrated his return to the team by taking six for 66. However, the English batsmen failed to cope with the Pakistani spinners Abdur Rehman (six for 25) and Saeed Ajmal (three for 22.) The England position at the top of the test rankings is looking increasingly suspect.
Links to other sites: Yahoo Cricket, Guardian, Hindustani Times
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is being treated in a hospital in Dubai for a heart condition, but his condition is not serious. The BBC reports that “his departure has fuelled speculation in the Pakistani media that he may be on the verge of resigning”, reports that the government denies.
Reuters credits a source as saying he has had a minor heart attack, not his first.
Zardari, the husband of murdered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has been in office since 2008. He has recently been linked to leaked memos that led to the resignation of Pakistan’s envoy to the US.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Pakistan’s foreign minister reportedly had harsh words for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a phone call early Sunday 27 November, in the wake of a Nato airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The soldiers were buried Sunday.
The deaths were the result of a “tragic unintended incident” Saturday, said Nato leader Fogh Rasmussen, but thousands of people protested in the streets of Karachi Sunday after the Pakistan government labeled the incident an “unprovoked assault”, according to Reuters.
The airstrike hit two border posts on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border and Pakistan has now closed Nato’s supply routes into Afghanistan, which Reuters says the alliance uses to send nearly half of its land shipments there.
Links to other sites: Associated Press of Pakistan, Dawn, Pakistan, Times of India, Washington Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World headlines include the following, over the weekend:
- Clocks go back in the US, a week after Europe moves from summer to winter time – NPR
- Chinese mine workers, some 200-strong, pulled out 45 miners Saturday who had been trapped for more than 48 hours after an explosion – CBS, Xinhua
- Pakistan charges 7 in Bhutto death in 2007 – Aljazeera, Reuters Canada
- Syria: 553 of some 15,000 prisoners released, but 20 killed Friday – Aljazeera, Xinhuanet
- Colombia: Farc leader Alfonso Cano killed, but now what? – CS Monitor, Guardian, Jakarta Post
LONDON, ENGLAND – The three dethroned heroes of Pakistan’s cricket team, Salman Butt, age 30, Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, were handed prison sentences and fines by a London court Thursday. Butt and Asif, who were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and accept corrupt money earlier this week have been handed sentences of 30 and 12 months respectively. Amir was given a six-month sentence.
All three were suspended from the sport for five years by the ICC, the International Cricket Council, in February 2011. All are appealing their bans.
Mazhar Majeed, the agent who was behind the betting scam pleaded guilty and was given two sentences of 32 and 8 months, to run concurrently.
The judge in London also ordered the men to pay fines: Butt £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120. It’s not clear what fines Majeed will have to pay. The judge pointed out that he appears to have kept most of the money for himself.
The judge, in his sentencing remarks, notes that the name of the sport used to mean “fair dealing on the sporting field”. He reprimanded them in the name of the Pakistan team’s fans, saying “In Pakistan, where cricket is the national sport, the ordinary follower of the national team feels betrayed by your activities, as do your fellow countrymen in this country. You Butt, Asif and Amir have let down all your supporters and all followers of the game.”
Links to other sites: BBC, CBC Canada (AP), India Today, Jakarta Globe
LONDON, ENGLAND – The world of cricket has been bowled over by the conviction of two of its top players for spot fixing, or technically, of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt money. A third player pleaded guilty, information that was made public only once the jury’s decision was in.
The trial, concluded 1 November in London, arose from a Test Match at Lords in the summer of 2011, where Pakistan played England. “Spot fixing” in this case involved the three in agreeing to exact times to bowl no-balls; spot betting is laying odds on such precise details in a match.
The three are all Pakistan team members: Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. The first two were found guilty in court Tuesday and the third, who was only 18 and one of the rising stars in the cricket world last summer, pleaded guilty before the trial. The convictions are reportedly the first under Britain’s Gambling Act, in force since 2005.
The Times of India reports that the ICC, cricket’s international body, is investigating other matches. “It is suspected that spot-fixing took place in other matches of the tour and that more players could come under scrutiny.”
The three face up to seven years in prison. Sentencing will be next week.
Butt’s wife gave birth to a baby one hour before the conviction was announced.
Links to other sites: BBC, Daily Jang, Pakistan, ICC statement, Times of India, Nation, Pakistan
Screen shot of the video posted by the FRC shows the Swiss hostages surrounded by gunmen
PAKISTAN – A Bern couple kidnapped in Pakistan Friday 1 July are reportedly “alive and well” says the FATA Research Centre, FRC, a “non partisan and non-political research organization” based in Islamabad, which has obtained two videos of the hostages.
In one of the videos posted by the FRC, David, 28, a police officer in Bern, calls in English for the release of a “Dr Aafia from US custody” and for the release of Taliban prisoners from Pakistani custody in exchange for the couple’s release.
“Let them go! We are in danger,” says the man.”If you don’t do this, it is possible that we will die,” he added.
In a second video, the Swiss couple is seen surrounded by masked gunmen.
The couple speaking in Swiss-German requests the release of Taliban prisoners. It is believed that one of the videos was shot in late August, the other, in late September.
David, and his traveling companion, Daniela, 31, were kidnapped as they returned to Switzerland, in the Balochistan province, which has borders with Afghanistan and Iran, an area considered dangerous.
The Swiss government advises against non-essential travel there.
Video of the FRC Read more…
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – United Nations groups based in Geneva, already under enormous pressure to meet demands for help in the Horn of Africa, are increasing their efforts to help Pakistan’s flood victims. Pakistan has been hit hard by floods for the second year in a row.
Some 6 million people have been affected by this year’s flooding in the southern province of Sindh alone and, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1.3 million homes have been destroyed and 428,000 people are living in camps.
The IOM says it has distributed the last of 18,000 emergency kits it pre-positioned in Sindh, one of the worst-hit areas. The kits, with two plastic tarpaulins, 2 shovels, a bucket and a kitchen set each, are providing help to 126,000 people.
The IOM is appealing to international donors for $14.6 million in aid to supply basic food and housing needs and it is also appealing for $2.2 million in aid for its local partner, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
The flooding is mainly in the south of the country, affecting several provinces but with Sindh one of the most affected areas. Aid workers say it is taking several days for provisions to reach the area overland from Peshawar in the country’s northwest. Flood victims are having trouble finding enough dry ground to set up emergency tents. Details, Pakistan Shelter Cluster: http://www.shelterpakistan.org
UNHCR, the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, says several social problems are on the rise as a direct result of the crisis, such as domestic violence and child labour.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Twenty-five people are reported dead following two suicide bomb attacks in the southern Pakistan city of Quetta Wednesday 7 September. The Taliban are calling them strike in revenge for the arrest of an al Qaeda leader. Reuters notes that “Al Qaeda has been weakened by the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan on May 2 and other setbacks including the capture of Mauritani, analysts say. But Wednesday’s attack illustrates how al Qaeda can turn to close allies like the Taliban to help it wage holy war during difficult times.”
Scores of people have died in a several such attacks in Pakistan since the start of 2011.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Los Angeles Times, Reuters
PAKISTAN – A US drone strike in Pakistan killed up to 21 Afghan Al Qaeda fighters, say press agencies in the region.
The group has been blamed for some of the deadliest anti-American attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide attack at a US base in 2009 that killed seven CIA operatives.
US officials have accused Pakistani intelligence of playing a double game with extremists, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. It is believed that all the people killed in the strike were members of the latter.
Links to: Xinhua, Agence France Press
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Any sense of normality in Mumbai, India, disappeared Wednesday as terrorist attacks returned to the city that was traumatized by three days of attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people. Three separate attacks have taken at least 21 lives and injured more than 100 people, in Zaveri Bazaar, the Opera House business district and Dadar in the city centre. The bombs, which government officials are saying were homemade, targeted the city’s financial district at rush hour.
The blasts could raise tensions between India and Pakistan again; the 2008 bombs were blamed on Pakistan, by India. The Times of India reports that “The 2008 attack killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. Tensions escalated between the countries and peace talks were suspended. The talks recently resumed. Soon after Wednesday’s blasts were reported, Pakistan’s government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries. ”
Links to other sites: BBC, Reuters, Times of India
Update 5 July BERN, SWITZERLAND – ATS news agency, citing a German news agency, says Tuesday that a Bern couple kidnapped in Pakistan Friday 1 July have reportedly been taken by Taliban captors to southern Waziristan province. The Taliban appear to be taking credit for the kidnapping but have not provided any terms for releasing them.
Earlier, AFP reported the pair had been “transferred” across the border into Afghanistan’s tribal belt area, quoting a local Pakistan official. The two tourists, Daniela and David, are the only known cases of Swiss people kidnapped in Pakistan.
The pair were traveling in a van in the Balochistan province, which has borders with Afghanistan and Iran, an area considered dangerous. The Swiss government advises against non-essential travel there.
It appears they may have been planning to return to Switzerland via Iran, although little information is being given out by the official federal Swiss cell set up to deal with the situation.
He works as a police officer in Bern and she followed but did not complete police training; he is 31 and she is 28. Their blue van was found abandoned about 170 east of Quetta, the provincial capital.
Officials told AFP Monday 4 July that no demands have been made by the kidnappers to date, nor is it known who they are.
Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fr), TSR (Fr), The Express Tribune
An ailing 85-year-old surrounded by her family in a camp for people displaced by floods in Balochistan, Pakistan. The elderly are especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases associated with flooding (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / D Khan, September 2010)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The numbers alone are daunting: 43.7 million displaced persons worldwide, of which 15.4m are refugees, 27.5m are internally displaced refugees and nearly 850,000 are asylum seekers, with one-fifth of asylum seekers in South Africa alone.
The world’s 49 least developed countries hosted some 2 million refugees last year.
Just under 100,000 refugees were admitted for resettlement in 2010, by 22 countries. The United States accounted for 71,000 of these.
The figures are part of the “UNHCR Global Trends 2010″ (2.7 MB pdf) published 20 June to mark World Refugees Day.
The numbers don’t yet include refugees from 2011 conflicts in Cote d’Ivoire, Syria and Libya, among others.
The imbalance in how the world supports refugees, or people who are forcibly displaced, is equally stark and marks this year’s report, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agency, based in Geneva: “Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and 1 million respectively. Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each dollar of its per capita GDP (PPP) followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.”
Click on charts to view larger
Drawn-out wars taking their toll
Roughly one-quarter of the 15.4m refugees are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The UNHCR says that of those under its care, 7.2m or about one-third, have been stuck in a refugee situation for more than five years, mainly due to drawn-out wars.
Within view of the Itombwe Massif, a convoy of UNHCR trucks carries Burundian refugees home after years of exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / M Hofer, December 2010)
The figure is the highest since 2001 and at the same time the lowest number since 1990 have been able to return home, fewer than 200,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, comments bluntly that “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”
Some people have been refugees for up to 30 years, with Afghanistan a notable case in point. Afghans were one-third of the world’s refugees in 2001, as they were a decade later, at the start of 2011.
60th anniversary for UNHCR shows dramatic changes
A woman returns to the ruins of her home after violence strikes southern Kyrgyzstan (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / S Schulman, June 2010)
The UNHCR will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding in July 2011 and the report notes that the picture today is “of a dratically changed protection environment”. The organization’s early “caseload was 2.1 million Europeans, uprooted by World War Two. Today, UNHCR’s work extends to more than 120 countries and encompasses people forced to flee across borders as well as those in flight within their own countries.”
Two relatively recent developments have been the huge growth in numbers of internally displaced persons and the growing number of stateless persons, or “people lacking the basic safety-net of a nationality”, says the Geneva group, which plans to highlight this group during 2011.
“The number of countries reporting stateless populations has increased steadily since 2004, but differences in definitions and methodologies still prevent reliable measurement of the problem. In 2010, the reported number of stateless people (3.5 million) was nearly half of that in 2009, but mainly due to methodological changes in some countries that supply data. Unofficial estimates put the global number closer to 12 million.”
Actress Angelina Jolie to help tell individual stories for 60th anniversary
The UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is helping draw attention to refugees’ stories in a series of videos, including one released 18 June of her visit to Syrian refugees in Turkey. The videos are part of the organization’s efforts to draw attention to refugees by recounting individuals’ stories.
120 reported injured
(GenevaLunch) – The Pakistan government said late Friday 13 May that two bombs which killed 80 people and injured another 120 were the work of suicide bombers. Early reports suggested the bombs may have been planted. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Frontier Constabulary centre in Shabqadar, Charsadda district in the northwest of the country. The attacks are said to have been done to avenge the death of Osama bin-Laden.
The bombs went off shortly before 06:00, hitting groups of recruits who had just completed a course and who were getting onto buses for their leave. The attackers were on motorcycles, and the two bombs were about eight minutes apart.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Pakistan Today
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made his first public address Monday 9 May following last week’s assassination of Osama Bin Laden. He admitted that a serious intelligence failure took place in allowing the al Queda figurehead to hide in the country for so long, but said that the failure “is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world.”
Following a week of public speculation over Pakistan’s possible collusion in Osama’s hide-out in the country, the Prime Minister insisted ”Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd”. He emphasized that the fight against terrorism is a national priority in the country. “We did not invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan or even to Afghanistan.”
He admitted that Osama bin Laden’s death ”attests to the success of the anti-terror campaign” but stressed that the fight is far from over, “we are not so naïve to declare victory; mission accomplished, and turn around. The myth and legacy of Osama bin Laden remains to be demolished.”
Links to other sites: Times of India, Al Jazeera, Reuters
International sports, World Cup cricket
Mohali, India (GenevaLunch) - India beat Pakistan by 29 runs to go into the finals of the cricket World Cup 31 March. The final will be against Sri Lanka Saturday 2 April from 09:00 GMT, 11:00 Swiss time.
India won the toss, chose to bat and Sehwag soon started to smash the ball around the park, scoring five boundaries in Gul’s second over, but then he fell lbw after scoring 38 from 25 balls. Sachin Tendulkar topped the scorecard for India with 85 runs but it was not one of the little master’s better displays. He was dropped four times, survived two umpire reviews and failed in his bid to reach his hundred centuries in one day games
India ended on 260 for 9 after a middle order batting collapse but the total proved too much for the Pakistani batsmen, who ended on 231 all out.
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan sat together to watch the early stages of the match in a clear gesture to reduce the tension between the two countries, but Manmohan Singh may have enjoyed the game more than Yousuf Gilani.
Links to other sites: Times of India, Yahoo Cricket, Guardian, Telegraph
Background story, GenevaLunch
The Globe & Mail in Canada puts it best: “If you do business in South Asia, well, don’t expect anyone to take your calls, unless you’re ringing to share invective on the shocking performance of India’s spinners.”
Forget about world crises, making money or sorting out family problems, for today is a cricket day. India versus Pakistan, to be precise, playing Wednesday in a match that has brought both countries to a halt. The G&M notes that Sri Lanka is nearly shut for business as well, since the winner of today’s match will face Sri Lanka Saturday in the cricket World Cup finals.
Everyone who counts is at the match (likely to last several hours), including the two countries’ prime ministers, who last met for any length of time over Pakistan’s alleged involvement in the Mumbai bombings in 2008.
The match is taking place near the border between the two countries, in India’s Punjab.
The match: details are headline news, as the match unfolds, but if you don’t follow cricket you might find it hard going to discover who is ahead and why: Times of India and The Jang, Pakistan.
An opponent of Pakistan’s harsh anti-blasphemy laws, which include the death penalty as punishment, has died at the hands of a gunman. The minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot in his car and died soon afterwards. He was the only Christian in the cabinet and he was the second senior official in Pakistan who opposed the laws against insulting Islam to be killed recently: in January, Salman Taseer, the Punjabi provincial governor, was killed by a bodyguard.
Reaction from the US was strong, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing concern that it is part of a trend of religious intolerance in Asia and parts of the Middle East, noting that the minister, whom she recently met, was well aware of death threats against him.
The Times of India reports the minister received 20 bullets in his body after a blast of indiscriminate firing from his assailants, who left behind brochures warning others not to meddle with strict Islamic laws.
Links to other sites: The Globe and Mail, Canada, Times of India, Voice of America
Reuters video
Update 18:05 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland in 2010 exported CHF640.5 million in “war materials” to 69 countries, down 12 percent from the previous year (CHF727.7m), compared to overall Swiss export, which rose by 8 percent, Bern announced Tuesday 22 February.
Arms exports accounted last year for less than half a percent of the country’s exports, 0.32 percent but with governments in several Arab nations using arms against their own citizens, observers in Switzerland are likely to look more closely this year at the details of Swiss arms exports.
Bern is putting the accent on transparency, pointing out that it remains high on the annual barometer for transparency established by the Small Arms Survey, which is attached to Geneva’s Graduate Institute. Small arms and light weapons account for only about CHF24 million of the total CHF640.5m arms exported by Switzerland last year, however. They fall under legislation covering arms and war materials.
Change in Swiss arms exports, 1983-2010 (source, Seco)
Top, Swiss arms exports in francs. Bottom, Swiss arms exports as a percentage of all exports. Source: Seco (click on image to view larger)
Air defense system sold to Saudi Arabia in 2006 covered 2010 delivery
One of the largest arms exports in 2010 was to Saudi Arabia, a partial delivery of an air defense system worth CHF132.6, which Bern is quick to point out was authorized in 2006.
Relations between Pakistan and the US have been tense over the arrest in January of US diplomatic worker Raymond Davis but they are heating up, with Lahore saying he was on assignment for the CIA while Washington insists he is an embassy technical worker who has diplomatic immunity. Davis opened fire on, and killed, two men who pulled up next to him at a red light in Lahore and he has been charged with murder. The Guardian in the UK says it is now clear, based on interviews with officials from the two countries, that he was working as a spy.
India and Pakistan say they will resume formal peace talks on all outstanding issues including Kashmir, although they say, some issues are likely to slow any progress toward defusing tensions.
These talks will take place in “quick succession” with the aim to have them completed within the next three months, reports The Indian Express.
Prime Minister Syed Yusaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan is quoted as expressing satisfaction over the progress made by the two countries to resume full dialogue.
Gilani also “appreciates the vision of Prime Minister [of India] Dr Manmohan Singh for opening a new chapter in relations between the two countries,” something that Pakistan “fully reciprocates”, reports the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Links to other sites: Hindustan Times, Times of India.
Australia creates flood tax
Displaced Afghan refugee Gul Hassan is taking refuge on a road side near Hajizai Afghan refugee village which was destroyed by recent floods; August 2010 (UNHCR / R. Ali)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsoon floods that devastated Pakistan in 2010 continue to cause extreme hardship in the face of a funding shortfall, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva says.
“This natural disaster, unprecedented in terms of destruction of housing and infrastructure, has necessitated an unprecedented response,” the IOM notes in a statement issues 27 January.
The UN agency coordinates some 300 agencies and NGO (non-governmental organization) groups involved in the Shelter Cluster programme to re-house people in the region.
It says international donors have contributed US$1.1 billion or 56 percent of a UN appeal for US$1.96b launched in September 2010. Agencies in the Shelter Cluster appealed for US$322 million and have received US$126m or 39 percent.
Some 11 million people were left homeless, with 1.7 million houses destroyed. Punjab province alone saw twice as many people lose their homes as did in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Those caught by the floods include Afghan refugees.
Millions have been helped but “unless more funding is forthcoming, at least half a million families who lost their homes and need help to rebuild either a one-room or a transitional shelter will receive nothing,” according to the IOM.
One-quarter of jobs to go
The BBC’s long-discussed budget cuts have finally hit, and it means that five countries will lose World Service broadcasts entirely, while in some other countries programming will be reduced. The five are: Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian services plus English for the Caribbean and Portuguese for Africa.
Audiences are expected to fall by 30 million to 150 million. The BBC is looking to save £46 million a year.
The cuts, needed to meet the government-mandated savings of 16 percent, involve the loss of 480 jobs initially, with a total of 650 within four years, out of 2,400 jobs currently.
The BBC in September 2010 had already announced programming cuts that including dropping daily hour-long special coverage of Wimbledon tennis and the Proms music programmes.
Some of the cuts will be offset, the BBC says, by be looking for partnerships in India, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa. It also plans to increase online videos.
The BBC World Service began operating in 1932.
Links to other sites: China Digital Times on the impact on Chinese BBC service, Guardian, Rapid TV News, Telegraph
Bangladesh will face Pakistan on the 16th Asian Games women’s final 19 November.
China, the host country, was defeated by Bangladesh 17 November on a nine-wicket, while Pakistan defeated Japan, also on nine wickets, 16 November.
Links to other sites: Malaysia Star, official website of the 16th Asian Games
Latest deaths come on heels of victims interviews report
A US drone missile attack on a house and vehicle in Ghulam Khan village in North Waziristan, Pakistan, early Tuesday 16 November killed 20 people, 16 of them in a house and four in a vehicle suspected of belonging to Taliban insurgents. Al Jazeera reports that 220 people have been killed by drones in Pakistan since early September, at a time when “publication of the results of a survey of opinion within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan show overwhelming popular opposition to the drone strikes , who see it as a threat to sovereignty”, according to journalist Gareth Porter, writing in Al Jazeera. Porter notes that the drone campaign by US forces appears to have shifted from a focus in Pakistan on Al-Qaeda to the war in Afghanistan.
“The new report published by the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (Civic) last week [end October 2010] offers the first glimpse of the drone strikes based on actual interviews with civilian victims of the strikes,” writes Porter.
The strike by an unmanned missile is the eighth in November and the 100th in 2010, according to MSNBC, although the US does not routinely confirm drone activity, making it difficult to quantify the number of strikes.
A Cuban airplane en route to Havana crashed late 4 November, killing all 68 persons on board, state media revealed. The state-owned Aero Caribe aircraft crashed near Guasimal in the centre of the island in the morning. Al-Jazeera reports many of the passengers were foreigners, but a breakdown by nationlity has not been given.
In Pakistan, a private charter plane with 21 people on board crashed after taking off from Karachi’s airport, leaving no survivors. The plane was chartered to ENI, Italy’s largest oil company, and was headed for the Bhit oil field in southern Sindh.
Links to other sites:Bloomberg, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Xinhua
The high-level peace talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior Taliban leaders are little more than “exchanges of cash and prisoners”, according to the Guardian. It is not unusual, experts say, that fighting and talking go on simultaneously, and war has traditionally been conducted this way. Also, the US military needs to show that it is making progress in the war ahead of a strategic review in December, according to Alex Strick van Linschoten, a Taliban expert. He suggested that the extensive media play was in part to confuse the Taliban leadership.
Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Administration’s senior diplomat to the region, has stated that he has no information regarding the Pakistan army or intelligence services opposing peace talks, according to India Express. He warned in a CNN interview 24 October not to put too much store by the so-called peace talks. The leading US general in Afghanistan, David Petraeus, told the media that Nato and US forces were guaranteeing safe passage of Taliban officials to peace talks.
Pakistani security officials have stressed that there can be no lasting peace in Afghanistan without their input, and have complained that US and Afghan officials have been sidelining them in the peace process. An unnamed high-ranking official told the Washington Post, “We cannot be insignificant in this war. If somebody is trying to keep us out and is striving for sustainable peace, good luck to them.”
Links to other sites: CNN, Guardian, Indian Express, Washington Post
Twelve people have died in an attack on a used car parts market, the Shershah Kabaari market, in the southern part of Karachi, Pakistan’s most important city. Police said gunmen on six or seven motorcycles drove up from the Lyari district, first shot into the air, then shot indiscriminately into the crowded market. Many more were injured in the attack, 19 October, and the death toll may rise. At least 18 other people died in separate incidents throughout the city.
Police were blamed for reacting slowly to the shootings, even though there is a major police station in the area. The shootings bring to over 50 the number of killings in Karachi since Saturday, when the two dominant political parties contested a by-election for a seat formerly held by Raza Haider, of the MQM party, himself the victim of murder. The MQM held onto the seat.
Karachi represents a quarter of Pakistan’s GDP, and two political parties vie for control and patronage in the city’s government. The MQM, which represents the city’s largely Urdu-speaking descendants of immigrants from India following partition, is a member of the Pakistani government’s ruling coalition. They have threatened to withdraw from the coalition if more is not done to stem the violence. Its main rival, teh Awami National Party, is backed by the Pashtun ethnic majority.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, BBC, Daily Times
Osama bin Laden is living in relative comfort in a house not far from his deputy in northwest Pakistan, says a senior Nato official familiar with sensitive intelligence in the war in Afghanistan, as reported by CNN 18 October. Interceptions of Taliban and al Qaeda communications indicate that the US cross-border drone attacks on militants have pushed their leaders from vulnerable border areas into more populated towns and even cities, where the risk of collateral damage limits potential attacks.
The Pakistani ambassador to the USA says that the accusation is ludicrous. “Anybody who thinks that … is smoking something they shouldn’t be”, Husain Haqqani was quoted as saying.
Some elements of the Pakistani government and intelligence services are suspected of being sympathetic to the Taliban and al Qaeda, which they see as useful allies against India.
The US amabassador in Islamabad, Anne Patterson, apologized to the Pakistan government 6 October for an attack on a Pakistani border post, saying it was a “terrible accident”, but the main crossing into Afghanistan remains closed to truck traffic and almost 2,500 trucks are backed up along the border.
Almost 600 trucks and fuel tankers cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan over the Khyber Pass at Torkham every day to provide supplies to the 142,000 Nato troops fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan. The Pass has been closed on orders from the Pakistani government since last week when US helicopters crossed into Pakistan and bombed the border post, killing three Pakistani Frontier Scouts.
Insurgents in Pakistan have set fire to dozens of stationary tankers over the past few days. The latest attacks came 6 October when 60 tanker trucks were torched in two separate incidents, and several drivers have been killed or wounded. Nato says its efforts in Afghanistan have not been affected.
