'Need for concerted, organised effort to get rid of militancy'

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, Oct 18 (PTI) Expressing concerns over the
situation in Pakistan's North-West Frontier (N.W.F.), the
United States has said there is need for "concerted and
organised efforts and integrated strategy" to get rid of
militancy instead of relying solely on the use of military
power.

"We are quite concerned about the situation in the
settled areas in the Northwest Frontier. There has been an
expansion of militant influence into the settled areas, that
is disturbing. Now there have been a number of military
operations already this year," said Assistant Secretary of
State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher at a
Pakistan Round Table held recently.

"I think there is a strong desire on the part of the
government and the government in the Northwest Frontier to
establish more stability and control. But we recognise that
that is more difficult over the past year or two, and it is
going to take a concerted effort, an organised effort, to get
rid of that militant," he added.

"There needs to be an integrated - military, political
and economic - plan to address the problems that they are
having. You need to involve the people in the process. You
need to give them the benefits of development, and you need to
fight the hard-core militants who are not allowing the people
to develop" Boucher said going on to list what the Bush
administration has been willing to do in this regard including
on the F-16s front.

"We have always made a point that we are willing to
help the Frontier Corps develop and modernise itself. We are
willing to help the army learn to do better in terms of
addressing these issues. We are in talks with our Congress
about how to improve the capability of the F-16s that are
being used up there, he said.

"So, there is a military aspect to it, but I never
want to talk about the purely military aspect of this because
it is always linked to a need to provide people with a role in
their governance," the senior State Department official said.

Stressing on the need for development of the areas, he
said "we have got the Tribal Areas Development Fund and other
development money that goes up there to try to help the
government develop those areas with roads, schools, bridges,
electricity and hospitals for people."

Reminding that the war-on-terror was "not just a U.S.
war" the Bush administration official said,"it is Pakistan's
war, not just a U.S. war. I think the elected leadership of
Pakistan has made it very clear that the militants and the
extremists are a challenge, a threat, to the vision that
Pakistanis have for their own future.

"They were elected because people shared a vision of a
modern, a moderate, and Islamic Pakistan. Pakistan is a
country of people who believe in Islam. But their vision of
Islam, their vision of modern society, their vision of
democracy is being attacked by these militants. The people who
bombed the Marriott were trying to kill the vision that all
these new leaders have of a modern Pakistan," Boucher said.

"Their goal is to achieve a more stable, more modern
Pakistan. The United States shares that goal. We are happy to
support it. We are in support of a goal that the Pakistani
government and Pakistani people share," the senior State
Department official maintained.

"We know some very dangerous people holed up in the
tribal areas. But when you have al-Qaida people threatening
the whole world, training and sending forces into Afghanistan
from there, it is important that we all look at the bigger
picture and end the use of this area for terrorism against
Pakistan, against Afghanistan, and against the whole world,"
he added.