U.S. Raids on Pakistan
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY | Counterpunch, Sep 26, 2008
Henry Kissinger was no amateur when it came to illegally bombing and invading countries that he and the evil President Nixon considered did not meet American requirements of unconditional servility, but even he must be intrigued about the latest antics of Washington’s finest. The vice president of the United States, a charmless and despotic bully, and his president, he of the close-set eyeballs and pretensions to dignity, recently excelled themselves in self-delusion concerning their unlawful invasion of Iraq and their fury with nations whose governments fail to toe the Washington line.
In their latest spasm of bizarre fantasy both Bush and Cheney condemned Russia for its military reply to Georgia’s merciless rocketing of South Ossetia and the killing of scores of its citizens. There is no doubt that Russia had been waiting for an opportunity to teach Georgia a lesson for its treatment of Russian-origin inhabitants of the enclave, and when the US-educated, US-supported Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was so stupid as to send in troops following his slaughter of civilians, the Russians gave them a hiding. In spite of all the training they received over the past five years from US instructors, and the generous amounts of equipment they acquired, they fled the Russian advance. But Washington intends to have Georgia continue as a US-supporting military base area along Russia’s border, and in order to emphasize its anti-Russian stance Washington arranged for NATO to hold a high level meeting in Georgia last week (which, it was claimed, was planned “a long time ago.”).
As usual, rather than trying to engage Russia through diplomacy, Washington chose confrontation. And this is where the funny bit is, because Cheney declared that “We believe in the right of men and women to live without the threat of tyranny, economic blackmail or military invasion or intimidation.”
It is difficult to believe that the man was being serious, but there was no shade of irony in his delivery. He believed what he was saying, while ignoring the fact that the US has manipulated the UN to impose savage sanctions (economic blackmail) on countries that don’t toe the US line. Of even more importance he ignored the fact that only a few days before his pronouncement there had been gross violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by the US when its troop s crossed Pakistan’s border and killed civilians. The people of North West Frontier Province – the people of Pakistan – suffered “military invasion and intimidation.”
Last month Bush declared that “We insist that Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected” which might have been a fairly good point to make were it not for the fact that he has no respect for the sovereignty or territorial integrity of any country when criminal violation suits his purpose. The illegal cowboy foray into Pakistan was not denied by Washington; it was merely ignored with that degree of would-be-majestic superiority that is the hallmark of colossal colonial arrogance. Associated Press reported that “a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan said it had “no information to give” about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops denied any involvement. The US embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.” No surprises there.
It doesn’t seem to matter to Americans that the blitz conducted by their troops resulted in the deaths of six women and two children, citizens of Pakistan. There has been no indication of regret or sympathy ; not a shred of remorse for killing children. For how long can the non-American world tolerate this sort of barbaric malevolence? In America it doesn’t matter, because ‘Support Our Troops!’ is the American mantra, especially in election year, and if a US citizen doesn’t wave the flag and say that American troops are wonderful, even when killing kids in Pakistan, then they are regarded as unpatriotic, which is a dreadful crime.
To justify the slaughter the usual highly-placed anonymous US official told the New York Times that “The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable. We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued.”
You can hear the Hitlerian resonance in this, straight from Cheney and Bush. It has hideous echoes of “My patience is exhausted,” before Fascist Germany invaded its neighbors – and of the justification that “Befehl ist Befehl” : “an order is an order,” as the Gestapo herded terrified women and children into concentration camps and then to gas chambers. (In fact some of the victims in the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp would welcome death by gassing, it being preferable to the vicious torture they are undergoing.) The American attitude, under Bush, is one of intolerance and macho contempt for any who dare to display independence. “We have to be more assertive” is a chilling declaration of what motivates the Washington administration. It is unlikely to change, irrespective of who is the next president.
President Zardari of Pakistan showed considerable courage last week when he said that “We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism,” if only because we have learned what happens to presidents and countries who offend the mighty empire. Pakistan has been dumped before by America. It appears that it is important for the moment, but neither sovereignty not diplomacy are of concern to Washington. Pakistan’s government had better be very careful.
Brian Cloughley lives in France. His website is www.briancloughley.com
A version of the above appeared in The Daily Times (Pakistan).
Peace and Justice Post 
RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Civil Society United Against ‘Honour’ Killings
October 6, 2008By Ashfaq Yusufzai | Inter-Press Service
PESHAWAR, Oct 6 – The current campaign against “honour” killings in Pakistan led by anti-death penalty NGOs has support from lawmakers and lawyers pressing for modifications of Islamic law to prevent perpetrators from evading justice.
The NGOs take a principled stand against the death penalty under any circumstances. Some lawmakers and lawyers who support them in the struggle against “honour” killings may not be active opponents of capital punishment, although it is inconceivable that they would back Pakistan’s death penalty for consensual sex outside marriage.
The groups have joined forces over the alleged killings of five women in Balochistan, a region known for its highly conservative and patriarchal traditions. On Jul. 13, five women were kidnapped by armed men objecting to three of them — Fauzia, 20, and two unnamed schoolchildren between 16 and 18 — wanting to marry men of their own choosing, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). In defiance of Umrani tribal elders in the village of Babakot, the young women, accompanied by a mother of one of the teenagers and an aunt of Fauzia, were abducted as they were preparing to leave to get married at a court in Usta Mohammad, a city 80 km away. The men forced them into a jeep with Balochistan government number plates. They were driven to a remote area where the three young women were allegedly beaten and shot. They were still breathing when the men “hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones”. The two married female relatives who tried to intervene were also pushed into the ditch and all five were buried alive, according to AHRC. On Sep. 24, the police, under intense pressure from NGOs and lawmakers in parliament, arrested seven people.
“We have seven suspects, including the brother of two of the girls,” Balochistan police chief, Asif Nawaz Warraich, told IPS. One of the arrested had allegedly confessed to the crime, although the police still had no other evidence. “The federal government is sending a top official to Quetta [the provincial capital] to investigate the murders,” he added. Senator Mohammad Adeel told IPS that the parliament human rights committee would be recommending legislation that would reform the Islamic Qisas and Diyat law. The committee was set up after heated exchanges in parliament over the alleged killings.
Qisas gives the victim’s heirs the right of retribution. But Diyat orders them to seek compensation rather than demand this. Both concepts are incorporated into Pakistani law.
Adeel said he was also proposing that those accused of “honour” killings be tried by judges sitting on the anti-terrorism courts rather than the ordinary courts of justice. “If that happens, the relatives of the deceased women will not be able to get away with the crime by invoking Diyat law.”
Adeel said he had told the parliamentary human rights committee that the police in Balochistan were facing difficulties investigating the case because of political interference. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and some lawyers would prefer the government to amend the 2005 law specifically outlawing “honour” killings, reining in the rights given to the accused under Qisas and Diyat. Since most of “honour” killings took place within families, agreements were being reached in accordance with Islamic law which undermined the ability of the state to prosecute those guilty. “We have been urging the government to reform the law,” Asma Jehangir, chair of the HRCP, told IPS. “But when our reform proposals were presented to parliament in 2005, they were defeated as ‘un-Islamic’.” The Peshawar-based women’s rights lawyer, Noor Alam Khan, also wanted the law against “honour” killings amended. She predicted that no one would be punished for the alleged killings in Balochistan because the families would invoke Islamic law. “All [those allegedly guilty] are relatives and they will be set free because of Qisas Law,” she told IPS. HRCP’s statistics on “honour” killings show that they have been increasing, in spite of the 2005 legislation. In 2007, there were 636 “honour” killings, of which 61 victims were under 18. In 2006, the number was 271. So far this year, HRCP has recorded 283. “Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished,” said AHRC. Anti-death penalty NGOs say the increase in “honour” killings is also a reflection of the growing brutalisation of Pakistani society. The death penalty, and its steady extension, has contributed to this. “Pakistan currently has 26 criminal offences that allow for the death penalty — as opposed to just two, for murder and treason, at the time of independence in 1947,” Human Rights Watch said, in an open letter to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani in June, calling for a ban on state executions. Over 7,000 people, including 40 women, are awaiting execution, although most of these were promised a commutation of their death sentences in June. In 2007, 134 people were executed by the state in Pakistan.
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Tags:Asia Human Rights Commission, Balochistan, honour killing of women, HRCP, Pakistan, Pakistan laws, retribution or compensation
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