<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<h2 class="itemTitle"> Pakistan’s Moment of Truth: A CagePrisoners
report on the anti-Drone March </h2>
<span class="itemAuthor"> Written by <a
href="http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/itemlist/user/4915-laurenbooth">Lauren
Booth</a> </span> <span class="itemDateCreated"> Monday, 15 October
2012</span><br>
<small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/5150-cage-prisoners-report-pakistan">http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/5150-cage-prisoners-report-pakistan</a></small><br>
<div class="itemIntroText">
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“What about
the security of those taking part in the anti drones protest” was the
only question asked by journalists at the press conference held by
Imran Khan, in Islamabad, on the subject. It was tiresome to witness
the agenda of Pakistan’s rulers on such public display. Namely, to
derail the growing mass movement in Pakistan opposing US drone attacks
on its regional villages. To prevent the momentum of this movement, the
spectre of foreigners being harmed was hyped up across the local media.</span></span></p>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As political leader of Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), Imran Khan called for people of all age,
gender and class to head to Waziristan and witness the real terror
there; the terror being visited on one of the world’s poorest regions
by the world’s richest, most heavily armed, superpower.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US"><br>
As the weekend of the historic convoy approached; Clive Stafford Smith
of Reprieve and members of US group Code Pink, all taking part, called
for the rights of Waziri civilians be recognised, supported and
protected.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US"><br>
South Waziristan is one of seven Pakistani Federally Administered
Tribal Areas and Frontier Regions (FATA). Sixty percent of the
population lives below the national poverty line, the region is
inhabited almost entirely by Pashtuns. The governance is under the
direct authority of the Pakistani President, who has the sole power to
regulate ‘for the peace and good governance’ of FATA.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US"><br>
That ‘good governance’ includes refusing to condemn (or indeed
supporting) Barak Obama’s drones policy in the region. Since Obama
became President, drone attacks have surged in the FATA region; from an
average of one strike every 40 days before 2007, up to one every four
days by mid-2011.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US"><br>
Stanford University and New York University released their major study
recently. This shocked the world, revealing that a mere 2 per cent of
those murdered and maimed by unmanned American drones, were (accused)
‘terrorists.’ So much for the narrative that drones attacks in Pakistan
(and Gaza and Yeman and elsewhere) are surgical, precise and thus,
effective against ‘extremism’. Instead, their imprecision and their
increasingly casual use, not only fail to contain resistance to
American hegemony in the region, they fuel anti-US sentiments in
Pakistan and destabilize the lives and safety of tens of millions of
people. People who may be, as a result, genuinely at risk of militant
attack. <br>
<br>
Overwhelming the majority of those killed, injured, and handicapped by
drones are innocent civilians going about their daily lives.
Independent research puts the number of drone-related deaths over
3,000, including 175 children. During my time in Pakistan, an awareness
of the massive impact of drone strikes became clearer. What is too
little mentioned in the international media is the displacement of
people from South Waziristan. Estimates now put the number of IDP’s
(Internally Displaced Persons) at almost fifty per cent of the entire
population. That is 300,000 people, unable to live in their homes as a
direct result of America’s policy of launching random attacks on
civilian villages and gatherings.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US"><br>
I remember being in Gaza earlier this year, hearing the drones
overhead, trembling inside at the creepiness of being spied upon,
judged for injury or death from afar. Israeli and US militarists have
boasted in the past that drone attacks are so precise that ‘the colour
of a woman’s hijab’ can be detected (the point here is not the colour -
images are black and white - but the boast). This is the lie which
keeps the US public supporting drone policy. This imaginary scenario
where scary bearded terrorists are obliterated by ‘surgical’ attacks
that somehow do no damage to ‘innocent’ people living, eating or
sleeping, alongside them.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US">So what is like living under these wonderfully controlled
killing machines? As in Gaza, the people of North and South Waziristan
live with their skies constantly abuzz with flying metal destruction.
Clive Stafford Smith reports that his mother remembered the buzz of
‘drones’ aka ‘doodblebugs’ used by the Nazis in WWII over London. ‘So
long as they made a sound you were alive’ she remembered seventy years
later, with a shudder. Today again, weapons of Fascism buzz in the
skies over towns and villages. Breaking up the very fabric of community
life. Women in Waziristan are afraid to shop at the markets, their
children are kept home from school, funerals of those already killed,
avoided (these have been targeted as ‘militant gatherings). And here in
Europe our media gets all excited about the sexy sounding ‘double tap’
strikes. How we love the rhetoric of war these days. But ‘double taps’
should not be thrilled over. For what it refers to is America’s use of
secondary strikes on the same target - at the time when medics come to
rescue the injured and family members are giving comfort to the dying.
As a result, a leading humanitarian agency now delays assistance to
victims of drone attacks by an astonishing six hours.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">Saturday 6th of
October, hundreds of vehicles set off from Islamabad towards the
Pakistan border region with Afghanistan. I had my own media shaped
preconceptions about the people I would see there; specifically the
men. I expected not to leave the car for ‘security reasons’ and that
my white face (despite the hijab) would be met with suspicious glares
from those modern bogeymen aka ‘tribal elders’. Hundreds of cars, buses
and scooters, packed with people to suspension-bearing limits,
travelled 400 sweaty, slow kilometres before stopping overnight in the
city of Dera Ismail Khan. The plan for the second and final day was to
travel another 120 kilometers to Kotkai in South Waziristan. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US"><br>
The next morning, thousands of every day Pakistanis from cities as far
apart as Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, set off towards the border
provinces. The Pakistan military had been told to block the roads at
certain points causing long delays. Undeterred, men simply joined
together and removed the massive containers, and on we drove. <br>
<br>
And then it began.<br>
<br>
The greeting by the impoverished in the provinces - to the convoy
members. The love and affection exchanged between Pakistan’s city
dwellers and their rural people, a truly rare and special event.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">Imran Khan is a
visionary - whether you like or agree with that vision is neither here
or there - this is what he is.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">‘We are making
history’ he told supporters. And I believe that last weekend, this is
what happened. The reunifying of Pakistan’s people; an ethical revival,
begun. The Government could only watch on. For the military men posted
all along the rooftops of the mud buildings as we chugged onwards did
not glare at the convoy.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">They waved, giving
‘V - for victory signs.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">‘We are with you’
shouted an older man in uniform.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">‘Stop America
attacking the people’ a younger soldier, smiling at me and waved.<br>
<br>
At the village of Tank, I left the car, spurred on by the constant line
of smiles and friendly cheers along the dusty, humble, streets. Here
were the old men in long beards and turbans of TV footage, but nowhere
were there scowls or threats or mutterings of ‘haram’ for women taking
part in the protest. Islam was in the air in a way I have felt before
only in the Gaza Strip. Truly Allah SWT is with the poor and the
oppressed.<br>
<br>
Sometime later, the military stopped the convoy in the town of Kawar.
Their constant road blocks had made us too late to reach Waziristan and
to return before nightfall. <br>
But this was not a victory for the Pakistan government. <br>
It was a victory for the people of Pakistan.<br>
<br>
An impromptu rally of some ten thousand was assembled in a field in
“Jahazi Ground” in Tank, a town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near the border.
Imran Khan, advised the Zardari government to abandon the double
standards concerning drones - saying one thing to America another to
Pakistan’s people. The crowd cheered and called for America to leave
them alone; huge chants of ‘Go America Go!’ rang out.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">Khan said the
convoy had sent the message to the world that drone attacks were
unacceptable. He raised cheers with his certain words; "America is not
God, Allah is God," <br>
<br>
Back in Karachi, the following day, the Pakistan government tries to
seize the political moment. Interior Minister Rehman Malik claims that
U.S. officials have given him an assurance to review the policy of
using drones in tribal areas of Pakistan, following opposition (not
from protestors of course) but from the country's government.<br>
Whatever.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"> <span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US">The list of countries facing remote attacks will only
grow. The US and UK governments are working on doubling the number of
armed drones in their arsenals. Plus there’s the wonderful bonus that
drone attacks kill civilians whilst protecting the security of military
personnel who can be thousands of miles away. <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, a few miles beyond the government’s machinations, hundreds
of thousands of people continue to wonder what it is they can actually
do to make themselves safe. You see no one has told the rural people,
WHY they are actually being targeted. After all what can you say to a
three year old child, or a wedding party of hundreds, or the sick and
elderly injured and murdered by unmanned machines from a country they
know little about? That they are terrorists by dint of their place of
birth, their religion, their facial hair? No one knows who is on the
American kill list. And on one knows what they can do to get themselves
off.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;" lang="EN-US">Suddenly, and
without warning, a missile launches. Women, men, babies, homes,
everyone and everything is annihilated within a 15 metre radius. <br>
Random and indiscriminate murder is the definition of terrorism.<br>
Drone attacks are terrifyingly random.</span></span></p>
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><em><span
style="line-height: 17.7778px; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"
lang="EN-US">Lauren Booth is a Patron of CagePrisoners. Lauren is a
broadcaster and journalist, outspoken on issues as diverse as childhood
vaccinations and the war in Iraq. She has presented shows for
television and radio and regularly guests on programmes across the
media. She has regular columns in the Mail on Sunday and writes
features for the Sunday Times and Femail.</span></em></span>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>