Pakistan NW – Human Rights Crisis – Women & Girls – AI Report

Millions of Pakistanis in the northwest tribal areas live in a human rights
free zone where they have no legal protection by the government and are subject
to abuses by the Taleban, Amnesty International said in a major report released
on Thursday.

“Nearly 4 million people are effectively living under the Taleban in
northwest Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the
Pakistani government,” said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International’s
interim Secretary General.

The 130-page report, ‘As if Hell Fell on Me’: The Human Rights
Crisis in Northwest Pakistan, is based on nearly 300 interviews
with residents of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and adjacent
areas of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). The report gives voice to
those whose experiences are rarely reported and reveals the abuses faced by the
region’s residents.

“There are still more than 1 million people who were displaced from their
homes in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt by the conflict with the Taleban
whose plight is largely ignored and are in desperate need of aid,” said
Claudio Cordone.

Amnesty International’s review of available information also suggests that at
least 1,300 civilians were killed in the fighting in northwest Pakistan in
2009, from a total of more than 8,500 casualties (including combatants).

The report documents the systematic abuses carried out by the Taleban as they
established their rule by killing those who challenge their authority, such as
tribal elders and government officials.

They imposed their rule through torture and other ill-treatment, targeting
teachers, aid workers and political activists. The Taleban have particularly
targeted women and schools and health clinics catering to their needs.

Amnesty International was told of Taleban insurgents blocking roads to prevent
civilians from escaping as villages fell under heavy bombardment by government
forces. The insurgents also increased the likelihood of civilian causalities by
dispersing themselves among civilians and in and around schools.

Successive Pakistani governments have treated the tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan with disdain, ignoring the rights of the area’s residents,
particular in FATA.

Over the past decade, Pakistan’s government has veered from appeasing the
Pakistani Taleban through a series of failed “peace deals” to
launching heavy handed military operations that include indiscriminate or
disproportionate attacks.

The USA’s use of drones to target insurgents in northwest Pakistan has
generated considerable resentment inside Pakistan. Amnesty International has
called on the USA to clarify its chain of command and rules of engagement for
the use of drones and ensure proper accountability for civilian casualties.

Many displaced residents of the area told Amnesty International that they had
suffered under the Taleban and felt abandoned by the Pakistani government. In
the words of one teacher who fled Swat with his family in March 2009:

The government just gave away our lives to the Taleban. What’s the point of
having this huge army if it can’t even protect us against a group of brutal
fanatics? They took over my school and started to teach children about how to
fight in Afghanistan. They kicked out the girls from school, told the men to
grow their beards, threatened anybody they didn’t like. Our government and our
military never tried to protect us from this.

The residents of FATA continue to be governed by a colonial-era law, the
Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901, which denies basic constitutional
rights and protections for the residents of FATA, including their rights to
political representation, judicial appeal, and freedom from collective
punishment.

“For years, FATA has been treated as a stage for geopolitical rivalries
and is currently in focus because of the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan
and the search for al-Qa’ida, rather than the rights of the people living there,”
said Claudio Cordone. “The Pakistani government should not just respond
using military force; it needs to provide and protect the basic rights of its
citizens living there.”

The FCR gives a government-appointed Political Agent ultimate judicial and executive
authority, including the ability to carry out communal punishment, including
formal detention, by holding all members of a tribe potentially responsible for
alleged infractions committed by any tribe member.  

The Constitution of Pakistan of 1973 explicitly excludes FATA from the legal,
judicial and parliamentary system of Pakistan, including barring residents from
full representation in parliament and from bringing appeals to a higher court
outside the territory.  

The government of Pakistan has recently promised to reform the FCR but this has
not yet happened.  

“The Pakistani government has to follow through on its promises to bring
the region out of this human rights black hole and place the people of FATA
under the protection of the law and constitution of Pakistan,” said
Claudio Cordone. “There is no quick fix for decades of misrule and the
conflict of the past few years, but the road to recovery starts with
recognizing the rights of the people of FATA.”

Amnesty International urges both the Pakistani government and the Taleban to
comply with international humanitarian law by taking all measures to prevent
loss of civilian life and buildings including hospitals and schools and
allowing unfettered NGO access to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to
the injured and displaced.