Clinton 'Broke the Ice' With Pakistanis Angry Over US Role
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clintonended a three-day visit to Pakistan in which she confrontedintense anti-American sentiment in a nuclear-armed country thathas become a central front for violent extremists.
Wielding the celebrity she enjoys in Pakistan as a formerfirst lady who first visited in 1995, Clinton tried to close thetrust deficit that strains U.S.-Pakistani ties. She appeared onlive television and in newspaper pages pledging to supportdemocracy and development and praising the military for itsfive-month campaign against Taliban strongholds.
Clinton “broke the ice” by risking her security to visitLahore and Islamabad, two cities that have suffered terroristattacks, and listening to “suspicion, anger and aggression”from Pakistani audiences, Jugnu Mohsin, publisher of the Lahore-based Friday Times newspaper group, said in an interview.
Meetings with hundreds of Pakistani students,professionals, community leaders and journalists exposed Clintonto public ire over the use of air strikes on suspected terroristhideouts in Pakistan’s tribal areas and over perceived heavy-handed conditions attached to billions of dollars of U.S. aid.
Clinton’s willingness to hear out the tirades and try toexplain the U.S. point of view won her respect, said Mohsin, whowas among leading editors invited to air their opinions.
“Whether the charm offensive works,” she added, “willdepend on how consistent America’s commitment is to impactpeoples’ livelihood.”
$7.5 Billion
In her remarks, Clinton sought to highlight the $7.5billion in aid the U.S. has authorized for upgrading roads,electricity, education and other projects.
The top American diplomat’s efforts to dispel the view thatthe U.S. is dictating to Pakistan and doesn’t care about itspeople or prosperity proved an uphill battle.
An August survey by the Washington-based Pew ResearchCenter showed 64 percent of Pakistanis regard the U.S. as anenemy.
On chairs arranged on red tribal carpets at an arts centerin Islamabad yesterday, Clinton listened to leaders from borderareas caught in the cross-fire between government and Talibanforces.
Faiysal Alikhan, a community organizer in Dera Ismail Khan,an area hard hit by extremist violence, praised Clinton forholding a meeting in the circular format typical of a tribalcouncil.
“The way she interacted, looked everyone in the eye, herbody language demonstrated a level of trust,” he said in aninterview. A larger gathering that followed with femaleprofessionals was “a sort of hostile environment,” he said,“and she handled that in a very honest and straightforwardway.”
Terror Attacks
At the forum hosted by women television anchors, Clintonsought to deflect criticism over what Pakistan’s government sayshave been 528 civilian deaths in an unspecified period frommissile strikes on suspected terrorist targets by U.S. remote-controlled drone aircraft.
Clinton told women who critiqued such strikes as aninfringement on Pakistani sovereignty that al-Qaeda “is inleague with the people who are attacking Pakistan.” Suicidebombings and commando raids by Taliban guerrillas have killed atleast 280 people in the country this month.
Just hours after Clinton arrived in Islamabad on Oct. 27, acar bomb shattered a crowded market in the northwestern city ofPeshawar, killing at least 117 people, many of them women andchildren, in the deadliest attack since October 2007. Sixtyothers are still missing.
Some Praise
After the forum, Begum Salma Ahmed, the founding presidentof the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said she feltClinton’s “visit has gone down better than any by a U.S.official.”
Clinton didn’t mince words when challenged about why thewar on terror focuses so much on Pakistan. Clinton told editorsin the eastern city of Lahore that al-Qaeda has a safe haven inPakistan and she found “it hard to believe that nobody in yourgovernment knows where they are and couldn’t get them if theyreally wanted to.”
Pakistan’s army has launched its largest offensive yetagainst Taliban who control parts of the rugged, autonomoustribal zone along the Afghan border. The campaign isconcentrated in South Waziristan, the base of the Talibanfaction that Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacksin the country.
U.S. Spending
Clinton asked her audience at the women’s forum how manyknew that the U.S. had spent $300 million so far to helpPakistanis uprooted by their army’s assaults on the Taliban.Neither that contribution nor recently passed legislation toauthorize $1.5 billion annually for economic development inPakistan seems to have been taken in the cooperative spirit itwas intended, she said.
“We feel like we’re doing things and we are not gettingthrough,” she said.
One tribal leader complained to Clinton that Pakistan was“fighting your war.” Speaking in Pashto, Mufti Kifayatullah, amember of the local assembly in the North West FrontierProvince, complained “the blood spilled is ours.”
Talks, not military assaults, are needed, he urged.
“I certainly hope there will be an opportunity fornegotiations,” Clinton said, reminding him that the U.S. hadtried to avert war in 2001 by urging the Afghan Taliban to handover the al-Qaeda leaders who perpetrated the Sept. 11 attacks.
To contact the reporter on this story:Indira Lakshmanan in Islamabad at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 30, 2009 22:33 EDTSource: Bloomberg
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