Crisis Group: integrate Federally Administered Tribal Areas

Today the International Crisis Group released its latest report, "Pakistan’s Tribal Areas: Appeasing the Militants"  which argues that military operations have failed because they alternated between excessive force and appeasement. Empty pledges and amnesties have not worked, and "the government has reinforced administrative and legal structures that undermine the state and spur anarchy."

The solution requires a broader strategy that deals "with the challenges of militancy, governance and extremism in FATA through the rule of law and an extension of civil and political rights."  Click here to view the full report as a pdf, of read on for the Executive Summary. MORE  

1.  Integrate the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), following extensive consultations with local stakeholders, into Northwest Frontier Province as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area (PATA), under executive control of the province and jurisdiction of the regular provincial and national court system and with representation in the provincial legislature.

2.  Remove restrictions on political parties in FATA and introduce party-based elections for the provincial and national legislatures.

3.  Respect and implement Article 8 of the constitution, which voids any customs inconsistent with constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights.

4.  Re-establish the writ of the state and counter militancy in FATA by:

(a)  disarming militants, shutting down terrorist training camps and ending the flow of money and weapons to and recruitment and training by Taliban and other foreign or local militants on Pakistani territory;

(b)  prosecuting those responsible for killing civilians and government officials; and

(c)  preventing militants from establishing parallel administrative structures, demolishing those that exit and prosecuting those who are delivering private justice.

5.  Generate employment in FATA by:

(a)  creating manufacturing/industrial units and providing technical assistance, subsidies and other incentives for agricultural activities;

(b)  developing the area’s natural resources, including minerals and coal; and

(c)  developing human resources by investing in education, including vocational training schools and technical colleges.

6.  Open FATA to the media and allow independent human rights monitors to investigate possible human rights violations and abuses by the civil administration or law-enforcement agencies.

To the Government of Afghanistan:

7.  Work with Pakistan and NATO-ISAF in the military-to-military Tri-Partite Commission to ensure greater coordination in curbing cross-border militancy.

To the United States and the European Union:

8.  Press the Pakistan government to take action against pro-Taliban elements in FATA and publish monthly NATO figures of cross-border incursions into Afghanistan to encourage it to do more on its side of the border.

9.  Make support for Reconstruction Opportunity Zones in the tribal belt conditional on steps by Pakistan to end Taliban-style parallel administrative and judicial structures and ensure participation of moderate stakeholders in identifying and implementing development projects.

10.  Press President Musharraf to allow free, fair and democratic elections in 2007 and give political and economic support for the process.