'Tribesmen Pawns in "Duplicitous" Game', The National, 3 November 2009
EXCERPT: "Tribesmen from South Waziristan, where Pakistani security forces are battling Taliban and al Qa’eda militants, say they are the perpetual victims of a 30-year-old geopolitical power play that has seen their needs ignored by the state and alienated them from their compatriots. The older generation of Mehsud and Wazir tribesmen, many of whom fought Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, say they have grown old watching the ebb and flow of superpower interest in the area. In a series of telephone and written interviews from the north-western city of Dera Ismail Khan, the launch pad of the current military operation, they said the conflict in South Waziristan was the inevitable outcome of the opposing relationships between competing forces, whose interests sometimes overlap. They listed the competing forces as the Pakistan military, local and foreign intelligence agencies, and domestic and foreign militants. 'Today’s situation is the result of that duplicitous relationship. On the surface, they are behaving as foes, but underneath they are working together,'said Bismillah Jan Mehsud, a retired policeman living in DI Khan. 'In practice, it is only the public that gets crushed between them...'"
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Related articles:
A war that can't be won: Pakistan creates its own enemy, Le Monde Diplomatique, 2 November 2009
Pakistan offers Taliban bounties, BBC News, 2 November 2009
Pakistan villagers take up guns, stick against Taliban, Los Angeles Times, 26 October 2009
