Uncertainty prevails over Afghan security handover

 

The push by Afghanistan s president to nationalize legions of private security guards before the end of March is encouraging corruption and jeopardizing multibillion-dollar aid projects, according to companies trying to make the switch.

 

President Hamid Karzai has railed for years against the large number of guns-for-hire in Afghanistan, saying private security companies skirt the law and risk becoming militias. He ordered them abolished in 2009 and eventually set March 20 of this year as the deadline for everyone except NATO and diplomatic missions to switch to government-provided security.

 

Afghan officials are rushing to meet the cutoff with the help of NATO advisers. But with fewer than six weeks to go, it s likely that many components will still be missing on March 20. And even once everything falls into place, higher costs and issues of authority over the government guards will remain.

 

The change imperils billions of dollars of aid flowing into Afghanistan, particularly from the United States. In a country beset by insurgent attacks and suicide bombings, the private development companies that implement most of the U.S. aid agency s programs employ private guards to protect compounds, serve as armed escorts and guard construction sites.

 

On March 21, approximately 11,000 guards now working for private security firms will become government employees as members of the Afghan Public Protection Force, or APPF. They will still be working in the same place with the same job. Except now they ll answer to the Interior Ministry.

 

“We don t want to have security gaps. This is really important to our customers and to us,” said the head of the APPF, Deputy Minister Jamal Abdul Naser Sidiqi. It will happen, he says, because the presidential order says it has to.

 

Officially, everyone is optimistic.

 

“The APPF is now open for business,” a U.S. embassy official said, speaking anonymously to discuss private agency contracts.

 

But many are still worried that the entire plan could fall apart. Development contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development told The Associated Press they were explicitly told not to discuss the changeover with reporters because media attention could endanger the delicate process. Everyone critical of APPF insisted on speaking anonymously for this article.

 

Last week the chairman of the House subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing concern that the APPF may not be ready to take over security for aid projects.

 

Even so, no one expects that there will be a visible problem on March 21.

 

“The guys who guard our gates today wear a certain baseball hat, and on the 21st of March they ll come wearing a different uniform. It should be pretty seamless,” said Bill Haight, head of an infrastructure-building project run by Louis Berger Group and Black and Veach. He said his projects are nearly finished and so he doesn t expect many problems.

 

But companies with long-running projects are worried. New contracts and operating rules will probably still be in the works when the deadline hits.

 

The APPF has yet to sign a contract to provide security for any of the approximately 75 companies expected to switch over to government guards in March, according to Noorkhan Haidari, the APPF business manager.
And international firms that are expected to act as middlemen managing the guards are having trouble getting licensed.

 

Though about 20 companies have said they plan to register as so-called Risk Management Companies, or RMCs, only one license has been issuedreportedly after a wait of about two months. Others trying to get licensed say the required documents change every day.

 

Meanwhile, the Afghan Foreign Ministry has also denied visas to foreign workers for at least three security companies that are trying to get registered as RMCs or are working on one of the exempt contracts, according to a security adviser for a major development contractor. These firms have been told they have to wait for new procedures under the new APPF system. But given that they don t have much time to get everything in line, they re increasingly looking at what bribes they can pay to make it happen, the same person said.

 

Firms don t have to hire RMCs, but they add a level of management and oversight that meets the standards of international organizations.

 

Companies have long hired private guards precisely because they don t trust the Afghan police to protect them in a crisis. The United Nations used Afghan police to guard its staff housing until an 2009 attack on a residential hotel in which Taliban assailants quickly made it past police guards and killed five U.N. staffers. The U.N. has since increased its security to include foreign guards.

 

Afghans working with APPF have gone so far as to urge the business licensing agency to “stop stalling the process,” according to a letter sent to U.S. government officials by a development company and obtained by the AP.
“The painfully slow momentum of the various Afghan government entities may have scuppered the chances of a timely handover to the APPF,” the letter argues.

 

Sidiqi said the complaints of delays were overblown, noting that there is a standard three-day licensing process. If there are delays, he said it is because the would-be RMCs are dragging it out.

 

“We need the RMCs,” Sidiqi said. “They have the experience.”

 

He dismissed the possibility of bribery. “This is a legal government organization, so corruption is not going to be possible,” Sidiqi said.

 

But with so much undecided, some development organizations are opting to hunker down inside their compounds until the details are worked out.

 

A manager with one U.S. government development contractor said the company expects to delay visits to projects in dangerous places until all documents are finalized. The official spoke anonymously to avoid endangering contracts still being negotiated.

 

Going forward, the development company manager worried about recruiting for projects in places like the insurgent-heavy south. Some employees have already said they won t sign on to projects if their only security is going to be APPF guards.

 

But even once the RMCs are licensed and in-country, it is unclear that they will provide an easy transition.
These companies will not be able to directly control the guards that they manage. They can only give advice to an Afghan supervisor. If there s a dispute between the two, it will have to be taken to a government-run arbitration panel.

 

The issue has already caused problems on APPF-guarded projects before the mandatory switch. During the 2010 parliamentary elections, Afghan police pulled a group of APPF guards who were protecting a railroad construction project in the northern province of Balkh off their posts to guard polling stations, according to the former APPF commander.

 

“I told them it was a violation of the law but they said you have to do it. I was obliged,” said Sayed Asghar Asgari. So he gave over 50 of his 462 guards. The guards were returned four days later, but the incident shows the potential for a blurring of lines between the Afghan security forces and guard units.

 

And as budgets for aid projects are decreasing, the APPF program is likely to increase security costs substantially.
An APPF guard will cost at least $770 a month, according to an AP analysis of official government figures, while private security providers contacted for this story say they usually charge $510-$630 a month per guard.

 

To avoid pay cuts for guards, individual companies will have to supplement salaries. And any costs for RMC managers will be on top of this. Once these expenses are figured in, security costs could easily double under the APPF.

 

It is still not clear what these changes will mean for existing USAID contracts. The aid agency has given no overarching guidance for how it will deal with delays or higher costs, though it has urged its partners to review their individual contracts to decide what their obligations and rights will be, the U.S. embassy official said.

 

Meanwhile, the Afghan government won t officially have all the APPF guards trained for more than a year. By March 20, about 1,840 of the existing guard force will have gone through the formal training program, which graduates about 220 people every three weeks, according to a NATO official who spoke anonymously to discuss an Afghan government program.

 

The hope is that on-the-job training will be enough in the near term, especially since most private security guards will probably agree to join the APPF. But like much with the APPF right now, it is just a hope.
“It is very complicated and very difficult, but we are trying our best,” Sidiqi said.
 

US committee discusses Balochistan issue

TrendPK.com
WASHINGTON: The United States (US) Committee on Foreign Affairs convened a congressional meeting for an exclusive discussion on Balochistan.

Addressing a news briefing here, US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said her country is not in support of independent Balochistan.

It should be mentioned here the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs was briefed on situation in Balochistan and some of the members put forward some proposals, too.

A Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who recently co-authored an article with Congressman Louie Gohmert expressing support for an independent Balochistan, held the province a strategically vital but, turbulence and insurgency-hit area.

Nuland confirmed the meeting on Balochistan; but, said the US position on Balochistan has not changed, adding her country encourages all the factions involved in the province to tackle all their differences peacefully and under political process. TrendPK

Analysis – Iran war buys West time but raises tension

LONDON: A backseat passenger on a motorcycle weaving through the crush of Tehran’s morning traffic reaches out and places a small magnetic device on the door of a silver-grey Peugeot 405.

When the directional bomb explodes seconds later, blasting through the sedan’s door and instantly killing nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a 32-year-old father of one, the motorcycle has already vanished, accelerating into the ranks of the Iranian capital’s rush hour.

The proficiency of the latest assassination to deplete Iran’s community of atom specialists suggests that violent actions by one or more of Iran’s adversaries form an increasingly active – and public – element in a multifaceted international drive to impede Iran’s nuclear programme.

Some old espionage hands voice respect for the expert landing of clandestine, deniable blows against a programme the West suspects is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb capability and Iran says is for civilian purposes.

“Ten out of 10. They hit the target and nobody got caught,” former U.S. intelligence officer Robert Ayers told Reuters of the January 11 killing. “What makes these things so impressive is they gather a lot of information and do their ‘on the ground’ homework, which can take months.”

Sidney Alford, a British explosives expert, says the hit was technically “professional. It worked and it worked very well.”

But whoever the apparently adept perpetrators were, the attack appears to form part of a quickening series of sabotage and assassinations that is growing less covert by the month.

And the more visible the cloak-and-dagger campaign grows, some analysts argue, the more acute its affront to national prestige and sovereignty, and the deeper the siege mentality widely held to motivate Iran’s drive for nuclear prowess.

PRESSURE, OR REGIME CHANGE?

Ahmadi-Roshan was the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in the past two years; another scientist survived an explosion that wounded him and his wife.

Iran says scientists have also been kidnapped, a computer virus attacked its nuclear equipment, and a massive explosion at a military base, which Iran called an accident, killed more than a dozen officers including the head of the Revolutionary Guards missile programme.

The campaign, coinciding with a toughening of economic sanctions, may strain any discreet diplomatic feelers between Tehran and Washington, some Western analysts say.

Iran is in defiant mood.

“If Israel thinks they can prevent our studies with four terrorist attacks, it’s a very weak way of thinking… Everybody will learn that they can’t stop us with such actions,” said Iran parliament speaker Ali Larijani the day after the killing.

Ali Vaez and Charles D. Ferguson of the Federation of American Scientists wrote that “such acts of terrorism” are unlikely to significantly delay or deter Tehran’s nuclear work.

“The resulting climate of insecurity feeds ammunition to hardliners in Tehran demanding reprisals.”

Ahmadi-Roshan’s killing happened less than two weeks after the Obama administration signed into law an unprecedented tightening of sanctions aimed at Iranian oil exports.

To some, the evident effectiveness of tougher sanctions in getting the attention of Tehran’s leaders might obviate at least for the moment any need for a resort to clandestine methods.

In response to a new U.S. law targeting Iranian oil income Tehran threatened to choke the West’s supply of Gulf oil if its exports are hit. Washington warned that the U.S. navy was ready to open fire to prevent any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s seaborne traded oil passes.

“In this process of ever-accelerating sanctions, we have arrived at a point where sanctions begin to blur into actual warfare,” wrote Iran expert and former U.S. official Gary Sick.

“If the sanctions succeed in their purpose of cutting off nearly all oil exports from Iran, that is the equivalent of a blockade of Iran’s oil ports, an act of war.”

Meanwhile, spectacular mishaps in Iran’s nuclear programme or military facilities appear to be multiplying, in tandem with a series of espionage-related incidents that have raised the diplomatic temperature, including an Iranian court’s sentencing of an Iranian-American man to death for spying and the apparent malfunctioning and crash in eastern Iran of a U.S. drone.

INDIGNANT

The attacks are making some in the West uncomfortable.

Hans Blix, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1981-97 and a former Swedish foreign minister, told Reuters: “”When it comes to the murder… What is the effectiveness of it?

“I think people will be indignant, and in fact not only in Iran. I think people everywhere are indignant.”

The result of more frequent and public attacks could be increased tension, analysts say, raising risks of a clash between U.S. and Iranian forces in the Gulf or of a unilateral Israeli air strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, either one of which might result in temporary closure of the strategic waterway.

Iranian officials remember well that before Israel’s 1981 air strike on a nuclear reactor in Iraq, there were similar acts of sabotage and assassination attributed largely to Israel.

John Cochrane, a defence specialist at London-based Exclusive Analysis, told Reuters that the killings in Iran could be seen as effective “in the narrow sense” that they sought an erosion in Iran’s nuclear expertise.

“But clearly the big risk is that the Iranians are quick to point the finger at Israel or the U.S., so there is no particular restraint on their (Iranian) side from carrying out some particular asymmetric attack which has the risk of producing a spiral of violence.”

“Israel is the key player. It is the state that sees itself as under existential threat and has the capacity, just, to exercise a strike option.”

Metsa Rahimi of Janusian security consultants in London said the killings had failed to deter Iran’s nuclear programme since “the Iranian regime’s will is made of stronger stuff and most (of its leaders) would probably say that the death of a few scientists will not be decisive in this game.”

“WAR-FATIGUED”

The day after the assassination, Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani reiterated on a visit to Turkey that Iran wanted to restart negotiations with six world powers to resolve the nuclear row. The last talks collapsed a year ago.

Western countries have so far refused Iran’s proposal for more talks, arguing that it is a waste of time because Tehran will not discuss halting its uranium enrichment.

Speculation has lingered about a possible divergence of views between the United States and Israel on tactics. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to the January 11 killing by saying the United States had nothing to do with any “violent acts inside Iran” and condemning such actions.

U.S. Iran expert Sick wrote: “The U.S. government had made no such intervention in previous assassination cases. If the perpetrator was, as widely suspected, Israel, this was a serious warning not to interfere in U.S. diplomatic efforts.”

He wrote that while the Israeli government distrusted the diplomatic track, the Obama administration had looked hard at the potential effects of a war with Iran and “has decided that a return to the negotiating track is essential.”

Asked where the Iran standoff was heading, Blix replied: “For the moment the decibel level is fairly high. But it is clear to me that the Obama administration, that cannot allow itself to be described as soft and that says that ‘all options are on the table’… that the Obama administration does not want war and bombing. That is quite clear.”

“The American public is clearly somewhat war-fatigued.”

Israel and its main allies are on common ground on much when it comes to Iran. Israel, the United States and Britain have all made clear that they view covert operations as a sensible alternative to conventional military action.

Last year’s Stuxnet computer worm, which damaged computers used in industrial machinery, was widely believed to have been a U.S.-Israeli attack to cripple Iranian nuclear centrifuges.

KILLINGS “UNACCEPTABLE”

In a speech at Reuters London offices in 2010, John Sawers, overseas espionage chief of U.S. ally Britain, made an unusually forthright comment on the topic, saying that stopping nuclear proliferation could not be done just by conventional diplomacy.

“We need intelligence-led operations to make it more difficult for countries like Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The longer international efforts delay Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons technology, the more time we create for a political solution to be found.”

But it is not clear that the United States and its European allies believe subversion acts involving violence are prudent.

One former senior European intelligence strategist told Reuters killings were “an unacceptable tactic.”

The scars of the Iraq war, which was launched on information about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programmes that turned out to be false, run very deep.

A 2011 RAND Corporation study led by former U.S. diplomat James Dobbins said that U.S. military options apart from conventional air strikes included “show-of-force operations in the Persian Gulf, cyberwarfare, and a broad-based air campaign against political and military targets.”

But Dobbins’s report argues that while covert action might slow the Iranian nuclear programme it is unlikely to stop it and might have “the unintended consequence of fortifying the regime’s resolve in continuing the nuclear program.”

Israel does not comment directly on covert operations but it is suspected by some of viewing more favourably than its allies covert actions that risk or seek to inflict bloodshed.

Israel says it has no option but to take seriously appeals by Iranian leaders for Israel’s demise, calls that have prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to liken them to the Nazis.

NOT SHEDDING TEARS

And to those who object to assassination on moral grounds, Israel’s supporters such as Louis Ren Beres, Professor of International Law at Purdue University, Indiana, say such targeted killings may be justified in self-defence.

“As long as Iran proudly announces its literally genocidal intentions toward Israel, while simultaneously and illegally developing nuclear weapons and infrastructures, Jerusalem has no reasonable choice but to protect itself with the best means available,” he wrote.

Any Israeli pre-emptive measures, he wrote, would perhaps involve “the targeted killing of selected enemy scientists or military figures and substantially expanded cyber-warfare.”

Israel’s intelligence minister Dan Meridor distanced himself from the January 11 killing, saying “I don’t know this subject.”

But at other times Israeli officials have sometimes reacted to news of the periodic mishaps in Iran’s nuclear programme by issuing denials or comments that have bordered on the laconic.

“I don’t know who settled the score with the Iranian scientist, but I am definitely not shedding any tears,” Israel’s military spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai said on his Facebook page.

In November, days after a mysterious explosion was reported near the city of Isfahan, Meridor himself told Israeli Army Radio: “There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat.”

Exclusive Analysis’s John Cochrane noted that while there was no evidence of Israeli involvement “the Israelis don’t seem to mind giving the impression that they may have been.”

“COVERT WAR BEING WAGED”

Some Middle East watchers such as former British diplomat Carne Ross thinks the one option that has not been tried seriously is simply talking to Iran about regional security.

Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme were understandable but the Iranians “have a covert war being waged against them…tension is mounting and conflict would be disastrous for everybody, so we have to examine alternatives.”

“If they feel threatened the one way to address this is to talk about it with them,” he said.

But other experts say the mistrust between Iran and Washington is so great that the prospects of contacts are poor.

Economic sanctions may be far more effective than any covert operation, some analysts say.

Prices of staples are soaring, the rial currency has plummeted and inflation is rising rapidly. Working class Iranians are under economic pressure. With the parliamentary elections in March, the first nationwide vote since 2009, the Iranian clerical establishment is worried that Iranians might stay away from the ballot boxes over economic dissatisfaction.

The last Iranian election was followed by eight months of violent protests. The authorities successfully put the uprising down through force, but since then the Arab Spring has shown the vulnerability of governments in the region to public anger fuelled by economic hardship.

Despite the mounting tension, Iranian leaders have to stick to the country’s nuclear course, because otherwise they will risk losing their core hardline supporters, also essential to secure a high turnout in the March vote, analysts say.

“Iranians have always managed to cope with sanctions, but now with talks about oil embargo the authorities feel cornered. That is why they have increased the volume of harsh rhetoric,” said Iranian analyst Khosro Karami.

“They will do anything to prevent street unrest, which will jeopardise the clerical establishment’s existence.” AGENCIES

Clinton says U.N. Security Council failed Syria

SANTO DOMINGO: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the U.N. Security Council failed its duty by not passing a resolution on Syria and said Russia and China would have to explain their vetoes to the Syrian people.

“We believe the Security Council abrogated its responsibility yesterday,” Clinton told reporters, saying the measure vetoed by Russia and China represented the “bare minimum” of what the international community should do in response to the bloody crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The countries that chose to veto the resolution will have to offer their own explanations to the Syrian people, and to all others who are fighting for freedom and human rights around the world,” Clinton said in the Dominican Republic, where she was on an official visit.

Russia and China, which with the United States are veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, on Monday blocked a European-drafted resolution urging Syria to halt its six-month crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. .

The vote came after months of disagreement between the United States and European council members on the one hand and Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa on the other about how to deal with Syria, where the United Nations estimates that at least 2,700 civilians have died since the crackdown began in March.

“The United States and our European allies have made very clear where we stand on this issue,” Clinton said, adding what appeared to be a veiled reference to past Russian and Chinese weapons sales to the Assad government.

“Those countries that continue to send weapons to the Assad regime that are turned against innocent men, women and even children, should look hard at what they are doing,” Clinton said.

“Those nations are standing on the wrong side of history. They are protecting the wrong side in this dispute. And the

Syrian people are not likely to forget that, and nor should they.” AGENCIES

China flood deaths rise to 57, thousands evacuated

Heavy rains and floods across China have left 57 people dead, dozens of others missing and hundreds injured, while more than a million residents have been evacuated from their homes, the government said.

Unprecedented rains over the past week have swamped parts of northern, central and southwest China, and although the affected region is breathing a tentative sigh of relief as the downpours pause, rivers continue to swell.

 

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement that the rain had forced authorities to evacuate more than 1.2 million people from their homes.

 

“Constant strong rainfall has caused serious flood disasters in Sichuan (southwest), Shaanxi (north) and Henan (central China) — 12.3 million people were affected, 57 died and 29 are missing,” it said late Monday.

 

More than 120,000 houses have collapsed and economic losses from damaged houses, crops and land is estimated to have reached 17.27 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), it added.

 

Authorities have dispatched work teams to help with relief efforts, and plan to distribute thousands of tents, cots, blankets and clothing, the ministry said.

 

One area of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Bazhong, was severely affected, with 13 people left dead, 10 missing and 156 injured, a spokesman for the local government told the official China Daily newspaper.

 

Over the weekend, officials in Sichuan s Dazhou and Guangan regions ordered the evacuation of over 600,000 people as major tributaries to the Yangtze — China s longest river — exceeded danger levels, the Xinhua news agency said.

 

The Jialing river was recorded nearly seven metres (23 feet) above alert levels, and waters were expected to rise to their highest levels since record-keeping began in 1847, it added.

 

China is hit by big downpours every summer. Last year saw the nation s worst flooding in a decade, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

UN appeals for $357m for flood-ravaged Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations on Sunday launched an appeal to raise 356.9 million dollars under its Rapid Response Plan 2011, which will be spent initially on 91 projects in the flood affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan, due to heavy monsoon rains.

The Rapid Response Plan 2011 was launched here at a local hotel by Humanitarian Coordinator of United Nations, Timo Pakkala at a ceremony where Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan was the chief guest.

Representatives of diplomatic community, UN organizations, government departments, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and others were present on the occasion in which the UN Humanitarian Coordinator launched this plan.

The Rapid Response Plan has been launched on the appeal made by President Asif Ali Zardari after his visit to the flood affected areas of Sindh when he phoned the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for generating funds from the international community to help the victims due to gravity of the devastation caused by unprecedented rains.

It is an initial plan for emergency needs, which will be reviewed after a month to assess the actual needs, when the complete destruction and damage data will be compiled from the affected areas.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan while addressing the launching of the Rapid Response Plan said unprecedented heavy rainfall have affected  23 districts of Sindh and five districts of Balochistan.

The Minister said the situation further compounded due to a number of breaches in all the irrigation channels and Left Bank Out Fall Drain.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said, unfortunately 342  precious lives have been lost due to the floods while 633 persons were injured and millions of people are vulnerable to different diseases, particularly acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria and  infections.

She said, “More than 7.1 million people have been directly affected out of which 491,000 people have been accommodated in 2618 relief camps.”

As many as 1.3 million houses have been damaged and over 6 million acres of land including 2 million acres cultivated land has been affected, she added.

The Minister said heavy damages to property, infrastructure, agriculture and livestock have been reported, however, the actual damages could be ascertained after detailed damages and needs assessment is carried out.

The Information Minister said the Government of Pakistan, under the dynamic leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, despite being faced with resource constraints, has so far mobilized approximately 166,000 tents, over 869,000 family food packs and a large number of other relief items including blankets, mosquito nets, water purification units, medicines and jerry cans etc.

She said, “The government had tried its best to cope with the situation by itself, however, due to the sheer scale of the disaster it came to the conclusion that the situation exceeds the capacity of any single stakeholder.”

She said in view of this President Asif Ali Zardari requested UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to supplement the Government’s efforts.

The Minister hoped that the people of Pakistan would receive similar generous support as has been extended by friends and international community in the past for the Rapid Response Plan of $356 million.

“We are confident that the Rapid Response Plan – Pakistan Floods 2011, launched today, jointly by Pakistan Government and the UN would receive the required funds from donors,” she added.

The Minister said Pakistan government together with the UN would ensure transparency and accountability in the utilization and delivery of the assistance to the affected people in a most efficient manner.

She said it is natural disaster as people of Pakistan especially living in Sindh are unfortunately once again passing through great hardship due to unexpected and unprecedented heavy monsoon rains.

She said Pakistan is prone to hydro meteorological disasters; however, the frequency and intensity of such disasters have increased in the recent past, primarily due to climate change phenomenon experienced all over the world.

The Minister said a well placed three-tier disaster management system consisting of district, provincial and national disaster management authorities has been evolved by the government.

Referring to the issue of visa and permission to the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international community to reach to the flood affected areas, the Information Minister assured that there is no such problem and government of Pakistan has been facilitating the donors in this regard.

She said previous response of international community so far was due to Pakistan’s personal efforts at international level while the UN has launched its campaign today and expressed the hope that there will be good response of this campaign.

Humanitarian Coordinator of United Nations, Timo Pakkala while announcing the Rapid Response Plan said it is basically for the 91 projects identified initially to provide shelter, food, medicines and clean drinking water in the affected areas.

He said the UN has already started supply of food, shelter, medicines and other basic needs of life to the flood affected areas without waiting for the funds to be generated.

Timo Pakkala said this plan is for initial response to the victims and it will be reviewed after 45 days to revise the needs and demands of the people of the affected areas.

Giving some details, he said, with the present resources of Pakistan government, only 30 percent shelter could be provided to the homeless victims.

He said out of 5.44 million affected people there are 2.60 million women and 1.96 million children, while 1.8 million people have been displaced and 1.0 million houses have been damaged.

He said 64 percent people in the flood affected areas are without clean drinking water while 67 percent food stock of the people had been destroyed.

He said 70 percent crops in the area have been damaged while 280,000 families have lost their livestock.

Replying to a question, Timo Pakkala said so far no country has announced its pledge under the Rapid Response Plan 2011 adding that some of the countries have already announced their donations before.

He however clarified that it will be up to the donor countries either they want to contribute directly on bilateral basis or they can contribute through this Rapid Response Plan.

He said Rapid Response Plan is for providing immediate relief and after its revision, a fresh plan would be prepared for reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of other basic facilities to the flood victims.

Brigadier Sajid Naeem, representing National Disaster Management Authority explained the contingent plan and ongoing efforts of the NDMA for the assistance of flood victims.

He said NDMA has been coordinating with other departments of the federal and provincial governments and international community to provide best possible help to the flood victims without delay.

He said the NDMA had already prepared a contingent plan according to the reports of Met office, but the rains were much more than the assessments of Met office and beyond the capacity of the canals and rivers that created more damage. AGENCIES

Clinton tells Pakistan to deal with Haqqani threat

The Obama administration is pressing Pakistan to help the US fight the Haqqani insurgent network after last week s attacks on the American embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.

US officials say Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, that the Taliban-affiliated militants must be dealt with. They say Khar agreed with Clinton that the Haqqani network was a threat to Americans and Pakistanis alike.

The officials spoke about the private meeting on condition of anonymity.

Clinton met Khar in New York, a day after the US ambassador to Islamabad cited evidence linking the network to the Pakistani government. The charge risked raising tensions in the anti-terror alliance.

The officials said Clinton and Khar s three-and-a-half-hour meeting started and ended with counterterrorism.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman and US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter also attended the meeting.

1.2m homes destroyed, 4.5m acres flooded, 230 people dead

This has been estimated by the local officials and Western aid groups. More than 300,000 people have been moved to shelters. Some 800,000 families hit by last year s floods are still homeless. Aid groups have warned of a growing risk of fatal diseases.

Last year, the military took charge of rescue and relief efforts, along with aid groups. The army is active again in the latest disaster. But some Pakistanis are growing impatient with it as well. Juman and his extended family fled when water as high as 12 feet (3.6 metres) raged through their village. Home has been a thatched hut on a roadside for several weeks in another village called Mohammad Yusuf.

“We go to the army and we have been asking for food, but they beat us with sticks and told us to leave,” said Juman, who added he was turned away because the army camp was already overwhelmed. “They scared us away.” The military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, is seen as the only institution that can handle crises in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation.

Pakistan s cash-strapped government already faces many challenges, from growing frustration over power cuts to a stubborn Taliban insurgency. Disillusionment with the state can drive young men to join militant groups waging a violent campaign to topple the U.S.-backed government. Some flood victims are turning to the Al Khidmat charity which is linked to the most influential Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

JI is not believed to have ties with the Taliban or other banned groups. Nevertheless, its relief efforts in last year s floods and other natural disasters helped discredit the government because of its relative efficiency. At a camp consisting of rows of white tents, green and blue JI flags flutter. Organisers wearing bright orange vests and badges organise flood victims.
People have to drink rain water and wash clothes in it but there is some relief.

“When we arrived there wasn t a camp here. They set the camp up and gave us the tents,” said Shabira, 35, holding her baby. “Now we are getting food every day.” Pakistani leaders are facing pressure on the diplomatic front as well. Islamabad s ties with Washington have been heavily strained since a unilateral US raid killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May.

There were signs that ties were under repair when the allies recently spoke of counter-terrorism cooperation. But fresh tension has emerged. A US warning on militants based in Pakistan, blamed by Washington for this week s attack on the US Embassy in Kabul, works against counter-terrorism cooperation between the two allies, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

It was referring to comments by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that Washington would do whatever it takes to defend American forces in Afghanistan from Pakistan-based militants Gilani may have wanted to meet senior American officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to try to patch up ties with Washington, the source of billions of dollars in aid.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is expected to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the United States on Sept. 18. She will be addressing the General Assembly in Gilani s place.

Kadhafi in top health, planning defence: spokesman

NICOSIA: Moamer Kadhafi is “in excellent health and planning and organising Libya’s defence,” his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told Syria’s Arrai television channel on Monday.

“We are still powerful,” he said, adding that the sons of the toppled dictator “had assumed their role in the defence of and sacrifice for” their country.

Pledging “a fight to the death or until victory,” Ibrahim, who is thought to be in the loyalist oasis town of Bani Walid that has been besieged by anti-Kadhafi fighters, said: “We will fight and resist for Libya and for all Arabs.”

Ibrahim branded the new rulers “NATO agents” and accused them of “committing crimes, above all rape, murder and looting.”

He said: “Libya will never fall and the worthy tribes are defending and will continue to defend each of the free towns and recapture those that have been raped.” AGENCIES

Emerging powers launch Syria peace bid

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