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A mortal threat to world peace
Ed Harris23.04.09
Hillary Clinton has attacked the Pakistani government for "abdicating to the Taliban" by allowing extremists to impose Islamic law in parts of the country.
The US Secretary of State said in a congressional hearing that she believes the government has given the Taliban sway over parts of the country because it is no longer credible to many of its citizens.
In comments that are certain to raise the temperature between the two countries, Mrs Clinton told the panel that the situation in Pakistan posed a "mortal threat" to world security.
She said that many Pakistanis, especially in the countryside, did not believe the state had a judiciary system that works. "It's corrupt, it doesn't convey its power into the countryside," MrsClinton added.
When asked about the introduction of Islamic law in Pakistan's volatile north-west Swat Valley region, she said: "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists."
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed a law this month implementing Sharia law in the region as part of a deal to end a two-year Taliban insurgency. The Swat Valley was once a popular holiday destination but is now mostly under Taliban control. Thousands of people have fled and hundreds of schools have been destroyed in the conflict.
The Swat Valley is 60 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, and there are fears that the Taliban is trying to expand the area under its control.
Giving evidence in Washington to the House foreign affairs committee, and using uncompromising language, Mrs Clinton said the situation in Pakistan needed urgent attention.
"I think that we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan," she said, describing the rebels as a "loosely-confederated group of terrorists and others seeking to overthrow the Pakistani state".
She said Pakistan must begin to deliver government services "otherwise they are going to lose out to those who show up and claim that they can solve people's problems".
President Barack Obama has put fresh emphasis on trying to resolve the security problems in Pakistan. He has offered billions of dollars in aid but demanded greater co-operation from the government. The presidents of both Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan - where international forces are fighting the Taliban - are due to visit Washington for talks next month.
Teresita Schaffer, a former US diplomat who served in Pakistan and now heads the South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said many analysts shared Mrs Clinton's assessment.
"There is deep concern in the US government, and elsewhere in this country, about the implications of the deal in Swat," Ms Schaffer said.
"It represents a cession of state authority to people who have been slitting the throats of policemen in the public square."
Reader views (5)
Pakistsan gets £2bn a year from the west. ITV Dispatches asked schoolboys what they learned. They said they learn the koran in arabic, the west is evil to be attacked, and an only ambition is as suicuide bomber. The teachers claimed pupils learn islam is peace. In multicultural UK that is fine as it is a religion! Sorry to raise a thorny issue, but in the UK muslims are threatened with murder, or killed if they waver from islam. Check the website for the council of ex muslims of Britain. Brown left the borders open and now there are over 300 active terror plots. Has Brown any idea of the damage he has done?
- Jiha, Bradford uk
the west is deaf and have poured billions in that blessed (for a more appropriate word) country and are still not listening
- Beljamine, uk
I am afraid she is right and I beleive that there is a very real possibility that Pakistan will decend into civil war - made even nmore frightining that Pakastan has the Bomb. And if there is civil war, what sill India's reaction be (who also has the bomb), will she allow a Taliban regeim?? or will the rest of the world.
We have to realise that Pakaistan is almost a failed state, and one that has exported terrorism, and yes we will have to be careful about who we allow into the UK from there.
- Jeremy E, London
are you listening brown and cameron? it may not be today but it will be soon.
- Mikeee, peterborough uk
This capitulation by the Pakistani government is, I am afraid, very short sighted.
It allows a base for extremists to operate from and if anyone thinks these Islamic fundamentalists will stop there, then they are very misguided.
We need to look very closely at tightly restricting the flow of people from this country.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
