 | | Richard Holbrooke blamed the Taliban for causing civilian suffering in Pakistan |
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has denied the US is responsible for exacerbating civilian suffering in Pakistan by supporting a military assault on the Taliban.
"This is caused by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, let's be absolutely clear on that," Holbrooke aid on Tuesday, before blaming them for breaking a deal with the government. "They are beheading people. They are not messengers of the prophet, they are alien enemies of civilisation and they are acting in ways that are simply not consistent with the Quran or Islam," he said. Holbrooke also said the US was obligated to help Pakistanis displaced by the fighting, which continued in the Swat valley region on Tuesday. "We have to do something, I recognise the obligation," he said after testifying before the US senate on the White House's strategy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. More than 500,000 people have been displaced in recent fighting in the tribal regions of Pakistan, the UN refugee agency has said. Aid package Holbrooke admitted that there had been indequacies in US strategy towards Pakistan and that there were similarities with the conflict in Vietnam. "People ask me if this is another Vietnam and I would say quite frankly there are many similarities ... including, sometimes inadequacies in our own strategies," he told thr senate foreign relations committee. He urged the committee to pass a bill that would triple civilian aid to Pakistan to $7.5bn over the next five years. It would put new emphasis on non-military aid with the aim of transforming Pakistani schools, clinics and roads in the tribal regions affected by the fighting. "That's the only way that we have a prayer here," Holbrooke said. US legislators have criticised the bill saying Pakistan must show greater accountability before the money is signed off.
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