US slams Islamic law deal in Pakistan

[Turborama]

Source: AAP

The Obama administration says Pakistan's imposition of Islamic law in a northwest valley to quell a Taliban insurgency undermines human rights.

The comment, by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, is the most pointed criticism the US has made so far of Pakistan's peace efforts in the Swat Valley.

"The administration believes solutions involving security in Pakistan don't include less democracy and less human rights," Gibbs said.

"The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in the Swat Valley ... goes against both of those principles."

=snip=

The deal covers the Malakand division of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a largely conservative region which stretches north along the Afghan border for hundreds of kilometres. The Swat Valley section lies less than 160km from the capital, Islamabad , and is believed to be largely under Taliban control.

Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5499743

[get the red out]

1. Thank you Mr. President

Human rights have to come first. There is nothing more important on this planet than human rights.

[biopowertoday]

2. The US will continue to operate as we have. Human rights will be 2nd

place to our air strikes.

Having said that --I am glad we are condemning this new agreement reached in Pakistan.

[get the red out]

3. We need to keep making noise

about human rights. It is the only way to ever bring this issue to the top.

[biopowertoday]

4. of course we do.

[atreides1]

5. Talk is cheap

But at least it makes some people think that something is being done, even if it isn't.

[biopowertoday]

7. Yes, touch talk does have some value.

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. human rights like 'the right to be bombed by drone'?

that's the most important 'human right' being pushed by the invaders at the moment.

[peace_to_world]

6. Peace deal should be given a chance not criticism

People that belong to these areas distributed sweets when deal was signed.If they want Tehreek-e-nifaaz shariat Muhammedi to lead them then what is the problem with US.

[Turborama]

8. Have you seen what's been going on there lately?

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x296522

[Alamuti Lotus]

10. hey, look what else has been going on there lately

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/04/13-killed-in-Pakistan-drone-attack/UPI-30841238850377/

[ohio2007]

12. Look whats going on tomorrow

We'll impose sharia across all Pakistan: Taliban
PESHAWAR: Radical cleric ......have welcomed imposition of
sharia in NWFP’s Malakand division, saying the ‘‘struggle’’ would continue to implement Islamic law in other parts of the country.

snip
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan echoed Sufi Muhammad’s call for implementation of sharia across Pakistan. ‘‘Our demand for Sharia wasn’t Swat-specific. We’ll continue our struggle for implementation of sharia outside the Pashto-speaking areas,’’ ...
snip

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Well-impose-sharia-across-Pak-Taliban/articleshow/4402011.cms

All aboard the "peace train"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3768586#3771951

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNxKnLmOH4&feature=related

[Turborama]

13. ‘Sharia doesn't permit us to lay down arms': Muslim Khan (Re: Swat peace deal)

ANI Islamabad, Apr. 15 (ANI): Pakistani's Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their struggle 'to new areas', a militant spokesman said today.

'Sharia doesn't permit us to lay down arms,' Muslim Khan said by telephone. 'If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it's out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms.'

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, signed a regulation on Monday imposing sharia law in the Swat valley to end Taliban violence. The strategy of appeasement has alarmed US officials, while critics say the government has demonstrated a lack of capacity and will to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.

=snip=

But a Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the scenic valley, a one-time tourist destination 125 km northwest of Islamabad, said they would be keeping their guns. He said "When we achieve our goal at one place, there are other reas where we need to struggle for it."

Judging by the rest of the article, they are making their intentions and end game clear: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/86196


Related editorial:


Divine Logic

Dawn.com’s Huma Yusuf argues that we shouldn’t forget the past just because Sufi Mohammad wants us to.

Now that the Nizam-i-Adl regulation has been passed, women in Swat can be punished for emerging from behind the veil. Drug addicts and bribe takers will be maligned through robust campaigns while prostitutes and pimps are to be expelled from the valley. The sale of CDs will be restricted and hoarders will be exposed and reprimanded.

Even corrupt police officers will be checked by the ever vigilant members of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM). In other words, all manner of minor transgressors and petty criminals who offend right-wing, religious sensibilities will be dragged to qazi courts in the name of justice.

But Taliban militants who have blown up girls’ schools, kidnapped security and media personnel, and beheaded innocents get off scot-free.

On Tuesday, TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad claimed that the new regulation would protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution. According to an article in Dawn:

Asked on Tuesday in a television interview whether the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about Mullah Fazlullah or his followers, Sufi Mohammad said they could not. ‘We intend to bury the past,’ the TNSM chief told a private television channel, sitting off-screen. ‘Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace.’

Read more (with embedded links): http://dawntravelshow.com/dblog/2009/04/15/divine-logic/

[and-justice-for-all]

11. The Taliban will most likely be taking over if Pakistan falls apart..

which looks like the way its headed. I watched a very god episode on Frontline last night on this very thing
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

[friedgreentomatoes]

14. Finally!

A soft criticism of US's blue-eyed boy, Pakistan!

:bounce: :bounce: