Negotiate or Fight?
We keep hearing about the supremacy of negotiation over confrontation. Better to talk than fight, we often hear.
In an ideal world, that would no doubt be true. In the world we live in, this is the result:
Pakistani Taliban Say They Killed 28 Men From Peace Group
By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
The New York Times: June 26, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The bodies of 28 members of a government-sponsored peace committee were found dumped on a road near the tribal area of South Waziristan on Wednesday, Pakistan officials said. The Pakistani Taliban said the men were killed because they supported the government, according to a Taliban statement made to a local journalist.
The peace committee was attacked by forces of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, near the town of Jandola on Monday, not far from the Afghan border, said the district coordinating officer, Berkatullah Marwat.
The attack on the peace committee sent a particularly chilling message because it was a brutal tactic by Mr. Mehsud’s forces to quash pro-government groups in the region, tribal elders said. The killings appeared to be a direct challenge to the policy of the new Pakistani government to negotiate with militants rather than use military force. Some of the men had been shot; others had their throats slit.
“This is a message to the tribal area that whoever sides with the government will meet the same fate,” said Mirza Jihadi, an elder from the tribal areas. He added that the killings of the peace committee members were intended “as a lesson” to people who try to resist the Taliban.
Maulavi Omar, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said Wednesday that the 28 men were killed on orders of a Taliban court that conducted proceedings against the men, according to the statement received by Sailab Mehsud, a journalist in the town of Dera Ismail Khan.
I'd say the Pakistani Taliban are in dire need of killing.
In an ideal world, that would no doubt be true. In the world we live in, this is the result:
Pakistani Taliban Say They Killed 28 Men From Peace Group
By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
The New York Times: June 26, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The bodies of 28 members of a government-sponsored peace committee were found dumped on a road near the tribal area of South Waziristan on Wednesday, Pakistan officials said. The Pakistani Taliban said the men were killed because they supported the government, according to a Taliban statement made to a local journalist.
The peace committee was attacked by forces of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, near the town of Jandola on Monday, not far from the Afghan border, said the district coordinating officer, Berkatullah Marwat.
The attack on the peace committee sent a particularly chilling message because it was a brutal tactic by Mr. Mehsud’s forces to quash pro-government groups in the region, tribal elders said. The killings appeared to be a direct challenge to the policy of the new Pakistani government to negotiate with militants rather than use military force. Some of the men had been shot; others had their throats slit.
“This is a message to the tribal area that whoever sides with the government will meet the same fate,” said Mirza Jihadi, an elder from the tribal areas. He added that the killings of the peace committee members were intended “as a lesson” to people who try to resist the Taliban.
Maulavi Omar, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said Wednesday that the 28 men were killed on orders of a Taliban court that conducted proceedings against the men, according to the statement received by Sailab Mehsud, a journalist in the town of Dera Ismail Khan.
I'd say the Pakistani Taliban are in dire need of killing.