cartoon1

cartoon1

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pakistan says: don't blame us

Ok then, who shall take the responsibility? Between Pakistan and Afghanistan there
is enough to give both of them equal share. Of course, our decisions in both
theatres has been less than stellar yet among the players we are the lesser of the
evils.



From Reuters/Yahoo June 28 by Hamid Shalizi and Michael Holden in London

Pakistan says stop "blame game" at U.S., Afghan talks

KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan called on Tuesday for the "blame game" to stop as the
United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan met to discuss security in the region amid a
Taliban insurgency and heightened tensions over cross border shelling.


Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the firing of 470 rockets from Pakistan into his country over the past three weeks. Islamabad says only that "a few
accidental rounds" may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had
attacked its security forces.


The escalation of fighting on the border between Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal
areas and Afghanistan has underscored the difficulties the three countries face in
working together to reach a political settlement to the 10-year Afghan war.

"We need to end this blame-game," Salman Bashir, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary, tolda news conference after a meeting of three countries in Kabul, without making any specific reference to border shelling.


"We need to take ownership for our own affairs. This problem will not go away if we
keep on pointing fingers at each other, we have done it for too long."

Afghanistan has often blamed elements within the Pakistan government for supporting the Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the
border, particularly in eastern Kunar province, leaving it vulnerable to
counter-attack when it chases them out of its own tribal areas.

In an interview with BBC radio aired on Tuesday, Karl Eikenberry, the U.S.
ambassador to Kabul, criticized Islamabad's efforts to deal with militants, saying
it dealt well only with those who were a direct threat to Pakistan.


"They have a very chequered track record, a bad track record, of going after
insurgents and terrorists who they perceive are not a threat to the Pakistani
state," he said.


"I believe that the notion that you can have snakes in your backyard and some of the
snakes bite your own children but other snakes can be trained to only bite
neighbors' children is not necessarily a sound way ahead."

Read it all

No comments: