The U.S. government plans to cut military aid to several Pakistani military units as punishment for human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial executions, according to senior officials.
The sanctions centre on the deaths of hundreds of people at the hands of Pakistan's regular and paramilitary forces in the Swat valley since an operation to drive out the Taliban started in May 2009.
Human rights groups estimate that at least 300 people have died in extrajudicial executions, one of which was recently captured in a gruesome video that circulated on the Internet.
But Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, told human rights activists in Washington last week that he believed this was a conservative estimate, and that the real number of deaths was “much higher”.
The units to be sanctioned have not been identified, but they are understood to include elements within 12 Punjab infantry regiment, which is based in north-western Mardan, and units from the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force recruited from the Pashtun tribes.
The White House has not officially informed Pakistan of the decision though senior Pakistani military and civilian leaders are in Washington for meetings with the government.
Earlier this month, a harrowing video surfaced which purported to show a group of soldiers shooting six blindfolded men in the troubled north-west.
U.S. military assistance cannot be given to foreign armed forces suspected of committing, encouraging or tolerating atrocities under the 1997 Leahy agreement, a law named after the Democratic senator who championed it, Patrick Leahy.
“In accordance with the Leahy amendment, we have withheld assistance from a small number of units linked to gross human rights violations,” a U.S. official told AP. “At the same time, we have encouraged Pakistan to improve its human rights training, and it is taking steps in that direction.” It was not immediately clear when the decision to stop the aid was first taken or exactly how many Pakistani military units would be affected. The New York Times , which first reported the measure, said around six units were singled out. A human rights official who had been briefed by Washington said the issue of the human rights abuses had been quietly bubbling between the U.S. and Pakistan for months, and that the Pakistani Army had already started to take action against the offending units.
General Ashfaq Kayani, Army chief, had issued an internal order about four months ago “telling units to behave,” he said.
Admiral Mullen said General Kayani recognised the seriousness of the issue and “was trying very hard to deal with it”.
The army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said he could not respond to news of the sanctions until the Army had been “formally informed” by the U.S. government. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010
