Waziristan : Militants, tribesmen call for change in US policy

Source : "The Dawn"

ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: Militants and tribesmen on Wednesday urged US president-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to break with his country’s divisive anti-terror strategy, but many feared there would be little change.

Some tribal leaders said they would give Mr Obama the benefit of the doubt for now. The Jamaatud Dawa, considered a “terrorist organisation” by the United States, said a change in direction could help heal rifts with the Muslim world.

Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general Munawwar Hasan likened Mr Obama’s victory to the ousting earlier this year of former president Pervez Musharraf.

– “People in both countries have rejected President Bush’s war-based policies,” he said.

But he and others said the Democratic Party senator still needed to learn a lesson that “most of the rest of the world hates his country. He should understand this fact and devise future policies to change the US posture on the world,” he added.

– “Obama will have to change his country’s policy which backs undemocratic governments in other countries and will have to encourage democracy outside the US.”

People in North Waziristan said they were bracing for future missile strikes in view of previous warnings by Mr Obama that US forces should act against militants inside Pakistan, including Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, if Pakistan was “unable or unwilling to take them out”.

Tribal leader Abdul Wadood Afridi from the Khyber region said he was concerned about Mr Obama’s threatening tone.

– “However, if he has a love for peace he should withdraw US forces from Afghanistan. The tribesmen will welcome his gesture,” he said. “The US under George W. Bush tried to conquer the world and subjugate the Muslims in the name of terrorism but this will not establish peace.

– “Afghans and Pukhtuns are warriors and the US will not achieve anything in this war because people of this region have never accepted foreign domination.”