If anyone needed more evidence that the rules of war have little sway in AfPak, early this week Taliban fighters attacked a Pakistan an IDP camp in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. The attack allegedly consisted of two suicide bombers and killed 41 IDPs. In response, the United Nations has been forced to suspend relief operations in that area of the troubled country.
The motive behind the bombing is unclear, but Kohat police chief Dilawar Khan Bangash said “it seems the purpose was to target members of the Manikhel and Baramadkhel tribes who had constituted a large percentage of those fleeing recently”.
He said the bombers, who had disguised themselves by wearing loose ‘burqas’, could have been seeking “revenge” as members of those tribes had raised a militia to fight Taliban militants in their areas. According to media reports, militant outfits based in Punjab Province in the east took responsibility for the blasts.
“We are not safe. At home we face death and when we try to find safety by leaving our homes, we confront death here too,” Kharan Khan, a 60-year-old IDP in Kohat, told IRIN. He described “scenes of mayhem and chaos” as the bombers struck an area where IDPs were queuing to collect food rations.
In modern war, neutrality offers little protection, both to those providing humanitarians assistance and those needing it.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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I think “neutrality” is myth. Journalists and aid works want it so they can operate free of danger, but the fact is both groups, whether intentionally or not, help one side or the other through their actions, no matter how objective or neutral they claim to be. It’s impossible not to do so. Rupert Smith has a good quote on this matter that I’ll find for you.
That would great as I am a huge Rupert Smith fan.
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