During the evening of 21st May 2003 I was on the roof of a 4 story building in Algiers when an earthquake of 6.8 hit - the worst the country had experienced in twenty years. The following morning, two of us from the company I was working with visited the epicentre of Boumerdes and its surrounding regions. The carnage we witnessed was appalling and a decision was made that the following day we would personally accompany the aid that the company was donating to the areas most affected. Within Boumerdes the authorities were disorganised although it could be said that they were in control (there was widespread criticism of how the government handled the whole situation and indeed President Bouteflika had to flee the town during a visit). However, when we moved out to less populated areas the mood changed and we were unable to remain in any one place for longer than a few minutes. The reason? Because elements of Algeria's Islamic militant groups were taking advantage of the carnage caused by the earthquake. Suddenly, they were on the streets of small towns and villages not only controlling the aid stations and the distribution but also imposing their form of hardline Islamism; girls and women not wearing the hijab were refused aid and men objecting to this were beaten.
Therefore, I am not surprised to have learned over the past week or so that militant groups are now distributing aid in the affected areas of Pakistan's floods. Various reports have emerged of extremists cashing in on the government's weak response to the disaster. An example came to light recently; Jamaat-ud-Dawa -a banned Islamic charity which was accused by the UN of fronting the militants allegedly responsible for the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks in 2008 - have been helping in areas where the hard-stretched authorities are unable to. And any aid they distribute comes with propaganda literature and stern religious and political rhetoric. Elsewhere stories have emerged of orphans being taken away to study in Madrases and militant charities taking advantage of the chaos of an unorganised and corrupt government.
Today in the Sunday Times, Jemima Khan writes an article on plight of Pakistanis from the grassroots level and her report makes grim reading. Up to two million homeless, no functioning infrastructure, no clean water, cholera outbreaks and reports of up to 70% of the World Bank aid has disappeared or been badly spent. All of this helps to fertilise radical Islam.
A lot has been made recently on Pakistan's exporting of terrorism including in one of my earlier posts. However, we in the west must also accept some of the criticism. For extreme radicalism to grow, they must have an unhappy proportion of a population of whom to appeal to. By the west not responding with more aid and logistical assistance to distribute this aid, we are fueling the fire desired by the Taliban and al-Qaeda
Ecrivain Man
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I would like to post a topic/question on Iraq. The US withdrawal is all over the news and there is, of course, a lot of speculation as to what this will mean to the fragile security situation. We have a special situation in the south in particular where international oil companies are searching for oil reserves with huge potential. This will mean more foreign presence and foreigners are targets in a very complex security situation. Can you give some input as to how you look upon the short and medium security effects on the withdrawal of the forces - with regards to the international IOCs operating in Iraq? Thanks!
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