Amid UN Speeches on Pakistan, Blockade and Starvation of South Waziristan Ignored as Apple Crop Rots
UNITED NATIONS, August 20 -- As the Pakistan floods meeting limped into a slow second day in the UN General Assembly in New York, in the country's South Waziristan district the apple crop, now until military blockade, threatened to rot.
Amid the desire by the UN, the U.S. and others to praise Pakistan's government, few wanted to speak of the plight of those in the FATA or tribal areas.
The only official way in or out of South Waziristan, sources on the ground tell Inner City Press, is as part of infrequent military convoys on two roads. The crops grown in the district now cannot be exported, not unlike the roses once grown in Gaza.
North Waziristan is subject to deadly drone strikes by the United States. On August 19, Inner City Press asked Richard Holbrooke about the area, and he said it was too far away to comment on, that John Kerry was there. Kerry spoke on August 20, alongside President Asif Ali Zardari, about the danger of “militants” promoting their cause after the floods.
But what about those living in South Wazirstan, who no longer have livelihoods, due to the US supported Pakistani blockade? Shouldn't the UN, whether Special Envoy Jean Maurice Ripert or otherwise, be advocating for them?
Thursday outside the GA, Inner City Press and others repeatedly asked Jean Maurice Ripert to come and speak on microphone, as Richard Holbrooke and the foreign ministers of Canada and Pakistan.
Ripert's excuse to refuse the request was that Ban Ki-moon was in the GA and should be the one to speak to the Press. Later, a UN communications official told Inner City Press that Ripert's pretext for not doing his job was spurious.
Ban did not, while the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Pakistan did, albeit making the absurd claim that every inch of Pakistan is in the full control of the government.
One is left wondering, where in the UN system is the equivalent for South Waziristan of John Ging in Gaza? If the purpose of these meetings is, as claimed, the plight of civilians in Pakistan, why is the slow starvation and increasing isolation of those in Pakistan's tribal area being met with so much silence, including at the UN?
