Source : New York Times

By DEXTER FILKINS and ALAN COWELL
Published: May 8, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A day after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani vowed to “eliminate” the Taliban militants who have taken over large parts of the country, Pakistani warplanes were reported Friday strafing targets in the contested Swat Valley north-west of the capital.

At the same time, international relief agencies in Geneva said up to half a million people had been uprooted by the latest upsurge in violence, adding to a similar number displaced by earlier conflict.

Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Geneva that 200,000 people have arrived in safe areas in the past few days and another 300,000 are on the move or about to flee areas in north-western Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.

The numbers were in addition to 555,000 counted since last August, he said, bringing the total to around one million — much higher than previously reported by international bodies.

On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross, also based in Geneva, said some 500,000 had been displaced.

But Sébastien Brack, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Islamabad, said in a telephone interview Friday that the Pakistan government estimated that 500,000 people may have been uprooted since the latest hostilities began last week, in addition to up to 400,000-500,000 people made homeless in previous conflict in north-west Pakistan.

However, “no-one has reliable figures,” he said.

In the most recent conflict, he said, a combination of fighting and curfews imposed by the military authorities have prevented many people from leaving, so that would-be fugitives “have not been able to flee.” Neither had relief agencies secured security guarantees to visit the contested areas in Swat, Buner and Dir, he said. “The key issue for us is access,” he said.

On Friday, helicopter gunships, fighter planes and troops were all involved in operations in Swat, Reuters reported, quoting Major Nasir Khan, a military spokesman in Swat as saying up to 12 militants were killed after as many as 55 were killed the previous day. Since Wednesday, the Pakistani authorities have claimed to kill over 100 militants, but the assertions are difficult to verify in part because reporters are barred from the conflict zone.

In a nationally televised address on Thursday, Mr. Gilani said: “To restore the honor and dignity of our homeland and to protect our people, the armed forces have been called in to eliminate the militants and terrorists.”

“We will not bow before extremists and terrorists,” he said, publicly declaring a get-tough strategy that American officials have been urging on him since he took office last year,

Islamic militants have taken control of three districts northwest of the capital, Islamabad, including Swat, where, Mr. Gilani said, the militants had reneged on a peace deal signed in February and had no one to blame but themselves.

“The militants have waged war against all segments of society,” Mr. Gilani said. “I regret to say that our bona fide intention to prefer reconciliation with them was perceived as a weakness on our part.”

The A.P. reported Friday that tens of thousands people remained in Mingora, the main city of Swat, and some said the Taliban was preventing them from leaving so as to use them as human shields.

Mr. Gilani’s speech appeared to reflect a break with the Taliban, who have been supported by elements of the Pakistan military and intelligence services since the mid-1990s. That support, which has been provided covertly, has enraged a succession of American leaders, who have helped give Pakistan’s military more than $1 billion a year since 2001.

Pakistan’s military has fought a desultory series of campaigns against the Taliban since 2004, and the militants have only grown stronger. It has never been clear the degree to which the failures of those military campaigns has been caused by incompetence, and how much by complicity. Pakistan’s army is in many respects stronger than the civilian government, and military leaders have ruled the country more often than not since its birth in 1947.

Mr. Gilani alluded to the growing impatience with the double game. “Our reputation among the international community has deteriorated, and we are labeled as terrorists,” he said.

The timing of Mr. Gilani’s address was hardly an accident. He made it a day after Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, met with President Obama in Washington. American officials have expressed alarm that the Taliban militants are threatening the integrity of the Pakistani state. Mr. Zardari has asked Mr. Obama for more military and economic aid, and Mr. Obama has indicated that he intends to oblige him.

A collapse of the Pakistani state would be catastrophic for American and Western interests. The Taliban already use sanctuaries in Pakistan to attack American forces in Afghanistan. And there are fears that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic militants.

Dexter Flikins reported from Islamabad and Alan Cowell from Paris