Salala air raid: United States says sorry – finally
SAN FRANCISCO: After months of squabbling that brought a slew of acrimonious exchanges,
the United States finally said what Pakistan wanted to hear: sorry.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday apologised over last year’s deadly Nato air raid on Pakistan’s border posts in the Salala area of Mohmand Agency that killed over two dozen troops.
In reprisal for the unilateral raid on November 26, 2011, Pakistan had blocked the vital Nato transit routes and made US troops vacate the Shamsie airbase which was reportedly housing remotely-piloted aircraft.
Clinton said in a statement that she has offered her ‘deepest regrets’ over the Salala tragedy in a phone call to her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. She said ‘sorry’ for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military.
“Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives,” she said. “We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Clinton and Khar spoke about “the importance of taking coordinated action against terrorists who threaten Pakistan, the United States, and the region; of supporting Afghanistan’s security, stability, and efforts towards reconciliation; and of continuing to work together to advance the many other shared interests we have”.
She said that both countries should have a “relationship that is enduring, strategic, and carefully defined, and that enhances the security and prosperity of both our nations and the region”.
The foreign minister has “informed me that the ground supply lines [of communications] into Afghanistan are opening,” according to Clinton. However, “no lethal equipment will transit through the GLOC into Afghanistan except for equipping the ANSF (Afghan national security forces)”.
Initial hopes of a deal on re-opening the routes had fallen apart at a Nato summit in Chicago in May amid reports that Pakistan was demanding huge fees for each of the thousands of trucks that rumble across the border every year.
An angry Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had said that Washington ‘will not be price gouged’ by Islamabad.
But Clinton said that Khar has told her that “Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee in the larger interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region.
“This is a tangible demonstration of Pakistan’s support for a secure, peaceful, and prosperous Afghanistan and our shared objectives in the region.”
Reopening the routes would help the United States and Nato to complete its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan ‘at a much lower cost’, she said.
“This is critically important to the men and women who are fighting terrorism and extremism in Afghanistan.”
Pakistan’s top diplomat in Washington welcomed Clinton’s statement which, she said, would help repair the ties damaged by the standoff over the Nato routes.
“We appreciate Secretary Clinton’s statement, and hope that bilateral ties can move to a better place from here. I’m confident that both countries can agree on many critical issues, especially on bringing peace to the region,” Ambassador Sherry Rehman said in a statement.
Clinton’s ‘sorry’ preceded a ‘personal apology’ by the US commander of Nato forces Gen John Allen to Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during a meeting in Islamabad earlier this week.
Gen Kayani appreciated the move but called it ‘insufficient’ for reopening the Nato routes, the BBC quoted a senior military official as saying.
Gen Kayani told the American commander that the matter was not between two militaries but between two states and that it should be resolved at the state level, according to the official.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2012.
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Pakistan unblocks NATO routes
SUPPLIES ON HOLD: 7 months and 6 days is the period of time during which Nato supply routes were closed by Pakistan, after the Salala check post attacks, leading to deteriorating bilateral ties.
ISLAMABAD: In the end, flexibility earned for both the United States and Pakistan what they mutually yearned for: an end to the protracted stalemate between the two allies.
Just as soon as an apology was tendered by Washington for last year’s Salala check post deaths, Islamabad announced the lifting of a seven-month-long ban on vital Nato supply routes for foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan.
The much-anticipated decision was taken at a high-powered gathering of the country’s civil and military leadership in the wake of the recent developments indicating that the two sides were close to a deal.
The Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and attended by key federal ministers as well as services and intelligence chiefs.
“The DCC has decided in principle to reopen the Nato supply routes,” Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters outside the Prime Minister House.
The minister said that the government has decided to move beyond the Salala incident after the US showed “flexibility” in its stance by tendering an “apology.”
A statement issued after the meeting said that
no “lethal cargo”, except equipment for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), will go into Afghanistan.
The government also dropped its earlier demand of imposing taxes and additional transit fees on trucks carrying goods for the Nato forces.
When Islamabad had shut down the key border crossings in November last year in retaliation to the Nato air strikes on Pakistani check posts that killed 24 soldiers, only a handful could have predicted that the impasse would last this long.
But the two allies have finally brokered a deal after days of intense negotiations and deliberations. The breakthrough comes amidst Pakistan agreeing to accept a mild statement from US saying “sorry” instead of offering an outright apology for the contentious attack.
Sources said the Obama administration conveyed to Pakistan in clear terms that it would confine itself to saying “sorry” and not offer an “unconditional apology” due to domestic compulsions.
“Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee but the issue in the first place was not of financial gain but of the principle of sovereignty,” a statement said.
Anticipating the possible reaction, the government claimed that it had implemented the policy recommendations approved by parliament in April this year to reset ties with the United States.
The government has attempted to justify its decision by claiming that it was in Pakistan’s best interest to support the transition, peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan as Nato/Isaf forces drawdown by 2014.
“To enable a smooth transition in Afghanistan it was essential for the military to drawdown at a lower cost and through an efficient transit facility,” it argued.
The DCC reiterated Pakistan’s stance on drones and agreed to continue to engage the US on counter-terrorism tools that are in line with international law and practice.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2012.
