reposted from The Guardian | Oct. 22, 2010 | Original story
Link to video and coverage of abuses that instigated this 'cut' Link to videos and coverage by New York Times

By Declan Walsh in Karachi and Helen Pidd

The US government plans to cut military aid to several Pakistani military units as punishment for human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial executions, according to senior officials. But at the same time, the Obama administration is reportedly in the final stages of agreeing a new $2bn (£1.28bn) aid package for Pakistan to pay for equipment needed in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.

The sanctions centre on the deaths of hundreds of people at the hands of Pakistan's regular and paramilitary forces in the Swat valley since an operation to drive out the Taliban started in May 2009.

Human rights groups estimate that at least 300 people have died in extrajudicial executions, one of which was recently captured in a gruesome video that circulated on the internet.

But Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told human rights activists in Washington last week that he believed this was a conservative estimate, and that the real number of deaths was "much higher".

The units to be sanctioned have not been identified, but they are understood to include elements within 12 Punjab infantry regiment, which is based in north-western Mardan, and units from the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force recruited from the Pashtun tribes.

The White House has not officially informed Pakistan of the decision even though senior Pakistani military and civilian leaders are in Washington for meetings with the government.

Earlier this month, a harrowing video surfaced which purported to show a group of soldiers shooting six blindfolded men in the country's troubled north-west.

US military assistance cannot be given to foreign armed forces suspected of committing, encouraging or tolerating atrocities under the 1997 Leahy agreement, a law named after the Democratic senator who championed it, Patrick Leahy.

"In accordance with the Leahy amendment, we have withheld assistance from a small number of units linked to gross human rights violations," a US official told AP. "At the same time, we have encouraged Pakistan to improve its human rights training, and it is taking steps in that direction."

It was not immediately clear when the decision to stop the aid was first taken or exactly how many Pakistani military units would be affected. The New York Times, which first reported the measure, said around six units were singled out.

A human rights official who had been briefed by Washington said the issue of the human rights abuses had been quietly bubbling between the US and Pakistan for months, and that the Pakistani army had already started to take action against the offending units.

General Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, had issued an internal order about four months ago "telling units to behave," he said.

Mullen said Kayani recognised the seriousness of the issue and "was trying very hard to deal with it".

The army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said he could not respond to news of the sanctions until the army had been "formally informed" by the US government.

But he said that in general the army operated a "zero tolerance policy" towards offenders, noting that a two-star general had been told to investigate the execution video. "Anything that has been brought to our notice, people have been punished," he said.

But the spokesman was not able to specify which units had been punished, when the punishment took place, or what sanctions were applied.

The units targeted by the Leahy amendment will no longer receive US weapons and their soldiers will not be trained by US personnel. A small number of American soldiers train Frontier Corps officers to help fight the Taliban.

But the sanctions are not likely to affect broader US support for Pakistan, which is worth at least $2bn per year and is considered key to counter-terrorism efforts in the region.

Later today the US is expected to announce military aid for Pakistan worth about $2bn over the next five years as it presses the country to do more to fight extremists there and in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Under the deal, which has not yet been finalised, direct military aid is expected to incrementally increase from the current level of about $300m a year to almost $2bn in five years' time. The military aid complements a separate commitment of $7.5bn in civilian aid over five years, and other military payments and covert assistance.

The package replaces a similar but less valuable five-year package that was instituted under the then president George Bush in 2005 and expires this month.

The announcement is planned at the end of three days of high-level strategic talks in Washington between top US and Pakistani officials, including Kayani and President Barack Obama. The new aid package will be "no strings attached", officials told the BBC.

But the relationship between Pakistan and the US is fraught with tensions. Earlier this month an incursion by Nato helicopters into Pakistan killed two border guards, sparking a temporary closure of the Afghan border, and the human rights investigations could complicate matters further.

Some US politicians, impatient at Pakistan's sometimes reluctant co-operation, could seize on the abuses to increase pressure on Islamabad.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the application of the Leahy bill as a "targeted sanction". "We have long maintained that these abuses are occurring in Swat and elsewhere and hope that the sanctions will act as a deterrent to further such abuses being committed," said the South Asia senior researcher Ali Dayan Hasan. Human Rights Watch estimates Pakistani forces have killed at least 300 people in Swat valley. Hasan said the group had directly confirmed 50 of those killings, but said the real number "may be far higher" than 300.