NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Aid agencies in Pakistan have drawn up guidelines for their relationship with the military to protect their neutrality and enable them to reach civilians caught up in the army's operations against the Taliban.
For over a year, the United Nations, together with scores of relief groups, has been providing aid to more than 3 million people displaced by fighting as the military moves to root out al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in Pakistan's northwest.
But aid workers say the response has been beset by challenges, including the denial of access to conflict zones like the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border, where many civilians are fleeing their homes.
Others have voiced concerns that their impartiality is being compromised by the dominance of the Pakistani army, which is heavily involved in humanitarian activities.
"At the start of the emergency last year, our first priority was to respond to the needs on the ground due to the scale and speed of those who were fleeing the fighting," said Manuel Bessler, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan.
"We do need better coordination and so together with the rest of the humanitarian community, we have drafted a set of guidelines which we have presented to the Pakistani army, and we hope that we can reach agreement and improve the effectiveness and reach of humanitarian response."
Civil-military coordination during humanitarian emergencies is not new. Aid workers and combatants have often had to operate alongside one another in the same geographical area.
But the military's growing role in providing relief after disasters or during conflict has blurred the lines between soldiers and humanitarians, prompting the need to clarify how they can work in the same space yet remain distinct.
HUMANITARIANS OR COMBATANTS?
Civil-military coordination agreements now exist around the world between aid workers and U.N. peacekeepers, as in Democratic Republic of Congo, or with international forces like the NATO-led troops fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, the armed forces are frequently called upon by the government to contribute to relief assistance, recovery and reconstruction, as stipulated in Article 245 (1) of the constitution.
Due to their resources, capacity and local knowledge, they have become increasingly involved in emergency response - from conducting search and rescue operations to transporting and distributing aid.
Aid workers say the military spearheaded the relief operation after the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, and has helped saved many lives.
But they are worried about the dominance of the army's role, particularly in today's conflict situation, where it is acting as both combatant and humanitarian provider.
"The army is present in aid operations - their presence at displacement camps, at aid distribution points or as escorts to aid workers is always a concern for us, as militants may think that we are on their side and target us," said one foreign aid worker. "We should not risk our independence and the lives of innocent civilians."
LIMITED ACCESS
Many also say the military's refusal to grant aid workers access to active conflict zones like South Waziristan and Orakzai in FATA, where it offers assistance in the absence of aid agencies, can be dangerous.
"The military determines who is eligible for government assistance by designating a limited number of areas as conflict zones, whose residents are the only ones eligible for government aid, rather than assisting victims based on their legitimate needs," said Patrick Duplat of Refugees International.
Pakistani officials, however, say the movement of aid workers is curtailed in the troubled FATA region due to the high risk of attacks by militants.
"There's no bar on their movement in settled areas but if they want to go to troubled areas like South Waziristan or North Waziristan or Orakzai, we ought to give them protection," said Colonel Mohammad Imran Arif, an army relief official.
"If they're ambushed or any of them is kidnapped, we won't be able to rescue them because these areas haven't been completely cleared. So who will be responsible if such a situation arises?"
According to the government, aound 49 aid agencies are working in other areas, including Malakand division, where over 2 million people were displaced at the peak of the crisis last July.
"I can show you numbers of faxes from these organisations seeking security for even their national staff who want to visit. So on the one hand they want us to provide security but on the other hand, they complain they're not given free access," said another Pakistani government official, who did not wish to be named
"We told them that we will provide access to your national staff (to these areas) but not expats because you're an attraction to the people and a foreigner could be kidnapped, and they agreed to it."
"STRATEGY OF COEXISTENCE"
Aid workers say the draft guidelines - which are based on the principle that humanitarian actors should be able to access all vulnerable populations - outline details of a "strategy of coexistence" that clearly distinguishes the activities of aid workers and combatants.
Basic rules to protect the impartiality of aid workers state that arms should not be carried into humanitarian premises or transport; humanitarian workers and military actors should not be collocated at aid distribution sites; and the branding of vehicles, compounds and relief supplies should be distinct.
The guidelines also state that "the use of military escorts poses an extreme threat to humanitarian actors" and "as a matter of principle should not be deployed to protect humanitarian convoys/vehicles".
Other issues relate to coordinating action on mines and air space management, as well as training soldiers in the work of the humanitarian community.
There are also provisions on information sharing, covering details of relief and recovery activities, the security of civilians and aid workers, early warnings of population movements and humanitarian needs arising from counter-insurgency operations. Lists of beneficiaries are not included, according to aid workers.
Some analysts have doubts about the significance of the guidelines and whether the Pakistani army will agree to compromise on what it views as part of its mandate.
"It is very late in the day, as we are already one year into the crisis, and a lot will depend on how long the process will take and how willing the military is to (make) concessions," said Samir Elhawary, an analyst at the Overseas Development Institute, a London-based think tank. "Also, we must remember that the guidelines, even if agreed, are not binding."
But he described them as a step in the right direction. "It can be drawn on to influence the government if the aid community feels the spirit of the agreement is not being respected," he said.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider in Islamabad)
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