news details |
|
|
| 900 million dollars earmarked for 2007 | | US paid Pakistan billions of dollars to counter terror | |
NEW DELHI, OCT 29
Pentagon documents on Pakistan spill the beans: US Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to reimburse Pakistan for its support of counter-terrorism operations.
An updated version of a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says that as of September 2006, a total of 6.64 billion dollars had been appropriated for financial year 2002- financial year 2007 Defence Department spending for coaliton support payments to Pakistan and other cooperating nations.
Pentagon documents indicate that disbursements to Islamabad account for the great majority of these funds: 3.6 billion dollars for operations from January 2002 through August 2005, an amount roughly equal to one-quarter of Pakistan's total military expenditures during that period. According to the CRS report, the Defence Department Appropriations Act, 207 would allow that up to 900 million dollars in Pentagon funds be used for financial year 207 reimbursements.
Pakistan is among the world's leading recipients of US aid, obtaining more than 3.5 billion dollars in direct US assistance for 2002-2006 period, including 1.5 billion dollars in security-related aid. The CRS report says that US concerns regarding Pakistan include regional terrorism, Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, weapon proliferation, the ongoing Kashmir problem and Pakistan-India tensions, human rights protection and economic development. It recalls that a US-Pakistan relationship marked by periods of both cooperation and discord was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing enlistment of Pakistan as a key ally in US-led counter-terrorism efforts.
The report adds: "Top US officials regularly praise Islamabad for its ongoing cooperation, although doubts exist about Islamabad's commitment to some core US interests. Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan."
The CRS notes that since late 2003, Pakistan's Army has been conducting "unprecedented" counter-terrorism operations in the country's western tribal areas. Separatist violence in India's Jammu and Kashmir State has continued unabated since 1989, with some notable relative decline in recent years. India has blamed Pakistan for the infiltration of Islamic militants into Indian Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.
"The United States reportedly has received pledges from Islamabad that all 'cross-border terrorism' would cease and that any terrorist facilities in Pakistani-controlled areas would be closed. Similar pledges have been made to India. The United States strongly encourages maintenance of a ceasefire along the Kashmiri Line of Control and continued substantive dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi," according to the updated report.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
