Word: waziri
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...read Aryn Baker's article on Talibanistan [April 2] with interest, since I spent time working in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1980s and '90s. It isn't in the least odd that a Waziri elder in Pakistan should look to Afghan President Hamid Karzai as his leader. When I first went to Peshawar, I discovered that Pashtuns had contempt for Punjabis, that they speak a different language and have very different customs. Lieut. General Hamid Gul may be a former director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, but old soldiers in Pakistan never really...
...many years of war, too many widows, too many orphans, too many amputees. If this jihad continues, it will destroy Afghanistan and Waziristan," said an elder. "We need help, and we no longer trust the Pakistani government." The leader of the delegation presented Karzai with a traditional Waziri turban, a great soft-serve swirl of butter-yellow silk. As he placed it on the President's head, he said, "You are our President. You can free us from this disaster. We are at your service, and we support you." That the tribesmen would turn to one of Musharraf's rivals...
...government in Islamabad had been negotiating for two weeks or longer to try and persuade the Waziri tribal elders to hand over the three main tribesmen who are believed to have been sheltering al-Qaeda operatives. The tribes are heavily armed, and they're traditionally allowed considerable autonomy from the central government in running their own affairs. In response to the government's efforts, the tribal elders hemmed and hawed, and then refused to hand over the wanted men - who, in the meantime, had fled. At that point, an informant walked into the military garrison in Wana and said...
Americans probably cannot count on much help from the Waziris, despite the $25 million bounty Washington has put on bin Laden's head. "Do you know how much money Osama has?" asks tribesman Mehfooz Ullah. "Over $200 million. How could anyone hand him over for $25 million?" And, he adds, "we can't betray a Muslim brother." Painted in giant letters on the rock faces that run along Waziri roads are the slogans LONG LIVE OSAMA and WE LOVE OSAMA...
Though he appears quiet at first, Waziri Adio spent years in the thick of things when political life in his native country was dominated by military rulers and authoritarian regimes...