Pakistan turns a corner, US envoy says
Residents want Taliban defeated, Holbrooke states
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - War-ravaged Pakistan has turned a corner and is now serious about crushing the Taliban, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said yesterday, yet the need is also growing for Pakistani refugees to return home and rebuild their lives.
Ending a three-day visit to Pakistan, Holbrooke, the Obama administration's envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he saw a Pakistani population that grasps the gravity of the threat posed by Taliban militancy - a dramatic shift from how people here previously viewed the issue.
And while in the past the Pakistani military had been criticized for lacking resolve in combating and eliminating militants, Holbrooke said he was convinced that the country's leaders and commanders were intent on ridding their country of Taliban fighters.
But Holbrooke added that gains can be lasting only if Pakistan and the international community focus on the next crucial phase - reconstruction - so that the more than 3 million refugees who have fled the fighting can return safely to their homes and the lives they once led.
"The real test is how quickly the refugees will be able to get back to their homes," Holbrooke said at a news conference in Pakistan's capital.
"The reconstruction bill will be very large, at least as large as the humanitarian bill that we are facing now," he said. "But having turned the corner, it's going to be essential to consolidate the gains."
The challenges Pakistan will face as it embarks on the task of returning normalcy to the lives of refugees were underscored yesterday, when a suicide bomb killed 38 people gathered for prayers at a mosque in the volatile region of Upper Dir.
It was a reminder that violence has yet to wane despite sizable gains made by Pakistani troops against the Taliban militants.
Moreover, efforts to return refugees to their hometowns and restore physical and social infrastructure figures to be hindered by suicide bombings and police ambushes.
The bomber yesterday detonated the explosives outside a mosque in the village of Hayagay Shergi as Pakistanis were preparing to go inside for prayers, residents from the village said.
At least 14 killed were children, according to local authorities.
Two months ago, tribal elders had organized a militia to oust Taliban fighters from the area, local residents said.
The attack occurred a day after security forces arrested three aides of Sufi Muhammad, a radical cleric whose son-in-law is Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban's leader in Swat who remains at large.
Holbrooke's visit to Pakistan included meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistani military commanders, and Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.
He said that in those meetings, discussion focused on the importance of returning refugees to their hometowns and livelihoods.
"We've all seen refugee camps that start out as tent cities and harden into permanent towns and villages," Holbrooke said. "This cannot happen here. These people . . . want to go home. They have their land, their shops, and the quicker they get home, the better."
Holbrooke said Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, told him reconstruction in war-torn areas of Swat and nearby regions could cost between $500 million and $1 billion.
That money, Holbrooke added, will have to come from the international community. 