Pakistan U.S. espionage wars hit flood as aid workers fall into dragnet

A million Pakistanis are still homeless and in need of aid after the floods of last summer. Photography: David Berehulak/Reuters

Last summer in Pakistan aid workers fought with epic floods that affected 20 million people, destroyed crops and it flooded one fifth of the country. A year later found in a very different mess: the war spy escalation between United States and Pakistan.

With millions of flood victims still in urgent need of aid, Western charities say that their efforts are being affected by the impact of the death of Osama bin Laden as the Government hunting spies for the CIA. Visa strict regulations and restrictions on the movement by the military are causing long delays, rising costs and affecting the delivery of aid to areas affected by the floods and conflict with the Taliban.

A young American cooperating with Catholic Relief Services last month was brought before the courts for visa irregularities, imprisoned for nine days and then deported. British agencies say that its staff has fallen under the microscope in the service of spying for Pakistan, ISI, with officials of the visit to the field offices and the introduction of restrictions on travel.

"We have seen incremental restrictions on the movement and more time for visa processing," said a spokesman for the Forum of humanitarian aid in Pakistan, representing 40 aid groups.

The crackdown started after Raymond Davis CIA agent shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore last January and intensified after the death of Bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2.

The aid workers in Sukkur, a town in the South in the Centre of flood relief efforts, began to complain of regular visits of intelligence and police officials. In Jacobabad, location of a sensitive air base, agencies said that visiting certain areas now does not require a "no objection certificate": an official letter of permission.

"The authorities have started paying more attention to who is in the country and what you are doing," said paragraph or ' Michael O'Brien of the Red Cross.

Pakistan embassies abroad have also begun to restrict access. "Is making things very difficult," said Paul Healy of Trocaire, an Irish aid agency. "Before, we could get a visa to an expert technician in a week;" now take 10 ".

The biggest impact is in the North-West Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the origin of the floods in the past year, and where 850,000 civilians made homeless by fighting between the army and the Taliban. Aid workers now need permission to visit previously open areas, such as hope near the Valley of Swat and Kohistan. Applications are approved by the 11 Corps of the army, who heads the local military operations; the UN says that 43 certificates of no objection are stationed there.

A European aid administrator said that had been able to send staff to his rural project during more than one month because of the restrictions. "We are being included in with diplomats and other foreign nationals service." They need to be educated about who we are, and not that agents of the CIA, "said."

"Much of the population are affected by the floods and conflicts," said a British aid worker. "The irony is that they are receiving half of the aid, despite the fact that the needs can be twice as large." The aid worker, like several others, spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of discrimination by the authorities.

The National Directorate for disaster management, which oversees relief of disasters, said it was issuing permits for travel on a priority basis. "We are committed to providing the aid workers in their search for assistance to the affected communities," said spokesman Brigadier Sajid Naeem.

Tensions were compounded by news that the CIA had a false vaccination program in Abbottabad to identify the occupants of the House of Bin Laden. "Add fuel to the fire of mistrust," said a senior official of the UN. "Now the Pakistanis can say ' we were right all the time, these non-governmental organizations are only doing a job of espionage'."

Doctors without borders said that the CIA operation was "a dangerous abuse of medical care" which could compromise the humanitarian work.

The intrigues of bureaucracy and spy coincide with a severe crisis. Some 800,000 families still lack permanent housing and more than one million people need food aid, according to Oxfam. In places has quadrupled the price of bricks, making it impossible for the survivors to rebuild their homes. An appeal for A to help families to return to their feet has a deficit of 600 million dollars (366 million pounds sterling).

Then there is the psychological toll. "People are still afraid of the sound of running water," said Suzanna Akasha, an expert psychosocial of the Danish Red Cross. "They have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep".

The monsoon began last week in the North of the Punjab, and although the rains so far are normal, devastation of last year left many vulnerable to disease and hunger. United States says that it will affect 2 million people this year, although contingency plans are based on 7 million affected should deteriorate it time.

Tensions between United States and Pakistan spies still bubbles. Last week an American convoy entering Peshawar he was sent to Islamabad because, officials said, he lacked the proper documentation. Peshawar has been widely opened to foreigners, but the ISI is willing to curb the activities of a CIA station presumed to operate from there the American Consulate.

In Washington, the FBI recently arrested the director of a lobby group centred in Kashmir allege is an ISI front; If convicted, faces up to five years in prison. As the ISI runs Pakistan to CIA agents not declared, aid workers concerns about of in the dragnet. Some accuse the United Nations of not doing enough to push its case with the Government. "Are asleep, like Rip Van Winkle," said one.

A UN official said that some aid workers were "hurting". "Certainly the situation has caused distrust," he said. "But enter the country for a short period, who doesn't know the system and react."

The gods have been cruel to Pakistan. The country had barely recovered from the earthquake of 2005 killed 73,000 people when the floods of 2010.

The Indus River increased, wreaking havoc on a large scale: causing 2,000 deaths and the destruction of 1.5 million homes, sufficient land to meet the United Kingdom and the displacement of 11 million people.

The crisis continues today. Some districts are suffering from malnutrition on an equal footing with sub-Saharan Africa. In others, child labour has increased by one third as parents struggle to earn a living.

Some children are turning to drugs to combat their trauma. "As", is always the weakest who suffer most, said Marco Aviotti of the medical charity, Merlin.

Worrying, the country is poised for another flood, with a stunted disaster management system. But scarce money: the Government owes $59bn at various agencies, tax collection remains disastrously low, and the economy depends on which the IMF.

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