U.S. seeks to limit militants' aid to quake victims

U.S. seeks to limit militants' aid to quake victims
Relief work seen as foothold for terror recruiting in Pakistan

James Rupert, Newsday

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Muzaffarabad, Pakistan -- The Bush administration is pressing Pakistan to bar militant Islamic groups that the United States views as terrorists from doing relief work in the country's earthquake-shattered Kashmir region. President Pervez Musharraf has said the groups play an essential humanitarian role and will be monitored, but not shut down.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Pakistani journalists this month that Pakistan should prevent such groups from doing relief work, on grounds that it gives them a chance to promote militant ideas. The White House repeated the message during Vice President Dick Cheney's Dec. 20 visit with Musharraf, Pakistani news reports said.

But if Pakistan shuts down the relief groups cited by Washington, it will risk a popular backlash in the quake zone, said Kashmir residents and experts here.

While foreign governments have trumpeted the successes of the early relief effort, journalists and aid workers routinely find communities across the devastated mountain region that have received little or no help.

In villages across the earthquake zone, residents have praised the militant groups, which they say were faster and more organized than Pakistan's government and army.

"Groups like Jamaat ud-Dawa and al-Rashid Trust ... are doing a great job and getting respect from the people," said Amjad Yousaf Khan, executive director of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations, an independent study group. It is such support that could trigger a backlash against any effort to ban the groups, Khan and others said.