AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE EQUIPMENT

Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford Pakistan Paperbacks)

Based on 30 years of research and analysis, this definitive book is a profound, multi-layered, and historical analysis of the nature and role of the Pakistan army in the country's polity as well as its turbulent relationship with the United States. Shuja Nawaz examines the army and Pakistan in both peace and war. Using many hitherto unpublished materials from the archives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army, as well as interviews with key military and political figures in Pakistan and the United States, he sheds light not only on the Pakistan Army and its US connections but also on Pakistan as a key Muslim country in one of the world's toughest neighborhoods. In doing so, he lays bare key facts about Pakistan's numerous wars with India and its many rounds of political musical chairs, as well as the Kargil conflict of 1999. He then draws lessons from this history that may help Pakistan end its wars within and create a stabler political entity.

An IDP family just arrives in Sugar Mill camp, in Charsadda district. They took advantage of the lifting of the curfew to flee from their home in Char Bagh, in Swat district. They lived for one month in the basement of their home, in fear of the bombing, and surviving on food stocks. The army organized truck evacuation of civilians to Mardan and Charsadda on May 31 and June 1st. As of June 1st, 2.5 millions people from Swat, Buner and LowerDir districts have been displaced by the conflict betwen militants and governmental forces . UNHCR / H. Caux / Charsadda / Pakistan / June 1st, 2009


Newly displaced Pakistani civilians report grim conditions in Swat Valley

CHARSADDA, Pakistan. June 2 (UNHCR) – For nearly a month, they've sheltered in basements eking out a living on spinach and naan bread. They have watched as shells destroyed their homes or those of their neighbours.

But lately, even the most stubborn residents of north-west Pakistan's Swat Valley have felt compelled to leave. Over the weekend thousands took advantage of the lifting of a government curfew on the region to flee to safer areas in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"We could hear the shelling and bombing every day, we could see the helicopters," recalls Ajij, 35, a farmer from a village near Mingora, the main town in Swat district, who arrived Monday with his wife and five children at Sugar Mill, one of two new camps set up by UNHCR over the weekend. His house was completely destroyed a week ago, he says, though nobody was in it at the time. "We will lose our crops, it is inevitable at this point," says Ajij.

Many of the newly displaced report severe shortages of food and medicine in Swat. Bakhatali, aged 40, also arrived at Sugar Mill camp this week. He, his wife and six children hid in their basement in Mingora for a month before finally being forced to leave. "We were afraid of the bombing all this time," he said. "The children could not sleep. I had to put cotton wool in their ears."

Mohammed, 40, a father of two young children who arrived at Sugar Mill camp this week says he and his family were afraid to leave home because of the bombing. "But as soon as we heard that the curfew was lifted, we walked through the mountains to Batkhila" and from there caught a bus to Mardan.

Hundreds of thousands of people have now fled the fighting in the Swat Valley, Lower Dir and Buner districts in the past month. To respond to the newest influx, UNHCR, together with its implementing partners and the authorities of the NWFP, set up two new camps in Charsadda and Peshawar districts.

Sugar Mill camp, in Charsadda, received 400 families, or 2,400 individuals, on Monday and another 175 families, or 1,050 individuals, on Tuesday. Larama camp, located in the suburbs of Peshawar town, received 98 people Tuesday.

The pause in fighting this weekend was the first opportunity in some time for people trapped in those areas to escape to safer zones. Many of the families reported they were transported out of Swat Valley by government-arranged trucks which took them to Yar Hussain camp in Swabi or Sugar Mill in Charsadda.

Others said they had walked some of the way before taking buses to reach safer areas. Some were able to rent private accommodation and others found a place to stay with host families or in schools.

In the new camp in Charsadda – which is named for a sugar mill that used to operate there until 1996 – UNHCR has provided relief kit items such as plastic sheeting, jerry cans and blankets for a total of 850 families. The governmental District Coordination Officer is providing tents.

It is also working with the local non-governmental organization IDRAK to hire equipment and a labour force to clear and level the ground. UNICEF is installing latrines with its partner Humanitarian Resources Development Society. Basic health facilities should be in place in the next few days.

UNHCR is installing electricity in the new camp, building shaded structures above individual tents or in communal areas and giving families bricks to build fire places to cook their food. In Jalala camp in Mardan district, meanwhile, UNHCR partner IDRAK erected 120 green nets above family tents in order to better protect them from the summer heat. Some 900 similar structures will be completed in coming days.

For newly displaced people like Ajij, accustomed to the cooler temperatures in the Swat Valley, the temperatures are just one of many difficulties they have to face. "We have small children. It is too hard for them," he conceded of the heat in the camps. "I want to go back."

By Helene Caux in Charsadda, Pakistan

In 1915 the British Army started to use armoured cars in India, particularly on the North West Frontier, to relieve troops needed elsewhere. They proved so successful that this soon became standard policy. Shortly after the war the Indian Government purchased 16 Rolls-Royce cars to a new design but these proved so expensive that subsequent orders were placed with Crossley Motors in Manchester who made a tough but cheap 50hp chassis. 451 of these 5-tonne cars were built between 1923 and 1925, mainly for India, although some were exported to Japan. The body design, very similar to the Rolls-Royce version and built by Vickers at Crayford, had a number of interesting features. These included a dome-shaped turret, with four machine-gun mounts, which was designed to deflect rifle shots from snipers in ambush positions in the high passes. A clamshell cupola surmounted the turret for the commander, while side doors opened opposite ways on either side so that a crew member could dismount safely under fire. The crew area was lined with asbestos to keep the temperature down and the entire body could be electrified to keep large crowds at bay. Since pneumatic tyres did not survive for long in the Indian climate these cars were originally fitted with narrow, solid tyres which made them rather unstable. By 1939, when the Royal Tank Corps in India had handed most of its equipment over to the Indian Army, the Crossleys were worn out. The bodies were then transferred to imported Chevrolet truck chassis, with pneumatic tyres, and in this form served with Indian forces in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria and Persia) in the early years of the war. The Japanese used theirs in Manchuria and some were still operational in the early years of WWII. This particular example, seen in the new hall at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, England, was presented by the Government of Pakistan in 1951.

A major study of the Pakistan army by an expert with access to the top levels of the political and military establishment.
In recent years, Pakistan has changed from being a state of regional strategic significance to one of major global importance. Its geographical position and delicate religious mix, coupled with a complex political structure and its status as a nuclear power, have ensured that its actions—and inactions—have attracted close scrutiny since 9/11 and the declaration of the 'War on Terror.' Yet there remains widespread dis-agreement among political and military analysts as to the real position of this enigmatic nation.

In War, Coups, and Terror, Brian Cloughley explores the underbelly of Pakistan's military and its controversial role within the Pakistani government since Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto came to power in 1971. An insider with links to Pakistan's past and present senior officers, Cloughley provides a unique insight into the Army's influence and position as a force in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as an account of operations against the 2003-2004 tribal uprising. His coverage of military-political relations will fascinate those who seek a closer understanding of this enigmatic and complex country, its ambitions, affiliations, and loyalties.