US envoy sees need for boosting civilian ratio

US military presence causing degree of resentment, increasing civilian ratio will help ease scepticism says US envoy.

KARACHI: The US military presence is perhaps causing a degree of resentment within Pakistan and increasing the civilian ratio would help ease the general scepticism surrounding American intentions, US Ambassador Cameron Munter said.

Talking to The Express Tribune onboard a C130 en route to Pano Aqil on Friday, the new US ambassador stressed that the only reason there was a larger military presence in Pakistan was that they obviously had the means to cater to what is Pakistan’s biggest challenge currently – that is, the unprecedented devastation caused by the floods.

It has only been five days since the ambassador flew into his latest assignment – one of the most challenging ones on offer – but his assignment and goals seem clear. The diplomatic push from the top American presence in Pakistan serves to give credence to the notion that relations between Washington and Islamabad are in flux, or at least at the risk of being so.

The ambassador told The Express Tribune that his main goal is simply to “build trust – not only with the leadership, and the military, but with the people.” His vocal stress is, however, distinctly on “the people.”

On Saturday, the ambassador along with US Consul General William Martin hopped on board a C130 to Pano Aqil – where the US has set up a base camp for its relief operations – from  where he took an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas in upper Sindh in a helicopter. He stopped to personally deliver four tonnes of relief goods at a village located some 79 miles from Pano Aqil, helping offload the relief goods himself and even managing to meet few villagers.

But despite the killer schedule – ostensibly meant to help him hit the ground running – the 56-year-old hands-on ambassador seemed in good spirits, saying that he was enjoying it despite it being hectic. From Pano Aqil, the ambassador was scheduled to fly to Islamabad, where he was to meet Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and discuss, among other things, the Pak-US strategic dialogue.

However, the diplomatic blitz aside, the initiation process is still on for the ambassador. For one, he is still not fluent when it comes to the names of the Pakistani leadership, and secondly, an awkward incident emanating from his off-the-record interaction with the Pakistani press a day earlier clearly caught him off guard.

Regarding the first problem, he said that he would ask the prime minister to fill him in on the current situation in Pakistan. “I won’t let that scare me, though,” said the ambassador, who says he wants to have a working relationship with the media in Pakistan and, through them, with the people too.

After landing back in Pano Aqil, the ambassador held a hit-and-run press conference, where he said that it was an honour to work with the Pakistan military and to help the country’s people. Then, it was off to Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2010.