Europese diplomaat: overstromingen in Pakistan kunnen regering verzwakken (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The flood disaster in Pakistan could worsen the security situation in the country by making its democratically-elected government look ineffective, a senior EU diplomat has said.
Speaking to EUobserver by phone from Islamabad on Tuesday (10 August), Tomas Niklasson, the acting head of the EU delegation to Pakistan, said a security analysis should be carried out once the immediate priority of disaster relief has been dealt with.
"We will have to ask questions about what impact it will have on government capacity, how it will affect perceptions of government response, the economy, foreign investors - the floods will affect a lot of things in the country and could have implications on the security situation," he explained.
"We intend to do what we can to help the democratically-elected government to make an adequate response, so that the government is not seen as being unable to provide a response."
Mr Niklasson said the current atmosphere in Islamabad is "deceptively" calm: "There's no panic in the streets. But when you speak to government people, to people from other [EU] member states, when you speak to any Pakistani - this is really, really big."
He noted that many parts of the country are already too lawless for EU officials to visit in order to assess aid needs.
"Many areas outside Islamabad are out of bounds for us. Parts of the Northwest Province are out of bounds, the Swat valley ... Human development and assistance workers are being targeted. It's not a matter of being from the EU. In some areas, a foreigner, even people from other parts of Pakistan, if not specifically invited, would be seen as an unwelcome guest. It's not always political, some militant organisations are kidnapping people for ransom."
The EU diplomat reported that some radical groups are helping deliver aid. But he ruled out the theory that the disaster could create a sense of national solidarity.
"It's a little bit of wishful thinking that there might be some sense of common destiny, of belonging to the same nation - the challenges are very, very significant," he said.
In the EU's Lisbon-Treaty-era division of labour, the union's on-the-ground reaction is being split between a five-person-strong office in Islamabad answering to aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva i and Mr Niklasson's much larger EU delegation in the Pakistani capital, which answers to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton i and numbers over 50 staff.
The Georgieva bureau is in talks with Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority and NGOs on how best to spend the EU's €30 million immediate aid grant.
Meanwhile, Ms Ashton's embassy is preparing to take over the post-disaster reconstruction effort, expected to cost hundreds of millions of euros.
EU officials in Brussels dismissed suggestions that Europe's August holiday period, which sees many top officials, including Ms Ashton, go on vacation, has impeded the union's response.
"The HRVP [Ms Ashton] is kept fully abreast of everything in relation to this matter. She and her services have also been in regular contact with the Belgian [EU] presidency and other international partners including Nato," one contact said.
In remarks reminiscent of the Haiti earthquake in February, when Ms Ashton came under fire for not being "visible" enough in her role, one Irish politician on Tuesday urged the baroness to convene an emergency EU foreign ministers' meeting. "The EU is not responding cohesively enough to the ongoing human tragedy in Pakistan," Sean Barrett, a member of parliament from the opposition Fine Gael party, said in a press release.
Neither Ms Ashton nor Ms Georgieva have voiced any plans to go to Pakistan for the time being, but the EU's Mr Niklasson said that VIP visits could detract from the aid effort.
"Just now, in my personal opinion, the scant resources, in terms of helicopters, in terms of communications, are better used in helping the people out there," he said. "People are calling for more action, more co-ordinated action from their government and from abroad. It's understandable. But, so far, there are no calls like 'the foreigners don't care about us.'"