ANALYSIS: An unethical survey on FATA —Farhat Taj
ANALYSIS: An unethical survey on FATA —Farhat Taj
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
The people of FATA perceive state collusion with the Taliban. They want
the termination of this collusion before the military operations. Until
then, they are comfortable with the drone strikes on militant positions
Recently,
a survey was conducted by the New America Foundation (NAF), a US think
tank, and Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT) about the tribal public opinion in
FATA about the war on terror, including the US drone strikes in the
area. The two organisations claim to “have conducted the first
comprehensive public opinion survey covering sensitive political issues
in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan”. It is further
claimed that, “the unprecedented survey, from June 30 to July 20, 2010,
consisted of face-to-face interviews of 1,000 FATA residents aged 18 or
older across 120 villages/sampling points in all seven tribal agencies
of FATA.”
A critical analysis of the survey by anyone aware of
the ground realities in FATA can render the survey unethical, in terms
of research ethics, and methodologically inaccurate on many counts.
This is not the occasion to critically analyse the survey. I will,
however, comment on two grand claims made by the survey. First is the
claim that “the people in Pakistan’s tribal areas strongly oppose the
US military pursuing al Qaeda and Taliban fighters based in their
region. American drone attacks are deeply unpopular (76 percent are
against the drone strikes).” Secondly, it says, “The residents of the
FATA back, instead, the Pakistani military fighting against the
militants.”
In June and July 2010, when the survey was
conducted, many, if not most, people of FATA were the internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in other parts of Pakistan. The entire Upper
Orakzai, parts of Lower Orakzai and the whole Mehsud area in South
Waziristan were empty of their people due to the ongoing military
operations in these areas. People in most parts, if not entire, of
Bajaur, Mohmand, Bara in Khyber and several parts of Kurram and North
Waziristan were also IDPs. How much is the survey representative of the
residents of FATA in such a situation? Before declaring the survey
‘unprecedented’ or ‘comprehensive’, the surveyors must seriously
address these questions.
The survey is claimed to have been
conducted in parts of FATA that are totally under the writ of the
militants in collusion with the intelligence agencies of Pakistan. The
local people are overpowered in these areas, which are inaccessible for
independent investigation due to bad security. There is no question of
locals giving honest answers in a survey like this, because doing so
means their instant beheading. Many have been brutally killed for
displeasing the militants by freely expressing their opinions. The
survey report does not elaborate how it made sure that the people
freely expressed their opinion. The NAF and TFT must disclose what
deals they had to make with Commander Nazir, the gangster of South
Waziristan, Caliph Haqqani, the de facto ruler of North Waziristan,
Mangal Bagh, the devil occupying Bara, the local Gestapo (ISI agents)
and Arab, Punjabi and Uzbek terrorist gangs in all these areas to make
sure that the respondents responded to the survey without fearing for
their lives, especially about sensitive issues like drone strikes.
The
second claim of the report about people in FATA backing the Pakistan
Army operations is only a half-truth. The full truth is that the people
of FATA have greatly suffered in the army operations. The government of
Pakistan’s own FATA secretariat report informs that over 3,000 died,
over 3,000 were injured and property worth millions of dollars was
destroyed in the ongoing crisis in FATA. The IDPs from all over FATA
that I have been interacting with say that most of the damage has been
caused by the army. They allege that the army is deliberately killing
innocent people and avoiding targeting the militants. They want
targeted army operations against the militants. They perceive state
collusion with the Taliban. They want the termination of this collusion
before the military operations. Until then, they are comfortable with
the drone strikes on militant positions. Let me share with the readers
that the people from the most drone-hit areas of Waziristan get
seriously upset when there are no drone attacks. Their apprehension is
that the governments of Pakistan and the US might enter an agreement to
halt the drone attacks. They want the drone strikes to continue. Anyone
who can somehow manage to win the confidence of the people of FATA will
find that most of them welcome the drone strikes.
CAMP, a local
NGO in Pakistan, conducted fieldwork for the survey. I have heard
researchers, journalists, NGO activists and intellectuals from across
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA accuse CAMP of fabricating data about FATA
and making quick bucks out of it. Those FATA tribesmen who have had the
opportunity to actually observe the fieldwork conducted by the NGO
either ridicule its work or, at best, question it on many counts. This
column is not the place to critically analyse the FATA research of this
NGO. Suffice it to say that a critical analysis by anyone who is well
informed about the factual reality in FATA would find previous research
by CAMP, known as ‘Understanding FATA’, highly questionable.
I
want to challenge the FATA ‘experts’ at the NAF and TFT to show some
scholarly courage. I urge them to come over to FATA (not under the
auspices of the Pakistan Army as David Kilcullen of Accidental
Guerrilla did), apply some research ethics and conduct a real survey,
rather than spreading misleading information about FATA from the US or
engaging dubious Pakistani NGOs to engineer data about FATA.
This
is not the first time NAF has spread distorted information about the
drone strikes in FATA. Recently, the think tank produced a research
report, ‘The year of the drone’, that claims that 32 percent of those
killed in US drone strikes are innocent civilians. I have questioned
the authenticity of that report through my research paper, ‘That year
of the drone misinformation’, published in Small Wars and Insurgencies.
Researchers,
both western and Pakistani, routinely violate research ethics in their
research on the people and culture of FATA. Had the researchers applied
some research ethics, we would not have had the piles of research
reports that produce stereotypical images of FATA in line with the
colonial discourse and narratives of the Pakistani military
establishment about the tribesmen and women. More importantly, the
reports are often factually wrong and thus mislead people around the
world about the ground reality in this most important battleground in
the war on terror. The message is clear: research ethics do not matter
at all when it comes to the people of FATA.
The writer is a PhD Research Fellow with the University of Oslo and currently writing a book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban
In : Farhat Taj
Notes