Pity The Children
The World Health Organization of the United Nations estimates that three-quarters of a million children were missed in the latest nationwide vaccination drive taking place in Pakistan, conducted by humanitarian organizations. That figure includes 279,000 children living in the border tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. An area so strife-ridden it is too dangerous for health teams to visit with their good intentions.If they were to attempt to venture into those areas they would discover themselves to be considered persona non grata. Representative of Western ideas and ideals, they are anathema to the Taliban. The director of the World Health Organisation-led polio eradication campaign warned these children were at risk. And the program risked failure unless they were successful in somehow reaching an agreement with the insurgents.
To allow them to be recognized as aid workers embarked on a humanitarian mission and having no connection whatever to any politics, religious conviction or military forces is an extremely difficult task to achieve. Particularly to impress upon the Taliban that they have no connection to military forces of the West, and more specifically, those of the United States.
It is hugely suspected that the Taliban suspicions were aroused as a result of a ruse attempted by the CIA to have a Pakistani doctor now accused of spying for the U.S., pose as a member of a vaccination team. In an attempt to secure DNA to identify the progeny of Osama bin Laden at his Abbottabad compound.
With the oncoming winter season, when disease transmission is at its lowest ebb and vaccinations known to be most effective, it is seen as critical to obtain permission from the Taliban to enter their tribal territories to expose the children living there to life-saving inoculations. Pakistan has pledged a target of polio eradication by 2015.
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria represent the last three countries of the world where polio remains an endemic threat to children's survival. Convincing tribal mentalities averse to the presence of Western ideas, let alone Western representatives, even humanitarian aid workers, that protection of their children should be their paramount concern, is a tough effort.
They are more immediately concerned with their suspicion of and angry antipathy toward the United States, its corrupting influences on Islamic values, and its interference with Pakistani tribal animosities toward the larger Pakistan community and its government. These are autonomous tribal areas. And the Taliban mean to keep them this way, and to enlarge their territory as well.
The WHO had hoped to be able to negotiate a ceasefire as they often do in Days of Tranquility conventions in conflict zones to permit health workers to access inoculation delivery to children living in those zones. There were hopes of convincing the U.S. for a temporary suspension of drone attacks to mollify the Taliban.
Fond hope on both counts.
Labels: Health, Pakistan, Political Realities, Social-Cultural Deviations, Taliban, Traditions, United Nations
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 31, 2012
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