ISLAMABAD — Rejecting a new claim by Osama bin Laden, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan said today that it was “ludicrous” to suggest that anyone but al-Qaida and the Taliban are responsible for the refugee crisis in Pakistan.
Richard Holbrooke was asked during a joint news conference in Islamabad to respond to a new tape purportedly issued by bin Laden, who claimed that U.S. pressure led to a Pakistani military offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley region that caused an exodus of civilians.
Holbrooke said he was not directly aware of the message because he had been traveling in the previous hours, but he rejected the idea that bin Laden reportedly presented.
“The idea that anyone is responsible for the refugee crisis other than al-Qaida and the Taliban and the other people that have caused such tragedy in Pakistan is ludicrous,” Holbrooke said during a joint news conference with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
“This entire problem began with al-Qaida and its associates and everybody in the world knows that. It’s silly indeed to respond to such a ludicrous charge.”
On the videotape, bin Laden says President Barack Obama has inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area.
He claimed U.S. pressure led to a campaign of “killing, fighting, bombing and destruction” that prompted the exodus of a million Muslims from the Swat Valley.
The message was broadcast for the first time today on pan-Arab Al-Jazeera Television at almost the same moment Obama touched down in Saudi Arabia for a Mideast visit aimed at repairing frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world.
Al-Jazeera aired excerpts of the tape and did not say how it was obtained. The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified.
Pakistan’s military launched its offensive in Swat in late April after militants abandoned a peace deal with the government that gave them control of the region, and Taliban fighters advanced into the neighboring are of Buner just 60 miles from Islamabad, the capital.
No U.S. troops are involved in the fighting. Washington has strongly backed the offensive, which is seen as a test of Pakistan’s resolve against militants in the northwestern border region with Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
Pakistani officials say the number of refugees displaced by the fighting in the northwest is around 3 million, and more than 160,000 of them are living in sweltering camps south of the battle zone, with the rest staying with friends and relatives or renting accommodation.
International aid agency have warned of a humanitarian crisis is the refugees are not well cared for.
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