Taliban's marble gold mine

Published on Saturday 19 July 2008 19:36

THE mountain of white marble shines with such brilliance in the sun it looks like snow. For four years, the quarry beneath it lay dormant, its riches captive to tribal squabbles and government ineptitude in Pakistan's tribal areas.

But the Taliban appeared and imposed a firm hand. They settled the feud between the tribes, demanded a fat fee up front and a tax on every truck that ferried the treasure from the quarry. Since then, Mir Zaman, a contractor from the Masaud sub-tribe, has watched contentedly as his trucks roll out with colossal boulders bound for refining in nearby towns.

"With the Taliban it is not a question of a request to us, but a question of force," said Zaman, a bearded, middle-aged tribal leader, who seemed philosophical about the reality of Taliban authority here. At least the quarry was now operating, he said.

The takeover of the Ziarat marble quarry, a coveted national asset, is one of the boldest examples of how the Taliban have made Pakistan's tribal areas far more than a base for training camps or a launching pad for sending fighters into Afghanistan.

In a rare, unescorted visit by journalists to the region, during which the Taliban detained a freelance reporter and photographer for two days, it was revealed how the Taliban is taking over territory, using the income they exact to strengthen their hold and turn themselves into a self-sustaining fighting force. The quarry alone has already brought the Taliban tens of thousands of dollars, Zaman said.

The seizure of the quarry is a measure of how in recent months, as the Pakistani military has pulled back under a series of peace deals, the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach through more of the rugged 600-mile-long territory in northern Pakistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.

Today the Taliban not only settle disputes in their consolidated domain, but they also levy taxes, smuggle drugs and other contraband, and impose their own brand of rough justice, complete with courts and prisons.

From the security of this border region, they pivot their fighters and suicide bombers in two directions: against British, US and Nato forces over the border in southern Afghanistan, and against Pakistani forces – police, army and intelligence officials – in major Pakistani cities.

The quarry in the Mohmand tribal district, strategically situated between the city of Peshawar and the Afghan border, is a new effort by the Taliban to harness the abundant natural resources of a region where there are plenty of other mining operations for coal, gold, copper and chromate.

Of all the minerals in the tribal areas, the marble from Ziarat is one of the most highly prized for use in expensive floors and walls in Pakistan and elsewhere.

A government body, the FATA Development Authority, has failed over the past few years to mediate a dispute between the Masaud and Gurbaz sub-tribes over how the mining rights should be allocated, according to Pakistani government officials.

The arguments were fierce because the tribes knew that the Ziarat marble was of particularly fine texture and purity, comparable to Italian Carrara marble.

The Taliban came eager for a share of the business. Their reputation for brutality and the weakness of the local government then allowed them to settle the dispute in short order.

The Taliban decided that one mountain in the Ziarat area belonged to the Masaud division of the main Safi tribe, and said that the Gurbaz sub-tribe would be rewarded with another mountain.

The mountain assigned to the Masauds was divided into 30 portions and each of six villages in the area was assigned five of the 30 portions. Zaman said the Taliban demanded about $1,500 commission upfront for each portion, giving the insurgents a quick $45,000.

The Taliban also demanded a tax of about $7 on each truckload of marble, he said. With a constant flow of trucks, the Taliban were now collecting up to $500 a day, Zaman said.

A senior Pakistani official and a Pakistani businessman who works in the marble industry, neither of whom wanted to be identified for fear of retaliation from the Taliban, confirmed the account.

Today the quarry operation is rudimentary, using dynamite, which harms the marble and renders production extremely inefficient. Antiquated trucks grind their way up the steep, tiered roadways carved in the mountainside to haul the rock away. But the quarry's reopening has given something to everyone.

The local tribes are profiting along with the Taliban. Once the trucks reach the processing plants, the government, too, collects a hefty tax, nearly double that of the Taliban.

So far, the Taliban have overseen the operation with a light hand: a single armed Taliban fighter sits at a checkpoint not far from the contractor Zaman's hut to ensure that the tax is paid.

The Taliban is today a loose organisation of mostly ethnic Pashtuns divided in two wings, one on each side of the border. Their leader in Mohmand goes by the name Abdul Wali, a guerrilla fighter in his 30s who rose to prominence last year when his group occupied a famous shrine in the village of Ghazi Abad in Mohmand.

He is affiliated with the overall leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, a powerful ally of al-Qaeda who keeps his base in South Waziristan, another part of the tribal areas.

Working with al-Qaeda, the Taliban have steadily tightened their grip over much of the tribal areas by cowing or killing hundreds of local tribal chiefs who were the area's traditional authorities.

In Mohmand, the Taliban have speedily consolidated control in the last year. They have filled a vacuum left by a vacillating government, unable and unwilling to assert its authority, said Munir Orekzei, a member of parliament from Kurram, south-west of Mohmand, one of the seven districts, or agencies, in the tribal areas.

At the same time, people in the tribal areas believe some branches of the Pakistani government are encouraging the Taliban in their route to power.

Orekzei said he recently attended a meeting with Rehman Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, and tribal leaders in Peshawar, capital of the nearby North-West Frontier Province.

"Rehman Malik asked why the people in the tribal areas were not fighting back against the Taliban," Orekzei said. "I told him the people believe the government is behind the Taliban. I said, you tell the public what you are doing, and if they believe the government is not behind the Taliban, they will fight."