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| October 22, 2001 | Monday | Shaba'an 4, 1422 |
Benazir welcomes support to US
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 21: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has praised President Pervez Musharraf’s decision to allow the United States to use Pakistan’s airstrips and intelligence information for its military operation against Afghanistan.
Addressing a crowd at the Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ms Bhutto clarified that her support to President Musharraf was for national unity, and stressed the need for a democratic government that would bring stability to the region. “A democratic Pakistan is a triumph of modernity for one billion Muslims, who must decide between democracy and theocracy,” she said.
She said members of Pakistan People’s Party thought that the time was ripe for her to return to Pakistan, but she thought doing so now would distract the country.
She expressed hope that the president appreciated the gesture and would guarantee her safety when she returned.
About the US bombing campaign, she said many Pakistanis understood that terrorists, not Muslims in general, were the target, but there was growing “unease about the bombing of a country where there is little left to bomb.”
She said it was important to capture the terrorists before November, when the snow begins to fall. Historically, she said, harsh winters militarily benefited the Afghans, and should there be a traditional land battle it might drag out until March, when spring comes.
The former prime minister said that although the Taliban came to power during her regime, it was not an extremist group then, and Pakistan had hoped it would help open a trade route with central Asia. She also told the audience that in its zeal to defeat the Soviets, the US had aided the Taliban. She said she warned America in 1989 that by aiding the Mujahedeen, or Islamist fighters, it was “creating a Frankenstein that could come back and haunt us in the future.”
To ensure a true democracy in the future, she said, the United States should aid anti-Taliban forces but stop short of creating a new Afghan government. The Western world should then encourage Afghan refugees to return to their country by providing food and removing land mines left behind by the Soviet Union during its 10-year occupation, which ended in 1989 and brought the Taliban movement to power.
Fundamentalists thrive in impoverished regions, she said, noting that many of the anti-American riots took place near refugee camps and Islamic schools. She suggested “something like the Marshall Plan” to stabilize Afghanistan.
Supporting democracy and rebuilding Afghanistan would have long-range benefits of eliminating governments that harbored terrorists, she said.
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