Stanford Report, October 19, 2001
Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, expresses
support for war effort
BY
MEREDITH ALEXANDER
With five television cameras and thousands of eyes trained on her, Pakistan's
former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto expressed her "condolences" to Americans
on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "I can feel America's pain," she told
a capacity crowd at Memorial Auditorium Thursday night.
Bhutto urged the audience to remember that the American democracy "is a hope for people all around the world," and that millions come here "seeking freedom, equality and pluralism" -- values the "fanatics" hate and fear.
Outside the auditorium, a handful of protesters who called themselves "concerned Pakistani students" and "friends of South Asia" held signs promoting peace and passed out fliers detailing corruption charges against Bhutto -- charges she disputed during her talk. The Oct. 18 lecture, organized by the ASSU Speakers Bureau, was the latest in a series held around the country designed to rally support among Pakistani Americans. Bhutto hopes to return to her native country soon to run in the democratic elections that Gen. Pervez Musharraf has promised for October 2002.
The former prime minister made a point of supporting U.S. efforts to fight the Taliban and Pakistan's current military government's backing of the United States. In her remarks to reporters, Bhutto said that the majority of Pakistanis understand why the United States is taking action against the Taliban.
"War is an extension of politics. The Taliban are refusing to come to a political solution," she said. "There is an understanding [in Pakistan] that the U.S. is out to get the prime suspects, that there will be U.S. commando actions."
She also suggested that the images of Pakistanis protesting in the street may be misleading -- these scenes were not as widespread as they appeared. "The people who have been demonstrating are near the Afghani refugee camps," she said. Most professional people -- doctors, lawyers and so on -- are steering clear.
During her hour-long speech, Bhutto argued that promoting democracy in Pakistan is Southern Asia's best bulwark against violence in the name of religion.
"The best guarantee for a stable region is a democratic Pakistan," she said.
Throughout, Bhutto -- a graduate of Harvard and Oxford -- emphasized the roots of the trouble: clashing forces that aim to control Southern Asia. Democracy and modernization stand on one side while religious fanaticism and theocracy loom on the other, she said.
"Pakistan is divided in its approach to the 21st century," she said. "There's a group that wants dictatorship in the name of Islam."
Bhutto listed numerous ways in which the Islamic holy book contradicts this goal. In Islam, she said, leadership is contingent upon consultation with and accountability to the people.
"The Taliban skipped this section when brainwashing children in their schools," she said.
Bhutto explored the mistakes that had led to the Taliban's ascendancy. She told the audience of around 1,200 that she had warned the U.S. government in 1989 about the dangers of religious fanaticism in Afghanistan. She acknowledged that she had been prime minister when the Taliban first arose. But at that time, their message had been one of "peace and reconciliation," she said.
At that time, the Soviet military was withdrawing, giving up its attempt to control the territory. Meanwhile, the United States had helped to "arm, train, supply and legitimize the most extreme fanatics among the mujahedin," the anti-Soviet fighters. This "sowed the seeds" for Afghanistan's takeover by the Taliban, she said. "We failed to plan or work for a postwar Afghanistan, built on democratic principles." She expressed hope that after the U.S. actions against the Taliban, the West will support a broad-based anti-Taliban coalition to select the next government and will contribute resources as part of a Marshall plan for Afghanistan.
Allegations of corruption dogged Bhutto during both her stints as Pakistan's prime minister, from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, and many charges await her and her family if she were to return to Pakistan. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, still sits in a Pakistani jail after eight years. In response to audience questions, Bhutto said that "not a single so-called corruption charge has been substantiated."
Bhutto herself was imprisoned several times in Pakistan, both before and after her election as prime minister. (Before her election, Bhutto led an opposition from her jail cell.) She is the daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was ousted from power in 1977 when army Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq took control. He was later executed.
Bhutto lives in exile with her three children in the United Arab Emirates.
Photo: L.A. Cicero
