Hi all; India says Pakistani leader talks to people:
MUSHARRAF WALKS THE TIGHTROPE
Chidanand Rajghatta, Times of India, September 20, 2001
WASHINGTON: Dragging India into Pakistan's self-created mess and warning New Delhi to "lay off" from taking advantage of Pakistan's crisis, the country's military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday made an extraordinary appeal to his people asking for their support in his decision to ally with the United States.
Wearing a military uniform, Musharraf made a mostly-Urdu address to the nation peppered with religious annotations to tell his Pakistanis why he was supporting the US decision. His bizarre logic, expressed transparently and without inhibition, in sum meant an opportunistic move to sup with the lesser devil and take on one crisis at a time. He spoke about how Prophet Mohammed made alliances with Jews and Infidels to further Islam.
US officials and analysts were startled and bemused by his reasoning but maintained that Musharraf was speaking to his domestic constituency and trying to contain the opposition to his offer of "unstinted cooperation" to the US. "I don't think we care what he says as long he provides intelligence and logistical support," South Asia scholar Steve Cohen said.
Stranger than his twisted logic explaining his support to the US was Musharraf's fulmination against India. If Pakistan did not offer support to the US, India, which had already offered all facilities to US would leverage the situation and try to get Pakistan declared a terrorist state, he said. India was also plotting with other countries to get rid of the Taliban government and install an anti-Pakistan government in Kabul, he warned.
Although Musharraf's 20-minute address was replete with references to the grave crisis facing Pakistan, he was full of machismo, harking to his heroics in war and giving his people the usual spiel about giving a befitting reply to the enemy. At one point, he declared the Pakistan Air Force was at full alert.
Indian officials were also surprised by the tone of Musharraf's address and his attempt to drag India into his crisis. "Very cathartic address. Note that his support to US wasn't premised on opposition to terrorism but on opportunism as to what this could get for Pakistan," one Indian official who has served in Pakistan said. The address was telecast live in the US by CNN and Fox News Network.
Agencies add from Islamabad:
Musharraf's nationally televised speech was clearly an effort to reassure a nation reacting with anger and fear over the government's decision to cooperate in a proposed US attack on Afghanistan.
Musharraf in his speech said "nowhere have the words Islam or the Afghan nation been mentioned" in discussions between Pakistan and the United States about cooperating in their efforts to battle terrorism.
Musharraf warned that the deadly terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, and Pakistan's decision to help Washington find and prosecute the perpetrators has put his Islamic country in its worst crisis since its last war with neighbouring India in 1971.
"Pakistan is passing through a very serious time," he said. "Our decision today will impact on our future. ... If we make a mistake now, it will affect our future."
Militant Muslims in Pakistan, an Islamic country of 140 million people, have reacted with rage over the position that Islamabad has taken in its talks with Washington. Musharraf called for unity against radical elements that would try to create anarchy during the crisis between the US and Afghanistan.
"I'm the chief of the Pakistan army and my first priority is the defence of Pakistan. The rest follows after," he said.
"Some elements want to take advantage of this to pursue personal or party agendas. They want to create anarchy and damage the country," he added, referring to radical Islamist groups.
"I appeal to the people of Pakistan to show unity and solidarity against these elements and not let them succeed.
"Pakistan is a fort of Islam, and God forbid this fort is damaged."
He said the United States has not completed its operational plan to capture bin Laden in Afghanistan, and therefore the details of the support being sought from Pakistan are not fully decided.
However, what is known is that the United States wants Pakistan's help on intelligence gathering and logistics, as well as permission to use its airspace, Musharraf said.
To cooperate with the United States and stand together with the international community will ensure the country emerges as a "responsible and dignified Pakistan", he said. "Pakistan's decision will have far-reaching implications. A wrong decision could imperil our future."
Musharraf said the United States is in the grip of "grief, anger and vengeance" because of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The US targets are Bin Laden, his Al Qaida organization accused by Washington of operating terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the Taliban rulers, who have given him refuge there.
The United States is building an international coalition in its battle against terrorism and has the backing of United Nations resolutions, Musharraf said.
"The fight, which has the support of all Islamic countries, is against terrorism," he said.
timesofindia.com
-- Carl |
