Bushroda
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Scores killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan
International Herald Tribune,
The Associated Press
Published: November 18, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Fierce battles between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's volatile northwest have left 91 people dead, officials said Sunday, despite the imposition of a state of emergency justified in part by the need to quell sectarian unrest.
Combatants used mortars and other heavy weapons in the Shiite-majority town of Parachinar late Saturday and early Sunday, an intelligence official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Continuing to defy the United States, Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, declined to tell a senior American envoy when he would lift a two-week-old state of emergency, Pakistani and western officials said.
In a two-hour, face-to-face meeting Saturday with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who urged the president to end the emergency, Musharraf said he would do so when security improves in the country.
Negroponte is the United States' second highest ranking diplomat.
In a news conference before he left Pakistan on Sunday, Negroponte said it would take time to determine whether the U.S. message had an impact.
"In diplomacy, as you know, we don't get instant replies," he said. "I'm sure the president is seriously considering the exchange we had."
The military said Sunday it would send soldiers to control the outbreak of violence in Parachinar. In a statement, the military said 91 people, including 11 security personnel, had been killed over the weekend.
The violence began Friday when gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque. Sunni militiamen retaliated by attacking Shiites, the police said.
Separately on Sunday, a passenger train was attacked near Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, killing one passenger and injuring three, The Associated Press reported, quoting a railway official.
The state of emergency remains a major embarrassment for the Bush administration, which has given more than $10 billion in aid to General Musharraf's government since 2001 and declared him a valued ally.
Ten days ago, President Bush personally telephoned Musharraf and asked him to end the state of emergency, with no result.
The Bush administration has also pushed for Musharraf, who is army chief as well as president, to resign from his military role. The general has said he will, but not until the Supreme Court certifies his re-election last month to a five-year term as president, which opposition groups say was illegal.
On Saturday, Negroponte met twice with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the deputy commander of Pakistan's army and Musharraf's designated successor to head the army. The time and attention paid to Kayani, a pro-Western moderate, seemed to signal U.S. support for him.
Negroponte first met with Kayani for an hour on Saturday morning.
Then, Kayani attended the two-hour meeting between Negroponte and Musharraf. Then, the U.S. envoy had a two-hour dinner with Kayani and Tariq Aziz, a close aide to Musharraf. Kayani is widely believed to want to remove the military from politics and to focus on securing the country.
On Nov. 3, Musharraf declared emergency rule in Pakistan and began a crackdown that led to the arrest of an estimated 2,500 opposition politicians, lawyers and human rights activists. The move, which Musharraf has said is an effort to curb terrorism, is widely seen by Pakistanis as an effort by the increasingly unpopular ruler to cling to power.
Negroponte said he had urged the Pakistani leader to end the emergency, release all political prisoners, resign from his post as army chief and hold free and fair elections in January.
"Emergency rule is not compatible with free and fair elections," Negroponte told reporters. "The people of Pakistan deserve the opportunity to choose their leaders."
In a sign of Musharraf's growing isolation, the secretary-general of the main political party backing Musharraf called Saturday for an end to the emergency.
The leader, Mushahid Hussain, said that ending the state of emergency would cause "less tension, less political conflict and less polarization."
"The national interest would be better served," Hussain said in an interview with Dawn News, a Pakistani television channel. "The emergency has been having a very negative impact, both at home and abroad."
A poll in late August and early September by the International Republican Institute, a group based in Washington that conducts what it describes as pro-democracy activities overseas, found that 70 percent of Pakistanis supported Musharraf's resignation. His popularity is believed to have decreased further since the declaration on Nov. 3.
A second Western diplomat said that Musharraf would not want to be seen as bowing to American pressure and was unlikely to lift the emergency in the next several days.
Western diplomats say they believe that Pakistan's army still supports Musharraf, but that there is unease with his leadership. With the army facing a growing insurgency from Islamic militants in the northwest, generals are eager to have an army chief who is focused solely on military matters, they said.
Twice in Pakistan's history, senior generals have asked military rulers to resign when their conduct was deemed to be damaging to the army as an institution. So far, no signs have emerged that Kayani or other leaders have asked Musharraf to step aside.
Negroponte held a series of meetings over the weekend that seemed intended to revive an alliance between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, an opposition politician and former prime minister.
On Friday, Negroponte telephoned Bhutto. He then met Aziz, the Musharraf aide who served as a back-channel negotiator in an effort to broker a deal between the president and Bhutto.
U.S. officials had hoped that Bhutto's presumed popularity in Pakistan would bolster Musharraf's low standing. The president's emergency decree seems to have scuttled any deal, at least for now.
International Herald Tribune,
The Associated Press
Published: November 18, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Fierce battles between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's volatile northwest have left 91 people dead, officials said Sunday, despite the imposition of a state of emergency justified in part by the need to quell sectarian unrest.
Combatants used mortars and other heavy weapons in the Shiite-majority town of Parachinar late Saturday and early Sunday, an intelligence official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Continuing to defy the United States, Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, declined to tell a senior American envoy when he would lift a two-week-old state of emergency, Pakistani and western officials said.
In a two-hour, face-to-face meeting Saturday with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who urged the president to end the emergency, Musharraf said he would do so when security improves in the country.
Negroponte is the United States' second highest ranking diplomat.
In a news conference before he left Pakistan on Sunday, Negroponte said it would take time to determine whether the U.S. message had an impact.
"In diplomacy, as you know, we don't get instant replies," he said. "I'm sure the president is seriously considering the exchange we had."
The military said Sunday it would send soldiers to control the outbreak of violence in Parachinar. In a statement, the military said 91 people, including 11 security personnel, had been killed over the weekend.
The violence began Friday when gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque. Sunni militiamen retaliated by attacking Shiites, the police said.
Separately on Sunday, a passenger train was attacked near Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, killing one passenger and injuring three, The Associated Press reported, quoting a railway official.
The state of emergency remains a major embarrassment for the Bush administration, which has given more than $10 billion in aid to General Musharraf's government since 2001 and declared him a valued ally.
Ten days ago, President Bush personally telephoned Musharraf and asked him to end the state of emergency, with no result.
The Bush administration has also pushed for Musharraf, who is army chief as well as president, to resign from his military role. The general has said he will, but not until the Supreme Court certifies his re-election last month to a five-year term as president, which opposition groups say was illegal.
On Saturday, Negroponte met twice with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the deputy commander of Pakistan's army and Musharraf's designated successor to head the army. The time and attention paid to Kayani, a pro-Western moderate, seemed to signal U.S. support for him.
Negroponte first met with Kayani for an hour on Saturday morning.
Then, Kayani attended the two-hour meeting between Negroponte and Musharraf. Then, the U.S. envoy had a two-hour dinner with Kayani and Tariq Aziz, a close aide to Musharraf. Kayani is widely believed to want to remove the military from politics and to focus on securing the country.
On Nov. 3, Musharraf declared emergency rule in Pakistan and began a crackdown that led to the arrest of an estimated 2,500 opposition politicians, lawyers and human rights activists. The move, which Musharraf has said is an effort to curb terrorism, is widely seen by Pakistanis as an effort by the increasingly unpopular ruler to cling to power.
Negroponte said he had urged the Pakistani leader to end the emergency, release all political prisoners, resign from his post as army chief and hold free and fair elections in January.
"Emergency rule is not compatible with free and fair elections," Negroponte told reporters. "The people of Pakistan deserve the opportunity to choose their leaders."
In a sign of Musharraf's growing isolation, the secretary-general of the main political party backing Musharraf called Saturday for an end to the emergency.
The leader, Mushahid Hussain, said that ending the state of emergency would cause "less tension, less political conflict and less polarization."
"The national interest would be better served," Hussain said in an interview with Dawn News, a Pakistani television channel. "The emergency has been having a very negative impact, both at home and abroad."
A poll in late August and early September by the International Republican Institute, a group based in Washington that conducts what it describes as pro-democracy activities overseas, found that 70 percent of Pakistanis supported Musharraf's resignation. His popularity is believed to have decreased further since the declaration on Nov. 3.
A second Western diplomat said that Musharraf would not want to be seen as bowing to American pressure and was unlikely to lift the emergency in the next several days.
Western diplomats say they believe that Pakistan's army still supports Musharraf, but that there is unease with his leadership. With the army facing a growing insurgency from Islamic militants in the northwest, generals are eager to have an army chief who is focused solely on military matters, they said.
Twice in Pakistan's history, senior generals have asked military rulers to resign when their conduct was deemed to be damaging to the army as an institution. So far, no signs have emerged that Kayani or other leaders have asked Musharraf to step aside.
Negroponte held a series of meetings over the weekend that seemed intended to revive an alliance between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, an opposition politician and former prime minister.
On Friday, Negroponte telephoned Bhutto. He then met Aziz, the Musharraf aide who served as a back-channel negotiator in an effort to broker a deal between the president and Bhutto.
U.S. officials had hoped that Bhutto's presumed popularity in Pakistan would bolster Musharraf's low standing. The president's emergency decree seems to have scuttled any deal, at least for now.
