SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH PAKISTANI PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
"Who Is Fighting al-Qaida other than Pakistan?"
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rules a country on the front lines
in the war against terror. For years he has walked the difficult
tight-rope of pacifying a Muslim population and maintaining a close
alliance with the US. SPIEGEL spoke with him about anti-Americanism, the
hunt for Osama bin Laden and whether Iran should be allowed to go nuclear.
Full text at:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,357735,00.html
Some quotes:
SPIEGEL: Pakistan has often been criticised by the West for only hunting
down Osama bin Laden half-heartedly. What is your response to that?
Musharraf: I'm very annoyed, frankly. Who is fighting al-Qaida other
than Pakistan? It is only Pakistan which has eliminated over seven
hundred terrorists from cities and over three hundred or four hundred
from the mountains. During the war in Afghanistan, al-Qaida shifted and
they came into Pakistan and we bagged something like over two hundred or
two hundred and fifty of them in the initial stage. Then we started an
operation bringing in the military to the tribal agencies of South
Waziristan.
SPIEGEL: Now the billion dollar question. Where is Osama bin Laden? Is
he alive?
Musharraf: Yes, he is alive. He is probably in the border belt, where it
is so easy to shift on either side. Then there are some areas where
there are no operations, so maybe he could shift there.
SPIEGEL: Should we be prepared for many years of looking for Osama bin
Laden?
Musharraf: Think of how long Che Guevara could not be traced. This is
the first time we have gone into this inhospitable area. We are
improving, we are going ahead, we are moving along.
SPIEGEL: Do you think he is still the mastermind of the world-wide
terrorism network?
Musharraf: As I said, vertical and horizontal linkages are badly
affected, so it seems unlikely that this man sitting in the mountains is
controlling things in Iraq, Palestine and everywhere in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
SPIEGEL: Is al-Qaida also the leading force in Iraq?
Musharraf: I don't know, frankly. There are other organisations, after
all, because it is all closely related with Palestine. Hamas is involved
and Hizbollah is involved. It is all jumbled up.
SPIEGEL: Has Iraq got to be pacified in order to win the war on
terrorism, as President Bush is calling for?
Musharraf: I would say that you need to pacify Palestine. This is the
route. Any indirect strategy for Iraq or Afghanistan is through Palestine.
SPIEGEL: The US is trying hard to protect the world from Iran going
nuclear. Would you support a pre-emptive strike?
Musharraf: In the present environment it would be disastrous because it
would agitate the Muslim world. Why keep opening new fronts?
.
|
