‘Calls for UN probe into Benazir’s assassination likely to fall on deaf ears’
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Despite questions over Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, demands for a UN probe are likely to fall on deaf ears, with the West unwilling to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf, analysts say.
Proud of the pivotal role its intelligence agencies play in the US-led “war on terror”, the government for its part does not want an international inquiry that could appear to be a show of no-confidence in its abilities, they say.
Benazir’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), on Sunday called for the UN to authorise an investigation. But such a probe would have to be authorised by the UN Security Council, where the United States — Musharraff’s close ally — has the veto power to block any Council action..
“They need to have the support of at least the US for passing a Council resolution,” said political analyst Hasan Askari, former head of political science at Punjab University. The PPP said a UN probe should be conducted along the lines of the world body’s inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. But suspicion in that killing fell on Syria, a nation often regarded in the West as an irritant, and the situation in Pakistan is not at all comparable, Askari said.
“The Western powers wanted to use the probe to embarrass Syria,” he said. “The US will not embarrass Musharraf. Political considerations in this case are very different.”
Analyst Shafqat Mahmood said the killing of pro-Western Benazir, a fierce opponent of Islamic militants, deserved a UN investigation even more than Hariri’s murder, but that governments had political calculations to make. “Benazir Bhutto’s murder is a crime on a global scale, because its impact was felt in every country. She had a much greater following than Hariri and, given that, there is no reason why the UN should not get involved,” Mahmood said.
“On the other hand, if they don’t want to get involved because that was Syria and this is their favourite, Musharraf — then that is politics, not justice.””
Pakistan has averaged nearly one suicide attack per week this year, leaving more than 800 people dead — including Benazir, who had survived a previous attack in October that killed 139.
**With the government insisting militants have been reined in, and that its powerful intelligence agencies are a cornerstone of the global fight against radical **Islamism, an international probe into Benazir’s murder would be unacceptable, official sources say. afp
There you go… a Sign of a Traitor. She lived as a Western Puppet and now her family is being humilated by those masters. Just like Chalabi in Iraq, Benazir is getting justice alot worser than even Saddam Hussain… again, a Sign of a Traitor.