Bush Urges Musharraf To Back Down

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON — President Bush personally told President Musharraf of Pakistan today that he must hold parliamentary elections and relinquish his post as head of his country’s army.

“You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time,” Mr. Bush said, describing a telephone call with General Musharraf. “I had a very frank discussion with him.”

Mr. Bush revealed the call to General Musharraf during an appearance with President Sarkozy of France at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington.

Since General Musharraf declared emergency rule on Saturday, the White House has faced repeated questions about why Mr. Bush was taking a relatively soft line against General Musharraf for the crackdown and had not spoken directly to the Pakistani leader, a man he has called a friend he trusts.

“My message was that we believe strongly in elections, and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform,” Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Sarkozy agreed with Mr. Bush on the need “to have elections as quickly as possible” in Pakistan.

Careful not to go too far in rebuking a close anti-terrorism ally, the Bush administration’s response to General Musharraf’s actions has been mild. It stands in sharp contrast to the administration’s tougher stance taken when Burma’s military regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in September, for instance.

“There is a difference,” Mr. Bush said. “Pakistan has been on the path to democracy. Burma hasn’t been on the path to democracy. It requires different tactics to achieve the common objective.”

On Capitol Hill, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said General Musharraf is an “indispensable” ally in the American-led war on terrorism and that “partnership with Pakistan and its people is the only option.”

In prepared testimony, Mr. Negroponte also told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that administration officials “strongly disagree” with General Musharraf’s crackdown on his political opponents.

“We strongly counseled against emergency rule, but Pakistan’s leadership did not follow our advice,” Mr. Negroponte said.

While he acknowledged an ongoing review of American aid to Pakistan in light of the crisis, Mr. Negroponte did not announce any changes to American policy.

General Musharraf “has been indispensable in the global war on terror, so indispensable that extremists and radicals have tried to assassinate him multiple times,” Mr. Negroponte said. “The bottom line is, there’s no question that we Americans have a stake in Pakistan.”

Mr. Negroponte also urged General Musharraf to follow through with commitments to convene elections and relinquish his position as Army chief.

“The current state of emergency calls into question these commitments, but we should work to achieve their fulfillment, not pre-emptively write them off,” he said.

Mr. Negroponte faces a skeptical Democratic-led Congress. Many lawmakers say America should consider cutting off foreign aid to Pakistan and that General Musharraf shouldn’t be so readily praised.

Senator Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, planned to offer a resolution condemning General Musharraf’s actions, while others said military aid should be withheld.

“We have the worst of all possible worlds,” Rep. Gary Ackerman, Democrat of New York, who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, said. “Our ally is an isolated and deeply resented leader who is less popular with his own people than Osama bin Laden.”

The White House defended its handling of the situation.

“It’s been about five days,” a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said. “I grant you that it feels long for all of us who are interested in wanting to get instant reaction. We are trying to get Pakistan back on its path to democracy.”

The Bush administration has been reviewing American aid to Pakistan in the wake of General Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule. General Musharraf says his actions, which include suspending his country’s constitution and ousting its top judge, were necessary to prevent a takeover by Islamic extremists.

The Bush administration is seeking $800 million for Pakistan for the current budget year. Since 2001 America has provided Pakistan with an estimated $9.6 billion.

At the Pentagon, a senior officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that the American military puts great value in its relationship with the Pakistani military and does not want to see that diminished.

“First and foremost is the cooperation along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs, Lieutenant General Carter Ham, said. “Those military operations, conducted by forces on either side of the border, are done with increasing openness, collaboration, synchronization. There’s good communication between U.S. and Afghan forces on the one side and the Pakistan forces on the other. And we would certainly not want to see that jeopardized in any way.”

General Ham said that American military liaison officers in Islamabad have reported that communication and cooperation with the Pakistani military on operations along the Afghan border have not been affected by the political crisis.

“Those contacts seem to be quite good still,” General Ham said.

A senior member of General Musharraf’s legal team said today that America is more worried about fighting terrorists than about seeing democracy flourish in his country.

An advocate at Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Ahmad Raza Khan Qasuri, also warned America that “we expect from our friends advice, not dictation. We are a sovereign country.”

“Do we ask for a checklist from the United States, ‘Why did you go to Iraq? Why did you go to Afghanistan?'” he said at the Middle East Institute. “The United States, instead of dictation, they should give us friendly advice.”


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