Pakistan's president feared military might 'take me out'
Wednesday December 01, 2010 08:34:44 AM ,
DPA
|
Washington:
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told US Vice President Joe
Biden that he was worried the powerful military in his country
might "take me out", according to US diplomatic cables published
in The New York Times Tuesday.
Zardari's comments made to Biden in January 2009 reflect the
influential role the Pakistani military holds in a country with a
long history of coup d'etats, and further raises questions about
the effectiveness of civilian rule. It was unclear whether
Zardari's comments suggested he could be killed or merely forced
out of office.
The US cables from the embassy in Islamabad were part of a massive
cache of internal American diplomatic correspondence acquired by
WikiLeaks and distributed to a handful of news organisations,
including The Times, the Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel and
newspapers in France and Spain.
More than 250,000 documents were being released this week despite
the strong objections of the US government, which considers them
stolen and says their public release undermines international
diplomacy.
The cables underscore the difficult relationship between the US
and Pakistan and US scepticism about whether Islamabad is fully
committed to defeating Islamic extremism despite billions of of
dollars in annual military and civilian aid.
The cables reveal the tricky dilemma faced by the US in trying to
support a civilian-led government unpopular among Pakistanis and
in constant tension with a military and intelligence service less
sympathetic to US objectives in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been reluctant to completely sever ties to the
Taliban because it wants to maintain as much influence in
Afghanistan to thwart any attempts by archrival India to intervene
in Afghanistan, The New York Times reported. Pakistan views the
militants as insurance for when the day comes that the US leaves
Afghanistan, The Times reported.
Anne Patterson, a US ambassador in Pakistan for three years until
her October departure, doubted whether the billions of dollars in
US aid would persuade Pakistan to be more cooperative.
"There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance
levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning
support for these groups, which it sees as an important part of
its national security apparatus against India," she said.
Patterson was most likely referring to the Haqqani network of the
Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group Pakistan financed in
the 1990s to fight India in disputed Kashmir, and is accused of
the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Patterson also warned Washington that pursuing greater ties to
India feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them
closer to both Afghan and Kashmir focused terrorist groups.
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