The US ambassador in Pakistan Speaks out his mind...

The News, December 13, 2005
US alarmed over relief work by banned groups: Crocker says Pakistan can do without the kind of democracy practised in last decade

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: It should be a matter of concern for the government of Pakistan that banned groups like Jamaatud Daawa are involved in earthquake relief work, said US ambassador to Pakistan Monday.

Ryan C Crocker told journalists he was concerned that allowing such groups, which were on the watch list, to operate freely in the affected areas would increase their purchase in the country. "This is not a good thing," he said.

A number of Jihadi groups have been in the forefront of relief efforts since the October 8th earthquake, and in some cases were very swift in getting aid across to far-flung areas. The government has not barred them from relief activities, and even international aid agencies and foreign governments have worked alongside them, if not with them, in providing and distributing relief goods and services to the survivors of the earthquake.

The US ambassador however, felt it was a downer for the country that groups associated with violence were openly involved in relief activities. He said he had not heard these groups renounce violence, adding he would find it hard to believe the work these groups were doing could not be done by the government and recognised NGOs.

The ambassador declined to comment on specifics when asked if he had taken up this matter with the government of Pakistan. The US ambassador said his country wanted a sustainable, institutionalised democracy in Pakistan, but clarified he was not talking about the kind of democracy Pakistan had in the last decade. "Return to such governance would not be fulfilling that requirement," he said adding, "We don’t consider civilian governments to have achieved stable governance."

The ambassador said Pakistan at present did not seem to him like a military dictatorship. There was much more open discussion now on democracy and the future of democracy than before, he said, adding the US interest in Pakistan was in a long term strategic partnership. "We need to recognise the interests we share and commit ourselves to sustaining them," he said. "We cannot sustain it without sustainable, institutionalised democracy."

"My belief is that President Musharraf means what he says when he says he wants stable democracy for Pakistan," said ambassador Crocker. "I have heard him speak about his vision for Pakistan; of where he would like the country to go, and that’s a pretty compelling vision," he said, and then emphasized that implementation was very important.

"I do see in Musharraf a desire to leave behind a different legacy," Crocker said after stating that from reading Pakistan’s history, Ayub Khan seemed to him a pretty impressive leader, but what he didn’t do was establish stable democracy.

When asked if the US expected President Musharraf to retire as the Army chief before the next general election, Crocker said the US expected free and fair elections when they took place. He said he could make no assurances how the elections would be held but said they would be closely monitored by the US and the international community.

The US ambassador said American assistance for earthquake relief would amount to $510 million. He said this did not include the use of US helicopters and their operational costs including fuel.

All of the US assistance, he said, was in the form of grants and Pakistan did not have to pay back a penny. He said at their maximum strength, 1200 US personnel were involved in relief work but the number had now dropped to a thousand and would decline.

He said the US would remain involved in relief work as long as there was a need and the government of Pakistan wanted it to stay. About the incident in which a US Chinook pilot said the chopper had been fired upon and Pakistani officials said it was mountain-dynamiting on the ground, Crocker said the issue remained unresolved.

The ambassador also said the US would not be an impediment for an energy solution for Pakistan. Reuters adds: The US ambassador said he did not believe Osama bin Laden was still in operational control of al-Qaeda and the militant network was in "serious trouble". He contradicted comments in a video interview posted on a website last week in which al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, said Osama was still leading the group’s war on the West.

"I think that Osama bin Laden is no longer the operational head of al-Qaeda, because he is hiding deep inside the mountains and he doesn’t have contact with the al-Qaeda people," Crocker said. Referring to al-Zawahri, he said: "I don’t know if Zawahri is heading al-Qaeda or not; what I do know is that al-Qaeda is in serious trouble these days."

Asked about President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s announcement that a senior al-Qaeda figure, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in a tribal region this month, Crocker echoed comments by other US officials by saying: "I don’t know what happened, but if President Musharraf is saying he is dead; we must trust what President Musharraf is saying."