Greater Leadership Role For Musharraf?

McCollum's visit to Pakistan included expression of disappointment in Musharraf
Kare11.com

Rep. Betty McCollum said that she and other U.S. lawmakers told Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he needed to take a greater leadership role in securing the border between his country and Afghanistan.

McCollum, D-Minn., called the region "a very troubling part of the world" because of the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaida, six years after the United States drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.

She and six other lawmakers met with Musharraf during a trip to Pakistan last week, and told him he's "not taking the leadership we'd like to see on it," McCollum said in a telephone interview Monday.

According to McCollum, Musharraf's response was that it was Afghan President Hamid Karzai's problem, that Karzai needed to get a better control of the border.

"And my response, our delegation's response, was this is a mutual problem," McCollum said. "This is a problem that Pakistan has, and it's a problem that Afghanistan has. The border needs to be secure. And that's also a challenge for the international community."

The Pakistani embassy in Washington did not immediately return a telephone message Monday.

McCollum was part of a four-member delegation to Afghanistan and Pakistan led by Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., who chairs a national security subcommittee; while in Pakistan, the group met up with three members of the House Intelligence Committee, including the chairman, Texas Democrat Silvestre Reyes.

McCollum said she was struck by the increasing role that the Taliban was playing not only in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan as well -- something that Pakistani women she spoke with found very troubling.

"We can't turn a blind eye to the human rights violations that are going on in Pakistan right now," she said. "And we need to tell Musharraf the international community will stand with him to put it to an end."

McCollum said that the Taliban are walking the streets of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, threatening video shop owners and barber shops. She said she learned of one woman who had acid thrown on her because she was dressed "too Western."

Last week, a firebrand cleric said he had formed an Islamic court to enforce a Taliban-style vice campaign in Islamabad, and threatened suicide attacks if authorities tried to stop him.

"We need to work with Pakistan to make it really clear what behavior will or will not be tolerated by the international community, and what is basic security for human rights," she said. "A woman should be able to live in a community and not be worried about acid being thrown on her."

By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writer