Rice defends US aid to Pakistan
BERLIN (AP) - January 22, 2008 Ahead of talks with Musharraf in Switzerland on Wednesday - the
highest-level, face-to-face U.S. contact with the Pakistani leader
since last month's assassination of opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto - Rice said it is critical that February legislative
elections be free and fair.
"The situation in Pakistan is very complicated, but our strong
view is that we have to have a long-term, consistent, predictable
relationship with Pakistan, not with any one person, but with the
institutions of Pakistan," she said.
"We are all working very hard with the Pakistanis to try to
ensure that the elections will be an opportunity for Pakistan to
get back on the democratic path and an opportunity for Pakistanis
to come together," Rice said.
"That's very much on everybody's mind," she told reporters on
her plane as she flew to Germany for a meeting of the foreign
ministers of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on
new sanctions on Iran.
"But I think the assistance is aimed at very important goals
and that isn't going to change," Rice said.
Those goals include training and equipping Pakistan's security
forces to fight insurgents, encouraging the country's "moderate
center" to play a more active role in politics, and promoting
development, she said.
Rice's comments came on the same day that Islamic militants in
Pakistan attacked a fort near the Afghan border, sparking fighting
with government forces that left at least five troops and 37
fighters dead, the Pakistani army said.
The attack occurred in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal region
where al-Qaida- and Taliban-linked militants operate.
Musharraf played down the impact of recent attacks in the
region, saying Tuesday they were "pinpricks" that his government
must manage.
Also Tuesday, Adm. William Fallon - the head of the U.S. Central
Command and top commander of American forces in the Middle East -
was in Pakistan for talks with army chief Ashfaq Kayani. The
Pakistan army said the two men discussed the "security situation"
in the region, but gave no more details.
Many are looking to Pakistan's Feb. 18 parliamentary elections
to determine if Musharraf is serious about democracy following
several steps last year, including the imposition of emergency
rule, that have placed his commitment into question.
Although that decree was rescinded and he has stepped down as
army chief, Musharraf is facing widespread discontent at home and
his credentials abroad as an ally in the war on terror have been
sullied by a rise in activity by insurgents, including the Taliban
and al-Qaida.
The United States has alone given Musharraf's government and
military some $10 billion in assistance since Sept. 11, 2001, and
some in Congress are demanding more restrictions on that aid. Some
has already been tied to democratic improvements but calls for cuts
are expected to grow if the upcoming elections do not meet
international standards.
Musharraf is on a tour of Europe trying to shore up Western
support. On Monday in Brussels, he promised that the elections
would be free and fair.
But he also urged detractors to be more patient with his
nation's efforts to achieve higher standards of human rights,
decrying the West's "obsession" with speedy democracy.
Rice praised Musharraf as a "good ally in the war on
terrorism," but brushed aside his criticism.
"No one has ever said that democracy is something that is born
in a minute," she said. "It does take time, but you have to get
started and you have to start putting in place the institutions
that will secure democratic values and that will allow people to
exercise their rights to freedom."
"Every leader has an obligation to push that goal as far
forward as possible and that's what we're saying," Rice said.
"Should one be obsessed with the rights of human beings to live in
freedom? Maybe so."