Pakistani president delays release of U.N. report on Bhutto assassination

[Neo]

Pakistani president delays release of U.N. report on Bhutto assassination

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

UNITED NATIONS -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari prevailed upon the United Nations on Tuesday to delay for two weeks the release of a fact-finding report that is expected to criticize Pakistan's security establishment in connection with the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in 2007.

The move represents a political retreat by the Pakistani leader, who requested the U.N. probe during his first weeks in office but who now faces challenges to his authority on several fronts. The Pakistani parliament is moving to strip him of powers he inherited from the former military government, and the Supreme Court is set to reopen two corruption cases against him. The United Nations announced the delay about two hours before a three-member commission was scheduled to release the report.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had "accepted an urgent request by the president of Pakistan" to put off the release until April 15, according to Martin Nesirky, Ban's chief spokesman, who provided no explanation for the request. The report has not been presented to Ban or to the Pakistani government.

Pakistan pressed the United Nations on Tuesday to reopen the investigation to consider new evidence. Pakistan's presidential spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told the Associated Press that the U.N. commission should question two unidentified heads of state that he claimed had called Bhutto before her death to warn of "serious threats to her life." But the United Nations said Tuesday that the investigation is complete.

The fact-finding panel, headed by Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Muñoz, conducted a nine-month inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Dec. 27, 2007, attack after an election campaign rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The assassination, just 10 weeks after Bhutto's return from exile, sparked riots throughout Pakistan.

The report does not place blame on individuals for ordering the killing, according to U.N. officials. But it sharply criticizes Pakistan's military for not providing Bhutto with adequate security that day, and it also faults the former military government for allowing the crime scene and Bhutto's vehicle to be washed shortly after the killing.

A senior U.N.-based diplomat, who has met with members of the commission, said the report is also consistent with the findings of a Scotland Yard team that concluded Bhutto was killed by a single suicide bomber who blew up her vehicle. The team did not determine whether someone ordered the killing.

The last-minute request for a delay comes about 18 months after Zardari personally appealed to Ban to conduct a wide-ranging probe into his wife's killing. At the time, Zardari said he was less interested in holding the killers accountable than in having the United Nations produce an exhaustive document honoring Bhutto's democratic crusade in the face of Islamist extremism.

"I'm not looking to hang three 17-year-olds who were misguided by someone," Zardari said in a September 2008 interview with The Washington Post. "We are fighting for a cause that is larger than us."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

[Interceptor]

Thats weird I heard in the news that the report was delayed by UN untill they receive information from some countries that want to give their findings to the UN. Now it cant be much longer so Im eager to know what the commission found.

[Neo]

Can UN report hide Who killed Benazir Bhutto?

March 30, 2010

We published a version of this article a few weeks after the assassination of Ms. Benazir Bhutto. We came up with certain conclusions that need to be looked at with an open mind. Events have shown that our predictions came through.

Political assassinations, judicial murders, military takeover, and manipulated coup de etat by unelected leaders are seminal events in the history of any nation. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is all the more traumatic for Pakistanis and others because “nothing seems like what it is”. Any murder is investigated on the concept of motive, opportunity and benefits from the murder. The same criteria has to be applied to the death of Benazir Bhutto. The beneficiaries of the death of Benazir Bhutto are not those who were blamed initially for her death.

http://rupeenews.com/2010/03/30/can-...enazir-bhutto/

[Neo]

Originally Posted by Interceptor

Thats weird I heard in the news that the report was delayed by UN untill they receive information from some countries that want to give their findings to the UN. Now it cant be much longer so Im eager to know what the commission found.

Some countries??

[Interceptor]

Its been cited many times that the murderer is Asif Ali Zardari or Benazir's close advisors its irrational to jump into this. Since there is clear history that can be looked up in regards of who masterminded and who really hated the Bhutto's, clearly we can know with much certainty that the establishment has always hated the Bhutto's the most. We can see the tragic history where the first elected prime minister is hanged his one part of his family exiled the other part jailed for lengthy time. Benazir's brothers murdered one mysteriously the other killed by police and the witnesses also. The establishment never allowed a come back of a Bhutto government, why because they were afraid that retribution will be taken. Why would these people who torched Benazir all her career be more motivated to plot her death.

[Neo]

The one million dollar question is "who's gained most" from Bibi's assassination?

[Interceptor]

Of course that would be the ones that are motivated in keeping Pakistan destabilized, the ones who were perked with prime minsterships and left without even saying good bye.

[Neo]

Why Zardari delayed UN’s Bhutto report

Internews/Islamabad

Pakistan President Asif Zardari has quietly given names of four international personalities – former American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Muqrin and the United Arab Emirates intelligence chief - to the UN inquiry commission to ask them how they knew the secret in advance that Benazir Bhutto would be killed.

The News daily reported here yesterday that the UN commission has now been asked to first meet these four indirect witnesses before submitting its report on Bhutto assassination.

With this new information, two-and-a-half-year old mystery also finally stands resolved - which two friendly countries had actually warned the former Pakistani prime minister about the attack on her life before she decided to return to Pakistan on October 18, 2007.

These two countries were the UAE and Saudi Arabia, whose intelligence agencies chiefs had warned Bhutto about the threats to her life. Generally, it was believed that apart from the UAE, the second friendly country was Iran. But now it has been revealed that this was Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz who had warned the former prime minister about threats to her life.

After receiving the names of four new indirect witnesses from slamabad, the UN inquiry team is reportedly making contacts with all of them to seek explanations from them as to how did they already know about the threats to Bhutto’s life.

The sources said President Zardari believed that inside information shared by these four personalities might greatly help the inquiry commission to identify the real killers whose secret plans somehow reached the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan, the US, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and which turned to be prophetically correct.

One top source claimed that this was the main reasons which had delayed release of UN inquiry commission report after President Zardari gave names of these four top people to the UN commission through Pakistan permanent representative in at the UN Hussain Haroon.

When contacted, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar confirmed this development and said the Pakistan government wanted the three friendly countries to share their information with the UN.

He said: “We want comments of three friendly foreign governments which had warned Bhutto of plots to assassinate her around time of her return included in the UN report. One foreign country government has shared its perspective with the UN commission. We hope the other two governments will also share their perspective. That hopefully will help the commission in its task. Hence the two weeks delay,” he said.
However, Babar did not deny the names of three countries and former US secretary of state as revealed in this news report.

Meanwhile, sources said President Zardari was not satisfied with the UN report into the killing of Bhutto after he came to know that, the otherwise high level commission which was paid over half a billion rupees by the government of Pakistan to meet its expenses, did not contact these four high profile international personalities.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topic...1&parent_id=23

[Neo]

No further delay for report on Benazir's murder: UN

Tuesday, 06 Apr, 2010

UNITED NATIONS: A UN spokesperson Tuesday flatly denied a Pakistani press report that the government has sought further delay in the release of UN Commission's report on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, saying the report will be published next week.

“We have received no new request,” Spokesperson Marie Okabe said, while answering a question at the regular noon briefing.

The report, in a section of the press, said the Pakistan government has requested the UN to further delay the publication of the report until June or even beyond. On March 30, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted a request from President Asif Ali Zardari to delay the release of a report until April 15.

The three-member Commission, headed by Chilean Ambassador Heraldo, was set up following a request from the Pakistani Government and began its work in July 2009.

The commission members include Marzuki Darusman, the former attorney-general of Indonesia, and Peter Fitzgerald, a veteran of the Irish National Police who has also served the UN in a number of capacities.

The Commission has informed the Secretary-General that, as of today, all relevant facts and circumstances have been explored, and the report is now complete and ready to be delivered,” a March 31 official UN statement said.

The Commission, whose term has ended, will submit its report on April 15 to the UN chief, who will share the report with the Pakistani Government and submit it to the Security Council for information. -APP

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...urder-un-rs-05

[Neo]

Delay in UN report on Bhutto murder bemuses people in Pakistan

English.news.cn 2010-04-01

by Jamil Bhatti

ISLAMABAD, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Criticism and confusion seemed to be rising among the Pakistani people as the United Nations investigation report on slain former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto has been halted Tuesday at the request of her husband, President Asif Ali Zardari.

"Common Pakistanis especially workers of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) are much worried and confused over current situation because their party first called for the UN probe but now has requested not to release the report," said Muhammad Yusuf, a bookshop owner.

"Everyone of us is thinking why Pakistani government asked UN for delay, what they got must be publicized urgently," Yusuf told Xinhua.

"The UN Commission that investigated the assassination will not reopen its probe in response to the Pakistani government's request to delay the report for two weeks and its claim that two heads of state may have new information on Wednesday," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told media on Wednesday in New York.

"The investigation report is complete and now will be released publicly on April 15," said Nesirky.

Bhutto was killed on Dec. 27, 2007, by a gunshot followed by a suicide bomb attack, as she was leaving after addressing a public meeting in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to the capital of Islamabad.

President Zardari, during his first weeks in office in 2008, requested the UN probe about the Bhutto assassination and a UN team started its work in July 2009, after people and government showed dissatisfaction over the findings of Scotland Yard.

The UN fact-finding team, including Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz, Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia and Peter Fitzgerald of the Irish National police, conducted an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the assassination.

Officials at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Pakistani government at the time, led by President Pervez Musharraf, blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Pakistani Taliban who was killed in 2009, for the Bhutto murder.

Bhutto's party PPP has been hinting that the former government and its allies were involved in the case and demanded a UN probe, claiming it was the only way to explore the truth.

"It is our right to know who killed Bhutto, we paid back our loan to her spilled blood by voting her party into power in the election," Iqbal Chandio, a die-hard PPP worker from Sindh province, told Xinhua.

"In the return, the least this government can do is to expose the murderers. What is keeping it away from getting to the bottom of the mystery?" he added.

On the day when UN announced delay of report, an investigative book "Who Assassinated Benazir Bhutto?" written by a senior Pakistani journalist came into the book stores across the country.

"I believe that assassination planners had done enough home work and research on Bhutto before chalking out the execution plan, " Shakeel Anjum, the book author told Xinhua.

"To me, the whole system seemed corrupt and bent up hiding the facts in a case which was full of evidences and leads, but I have tried to present the facts before the nation," said Anjum.

The book, being sold like hot cakes, was coupled with his discussion with officials of intelligence agencies, police sleuths and those who had carried out investigations, first with the British Scotland Yard and later with the UN panel.

"The book is a comprehensive study of Benazir's murder where the writer has revealed earth-shaking news pointing towards some powerful people," Aslam Khan, an analyst commented on the book.

"The author has tried to answer many unanswered questions in the book, if anyone considers deeply the book points out the culprits behind the scene," he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english201...c_13234208.htm