Bhutto was assassinated Thursday, hours before a scheduled meeting with US politicans Patrick Kennedy and Arlen Specter.A top Bhutto aide who helped write the report showed a copy to CNN."Where an opposing candidate is strong in an area, they [supporters of President Pervez Musharraf] have planned to create a conflict at the polling station,even killing people if necessary,to stop polls at least three to four hours."
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Showing posts with label Benazir Bhutto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benazir Bhutto. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Benazir Bhutto in quotes - Times Online
Following the assasination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, this is a collection of quotes from the leader who returned from self-imposed exile this year to fight elections in Pakistan.
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Learning to Give - Quotes by Benazir Bhutto
"You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea."
- Bhutto, Benazir Prime minister of Pakistan (1953– )
- -More quotes about [Ideas] [Women]
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
More Questions Than Answers - Updated
The official Pakistani Interior Ministry statement today on Benazir Bhutto's assassination begs more questions than it answers. Starting with the alleged culprits.
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Amy Wilentz: Benazir Bhutto: A Killing and Three Funerals
"Death is a proof of sincerity," Graham Greene wrote in The Comedians. That holds true here.
As for the motivations of the killers. Their real targets were secular liberalism, the Bhutto dynasty, and the U.S. What they feared was a Bhutto premiership, beginning in about ten days, when the elections were to take place. Whoever they are exactly, they see an opening to power and control now, and they would not permit Benazir to stand in their way.
LA Times: The Benazir I Knew
Amy's profile of Benazir Bhutto appears in the December/January issue of More magazine.
Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination
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As for the motivations of the killers. Their real targets were secular liberalism, the Bhutto dynasty, and the U.S. What they feared was a Bhutto premiership, beginning in about ten days, when the elections were to take place. Whoever they are exactly, they see an opening to power and control now, and they would not permit Benazir to stand in their way.
LA Times: The Benazir I Knew
Amy's profile of Benazir Bhutto appears in the December/January issue of More magazine.
Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination
read more digg story
Democracy movement in Pakistan not dead
Aijaz Ahmad: The democracy movement did not start with Bhutto and will not end with her death
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Violence spreads across Pakistan
Dec. 28 - Elections in Pakistan are still due to go ahead as planned despite a night a violence following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
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The Bhutto Assassination: A Human Rights Perspective
With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the human rights community has lost a strong and steadfast ally.
by Mary Shaw Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com/
On Thursday, December 27, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and the current opposition party leader, succumbed to an assassin's bullet. Chaos has ensued.
Will this be a step backwards in efforts to restore democracy in nuclear Pakistan? I hope not, but Bhutto's assassination is not a good sign.
Benazir Bhutto was good for Pakistan and good for the world. She worked tirelessly to promote democracy in her country, and to stand up for the rights of the poor and the needy. This is in stark contrast to Pakistani President Musharraf's preferred method of governance by military dictatorship.
As the first woman ever elected to lead a Muslim state, Bhutto was also a symbol of progress for women's rights in the Islamic world.With Bhutto's death, the human rights community has lost a strong and steadfast ally.
In response to the assassination, Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch said, "Benazir Bhutto was a democrat who believed in the supremacy of constitutional rule and, throughout her career, sought power through the ballot box. She died campaigning for votes and calling for a free election."
Amnesty International (AI) is calling on Musharraf's government to uphold the rule of law and the rules of democratic behavior in the aftermath of the Bhutto assassination. AI's Catherine Baber stated, "The killing of Benazir Bhutto must not be allowed to become a setback to civilian governance or indeed lead to a further crackdown on civil liberties."My condolences go out to Bhutto's family and political followers.
May she rest in peace.
###
http://www.maryshawonline.com/
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
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by Mary Shaw Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com/
On Thursday, December 27, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and the current opposition party leader, succumbed to an assassin's bullet. Chaos has ensued.
Will this be a step backwards in efforts to restore democracy in nuclear Pakistan? I hope not, but Bhutto's assassination is not a good sign.
Benazir Bhutto was good for Pakistan and good for the world. She worked tirelessly to promote democracy in her country, and to stand up for the rights of the poor and the needy. This is in stark contrast to Pakistani President Musharraf's preferred method of governance by military dictatorship.
As the first woman ever elected to lead a Muslim state, Bhutto was also a symbol of progress for women's rights in the Islamic world.With Bhutto's death, the human rights community has lost a strong and steadfast ally.
In response to the assassination, Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch said, "Benazir Bhutto was a democrat who believed in the supremacy of constitutional rule and, throughout her career, sought power through the ballot box. She died campaigning for votes and calling for a free election."
Amnesty International (AI) is calling on Musharraf's government to uphold the rule of law and the rules of democratic behavior in the aftermath of the Bhutto assassination. AI's Catherine Baber stated, "The killing of Benazir Bhutto must not be allowed to become a setback to civilian governance or indeed lead to a further crackdown on civil liberties."My condolences go out to Bhutto's family and political followers.
May she rest in peace.
###
http://www.maryshawonline.com/
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
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Al-Qaida figure behind attack, Pakistan says
Government also reports Bhutto died of injuries from hitting her head
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's interior minister on Friday blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and said another key opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, is also under threat of militant attack.
“We have the evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto,” Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said.
The government also reported that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack — not from bullet wounds.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's interior minister on Friday blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and said another key opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, is also under threat of militant attack.
“We have the evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto,” Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said.
The government also reported that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack — not from bullet wounds.
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Bhutto joins long list of assassinated leaders
'Murder has been around longer than the ballot and is often more influential'
Benazir Bhutto's father was prime minister of Pakistan in the 1970s and, before he was hanged, he would tell her to study the lives of great women as inspiration. She sometimes told reporters that story, including the names of Joan of Arc and Indira Gandhi as study subjects suggested by her dad. The French revolutionary was burned at the stake; the Indian prime minister was assassinated by her bodyguards.
Their violent ends did not deter Bhutto, nor did the murders of her father and brother. A Harvard graduate with a sharp knowledge of history, she would have known that The Assassination has been around a lot longer than the ballot and is often more influential.
The Assassination is almost universally denigrated as a "cowardly act" (as President Bush described Bhutto's killing yesterday). But the historical record shows it to be a dramatic, low-cost, highly symbolic means of communication -- and murder -- that disaffected people use to try to dramatically sway national or even international affairs.
It can work or backfire or just disappear, like a bloody drop in a bucket. Pakistan will be unstable in the coming days, as it has been in the past and will be again. Who can say if Bhutto's slaying is the pinball that leads to destruction, the painful agent of positive change, or just a killing, like most, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing more than murderous nihilism?
The descent into regional conflagration could have been triggered "by 'shock and awe' in Iraq, or the assassination of [prime minister Rafik] Hariri in Lebanon in 2005, or Israel's battles with Hezbollah," says Mustafa Aksakal, assistant professor of history at American University, who is writing a book about the Ottoman Empire's descent into World War I. "But the region has so far been able to absorb these shocks. It's just impossible to say what will be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
"Anyone who thinks they can predict the consequences of a political assassination is a damn fool," says Eric Rauchway, author of "Murdering McKinley: The Making of Teddy Roosevelt's America" and a history professor at the University of California, Davis. "All it provides is an opportunity. However, the opportunity it provides is often not one the assassin intended."
This has been true from the Ides of March forward.
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Benazir Bhutto's father was prime minister of Pakistan in the 1970s and, before he was hanged, he would tell her to study the lives of great women as inspiration. She sometimes told reporters that story, including the names of Joan of Arc and Indira Gandhi as study subjects suggested by her dad. The French revolutionary was burned at the stake; the Indian prime minister was assassinated by her bodyguards.
Their violent ends did not deter Bhutto, nor did the murders of her father and brother. A Harvard graduate with a sharp knowledge of history, she would have known that The Assassination has been around a lot longer than the ballot and is often more influential.
The Assassination is almost universally denigrated as a "cowardly act" (as President Bush described Bhutto's killing yesterday). But the historical record shows it to be a dramatic, low-cost, highly symbolic means of communication -- and murder -- that disaffected people use to try to dramatically sway national or even international affairs.
It can work or backfire or just disappear, like a bloody drop in a bucket. Pakistan will be unstable in the coming days, as it has been in the past and will be again. Who can say if Bhutto's slaying is the pinball that leads to destruction, the painful agent of positive change, or just a killing, like most, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing more than murderous nihilism?
The descent into regional conflagration could have been triggered "by 'shock and awe' in Iraq, or the assassination of [prime minister Rafik] Hariri in Lebanon in 2005, or Israel's battles with Hezbollah," says Mustafa Aksakal, assistant professor of history at American University, who is writing a book about the Ottoman Empire's descent into World War I. "But the region has so far been able to absorb these shocks. It's just impossible to say what will be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
"Anyone who thinks they can predict the consequences of a political assassination is a damn fool," says Eric Rauchway, author of "Murdering McKinley: The Making of Teddy Roosevelt's America" and a history professor at the University of California, Davis. "All it provides is an opportunity. However, the opportunity it provides is often not one the assassin intended."
This has been true from the Ides of March forward.
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Thursday, December 27, 2007
Bhutto Assassination Sparks Riots
"She has been martyred," said Rehman Malik, a spokesman for her party.
Some of her supporters smashed windows and doors at the hospital, chanting: "Dog, Musharraf, Dog."
It is the first major attack since President General Pervez Musharraf lifted emergency rule two weeks ago.
He has appealed for calm in the country and declared three days of mourning.
But there have already been riots in cities across Pakistan, and Sky News Asia correspondent Alex Crawford believes there is more bloodshed to come.
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Some of her supporters smashed windows and doors at the hospital, chanting: "Dog, Musharraf, Dog."
It is the first major attack since President General Pervez Musharraf lifted emergency rule two weeks ago.
He has appealed for calm in the country and declared three days of mourning.
But there have already been riots in cities across Pakistan, and Sky News Asia correspondent Alex Crawford believes there is more bloodshed to come.
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'Al Qaeda Killed Bhutto'
Bruce Riedel, a former defense and intelligence official who helped make South Asia policy in the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, says he believes Benazir Bhutto's assassination "was almost certainly the work of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda's Pakistani allies." He says, "Their objective is to destabilize the Pakistani state, to break up the secular political parties, to break up the army so that Pakistan becomes a politically failing state in which the Islamists in time can come to power much as they have in other failing states." He says the United States should press the government of President Pervez Musharraf to go ahead with the parliamentary elections—perhaps after a brief pause. "The only way that Pakistan is going to be able to fight terrorism effectively is to have a legitimate democratically elected secular government that can rally the Pakistani people to engage Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other extremist movements," he says.
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Pakistan: Bhutto's Death and Impending Elections
Still reeling with the shock, The Emergency Times, which has kept a very close eye on the unfolding political situation in Pakistan, writes
At this tragic moment in the history of Pakistan, we at the Emergency Times are shocked beyond words at this intolerable and brutal act of the murder, along with others, of possibly the most popular leader of our country. No words can adequately condemn this barbaric act, which can only lead to more death and destruction for this tortured land. Her death will leave a gaping chasm in our country's leadership. One can only hope, beyond hope, that the perpetrators are brought to justice.May God help us all.
Pickled Politics links to the news and a commenter writes “Assassination of leading political figures is a very bad sign for a society, for it shows a clear and direct lack of trust and respect for the institutions of the state and society. One can only hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Some other perspectives have also emerged, looking at Bhutto both as a possible leader and a mover in international politics. Counter Terrorism Blog says
She was someone who the U.S. could actually work with to seek a way forward for Pakistan in light of the profound challenges posed by religious intolerance and political extremism, the drug trade, governmental institutions that do not provide essential services in many areas of the country, and Pakistan's troubled relationships with of its immediate neighbors — Afghanistan, India, and Iran.
Her faults were also profound, as the well-documented grand corruption cases brought against her and her husband attest. She did indeed treat her country like it was a family-owned business, with corrosive results. These includied her removal from power in 1990 and again in 1996 as the corruption both weakened her politically and played a significant role in her inability to deliver the reforms needed to make Pakistan's government responsive to the needs of its people
The Moderate Voice has a bio on Benazir Bhutto, including information on her father who was also the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and was sentenced to death in the 70s for charges similar to the ones Benazir faced much later.
From across the border, Indian Muslims comment on the assassination, and debate various conspiracy theories.
The hands of Nawaz Sharif cannot be completely ignored as he too had his reason for her removal: He now is the only national level leader who has experience as a Prime Minister. He is now sure to take over as PM of Pakistan. The chances of this conspiracy are rare but you never know with these opportunistic and individualistic politicians.
Meanwhile, Sepia Mutiny's post on Bhutto's death already has over a hundred comments. One commenter says
One wonders if she truly felt she would be safe in Pakistan. Love of country and desire to contribute aside, is there some shred of a risk-taking thrill inherent in this endeavor she had embarked upon? Some level of martyrlike delusion, however deeply buried? Can any of us imagine being devoted enough to any political cause to risk our life so boldly? Was it worth it, Benazir?
Truly sad. Whither Pakistan?
read more digg story
At this tragic moment in the history of Pakistan, we at the Emergency Times are shocked beyond words at this intolerable and brutal act of the murder, along with others, of possibly the most popular leader of our country. No words can adequately condemn this barbaric act, which can only lead to more death and destruction for this tortured land. Her death will leave a gaping chasm in our country's leadership. One can only hope, beyond hope, that the perpetrators are brought to justice.May God help us all.
Pickled Politics links to the news and a commenter writes “Assassination of leading political figures is a very bad sign for a society, for it shows a clear and direct lack of trust and respect for the institutions of the state and society. One can only hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Some other perspectives have also emerged, looking at Bhutto both as a possible leader and a mover in international politics. Counter Terrorism Blog says
She was someone who the U.S. could actually work with to seek a way forward for Pakistan in light of the profound challenges posed by religious intolerance and political extremism, the drug trade, governmental institutions that do not provide essential services in many areas of the country, and Pakistan's troubled relationships with of its immediate neighbors — Afghanistan, India, and Iran.
Her faults were also profound, as the well-documented grand corruption cases brought against her and her husband attest. She did indeed treat her country like it was a family-owned business, with corrosive results. These includied her removal from power in 1990 and again in 1996 as the corruption both weakened her politically and played a significant role in her inability to deliver the reforms needed to make Pakistan's government responsive to the needs of its people
The Moderate Voice has a bio on Benazir Bhutto, including information on her father who was also the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and was sentenced to death in the 70s for charges similar to the ones Benazir faced much later.
From across the border, Indian Muslims comment on the assassination, and debate various conspiracy theories.
The hands of Nawaz Sharif cannot be completely ignored as he too had his reason for her removal: He now is the only national level leader who has experience as a Prime Minister. He is now sure to take over as PM of Pakistan. The chances of this conspiracy are rare but you never know with these opportunistic and individualistic politicians.
Meanwhile, Sepia Mutiny's post on Bhutto's death already has over a hundred comments. One commenter says
One wonders if she truly felt she would be safe in Pakistan. Love of country and desire to contribute aside, is there some shred of a risk-taking thrill inherent in this endeavor she had embarked upon? Some level of martyrlike delusion, however deeply buried? Can any of us imagine being devoted enough to any political cause to risk our life so boldly? Was it worth it, Benazir?
Truly sad. Whither Pakistan?
read more digg story
Pakistan's Bhutto killed in gun, bomb attack
By Augustine Anthony RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi on Thursday, her party said. ''She has been martyred,'' said party official...
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