HRC: Human Rights Council of Pakistan
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To
His Excellency, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda,
The Prime Minister of Japan,
Government of Japan,
Tokyo
You're Excellency,
February 1, 2008
Subject: Memorandum for the UN probe of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and other matters related to human rights abuses in Pakistan
We take this opportunity to bring a few Pakistan affairs of national and international importance to the attention of Your Excellency with a request that the Government of Japan take positive interest in these matters as the United States and the European governments are already exerting their pressure on Pakistan on these issues.
UN Investigation of Benazir Bhutto's Assassination Needed
World leaders condemned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Condemning the ''cowardly'' suicide attack that killed her on December 27, US President George W. Bush urged Pakistanis ''to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life.'' United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described Bhutto's assassination as a ''heinous crime'' that ''represents an assault on stability in Pakistan and its democratic processes". Shockwaves from the assassination jolted oil prices past 97 dollars a barrel and rattled stock markets in the United States and across Asia. Pakistan's neighbors, fearing an extremist spillover if nuclear-armed Pakistan were to spiral out of control, were quick to respond. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Bhutto's killing was a reminder of the ''common dangers'' faced by India and Pakistan. ''Mrs. Bhutto was no ordinary political leader but one who left a deep imprint on her time and age,'' he said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met Bhutto only hours before her death, called the assassination an act of ''immense brutality'' against one of the Muslim world's leading women. ''I am deeply sorry, deeply pained that this brave sister... this great daughter of the Muslim world is no longer with us,'' he said. Bangladesh, once known as East Pakistan, condemned the ''barbaric act.'' ''This brutal assassination, underlines the need for the absolute commitment to fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, in order to make it unacceptable in civilized society,'' the Sri Lankan government said. Reactions were also strong in East Asia. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his country was ''shocked ... and strongly condemns the terrorist attack.'' That sentiment was echoed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen who called the assassination a ''cowardly terrorist act.''
Your Excellency, your country, Japan, also condemned Bhutto's killing, but expressed ''hope the Pakistani government and people would overcome this hardship and firmly pave the way towards democratization.'' ''This assassination is an evil act, it's a cowardly act, it's an act which has brought about universal condemnation from around the world and deservedly so,'' Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called Bhutto's murder ''a severe blow to Pakistan's democratic process'' and expressed his hope that ''the law be upheld and democracy be respected in Pakistan.'' ''Whoever perpetrated it, this attack is an assault on democracy,'' said Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, calling for ''solidarity against such mindless barbarity and unwavering defense of peace, freedom, law and order.'' South Korea expressed hope that ''Pakistan will be stabilized through peaceful means.'' Reactions were equally strong throughout the Muslim world. Turkey, a close ally of Pakistan, urged Islamabad not to stray from the path of democracy and said the killing ''undoubtedly aims to draw Pakistan into chaos and instability.'' In the United Arab Emirates, where Bhutto lived in exile for some years, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said ''the UAE has been tormented by this huge loss.'' Iran urged authorities to track down the ''terrorists'' responsible, while in neighboring Iraq President Jalal Talabani called on the world to unite against the ''cancer of terrorism.'' he 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the largest pan-Islamic organization, condemned ''the outrageous and brutal murder'' and the 22-member Arab League called it a ''heinous terrorist crime.''
In Europe, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Bhutto was ''assassinated by cowards afraid of democracy,'' while German Chancellor Angela Merkel labeled it a ''cowardly terrorist attack'' designed to destabilize Pakistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped ''the organizers of the crime will be found and that they get the punishment they deserve.'' Don McKinnon, secretary-general of the 53-nation Commonwealth of which Pakistan is a suspended member, told AFP: ''This is just horrible... This has thrown the whole issue of Pakistan politics into a field of uncertainty.'' Meanwhile, the European Union condemned yesterday the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Thursday's terrorist attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan as it also extended its deepest condolences to the Pakistani leader's family and the relatives of other victims of the attack. Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), expressed the EU's condemnation over the "despicable" killing of the 54-year old Pakistani opposition leader. "I am shocked by the assassination of former Prime Minister Madam Benazir Bhutto in today's terrorist attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I condemn this despicable act in the strongest possible way," he said in a statement. "I offer my deepest condolences to Bhutto's family, the relatives of other victims of the attack, and all the Pakistani people," he added.
Meanwhile in the United States, President George W. Bush said, "Laura and I extend our deepest condolences to the family of Benazir Bhutto, to her friends, to her supporters. We send our condolences to the families of the others who were killed in today's violence. And we send our condolences to all the people of Pakistan on this tragic occasion. "The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy. Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice. Mrs. Bhutto served her nation twice as Prime Minister and she knew that her return to Pakistan earlier this year put her life at risk. Yet she refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country. "We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism. We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commented: "Ms. Bhutto's passing is a great loss for Pakistan. I knew her as a woman of great courage and had been impressed by her dedication and commitment to democracy and to the future of Pakistan itself." (with a report by Charissa Luci)
The U.N. Security Council vigorously denounced the killing of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, describing her death as a serious blow to stability in the region and demanding justice for "this reprehensible act.'' The council's members emerged downcast and stern from a two-hour emergency session, most of it conducted behind closed doors, to issue its unanimously approved statement that the council "condemns in the strongest terms'' Bhutto's assassination at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. "The Security Council underlines the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism to justice,'' the council said in a statement that also urged nations "to cooperate actively with the Pakistani authorities in this regard.''
Your Excellency, it is a matter of great regret that despite the worldwide condemnation of her assassination, Musharraf government is still not prepared to invite United Nations to probe the matter. The background for this refusal to conduct a UN investigation can best be understood by a following report published by U.S. News World Report on January 14, 2008
"Benazir Bhutto was a woman who clearly understood the dangers she faced. On October 21, shortly after returning home from eight years in exile and surviving an assassination attempt, she E-mailed one of her many American friends, Joe Pascal. "We have a lot of security issues," she typed into her Blackberry. "The gop (government of Pakistan) says it will solve, but then there is no movement. Soldiering on." Just over two months later, she was dead.
Given the tenor of politics in Pakistan today, it was perhaps inevitable that the assassination of a leading political figure, particularly one as polarizing as Bhutto, would become hopelessly mired in conspiracy theories and controversy. Indeed, even the cause of her death remains in dispute, let alone the perpetrator.
The government quickly accused extremists, but most Pakistanis blamed the government. President Pervez Musharraf's more charitable critics castigated him for failing to provide adequate security. Others accused his administration of orchestrating the attack. Nobody believed the Interior Ministry spokesman who stepped out less than 12 hours after the assassination to finger Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal leader alleged to be allied with al Qaeda.
Instead, many Pakistanis were reminded of a familiar national joke: Three police officers from the United States, Britain, and Pakistan are having dinner together. The American brags to his colleagues that, back home, police solve most crimes 24 hours after they happen. The Brit counters that his force is so good that it needs only 12 hours. "That's nothing," says the Pakistani, laughing. "We know 24 hours ahead of time when and where the crime is going to happen."
The Pakistani government certainly did not help itself early on, hosing down the crime scene almost immediately and intimidating Bhutto's doctors to prevent them from talking to the press. Government spokespeople offered several versions of how she died, first blaming the bomb, then shrapnel, then citing a skull fracture caused by the bomb slamming her head into her vehicle--even as party loyalists and family members insisted they saw fatal bullet wounds.
After nearly a week of pressure to bring in foreign investigators or a United Nations team, Musharraf finally asked Britain's Scotland Yard to send detectives. Tariq Fatmi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, says that foreign involvement is the only hope for satisfying Pakistanis. "The general public will not accept any investigations conducted by government agencies," he says.
Examining evidence:. Investigators will look into the government's claim that Mehsud was behind the attack, despite a denial issued by the tribal leader's spokesman. The Interior Ministry's key piece of evidence is what it claims to be an intercepted telephone conversation during which the pro-Taliban militant congratulates his men for the successful attack on Bhutto. Additional evidence, however, will be hard to come by.
Either way, Bhutto's assassination is likely to remain the centerpiece of Pakistani conspiracy theories for years. "It has been a tradition in Pakistan that whenever a high-profile personality is killed, the murderers are never arrested," says Babar Ali, a cartoonist. "The government constitutes investigation committees just to quench the people's anger, but there is never any result."
Bhutto knew whom she would have blamed. In an E-mail to another American friend last October, she typed, "I would hold Musharraf responsible."
Your Excellency, In view of such impartial reports published in international media, the people of Pakistan are worried that a fair and impartial investigation is questionable, if conducted under the government of Pakistan control. In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post newspaper, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said a probe conducted by Pakistan's government will have no credibility. As he put it, "one does not put the fox in charge of the henhouse".
Another report released by the renowned Associated Press (AP) on January 6 supports his suspicions: It says, "Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was featured on Parade magazine's cover Sunday, 10 days after her assassination, and in the accompanying story she warned that her enemies wanted her dead. "I am what terrorists most fear, a female political leader fighting to bring modernity to Pakistan," Bhutto told author Gail Sheehy, who interviewed her weeks earlier in her hometown of Larkana. "Now they're trying to kill me." Parade's publisher, Randy Siegel, said the magazine went to press on Dec. 21 and was already on its way to the 400 newspapers that distribute it when Bhutto was killed in an attack following a Dec. 27 campaign rally in the city of Rawalpindi. The Web version of the story was updated, Siegel said, but it was too late to change the print magazine. He said the only option other than running the outdated article would have been asking newspapers not to distribute the magazine at all. "We decided that this was an important interview to share with the American people," he said. Parade, published by Parade Publications, is distributed by Sunday newspapers including the Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Siegel said almost all of the newspapers ran editor's notes Sunday explaining that the Bhutto interview had gone to press before her death. He said Sheehy, the best-selling author of books including "Passages" and "Hillary's Choice," spent several days with Bhutto in late November. Bhutto's death plunged an already volatile Pakistan deeper into crisis and stoked fears of a political meltdown. Bhutto's husband has accused members of Pakistan's government of involvement in her killing and has called for a United Nations investigation. "
U.S. Representative Allyson Schwartz joined 11 of her congressional colleagues in calling upon Secretary Rice to endorse an international investigation by the United Nations into the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The letter was signed by Reps. Allyson Schwartz, Steve Israel, Joseph Crowley, Ron Klein, Carolyn Maloney, James McGovern, Donald Payne, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Loretta Sanchez, Ron Kind, and Adam Smith.
Your Excellency, this is the background, supported by the reports in the international media, due to which we are calling upon your government to use its influence with Pakistan to let it conduct such an impartial inquiry by the United Nations into the causes of her assassination.
Release All Arrested Lawyers and Political Workers and Reinstate All Judges
An international news report says, "Pakistani human rights activists protest against the house arrest of anti-government lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan and sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in Lahore, 27 January 2008. President Pervez Musharraf suspended chief justice Chaudhry in March 2007, setting off months of political turmoil that saw judges and lawyers take to the streets in protest. The Supreme Court ordered Chaudhry's reinstatement, but he was later sacked and put under house arrest when Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November 200".
Another news report in the daily DAWN shows the latest position in Pakistan in this regard:
"The workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and the Pakistan Khaksar Tehrik gathered in front of Aiwan-i-Adl from where they joined lawyers marching on towards the Punjab Assembly building at Faisal Chowk. The rallies taken out on every Thursday have been the hallmark of the lawyers struggle for the establishment of the rule of law, supremacy of the Constitution and independence of the judiciary which erupted after March 9, 2007, when a presidential reference was filed against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The lawyers again revived the Thursday rallies during the second phase of their struggle surfaced after Nov 3, 2007, when the chief of army staff sacked around 50 judges of superior courts, including the chief justice of Pakistan and chief justices of Sindh and Peshawar High Courts, after promulgating a Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).
Representatives of the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan (CCP), former Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) president Yasmin Rashid, Joint Action Committee representative Shahtaj Qizilbash and Bushra Aitzaz, the spouse of detained Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Aitzaz Ahsan, also joined the lawyers. Members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and Lahore Bar Association (LBA) held their general house meetings at their respective buildings and took out rallies while chanting slogans against the government and in favour of the deposed judges and their detained leaders - Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A Malik, Justice Tariq Mahmood (retired) and Ali Ahmed Kurd.
After their general house meeting, LHCBA members led by bar president Ahsan Bhoon joined the LBA rally at GPO Chowk on The Mall, which was earlier taken out from Aiwan-i-Adal in the leadership of its president Manzoor Qadir. The lawyers then held a joint march towards Punjab Assembly building. After a brief stay at Faisal Chowk, where some bar leaders highlighted their demands, the protesters returned to their respective bars and dispersed peacefully.
Talking to Dawn, Bushra Aitzaz agreed that the political parties, still inclined to contest the elections, were casting a negative impact on their movement for the restoration of the pre-PCO judiciary. She said even if they were to go to the polls, they could still come and participate with the lawyers, who wanted an independent judiciary for the sake of establishment of rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution.
Earlier, addressing the LHCBA general house meeting, speakers stressed ensuring the boycott at the Lahore High Court according to the call of the Pakistan Bar Council. Advocate Ahsan Wyne appealed to politicians to join the lawyers' movement for achieving independence of the judiciary. He condemned the politicians, saying the people were finding it hard to make both ends meet but they were running for their rule. He said lawyers' movement would continue oblivious to the distance of its goals.
LHCBA former president Ahmed Awais said the judges, who took oath under the Nov 3 version of the PCO, which according to him was totally illegal and supra Constitutional, were mere "jobseekers" and no more legitimate judges. The lawyers would not recognize them as judges, he said adding, "They have committed treason by betraying the country and its Constitution.�wbr>h He urged the LHCBA representatives to take necessary steps to stop these 'PCO-judges' from dismissing their petitions for non-prosecution because of their strike. He also urged the lawyers to ensure complete boycott by not appearing before courts."
As the above news item fully explains the present position of arrested lawyers and the judges who should be reinstated, we request Your Excellency to put pressure on the Pakistan government in this regard.
Free and Fair Elections Needed in Pakistan
Your Excellency, a recent AP report of January 29 describes the real situation in Pakistan, as seen by a senior US official., Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. It says, "A senior Bush administration official said that the United States is pushing Pakistan to fix "serious distortions" ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, conceded before a House panel that "if history is any guide," some fraud will occur. But he said a vibrant, though still restricted, media and international observers, including U.S. officials, will help curb cheating.
Lawmakers at the hearing criticized the Bush administration for its steadfast support of President Pervez Musharraf despite his suspension of the constitution and declaration of emergency rule last year, his purge of the judiciary and the arrests of thousands of opponents. Boucher acknowledged "some serious distortions left on the process of the elections, with some things that still need to be corrected." He said the United States is doing everything it can to ensure a fair election; including preparing teams from the U.S. Embassy to monitor major races around the country. Close scrutiny, he said, will encourage better behavior.
Pakistani opposition leaders predict the elections will be rigged. They argue that election authorities, the judiciary and local government officials favor Musharraf's supporters. The Bush administration has promoted Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, as a moderate leader able to hold together the nuclear-armed country. He has been a crucial U.S. ally in attempts to fight extremists along the country's rugged border with Afghanistan.
Lawmakers expressed concern that fraudulent elections could spark the kind of violence seen in Kenya, where fighting after a disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote has left hundreds dead."
Your Excellency, in view of the above situation, we request Japan government to send some observers to Pakistan to monitor its Feb 18 elections, as the United States and the Europeon governments are planning to do to ensure free and fair elections in Pakistan.
We hope Your Excellency will seriously consider our submissions and use your friendly and cordial relations to make Pakistan a civilized and progressive country by persuading to observe all the above moral and internationally respectable norms for the long-term stability and integrity of our country.
Thanking you in anticipation, we remain,
Sincerely Yours,
For Human Rights Council of Pakistan
President, AMJAD IQBAL JANJUA,
Trial Version -- for evaluation purposes only 
