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Pakistanis sense US has failed to keep deal

By Our Correspondent

NEW YORK, Nov 25: Only 10 weeks after Gen Musharraf pledged his "full support" to the United States, enraging Islamic militants in Pakistan and Islamic hard-liners in the army, the (Pakistanis) sense that the United States has failed to keep its side of the deal , said the New York Times on Sunday.

The sense of frustration of Pakistani officials was reflected, the Times said, "when Pakistan appealed for American intervention to work out an arrangement in Kunduz, Secretary of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld responded, in effect, that the Pakistanis would face the choice of all defeated soldiers in war, surrender or death."

The Times quoted a Pakistani official as saying: "I am sorry to put it in this way, but Rumsfeld's been extremely callous."

The Kunduz drama has captured the frustration and anger of many Pakistani officials who entrusted their interests in Afghanistan to the United States after Sept. 11, when the Bush administration demanded that Pakistan join in the war against terrorism, the paper said.

"The corollary, as stated and repeated by President Pervez Musharraf, was that Washington would see to it that all of Pakistan's essential interests in Afghanistan were protected. From the American perspective, the war has gone a long way towards achieving its objectives, with the Taliban driven from power in all but one city, Kandahar, and Al-Qaeda terrorists on the run. But from the Pakistani perspective, things have gone badly wrong, and the Americans have not delivered," the Times said.

The sense that the United States has failed to keep its side of the deal is rife, from the bazaars of cities to the offices where senior aides to Gen Musharraf ponder how to extricate Pakistan from the problems the war has caused, the paper said.

However, the paper noted that "Pakistan's gains have been substantial, specially financially, with the removal of American economic sanctions and the giving of fresh aid and help in debt payments. But strategically, the war has been a disaster in the minds of most Pakistanis. Two weeks ago, when President Bush and Gen Musharraf met in New York, Mr Bush pressed the Northern Alliance not to capture Kabul. But when the general returned home days later, he arrived just in time to see alliance troops pouring into the Afghan capital."

The Times said that with the Bonn meeting coming up, Gen Musharraf has said little about the situation, other than repeating his "expectation" that the talks will begin the process of establishing a provisional government with strong Pakhtoon representation that would be friendly to Pakistan.

"But privately, Pakistani officials say, the general is deeply sceptical that alliance leaders will keep their promise, specially to cede military control of Kabul to a force comprising Pakhtoon units. Gen Musharraf has bitten his tongue, hoping that the Bonn meeting will prove his worst fears wrong, Pakistani officials suggest. He does so knowing that his own standing in Pakistan would be seriously undermined if he were to say that the United States has broken a promise to him."

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001