Bhutto Assassinated

 

DEAD

 

 

Right now, just in case noone heard, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan has been assinated.

 

There has been much speculation as to responsibility, but it is most likely that factions of the military were responsible, using the typical suicide bomb as a distraction.  She was skillfully shot three times before the bomber blew himself up and took at least 20 more lives with him.

 

Here is a factual report from the Guardian:

 

Profile: Benazir Bhutto

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Moderniser, moderate, martyr

Mark Tran
Thursday December 27, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

The death of Benazir Bhutto is not just a tragedy for her family but threatens to plunge Pakistan deeper into political turmoil, at a time when it was desperately seeking to regain some semblance of stability.

Already her supporters are describing Bhutto, her life cut short at 54, as a martyr, and leaders of her Pakistan People's party (PPP) will have to struggle to keep feelings of revenge in check.

For the west, Bhutto's death is just about the worst outcome, as the US and Britain had been banking on her pro-western and moderate leanings to keep Pakistan onside and help stem the rising tide of militancy in the country.

It is easy to see why the west liked Bhutto and why it put pressure on the president, Pervez Musharraf, to ally himself to the former prime minister to make the country more stable in the fight against Islamist militants.

The western-educated Bhutto had energetically made the case for democratic ideals as part of a well-orchestrated campaign to gain a third prime ministerial term at a crucial time in Pakistan's turbulent history.

For Bhutto, democracies do not go to war against each other and democratic governments do not harbour terrorists - and a democratic Pakistan, free from military dictatorship, would cease to be a haven for terrorists. The US president, George Bush, could hardly put it better himself.

Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt when she returned from exile in October, had plenty of time to hone an image designed to appeal to the west. The first female prime minister to lead a Muslim country in modern times, Bhutto had been visiting western capitals recently, laying out her vision for Pakistan.

In doing so, she presented herself as a moderate, willing to stand up to the Islamist militants in the madrassas and to take on the pro-Taliban fighters in the lawless Afghan border areas instead of making truces.

She claimed that during her two terms as prime minister she was willing to confront the extremists and terrorists. Madrassas were reformed during her tenure, she said, and those that were too radical and violent were shut down.

There is some truth to this. As prime minister she showed more interest in human rights and the position of women in a traditional society, and she never attacked non-governmental organisations as did Nawaz Sharif, her main rival. On religious matters she had a more modern outlook, although like her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she was also willing to pander to religious groups for short-term benefit.

Despite her modernising instincts, which are shared by Musharraf, analysts point to a lack of reform when Bhutto was in charge. The same applies to Sharif.

"Neither pushed through any significant reforms," says Owen Bennett Jones in his book, Pakistan. "In national policy terms, their most important shared characteristic was their ability to run up huge levels of foreign debt."

And then there are the allegations of corruption that twice drove her from power. The supreme court ruled that Bhutto could still face prosecution on charges mostly related to alleged kickbacks in her second term as prime minister between 1993 and 1996. Bhutto said charges against her and her husband, Asif Zardari, who is widely known as Mr 10%, were politically motivated.

Initially, the Oxford- and Harvard-educated Bhutto wanted to be a diplomat. But events forced her into politics. In 1977 her father, Pakistan's first democratically elected leader after the civil war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, was deposed as prime minister in a military coup led by General Zia ul-Haq. Imprisoned and charged with murder, he was executed two years later.

She was imprisoned just before her father's death. During stints out of prison for medical treatment, she set up a PPP office in London, and led a campaign against Zia. After the general died in an air crash, Bhutto won the election.

Not everyone associated with the still popular PPP has been comfortable with her recent cosying up to Musharraf. Former party members and estranged family have accused her of betraying her father's legacy. Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Benazir's great-uncle and head of the Bhutto clan, has gone so far as to say that she has disgraced the Bhutto name.

It seems a somewhat harsh assessment, especially now given the circumstances of her death.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007