PAKISTAN: Washington Draws Blank on Osama bin Laden

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Nasim Zehra

ISLAMABAD, Dec 15 1998 (IPS) - Pakistan is showing a surprising independence in standing firm against U.S efforts to marshal assistance in hunting down fugitive Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden who is in Afghanistan.

Contrary to what Washington would have liked to hear, Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan recently told reporters in Islamabad that the expulsion of Osama from Afghanistan was “not a factor in Pak-U.S relations”.

“Osama bin Laden is not on our soil, he is in Afghanistan and the matter of his extradition should be taken up with Afghanistan,” he said on Dec. 12.

Separately on the same day, Pakistan’s powerful Minister of Information Mushahid Hussain announced, “Pakistan will not exert pressure on Kabul to extradite Osama or hand him over to Washington as it will tantamount to interfering in internal affairs of a neighboring brotherly country.”

Washington had asked Islamabad for help in tracking down Osama, who was indicted by a Grand Jury in New York on terrorism charges in the twin-bombing of U.S embassies in Kenya and Dares Salam in August.

The American Counter Terrorism Rewards Program last month announced a 4 million dollar award for him in a worldwide appeal for assistance.

U.S concerns were reiterated to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Washington in early December by U.S Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth. “Pakistan is well aware of the impact of Osama bin Laden in the region, and we have asked Pakistan for its assistance,” he had said of their Dec. 4 meeting.

Pakistani officials insist even trying would be futile. According to a senior official in the foreign office, “It’s not for lack of our trying, it’s more their (Taliban) determination and clarity on the Osama issue.”

Pakistan’s point-man on Afghanistan, Additional Secretary Iftikhar Murshid, is quick to point out that “the Taliban have no intention of turning in Osama to anyone.”

“First, because the Talibaan claim we will not violate our tradition of hospitality and surrender a guest against whom there is no evidence available and second, after the October certification by the Saudis of Osama’s innocence the Talibaan feel their position is justified,” he explains.

Washington’s expectation from Islamabad is based on the American view that Pakistan exerts considerable influence on the Talibaan. Also in the past Islamabad has practically supported Washington’s “anti-terrorist” efforts.

Even in the Osama case, the Pakistan government arrested and handed over a Sudanese suspect allegedly linked to the bombings on Aug. 7. In other cases also, like the 1995 Ramzi Yusuf extradition and the 1997 Aimal Kansi case, Islamabad has gone out of its way to help.

Privately some officials say Washington might be hotfooting on the wrong track. “The Americans had frozen bank accounts in the U.S and Europe linked to the Osama network and arrested suspects. But they still claim Osama is active,” points out a senior official.

“The United States has the most powerful intelligence network. How come they cannot paralyse a man operating literally from caves?” he asks.

The Sharif government is determined to play safe. Soon after the embassy bombings, the foreign office spokesman had said: “As a moderate state having links with all sorts of Muslim states and Islamic movements, we will have nothing to do with Washington’s anti-Osama crusade.”

But that did not stop U.S Tomahawk missiles from passing through Pakistan airspace to slam targets in Afghanistan in August – even though 48 hours before the attack Islamabad was insisting that press speculation about attacks were “no more than misinformed”.

Washington is open about its “anti-Osama campaign”. In early December, throwing her weight behind a U.N resolution censuring the Taliban for aiding “international terrorists”, U.S Ambassador Nancy Soderberg was caustic, “Afghanistan-based terrorism has become a plague …”

The U.S Administration had earlier hoped to offer the Taliban recognition and funds for reconstruction in exchange for Osama. But Bill Richardson, U.S permanent representative at the U.N, returned empty handed from his April mission to Kabul.

Ever since the embassy bombings, Washington has been talking tough. Two days before U.S air attack on so-called “terrorist hideouts” in Sudan and Afghanistan, Secretary of State Madelaine Albright asserted at a news conference that “Bin Laden’s activities are inimical to those of civilized people in the world and the United States.”

Albright made the handing over of Osama a pre-condition for U.S recognition of the Taliban regime, maintaining that “if they wish to be recognised they should not be in a position of harboring any of those who are considered terrorists.”

The Taliban’s Islamabad-based Afghan charge d’ affaires Maulvi Saeed ur Rehman Haqqani, shot back: “Osama has been living in Afghanistan since Jihad days and under Afghan tradition he is our guest and his protection is our duty.”

More recently on Dec. 12, Haqqani promised that the Taliban “will itself present Osama’s case before the Supreme Court in Afghanistan for alleged terrorists acts, provided sufficient evidence are placed before the court …”

Nevertheless on Dec. 8, the U.N Security Council passed resolution 1214 urging the Taliban to “stop providing refuge and training to international terrorists and that all Afghan factions cooperate in efforts to bring indicted terrorists to justice.”

Pakistan’s representative Ahmad Kamal who addressed the Security Council called the resolution “one-sided” and warned that raising alarms of imaginary threats “was a pretext for interfering in the country’s internal affairs.”

He advised the world community to “adjust to the new ground realities in Afghanistan by recognising the Kabul authorities as the de facto and de jure government of Afghanistan.”

His appeal that “dialogue and engagement rather than coercion and intimidation would produce the desired results” however was ignored as the Security Council passed the resolution, sharpening the attack on the Taliban.