PAKISTAN: BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY JACK STRAW MEETS WITH PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF

Record ID: 223048

  • Title: PAKISTAN: BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY JACK STRAW MEETS WITH PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
  • Date: 24th November 2001
  • Summary: (W3) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (NOVEMBER 23 2001) (REUTERS) (FOR DETAILED SHOTLIST ITEMS 1 - 6 INCL SEE PROD 12588/01) 1. ROUND TABLE OF BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY JACK STRAW MEETING PAKISTAN PRESIDENT GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF 2. STRAW AND PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER ABDUL SATTAR AT NEWS CONFERENCE 3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) STRAW SAYING: "If people are ready to surrender, they're serious in that intention, they've given up their arms and it's possible to accept their surrender, then the surrender should be accepted." 4. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SATTAR SAYING: "Any Afghan who is prepared to support implementation of 1999/2000 and October 2001 UNSC resolutions "should be considered eligible for consultation in the formation of a broad-based government. Of course, those people who are to be brought to prosecution for their part in terrorism, they are in a different class. Secondly, I want to inform you that many of Alliance generals were once allied with the Soviets during the resistance, they have been forgiven for that. I think others that might have been allied to one side or another should not be excluded for that reason alone." 6. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 2.43 (W4) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (NOVEMBER 23 2001) (REUTERS) 7. SLV STRAW AT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH AMBASSADOR KENTON KEITH, SPOKESMAN FOR U.S.-LED COALITION AGAINST AFGHANISTAN 2.51 11. SOUNDBITE)(English) STRAW SAYING: "There is a difference between those people, between those people and the rank and file, to use a phrase of Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defence minister, used with me. People who have had to go along with the Taliban, because the alternative was a bullet in the back. They are people who had, ostensibly, to support the Taliban because of their own personal survival and of their family and community. Of course, it is accepted that those people whose support, or alleged support, for the Taliban is not a matter of ideology or evil, but of simple survival could find a place in a future government." 3.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVADNB71OAP65138S6NSHOUMHNTS
  • Story Text: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met Pakistani
    President General Pervez Musharraf and repeated his request
    that the Northern Alliance accept the surrender of Taliban
    forces in Kunduz, if the Afghan forces were willing to lay
    down their weapons.

    Straw met separately with Musharraf and Pakistan
    Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Islamabad on Friday (November
    23, 2001).

    At a joint news conference, Straw said the Northern
    Alliance must accept the surrender of Taliban forces in
    Kunduz.

    "If people are ready to surrender, they're serious in that
    intention, they've given up their arms and it's possible to
    accept their surrender, then the surrender should be
    accepted. We all understand the potential humanitarian
    disaster that could be possible in Kunduz," Straw said.

    For his part, Sattar said it was not too late for United
    Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to add names to the list
    of Afghans he has invited for talks in Bonn on Monday
    (November 26) on a road map to a transitional post-Taliban
    government.

    settlement will marginalise the ethnic Pashtuns, who make up
    about 40 per cent of Afghanistan's population, sowing the
    seeds for continung conflict in a country that has been at war
    for more than 20 years.

    Islamabad was an early sponsor of the Taliban and
    supported their rule, one of only three nations to grant
    them diplomatic recognition and Pashtuns account for about
    15 per cent of the Pakistani population.

    The Taliban have not been invited to the Bonn talks, but
    the UN insists the Pashtuns will be well-represented in the
    delegations of the various groups who have been invited.

    Asked whether he wanted moderate Taliban to be invited to
    Bonn, Sattar said the UN should not consider consulting anyone
    "to be brought to prosecution for their part in terrorism".

    But he drew a parallel with those generals of the Northern
    Alliance, now in control of most of Afghanistan, who were once
    allied with the Soviet Union during its occupation of
    Afghanistan from 1979-1989.

    "They have been forgiven for that. I think others that
    might have been allied to one side or another should not be
    excluded for that reason alone," Sattar said.

    Later, Straw held a news conference with the spokesman for
    the U.S.-led coaltion against Afghanistan Kenton Keith.

    Straw drew a distinction between the Taliban and those who
    had to go along with their regime in order to survive.

    "There is a difference between those people, between those
    people and the rank and file, to use a phrase of Sergei
    Ivanov, the Russian defence minister, used with me. People who
    have had to go along with the Taliban, because the alternative
    was a bullet in the back.

    They are people who had, ostensibly, to support the
    Taliban because of their own personal survival and of their
    family and community. Of course, it is accepted that those
    people whose support, or alleged support, for the Taliban is
    not a matter of ideology or evil, but of simple survival could
    find a place in a future government."
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