I come before the Assembly
today in the name of my late wife, Shaheed Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto, as a victim of terrorism representing a
nation that is a victim of terrorism. I am a husband who
has seen the mother of his children give her life
fighting the menaces of terrorism and fanaticism,
which haunt the entire civilized world. In her place and
in her honour, I come before the Assembly as the
elected President of a democratic Pakistan who
received a mandate from two thirds of our Parliament
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and assemblies. That extraordinary mandate of support
was a vote of confidence in her, in her doctrine and in
her message. The vote was an act of love and a demand
for a democratic, moderate, modern, tolerant and
economically just Pakistan — the essence of the Bhutto
doctrine.
It has been 11 months since the first attack on my
wife, on 18 October 2007, was followed by the
adoption of a United Nations resolution calling for an
inquiry into that crime against humanity. That United
Nations resolution has so far been ineffective. After her
assassination, on 27 December, the international
community demanded an independent inquiry — a
demand supported by resolutions adopted in Pakistan’s
Parliament and four provincial legislatures.
Today, we still do not know what forces and
institutions were involved — who plotted and planned
and coordinated and trained and paid for the murder of
my wife, my nation’s beloved leader. A United Nations
investigation into the murder of the leader of the
people of Pakistan would reassure them that the
international community cares about them and that the
United Nations Charter of justice is more than rhetoric.
We owe it to her. We owe it to history. If a country’s
President and his children cannot obtain justice through
the United Nations, how will the poor and the
dispossessed around the world find reassurance that the
United Nations is capable of protecting the weak and
the suffering?
In the name of humanity and in the name of
justice, the Organization must move forward quickly
with the investigation into the assassination of Shaheed
Benazir Bhutto so that, once and for all, the people of
Pakistan and the rest of the world will know whose
bloody hands took away one of the greatest women in
history.
My wife courageously returned to Pakistan last
year, openly confronting the forces of terror. Three
million people turned out to welcome Benazir and the
return of democracy to Pakistan. She was a brave
woman who understood the dynamics of our region and
the world — who understood the interrelationship
between politics and economics, between social
injustice and political dictatorship. For years, she told
world leaders that dictatorship fuels extremism and that
poverty fuels fanaticism. She outlined the Bhutto
doctrine of reconciliation, so brilliantly presented in
her last book. The Bhutto doctrine sets out a dual
mission of combating dictatorship and terrorism while
promoting social and economic reform and justice for
the people of Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto understood that
democracy was not an end, but a beginning; that a
starving child has no human rights; that a father who
cannot support his family is someone ripe for
extremism.
Mr. Win (Myanmar), Vice-President took the
Chair.
The Bhutto doctrine of reconciliation is a road
map not only to a new Pakistan, but to a new era of
peace and cooperation between East and West and
among people of all faiths. It is a road map that, if
followed, will enable us to avoid the clash of
civilizations and the clash of religions, which is the
terrorists’ ultimate goal.
The Bhutto doctrine is the new century’s
equivalent of the Marshall Plan, which saved Europe
after the Second World War. While the Marshall Plan
was based on the principle that an economically sound
Europe could and would resist communism, the pillar
of the Bhutto doctrine is that an economically viable
Pakistan will be the centrepiece of the victory of
pluralism over terrorism. The Bhutto doctrine will
ultimately prove to be as critical to the victory of
freedom in this century as the Marshall Plan was
critical to the triumph of liberty in the last. Ours is the
doctrine of reconciliation; theirs is the doctrine of
death.
Her killers thought that her elimination would
end her dream of a democratic Pakistan and that the
Balkanization of our region would enable the forces of
darkness to prevail. But our nation rallied in the
aftermath of her brutal and tragic assassination. If
Al-Qaida and the Taliban believed that, by silencing
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, they were
silencing her message, they were very wrong. We have
picked up the torch and will fight against terrorists who
attack us and terrorists who use our territory to plan
attacks against our neighbours or anywhere in the
world.
Ours is a bloody fight, and neither the personal
pain that my children and I feel nor the pain of a nation
that has been robbed of its greatest asset, its greatest
leader, can be fully expressed. But the terrorists’ lust
for blood and hate has not been satisfied. Only last
week, the forces of evil struck again in a bloody and
cowardly attack against my people. A suicide truck
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bomb destroyed a great building in our capital, barely a
stone’s throw away from my office and the House of
Parliament.
Once again, Pakistan is the great victim in the
war on terror. And once again, our people wonder
whether we stand alone. Thousands of our soldiers and
civilians have died fighting against the common
enemies of humanity. We have lost more soldiers than
all the 37 countries combined that have forces in
Afghanistan.
The roots of today’s terrorism can be traced to a
war involving the world’s super-Powers in Afghanistan
during the 1980s. Afghanistan and Pakistan — and,
increasingly, the entire world — are reaping the bitter
harvest sown towards the end of the cold war. The
world turned its back on Afghanistan after the Soviet
defeat. In Pakistan, we were left with 3 million
refugees within our borders. Their camps soon became
breeding grounds for intolerance and violence. The
world left South and Central Asia. We were left to live
with the consequences. And one of the greatest of those
consequences was the birth of Al-Qaida and the
Talibanization of Afghanistan and parts of our tribal
areas.
Yet, we do not look back at history. We are
victims, but we will never be vanquished. On the
contrary, the more of our children’s blood they spill,
the stronger is our determination to defeat them. We in
Pakistan stand united and in defiance. We are resolved
that our future will not be dictated by those who distort
the spirit and laws of Islam for their sordid politics and
political goals.
We may be the targets of international terrorism,
but we will never succumb to it. Towards that end, we
reach out to this Assembly and to the entire civilized
world. Terrorism cannot be fought by military means
alone. Fighting it requires political will, popular
mobilization and a socio-economic strategy that wins
the hearts and minds of nations afflicted by it.
Unilateral actions of great Powers should not
inflame the passions of allies. Violating our nation’s
sovereignty is not helpful in eliminating the terrorist
menace. Indeed, such actions could have the opposite
effect.
Many participants in this great Hall today read
about terror, while we live it. We do not learn about
terror from reading newspapers or watching the
evening news. We see our children and our wives being
blown up before us. Our cities, neighbourhoods,
streets, hotels and offices bear the brunt of the terrorist
fanatic rage every single day.
A democratic Pakistan is in the process of
reaching the national consensus necessary to confront
and defeat the terrorists. Only a democratic
Government can win this war. We are fighting the
menace and we will continue to do so. But this fight is
for the peace of the world. This fight is for the future
of generations to come. Yes, we fight for ourselves, for
our children, for our very soul. Yes, this war is our war,
but we need the moral, political and economic support
of the international community. In our stability lies the
world’s security. Globalization is not just economic; it
is also political. The terrorist vision strikes out at all
nations. We must draw a line on their rampage. And we
must draw that line in Pakistan.
The question I ask the world’s leaders in this
august Hall is whether they will stand with us, just as
we stand for the entire civilized world on the frontlines
of this epic struggle of the new millennium.
I stand before this Assembly as the President of a
great nation that just recently, in a decade of brutal
military dictatorship, suffered human rights abuses and
the systematic destruction of the foundations of
democracy and civil society. Sadly, all too often, the
world stood silent as dictators ruled our people with a
bloody fist. Nations that were founded on democracy
were silent for reasons of expediency. My wife would
say that they danced with dictators.
Today, as we meet here in New York, the
democratically elected leader of Myanmar, Aung San
Suu Kyi, continues to be imprisoned in Yangon. She
has suffered year after year under house arrest. The
world must demand that that great woman finally be
freed. We appreciate the efforts of Mrs. Laura Bush in
that regard.
Today, the horror of terrorism that plagues our
nation and threatens the world is a by-product of the
lack of commitment to the values of democracy. When
the world betrays democracy, it sets the table for
disaster. We will all continue to pay the price.
In these early years of the new millennium, there
are two great battles before mankind. First, there is the
battle for democracy and liberty against dictators, the
fight for universal human rights. That is the hallmark
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of this Organization. At the same time, we are fighting
in the trenches of the battle that will determine the
course of this century — the battle against extremism
and terrorism, between the forces of ignorance and the
forces of education, between bigotry and tolerance,
between justice and discrimination, between
confrontation and reconciliation.
Democracy is not like a switch that can be turned
on and off when it is convenient. It is a universal value
guaranteed to all men and women. The outcome of
these struggles will determine whether the noble
experiment embodied in the hallowed halls of the
United Nations will succeed or fail. The struggle
between the Bhutto doctrine of reconciliation and the
terrorists’ doctrine of death will determine the future of
mankind. Let not the extremists who would manipulate
Islam for their political ends define us to the world.
They are rabid but they are few. It is time for the world
to take notice. We are not the cause of the problem of
terrorism; we are its victims.
We are an aggrieved nation, not one that has
caused grief. We have largely fought this battle alone.
We have shared our airbases, our airspace, our
intelligence and our armed forces in a coordinated
effort to contain terrorism.
It is time for the developed world to step up to
the plate to help us and in turn help itself. The fight
against terrorism and extremism is a fight for the hearts
and minds of people. It cannot be won by guns and
bombs alone. The fight must be multifaceted. The
battleground must be economic and social as well as
military.
We will win when people are mobilized against
fanatics. To mobilize them, we have to give them hope
and opportunity for their future. They need jobs. Their
children need education. They must be fed. They must
have energy. We must give people a stake in their own
government and we must demonstrate to them that
democracy works, that democratic governance can
improve their everyday life.
An economically viable Pakistan will be a stable
Pakistan. And a stable Pakistan will suck the oxygen
out of the terrorist agenda. Economic justice and
political democracy are the worst nightmares of
terrorists. We must all fight this epic battle together as
allies and partners.
But just as we will not let Pakistan’s territory be
used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our
neighbours, so we cannot allow our territory and our
sovereignty to be violated by our friends. Attacks
within Pakistan that violate our sovereignty actually
serve to empower the forces against which we fight
together.
I am a democratic President of a democratic
country that intends to be a model to our region and to
our religion. I am the President of a vibrant, modern,
tolerant, peaceful, moderate democracy committed to
economic and social justice. People, including my
wife, died for this movement. We will not waste their
sacrifices.
We will work patiently to convince leaders in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and our
Pakhtunkhwa province to accept the writ of the
Government and turn their back on terrorists. The
terrorists may blow up our girls’ schools but we will
rebuild them, brick by brick, inch by inch. We are in
this battle to win and we know how we have to do it.
We will work together with our neighbours in
Afghanistan and with the NATO forces stationed there
to ensure security for our common border. We will
continue the composite dialogue with India so that our
outstanding disputes are resolved. As I discussed with
the Indian Prime Minister yesterday, whether it is the
core issue of Jammu and Kashmir or cooperation on
water resources, India and Pakistan must and will
accommodate each other’s concerns and interests. We
must respect and work with each other to peacefully
resolve our problems and build South Asia into a
common market of trade and technology.
Better relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan
and India would help create a regional environment
more conducive to reducing militancy in our region.
But let me be clear to those in this Hall and to the
terrorists lurking in their caves, plotting their next
assault on humanity. If necessary, we will confront evil
with force — our police, our army and our air force.
We will turn the power of the State against the stateless
terrorists. We will turn the power of justice against the
chaos of anarchists. We will turn the power of right
against the darkness of evil.
I did not come to the office of President, to this
moment, by design. As my wife once said about
herself, I did not choose this life — it chose me. An
19 08-51851
extraordinary combination of circumstances brought
me to this moment. It has not been an easy road.
I spent nine years in prison, in solitary
confinement, as a hostage to my wife’s struggle for
democracy and to our party’s future. I was unjustly
imprisoned under a judicial system manipulated and
controlled by the forces of dictatorship. I refused to
break under pressure. My years in prison made me a
stronger person and hardened my resolve to fight for
democracy and justice. Those years prepared me for
this moment.
Terror took my wife’s life, but the terrorists
cannot kill my wife’s dream. Her vision, her passion
and her force are now our common task. The Benazir
Bhutto doctrine of reconciliation lives on; it guides us
in our endeavours. Her reconciliation is the mantra of
the new era. I am dedicated to implementing what she
proposed. I wish I could do it at my wife’s side, but
now I will do it in my wife’s place.
Pakistan will prove wrong all the negative
predictions about its future. We will show the way by
overcoming suspicions towards and from our
neighbours and building a future for our people.
Throughout her life, my wife struggled to make
the world a better place for our children, the children
of Pakistan and the children of the world. I owe it to
her memory and to all of the martyrs of democracy to
continue to do the same until the Bhutto doctrine of
reconciliation is not just her dream but the world’s
reality.