In Kabul, Musharraf Spurns U.S. Aid in Hunting Qaeda

John F. Burns | New York Times | April 2, 2002

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 2 – President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today, trying to mend fences but also rejecting any future American military operations against Al Qaeda or Taliban forces who have fled to Pakistani tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan.

He said the job of hunting the fighters inside Pakistan could be accomplished by Pakistani troops alone, despite American commanders' concerns that Pakistan has become a sanctuary for troops seeking to regroup for a new guerrilla war in Afghanistan.

In a brief visit under close guard by American troops, the Pakistani leader sought to bind up wounds inflicted during the years when Pakistan, under General Musharraf and other leaders, supported the Taliban, and even maintained covert contacts through its military intelligence agency with Al Qaeda. Those policies were abandoned under American pressure after Sept. 11, when Pakistan became America's most important regional ally in the war against terrorism.

Meeting with Hamid Karzai, chairman of the interim Afghan government, General Musharraf came close to apologizing for having backed the Taliban during the years when it imposed a harsh system of Islamic rule on Afghanistan's 20 million people. He embraced leaders of the Northern Alliance, the only force to have resisted the Taliban, which now forms the core of the Karzai government, and whose leaders have frequently excoriated Pakistan and General Musharraf for having helped sustain the Taliban.

Now, he said at a news conference with Mr. Karzai in the old royal palace, Pakistan had no agenda of its own in Afghanistan, only a wish to support the interim government, and to make sure that neither country again becomes a sanctuary for terrorists seeking to harm the other.

As for Pakistan's military intelligence agency, regarded by many Afghans as the alter ego of the Taliban, General Musharraf said that it was firmly under his control and that it would not be allowed to meddle in Afghanistan again.

"I made it absolutely clear to my brother here," he said, gesturing toward Mr. Karzai, "that Pakistan has only one aim, to assist Afghanistan in whatever he wants to do. His plan is our plan."

But General Musharraf, the first Pakistani leader to visit the country's western neighbor for 10 years, showed a prickliness over the issue that has moved to the center of American commanders' concerns – the use of the largely lawless Pakistani tribal areas abutting Afghanistan as safe havens by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who survived after Taliban rule collapsed in November under American bombing.

In response to questions, he assertively rejected suggestions that the absence of effective Pakistani controls along the 1,400-mile border, especially in a mountainous area around the Afghan city of Khost about 100 miles south of Kabul, had allowed Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants to regroup.

"I'm very proud of our forces; they are very capable of taking actions against intruders into our country," General Musharraf said. As for suggestions that American forces might eventually need to mount "hot-pursuit" raids into Pakistan, he added: "I don't think that doing this is in the coalition's interest, or in Pakistan's interest."

As evidence of Pakistan's vigilance in the hunt for terrorists, he cited the arrests last week of "40 or 50" suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda members in a swoop by Pakistani and American agents in three cities in Pakistan's central province of Punjab. He also cited earlier arrests of Al Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The White House confirmed today that one of those seized in the raids last week was Abu Zubaydah, said to have become the operational commander of Al Qaeda after the collapse of Taliban rule forced many of the group's fighters to flee to Pakistan.

The arrests, although a coup for the Musharraf government in its relations with Washington, had the effect of validating American military commanders' concerns about the porousness of the border. These concerns became acute in the wake of the 11-day battle American troops fought last month against a Taliban and Al Qaeda force in the Shah-i-Kot valley, barely 25 miles northwest of the closest crossing point into the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan.

Although American commanders declared Shah-i-Kot a victory, many signs since the battle have indicated that they learned that they would have to prevent these fighters from going back and forth into Pakistan to achieve their aim of eliminating Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who have threatened to mount a guerrilla war against American forces and Mr. Karzai's American-backed government in Kabul.

Concerns about Taliban and Al Qaeda cells still active in Afghanistan were evident in the tight security cordon around General Musharraf. He arrived only 36 hours after troops of the international security force in Kabul arrested two men driving a Pakistan-registered vehicle carrying 32 Kalashnikov rifles. A British military spokesman said the rifles were destined for an underground group in Kabul linked to one of Pakistan's most powerful Islamic militant groups, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan.

The spokesman did not say any link had been made to General Musharraf's visit, which took place without prior public announcement. But arrangements for General Musharraf showed the high level of concern.

For General Musharraf, the visit marked a way station in his transformation of Pakistan from a country whose government nurtured the Taliban and sheltered Islamic extremist groups.

In many ways, the Pakistani leader seemed to have come here to wash away the past. Mr. Karzai has close ties with Pakistan, having lived there during the periods of Communist and Taliban rule in Afghanistan. But there is no such affinity among the Northern Alliance men who hold major positions in the interim government.

At the news conference, General Musharraf acknowledged that there were "bitter memories" to be overcome, but said they should be viewed in the broader context of a relationship sustained for centuries by a common Muslim faith, a common culture and a shared geography. He said the days of Pakistani interference in Afghan affairs were over.

He handed Mr. Karzai a $10 million check as a gift from Pakistan.

But a hint that hard feelings may not be altogether assuaged came from Mr. Karzai's account of the wavering by Gen. Muhammad Fahim, the Northern Alliance military commander who serves as defense minister, about attending the airport arrival ceremony.

"He called me this morning and said, `I'm going to Kandahar,' and I said, `Fine, go ahead,' " Mr. Karzai said. "And then he said, `Don't you think I should be at the airport to greet General Musharraf?' and I said, `That's a wonderful idea,' so he delayed his trip."

But if General Musharraf regarded this as a mixed compliment, he showed no sign of it. Referring to General Fahim, who spoke excoriatingly of General Musharraf and Pakistan in the weeks leading up to the collapse of the Taliban, the Pakistani leader said that in their airport embrace, "He called me a brother, and I called him a brother, and I said, `I mean every word of it.' "

Copyright 2002 New York Times Company