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| 'We listen to all voices in Pakistan' |
| Hillary Clinton / Jul 25, 2010, 00:31 IST |
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Question: Madam Secretary, a very quick question. You know you talked of supporting democracy in Pakistan, but the reality on the ground, it’s an open secret that it’s actually the military that led the civilian government to prepare for the Strategic Dialogue. Now, there is a fear in Pakistan that eventually the US will tilt back towards the military in order to let its policies through or see its policies through. How are you going to address that fear?
Secretary Clinton: Well, I can tell you very clearly that neither I nor President Obama have any intention of having that happen or winking at it or permitting it insofar as we can prevent it, because we believe in democracy. And we particularly believe that Pakistan must have a democratic government that fulfills its terms with another election and another democratic government.
Now, having said that, we understand that any time there’s conflict in a society, there’s going to be a very heavy security emphasis, and the law enforcement and the military elements are going to have their say, and that’s understood. But what we see is a partnership – when I work with Minister Qureshi and we send all of these officials that we’ve been sending to work on our Strategic Dialogue, the security dialogue is a part of that. And that, of course, is between defense and military officials.
So, we listen to all of the voices inside Pakistan, but we support the democratically elected government.
Q: (Inaudible) ...and I’m a journalist from Samaa TV. I want to ask a question if we are facing a same war against terror, why you people are fighting this war with a modern technology like drone and EDC, and why we are facing that war with the 20th century old weapons? We are facing a lot in Pakistan. Why America always rely on promises when it comes to military aid or a modern technology?
SC: Well, we have provided an enormous amount of aid to Pakistan. Just recently, America delivered some additional F-16s, which is a very modern weapon, to the Pakistani military. And we are in close consultation and cooperation with the military, literally, all the time, to assess their needs and to work with them.
Q: One last question, Secretary of State. Why as a person I feel that when we choose a statement condemning Iran’s government policies against their political opponents, the US issues statements condemning that they crushed the protestors, but when it comes to Kashmir and atrocities by India, US always comes out with a statement that it’s an internal dispute. Don’t you think such kinds of – can I use the word “double-standard” – always create hatred against the US among the people that, on the one hand, you are condemning a foreign country, its internal affairs, and on the other hand you are calling a dispute, an internal dispute? Similarly in the Middle East, your policies towards Israel, your approach towards Israel, is something different from what happened in the other side of it.
SC: Well, first let me say that I think there’s a big difference between India and Pakistan and Iran. India and Pakistan have vibrant democratic institutions, free press, independent judiciaries. We do not find any of that in Iran. So there is a recognition that although Kashmir is a very important and difficult issue, you’re dealing with two countries that are not making threats against the rest of the world. You may have very difficult historical issues between the two of you which we would like to see resolved; but in contrast, Iran is threatening all of its neighbours, is threatening to wipe countries off the map, is funding terrorism all over the world.
So, I think the fact that the people of Iran, in our assessment, tried to change their leadership and were so brutally oppressed is a very significant fact, and therefore we will condemn it because we think it runs counter to the rights of the Iranian people as they attempt to express them.
Mr Pirzada: Unfortunately, we are running short of the time and we have no more time. We’re glad you could join us for more than an hour.
(Excerpts from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Television Roundtable with Pakistani journalists in Islamabad on July 19. Questions have not been edited)
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