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Musharraf Backs New Afghan Leaders

Pakistan pledges anti-terror support, makes new arrests

Tuesday, April 2, 2002
MSNBC News Services



The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, left, flashes a check for $10 million received from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Kabul on Tuesday.
Image Credit: Roslan Rahman -- l'Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The two leaders dismissed talk of lingering distrust between their countries, with Karzai saying his government, formed from the opposition to the ultra-Islamic Taliban, was united in welcoming Musharraf. “Sometimes there are disagreements between brothers, but I have no reason to believe we can’t overcome those differences,” Musharraf said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- MSNBC
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai described themselves as brothers on Tuesday and made an attempt to bury any lingering differences over Islamabad’s past support for the ousted Taliban regime. Musharraf, on his first visit to Kabul, pledged full support for Karzai and said Pakistan’s aim was to assist Afghanistan and join with it in stamping out terrorism.

Pakistan was one of the few nations to support Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers, but withdrew its backing after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, when the Taliban were blamed for sheltering chief suspect Osama bin Laden.

“I have made it absolutely clear to my brother here that Pakistan has only one aim -- to assist Afghanistan and to assist my brother sitting here and his government in doing whatever he wants to do in Afghanistan,” Musharraf said.

“Our plan is his plan. We will assist him all the way on whatever he wants to do here,” he added.

Both Musharraf and Karzai said they did not know the whereabouts of bin Laden and could only guess if he was alive or dead. “He may be dead or alive, I don’t know,” Musharraf said, ”But if you ask my view, maybe he’s dead.”

“Well, I don’t really know where bin Laden is,” Karzai said.

Musharraf and Karzai were completely at ease with each other during the hour-long news conference, often deferring to each other and joking at questions.

Karzai described Pakistan as a “good neighbor” and Musharraf as a “very nice man” and a “gentleman.”

* AL-QAIDA BREAKTHROUGH?
* DISTRUST DISPELLED
* KABUL ON GUARD
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Dan