Pakistan president begins Europe tour amid chaos at home

Source: AFP

BRUSSELS - Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Brussels at the start of a European tour, with his international credibility badly tarnished by months of political chaos.

Musharraf held talks with members of the Pakistani community shortly after touching down Sunday, with his official programme set to begin Monday, an embassy official here said.

The Pakistani head of state is scheduled to meet EU foreign policy Javier Solana and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, as well as address the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Musharraf, in his most important trip abroad since the crisis began, also has trade and defence cooperation talks planned with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

His eight-day tour will also take him to Britain, France and Switzerland.

He is expected to face thorny questions over his commitment to fighting extremism after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and on Pakistan’s slow progress to democratic elections set for February 18.

In the city centre, a small but noisy group of Bhutto supporters waving Pakistani flags gathered to denounce his visit, Belgian media reported.

In an interview with RTBF public television, Pakistan’s ambassador in Brussels, Saeed Khalid, said Musharraf would want to discuss developments on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

“It’s entirely normal that the president would want to use this occassion to discuss important questions, like the situation in our region near Afghanisan, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the fight against extremists,” he said.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a key ally in the US “war on terror”. NATO-led troops in Afghanistan complain regularly that Musharraf is not doing enough to stop Taliban-led fighters from hiding in his country.

As Musharraf flew out to clear up “misperceptions” about Pakistan, officials there uncovered bomb and poison plots aimed at causing massive loss of life during the Shiite Muslim festival of Ashura.

They also questioned a teenager allegedly linked to Bhutto’s killing.

“We want to clear certain misperceptions of all the happenings in Pakistan and the region,” Musharraf told reporters at Chaklala military base, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

In Europe, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on its website that Spain’s authorities had warned France, Portugal and Britain of the possibility of attacks during Musharraf’s eight-day trip.

Small groups composed principally of Pakistanis were preparing to carry out attacks “imminently,” the report cited Spanish intelligence agency sources as saying.

On Saturday, the interior ministry said that Spanish police had smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting at least 14 people — 12 of them Pakistanis — and finding bomb-making equipment in raids in Barcelona.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised the intelligence services for the swoop but warned against leaping to conclusions about those arrested.

Belgian authorities said they do not plan to boost security beyond that which would be in place for a visit by any other head of state or government.

The Pakistani president is due to fly out to France Monday evening.

During his two days there, he will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, before heading to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum meeting Wednesday through Friday. He will be in Britain on Saturday.

As he arrived in Europe, rights group Amnesty International urged political and business leaders to press him to bring an end to human rights abuses.

“The international community must give a clear and unequivocal message to President Musharraf that restoring respect for human rights and the rule of law is key to establishing confidence in the forthcoming elections and arresting the spate of political violence in Pakistan,” Amnesty chief Irene Khan said.