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Saturday, December 29, 2007
Arroyo calls Bhutto killing an assault on democracy
MANILA -- The Philippines on Friday strongly condemned the killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Thursday as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo branded the attack as an assault on democracy.
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Arroyo sent her sympathies to the family of Bhutto and 20 others who were killed during the assassination that occurred after a rally in Rawalpindi.
Bhutto was struck down by an unknown gunman who opened fire and later blew himself up, killing 20 others.
"We mourn with the nation of Pakistan over the deaths of Benazir Bhutto and others killed in the shooting and bomb attack in Rawalpindi. We strongly condemn this unmitigated, senseless atrocity, even as we convey our sympathies to the followers of former Prime Minister Bhutto and the families of those who perished," Arroyo said.
She added: "Whoever perpetrated it, this attack is an assault on democracy. The Philippines joins hands with the entire civilized world in solidarity against such mindless barbarity and in unwavering defense of peace, freedom, law and order."
Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters.
A top Pakistani official on Friday said al-Qaeda militants and the Taliban were behind the assassination of the Pakistani opposition leader.
President Pervez Musharraf initially blamed Bhutto's death on unnamed Islamic militants. However, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told The Associated Press that "we have the evidence that al-Qaeda and the Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto."
He said investigators had resolved the case and would give details at a press conference later Friday.
The combined suicide-gunfire attack on Bhutto -- which also killed 20 other people -- badly damaged plans to restore democracy in this nuclear-armed nation, a key US ally in the war on terror.
Bhutto was buried in her ancestral home amid a raw outpouring of grief by hundreds of thousands of mourners.
Her funeral procession began Friday afternoon at her ancestral residence in the southern town of Naudero. Her plain wood coffin, draped in the red, green, and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was carried in a white ambulance. (JMR/Sunnex/With AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (December 29, 2007 issue)
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