U.N. team begins inquiry into Bhutto's killing

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 5:16 AM Posted by Beijing News


A U.N. fact-finding commission began on Wednesday an inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Bhutto was murdered in a suicide gun-and-bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27, 2009, after a rally to drum up support for a general election she had hoped to win.

Her murder threw nuclear-armed U.S. ally Pakistan into crisis and her Pakistan People's Party rode a wave of sympathy to win a February 2008 election.

Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, later become president.

The three-member U.N. team is headed by Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz and will take six months for its investigation.

"It's a fact-finding mission. It has started work today and it'll just inquire into the facts and circumstances of the assassination," said the U.N. spokeswoman, Ishrat Rizvi.

While it started its work on Wednesday, the team was not yet in Pakistan but would arrive this month, Rizvi said.

The team will not be empowered to launch criminal proceedings related to the assassination.

That will make it much less far-reaching than a U.N. investigation of the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which is intended to lead to a U.N.-organized trial in The Hague.

"It's been agreed between the government and the United Nations that the duty of determining criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of the assassination remains with Pakistani authorities," said Rizvi.

Pakistan's previous government, led by Pervez Musharraf, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency accused al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud of killing Bhutto, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led campaign against militancy.

Mehsud denied involvement.

ENEMIES

Some of Bhutto's aides have expressed dissatisfaction over the previous investigation.

Bhutto had enemies apart from Islamist militants and conspiracy theories were fueled when authorities ordered the scene of the attack hosed down shortly after it happened, washing away evidence.

About 20 people were killed when the suicide bomber struck as Bhutto was leaving a stadium waving to supporters from the roof escape hatch of her armored vehicle.

A spokesman for President Zardari said the government had sought a U.N. inquiry to avoid allegations of partiality. He also said the assassination had international ramifications, although he did not elaborate.

The other two members of the U.N. "Bhutto Commission" are Indonesia's former attorney general Marzuki Darusman and Peter Fitzgerald, a retired senior officer with the Garda Siochana, Ireland's national police force.





A boy jumps while playing football in a field near Pretoria. AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba

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