Musharraf defends Pakistan’s role in 'war on terror'
Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf launched a fresh defence today of his nation's role in the international war on terror today.
The premier, who has been visiting the UK, warned the West would be "brought down to your knees" without his help - and would lose the battle with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He also said he shared the perspective of disaffected young Muslims in the UK who turned to terrorism and blamed Western policies for the situation in Pakistan.
"You'll be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not to be with you, you won't manage anything. Let that be clear. And if ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service) is not with you, you will fail…you will lose in Afghanistan.''
The general's visit began with a potential diplomatic row over a leaked report that claimed the ISI supported al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Prime Minister Tony Blair was forced, during two hours of talks at Chequers, to assure him that the report by the Defence Academy - a UK Ministry of Defence think tank - did not represent government policy.
The ISI, the president told the BBC "do exactly what they are told".
He conceded that it was a "worry" that most terror plots exposed or being investigated in the UK had links to Pakistan.
However he laid the blame for any radicalisation squarely on the consequences of previous Western policy in Afghanistan.
"It must worry us and we are doing a lot. But it must be understood, by you and the West, that this is because of what we did for you. We fought the Soviet Union for you; we won the Cold War for you.
"And we did that how? You brought in 20-30,000 Mujahideen from all over the Muslim world into this area; you paid Taliban, armed them, equipped them, trained them and sent them inside.
"All of this, for 10 years, had its fallout on Pakistan and then you left us high and dry in 1989 with four million refugees and warfare between all the tribal warlords.
"Let's understand the reality: this all is an import because of what we did for you. Now we need to correct this situation.
"It is for you that we did it and we are suffering. Our national fabric has been torn and now everyone blames us for what the hell is happening in Pakistan."
Asked if he shared the perspective, if not the methods, of UK citizens who became suicide bombers, he said: "I do share this perspective.
"They are not illiterate and maybe they are not poor, so what is the issue here? A sense of alienation from the society.
"I wonder whether they are being given an equal opportunity here. They themselves should assimilate and the society also should absorb them.''
It was unfair that the blame for radicalisation was always pinned on short periods spent in Pakistan at religious schools, rather than what had happened in the UK before that, he added.
General Musharraf dismissed as "nonsense" allegations of the "disappearance" of terror suspects arrested in his homeland.
Amnesty International claims that hundreds of terror suspects arrested in Pakistan were being tortured and illegally transferred for money into US custody.
All such suspects were accounted for, he said.
