[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 54 (Thursday, March 23, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        U.S.-PAKISTAN RELATIONS

                                 ______


                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 22, 1995
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, each and every one of us was 
shocked by the deaths of the two American consular officers in 
Pakistan. I am sure that every Member in the House of Representatives 
would like to send their deepest condolences to the families of these 
two Americans.
  Immediately following this tragedy, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto 
sent a letter of condolence to the White House and vowed to bring to 
justice those responsible for this crime. I would like to commend this 
action. Over the past year, Pakistan has been the recipient of many 
unsubstantiated statements in the House regarding its role in world 
terrorism. In fact, there now exists a coordinated campaign in the 
House to brand Pakistan as a terrorist state.
  In that regard, I would call my colleague's attention to a March 10, 
editorial in the Wall Street Journal which says ``the murders should 
not become an excuse for the United States to turn away from Pakistan, 
a moderate Moslem nation.'' As the United States continues to work 
toward improved relations with this valuable ally, we should value not 
only what Pakistan did for the United States during the cold war, but 
what a modern Pakistan will mean to us in the future. Pakistan should 
be looked upon as a progressive, modern, and democratic bridge to 1 
billion Moslems strategically located around the Earth.
             [From the Wall Street Journal, Mar. 10, 1995]

                           Death in Pakistan

       Americans are not killed very often in Pakistan, but when 
     political killers do get U.S. citizens in their sights, the 
     assaults tend to be spectacularly brutal. After a Pakistani 
     mob stormed and torched the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad in 
     1979, staffers hiding in a vault were saved only at the last 
     moment from mass suffocation. Ambassador Arnold Raphael died 
     in the still unexplained C-130 crash that killed President 
     Zia ul Haq near Bahawalpur in 1988. On Tuesday, an unknown 
     number of gunmen opened up on a U.S. consular van in Karachi, 
     killing two junior diplomats and wounding a third.
       After the Zia crash, the American embassy, for still 
     unexplained reasons, refused to let FBI experts join the 
     Pakistani team investigating suspected sabotage. This time, 
     Bill Clinton has vowed to pursue the killers, and G-men have 
     been dispatched to join the search. With the help of the 
     experienced Pakistanis, they may actually find out who pulled 
     the triggers. But Jackie Van Landingham and Gary Durell were 
     not picked out as targets because of some widespread anti-
     Americanism. The bullets that killed them were aimed at 
     Pakistan itself.
       Theories about traffickers angered by U.S. drug-fighting 
     efforts, or about Islamists bent on revenge for the recent 
     extradition of an alleged terrorist from Pakistan to New York 
     miss the point. The killings come on the eve of a visit to 
     Washington by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. She goes in 
     search of a restoration of U.S. aid and greater economic 
     ties, and will now arrive in a country that sees Pakistan 
     through a glass even more darkly than before. The radicals 
     may hope that the American companies that have signed mega-
     deals for energy projects will now get cold feet and that 
     Pakistan will become a no-go zone for foreigners in general, 
     with all their sorely needed capital.
       Sound familiar? Perhaps like Egypt, where antigovernment 
     Islamists have systematically targeted the tourist industry? 
     Or like Bangladesh, where power-hungry opposition forces have 
     used the hapless feminist writer Taslima Nasrin to get Muslim 
     mobs on the streets? Despite their proven ability to whip up 
     crowds, Pakistan's radical Islamic parties are political 
     failures. They have stood for election and been rejected by a 
     solid majority of Pakistani voters. Now they, or some other 
     frustrated power-seekers, may be going for the cheap option 
     of destabilization.
       The murders should not become an excuse for the U.S. to 
     turn away from Pakistan, a moderate Muslim nation with which 
     relations have lately been rocky. Given Karachi's recent 
     history of random sniping and bloodshed, it's alarming that 
     U.S. government vehicles are not adequately bulletproofed--if 
     also testimony to the safety that Americans feel there. And 
     Pakistan should certainly re-think the yellow license-plating 
     of all diplomatic cars with numbers that identify each car by 
     country. On Tuesday, that big American 64 was an easy bull's-
     eye.
       And Americans everywhere should prepare for at least one 
     nasty aftershock. When Ambassador Raphael died with Zia, the 
     100% of Pakistanis who are conspiracy theorists seriously 
     entertained the notion that the plane was brought down by the 
     CIA. Sooner or later, some will want to blame the U.S. for 
     the Karachi shooting as well.
       But letting this tragedy sour the overdue rapprochement 
     between Pakistan and the U.S., once allies in winning the 
     cold war, would only hand a victory to Pakistan's radical 
     fringe. And as bad, it would lend one more brick to those in 
     the U.S. who want to build an isolation wall against a world 
     that still needs American leadership and friendship.
     

                          ____________________