O PRIMADO ABSOLUTO DA FORÇA
O PRIMADO ABSOLUTO DA FORÇA OU DA VIOLÊNCIA
A espécie humana é muito difícil de compreender.
Quando, na Cimeira dos Açores Geroge W Bush, apoiado por Anthony Blair, por Aznar e Durão Barroso, proclamou o Primado Absoluto da Força, condenámos tal proclamação.
Sabíamos que o mandamento chamado Primado Absoluto da Força ou da Violência iria ter muitos seguidores por esse Mundo fora.
Neste momento, as nossas pessimistas previsões já foram ultrapassadas.
Surpreendente notícia a do assassinato da candidata nas eleições presidenciais do Paquistão Benazir Bhutto.
«The brutal assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto tonight triggered violent convulsions across the country that cast grave doubts on elections scheduled for January 8 as well as marking a dark finale to a tragedy-strewn life.
Angry scenes were replicated in cities across Pakistan, where enraged supporters rioted in the streets, burned trains and businesses, and attacked policemen. Gunfire rang out on the streets of Karachi, the port city where Bhutto spent much of her life.
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Two months after her triumphant return from exile, a lone gunman fired several shots at Bhutto as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi. Seconds later a suicide fireball engulfed her vehicle and killed at least 20 supporters.
The former prime minister was rushed to a nearby hospital where distraught supporters burst through doors, smashed windows and tried to storm into the operating theatre where surgeons struggled to save her life. She was proclaimed dead shortly afterwards.
Initial suspicions for the attack fell on the Islamist militants who have previously threatened to kill the 54-year-old scion of Pakistan's greatest political dynasty. In October, Bhutto survived a massive suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 140 people.
But angry accusations were also flung at fundamentalist sympathisers within Pakistan's military apparatus, whom Bhutto had earlier charged wanted to see her dead.
The assassination is the climax of an extraordinary series of crises that have rocked Pakistan over the past nine months as President Pervez Musharraf sought to consolidate his grip on power.
The last comparable convulsion was the war that led to the secession of West Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971.
In a brief televised address, Musharraf declared three days of mourning. "This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
The ramifications are likely to be immediate and grave. Analysts said Musharraf may seize on the turmoil to postpone the January polls and possibly reimpose the emergency rule he imposed on November 3 but lifted shortly before Christmas.
The UN security council called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in the nuclear-armed country which has seen sieges, suicide bombings, high political drama and a worrying surge in Islamist violence over the past 12 months.
Alarmed western leaders mixed condemnation and tribute with calls for restraint and a continuation of Pakistan's fragile political process. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, hailed Bhutto as "a woman of immense personal courage and bravery".
"She risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan," he said. "Benazir Bhutto may have been killed by terrorists, but the terrorists must not be allowed to kill democracy in Pakistan."
Speaking near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, a sombre President George Bush condemned the killing as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy".
He called on Pakistanis to "honour Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process."
Indian prime minister Manmoham Singh said the subcontinent had "lost an outstanding leader".
The assassination drawn a black curtain over an epic life at the centre of Pakistan's perilous public stage, characterised by tragedy, glory, controversy and, until today, the possibility of a momentous political comeback.
Bhutto's violent end echoed that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prime minister who was deposed by a military dictator in 1977 and hanged two years later. Her two brothers were killed in murky circumstances in the following decades.
Bhutto was attacked as she left Liaqat Bagh, a historic public park in Rawalpindi where she addressed thousands of supporters at an election rally this afternoon.
Officials she was driving out of the park, standing though the sunroof of her bulletproof four wheel drive vehicle and waving to supporters, when the killer struck.
Several gunshots rang out and Bhutto crumpled into the car. Seconds later a giant blast rocked the vehicle, blasting it with shrapnel. Rescuers found Bhutto lying in pool of blood on the back seat.
Senior party official Amin Fahim, who had been sitting beside her, said he heard "between three and five shots".
Sherry Rehman, who was travelling in the vehicle behind, said: "She fell back into the vehicle and everything was splattered with blood. I don't even know if she made it alive to the hospital."
Some said Bhutto had been shot before the blast. Amir Qureshi, a bodyguard from Bhutto's youth wing who had been jogging alongside the vehicle, said he heard two volleys of gunshots.
She was shot first in the neck, then in the head, he said, speaking to the Guardian from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for leg wounds.
"This is a black day not only for Pakistan but also the rest of the world," he said.
There were chaotic scenes of anger and grief at the Rawalpindi hospital where an unconscious Bhutto received emergency treatment.
Thousands of supporters crushed through glass doors; some tried to break into the operating room. Outside some men wept and crumpled to the ground, others yelled "Musharraf is a murderer" or "Long Live Bhutto".
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, also recently returned from exile, rushed to the hospital where he sat by Bhutto's dead body.
"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said afterward, his eyes at times welling up with tears. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."
Earlier in the day a Sharif rally in Rawalpindi also came under fire from a gunman, killing at least four people and wounding several more. Musharraf's PML-Q party denied accusations that its supporters were responsible.
Sharif said elections may be postponed. "I think perhaps none of us is inclined to take up the elections. We'll have to sit down and take a very serious look the current situation," he told the BBC.
The killing pushes Pakistan into uncharted waters, calling into question Musharraf's ability to rein in the Islamist militants who threaten to upend his country's uncertain stability.
Even allies are in danger. Last weekend a suicide bomber targeted former the interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, inside a mosque north of Peshawar, killing 56 other people.
Late this evening Bhutto's body was moved to Chakala airbase, where it was due to be flown to her home province of Sindh, where the governor announced three days of mourning.
A tomb-like silence fell over much of Karachi, where residents stayed indoors. Elsewhere in the city, some rioters burned tyres and set a petrol station on fire.
Benazir Bhutto will be buried near her ancestral home in Larkana, inside a giant mausoleum built in recent years to house her father and two brothers, the other ghosts of Pakistan's most cursed political dynasty.»
(In «The Guardian»)
A espécie humana é muito difícil de compreender.
Quando, na Cimeira dos Açores Geroge W Bush, apoiado por Anthony Blair, por Aznar e Durão Barroso, proclamou o Primado Absoluto da Força, condenámos tal proclamação.
Sabíamos que o mandamento chamado Primado Absoluto da Força ou da Violência iria ter muitos seguidores por esse Mundo fora.
Neste momento, as nossas pessimistas previsões já foram ultrapassadas.
Surpreendente notícia a do assassinato da candidata nas eleições presidenciais do Paquistão Benazir Bhutto.
«The brutal assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto tonight triggered violent convulsions across the country that cast grave doubts on elections scheduled for January 8 as well as marking a dark finale to a tragedy-strewn life.
Angry scenes were replicated in cities across Pakistan, where enraged supporters rioted in the streets, burned trains and businesses, and attacked policemen. Gunfire rang out on the streets of Karachi, the port city where Bhutto spent much of her life.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two months after her triumphant return from exile, a lone gunman fired several shots at Bhutto as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi. Seconds later a suicide fireball engulfed her vehicle and killed at least 20 supporters.
The former prime minister was rushed to a nearby hospital where distraught supporters burst through doors, smashed windows and tried to storm into the operating theatre where surgeons struggled to save her life. She was proclaimed dead shortly afterwards.
Initial suspicions for the attack fell on the Islamist militants who have previously threatened to kill the 54-year-old scion of Pakistan's greatest political dynasty. In October, Bhutto survived a massive suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 140 people.
But angry accusations were also flung at fundamentalist sympathisers within Pakistan's military apparatus, whom Bhutto had earlier charged wanted to see her dead.
The assassination is the climax of an extraordinary series of crises that have rocked Pakistan over the past nine months as President Pervez Musharraf sought to consolidate his grip on power.
The last comparable convulsion was the war that led to the secession of West Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971.
In a brief televised address, Musharraf declared three days of mourning. "This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
The ramifications are likely to be immediate and grave. Analysts said Musharraf may seize on the turmoil to postpone the January polls and possibly reimpose the emergency rule he imposed on November 3 but lifted shortly before Christmas.
The UN security council called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in the nuclear-armed country which has seen sieges, suicide bombings, high political drama and a worrying surge in Islamist violence over the past 12 months.
Alarmed western leaders mixed condemnation and tribute with calls for restraint and a continuation of Pakistan's fragile political process. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, hailed Bhutto as "a woman of immense personal courage and bravery".
"She risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan," he said. "Benazir Bhutto may have been killed by terrorists, but the terrorists must not be allowed to kill democracy in Pakistan."
Speaking near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, a sombre President George Bush condemned the killing as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy".
He called on Pakistanis to "honour Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process."
Indian prime minister Manmoham Singh said the subcontinent had "lost an outstanding leader".
The assassination drawn a black curtain over an epic life at the centre of Pakistan's perilous public stage, characterised by tragedy, glory, controversy and, until today, the possibility of a momentous political comeback.
Bhutto's violent end echoed that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prime minister who was deposed by a military dictator in 1977 and hanged two years later. Her two brothers were killed in murky circumstances in the following decades.
Bhutto was attacked as she left Liaqat Bagh, a historic public park in Rawalpindi where she addressed thousands of supporters at an election rally this afternoon.
Officials she was driving out of the park, standing though the sunroof of her bulletproof four wheel drive vehicle and waving to supporters, when the killer struck.
Several gunshots rang out and Bhutto crumpled into the car. Seconds later a giant blast rocked the vehicle, blasting it with shrapnel. Rescuers found Bhutto lying in pool of blood on the back seat.
Senior party official Amin Fahim, who had been sitting beside her, said he heard "between three and five shots".
Sherry Rehman, who was travelling in the vehicle behind, said: "She fell back into the vehicle and everything was splattered with blood. I don't even know if she made it alive to the hospital."
Some said Bhutto had been shot before the blast. Amir Qureshi, a bodyguard from Bhutto's youth wing who had been jogging alongside the vehicle, said he heard two volleys of gunshots.
She was shot first in the neck, then in the head, he said, speaking to the Guardian from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for leg wounds.
"This is a black day not only for Pakistan but also the rest of the world," he said.
There were chaotic scenes of anger and grief at the Rawalpindi hospital where an unconscious Bhutto received emergency treatment.
Thousands of supporters crushed through glass doors; some tried to break into the operating room. Outside some men wept and crumpled to the ground, others yelled "Musharraf is a murderer" or "Long Live Bhutto".
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, also recently returned from exile, rushed to the hospital where he sat by Bhutto's dead body.
"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said afterward, his eyes at times welling up with tears. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."
Earlier in the day a Sharif rally in Rawalpindi also came under fire from a gunman, killing at least four people and wounding several more. Musharraf's PML-Q party denied accusations that its supporters were responsible.
Sharif said elections may be postponed. "I think perhaps none of us is inclined to take up the elections. We'll have to sit down and take a very serious look the current situation," he told the BBC.
The killing pushes Pakistan into uncharted waters, calling into question Musharraf's ability to rein in the Islamist militants who threaten to upend his country's uncertain stability.
Even allies are in danger. Last weekend a suicide bomber targeted former the interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, inside a mosque north of Peshawar, killing 56 other people.
Late this evening Bhutto's body was moved to Chakala airbase, where it was due to be flown to her home province of Sindh, where the governor announced three days of mourning.
A tomb-like silence fell over much of Karachi, where residents stayed indoors. Elsewhere in the city, some rioters burned tyres and set a petrol station on fire.
Benazir Bhutto will be buried near her ancestral home in Larkana, inside a giant mausoleum built in recent years to house her father and two brothers, the other ghosts of Pakistan's most cursed political dynasty.»
(In «The Guardian»)
publicada por José às
11:44 da tarde
