MUSHARRAF ASSURES NEGROPONTE THAT FIGHT AGAINST

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 002793 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2017 TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV PK AF SUBJECT: MUSHARRAF ASSURES NEGROPONTE THAT FIGHT AGAINST TERROR, EXTREMISM ARE TOP PRIORITIES REF: ISLAMABAD 2220 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Peter Bodde, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) During a 90-minute cordial meeting with Deputy Secretary Negroponte, Assistant Secretary for South and SIPDIS Central Asian Affairs Boucher, and the Charge d'Affaires, President Musharraf emphasized that Al Qaeda and extremism are Pakistan's greatest threat. The National Security Council is working on a military, political, and development strategy to go after Al Qaeda and the Taliban. End Summary. -------------- -------------- Securing the Pak-Afghan Border and Eliminating Extremism -------------- -------------- ¶2. (S-NF) Musharraf said that Pakistan's Al Qaeda network consists mostly of Uzbeks and Arabs concentrated in North and South Waziristan, mostly in Mir Ali and Bajaur Agency. The National Security Council has tasked the Vice Chief of Army Staff to head a military task force to draw up a battle plan to deal with them over the next few weeks. Musharraf admitted that the September 2006 North Waziristan Agreement has not been as successful as he had hoped in curbing cross-border movement and eliminating militants' ability to use the area as a safehaven, but said that it was no reason to abandon it altogether. For the agreement to succeed, Musharraf said, the government first had to make the parties abide by their commitments. ¶3. (C) Musharraf stated that Pakistan took its responsibilities for maintaining security along the Pak-Afghan border seriously. Concrete steps to halt cross-border movement and decrease militants' ability to use Pakistani territory as sanctuary include fencing portions of the border, reinforcing border troops, and issuing curfews. Musharraf emphasized, however, that the Taliban's war in Afghanistan is primarily an Afghan issue, so Pakistan should not be blamed for everything that goes wrong in Afghanistan. Even in the Balochistan capital of Quetta, Musharraf said, the security threat consists of Afghan Pashtuns taking shelter in refugee camps. This is one more reason why the refugee camps need to be closed (reftel). Musharraf asked for U.S. assistance in convincing Afghan President Karzai to hand over Brahamdagh Bugti (grandson and heir apparent of �00A;Nawab Bugti, killed by Pak security forces in September 2006) and Baloch Marri (alleged head of the Balochistan Liberation Army). ¶4. (C) Musharraf expressed his gratitude for U.S. assistance to the Frontier Corps and emphasized the importance of our future support. Pakistan wholeheartedly supports increasing Frontier Corps capabilities to better protect the Pak-Afghan border, and the government places such a high priority on improving the Frontier Corps that they are dedicating their own budget resources to the effort and are not waiting for U.S. funding to come through. The government is increasing the number of police in border areas by 15,000; training 27,000 tribal police (levies) and hereditary security forces (khasadars) to improve their skills; re-deploying Frontier Constabulary troops to the border areas; and adding 12 more Frontier Corps wings. The military will start providing ISLAMABAD 00002793 002 OF 002 Frontier Corps troops with tanks, vehicles, better weapons, and army-sponsored training, Musharraf said. ¶5. (S) Musharraf praised the level of U.S.-Pakistan intelligence cooperation. -------------- The Development Angle -------------- ¶6. (C) To win the fight against extremism, Musharraf said, it is important to work with the local population and include political and development aspects in a larger strategy to change the security environment in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The spread of extremism into settled areas is a worrisome trend, he said, but ordinary people support the government - they do not like the extremists who are burning down their CD shops and intimidating them. ¶7. (C) On the development front, Musharraf said that Pakistan is putting 15 billion rupees (approximately 825 million U.S. dollars) into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. "We have to move forward," Musharraf said, but the military cannot take the lead in implementing aid; they can only play a supporting role. Musharraf also thanked Negroponte for U.S. development assistance. -------------- For Political Progress, Moderate Forces Should Come Together -------------- ¶8. (C) Musharraf said that moderate forces should come together to triumph over extremism. He complained, however, that political parties and the national assembly did not want to deal with any real problems. Instead, he said, he needs to fix problems himself and deal with the political fallout when he is not successful. Musharraf reiterated the constitutionality of his continuation in uniform and said that both the uniform issue and the upcoming elections would be held in accordance with the constitution. It would extra-constitutional to be re-elected by new assemblies, Musharraf said, and what is really necessary is a broad base of moderate political support. Musharraf made no specific commitment about when he would remove his uniform. ¶9. (C) Musharraf assured Negroponte that he would abide by the Supreme Court's decision on the suspended Chief Justice's petition regarding the unconstitutionality of the presidential reference against him. BODDE