MEETING WITH EU AMBASSADORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 004995 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2017 TAGS: PGOV PK PREL SUBJECT: MEETING WITH EU AMBASSADORS REF: ISLAMABAD 4992 ISLAMABAD 00004995 001.6 OF 002 Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Ambassador met with several EU ambassadors November 22 to brief them on the Deputy Secretary's recent visit and encourage their nations' continued support for election observer missions. See reftel requesting demarche in Brussels. The group agreed on goals of: (1) on-time elections; (2) Musharraf's resignation as Chief of Army Staff before taking the presidential oath of office; and (3) lifting of the state of emergency as soon as possible. End summary. ¶2. (C) The Ambassador met November 22 with her counterparts from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the U.K., as well as the charge d'affaires from Germany. Spanish Ambassador Jose Maria Robles-Fraga requested the meeting in light of the Deputy Secretary's November 16-18 visit and subsequent meetings with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto by the Ambassador and British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley. ¶3. (C) Ambassador briefed on the Deputy Secretary's message that the U.S. did not believe credible elections could be held under a state of emergency and that detainees should be released and media restrictions lifted. Portuguese Ambassador Antonio Jose da Camara Ramalho Ortigao asked why the USG was not insisting on the reinstatement of the judiciary. Ambassador, with some concurrence in the group, noted that reinstatement of the justices, particularly of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, would be rejected by President Musharraf and that it would seriously detract from free elections and getting the state of emergency lifted. French Ambassador Regis de Belenet cautioned that Chaudhry's character had been called into question, including by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan leader Asma Jahangir. British High Commissioner Brinkley added: "We should not waste our efforts trying to restore the judiciary." ¶4. (C) The Ambassador used this meeting to urge the EU countries to avoid "pre-emptive withdrawal" from elections monitoring and pro-democracy initiatives. She noted that the European Commission appeared to be threatening to cancel its observer mission to Pakistan's January 8 parliamentary elections before the country's political parties had decided whether to participate (reftel). Brinkley said that during his November 21 meeting, Bhutto said she was still undecided on a boycott. Bhutto told Brinkley that only nine of her 27 Central Executive Committee members were supporting an election boycott, though she would make the final decision. For now, Bhutto was leaving her options open and her demands purposely hazy. ¶5. (C) Concerning the eventual return of the other former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Brinkley said that the EU had called for a "level playing field" for all political parties and leaders, "which includes Nawaz." Rumors of Sharif's imminent return was "just a hope" by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supporters, he believed, but so far there did not appear to be any concrete decision by Nawaz Sharif. ¶6. (C) Several of the ambassadors -- from the Netherlands, France, Portugal -- asked variations of the same rhetorical question: "How is it possible to send observers to an election under a state of emergency?" The Ambassador reiterated that such a decision could be made in the future, but, for now, the EC and bilateral missions should be encouraged to send more election experts, not fewer or none. The ambassadors agreed that, while Musharraf probably did not want international observers, he had publicly welcomed them and would now have to accommodate their requests for access and transparency even more than before. ¶7. (C) The Ambassador stressed the areas of international consensus: (1) on-time elections; (2) Musharraf's resignation as Chief of Army Staff before taking the presidential oath of office; and (3) lifting of the state of emergency as soon as possible. The Spanish ambassador agreed that reinstatement of former Chief Justice Chaudhry should not be the EC's priority, but pushing for the release of lawyers, human rights activists and political party workers should be. He ISLAMABAD 00004995 002.2 OF 002 then noted that there was talk of the lawyers' movement transforming itself into a political party in order to contest the parliamentary elections. ¶8. (C) Brinkley said that several detainees had been released by the GOP since the beginning of the week. He stated that several could claim to have been man-handled during their arrests, but that there had been no reports of mistreatment of these detainees while under arrest. Often, as with the recent case of Karachi journalists, they had provoked police reaction. ¶9. (C) As he had in previous conversations with the Ambassador, Dutch envoy Cornelis Wilhelmus Andreae asked: "Is Musharraf still the right man to fight terrorism?" British High Commissioner Brinkley noted that there had not been a suicide bombing in Pakistan since November 3. Spanish Ambassador Robles-Fraga added that a recent article in a jihadi newspaper had called for support in the Swat region, and several would-be suicide bombers had heeded the call, according to his sources. ¶10. (C) Lastly, most ambassadors noted that, like it or not, they had already received instructions from their respective capitals to attend Musharraf's swearing-in ceremony as the civilian president. ¶11. (C) Comment: Reftel asks the Department to instruct the U.S. Mission to the EU to urge the EC against canceling its planned observer mission prematurely. End comment. PATTERSON