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CNN Live At Daybreak

Target: Terrorism: Pakistani Government Confirming It's Seen Enough Evidence to Indict Osama Bin Laden

Aired October 04, 2001 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We are back now to talk more about the news this morning that the Pakistani government is confirming it has seen enough evidence to indict Osama bin Laden. I am back with Shamshad Ahmad, who is the Pakistan ambassador to the U.N. with more reaction to that. You say the media is focusing too much on this diplomatic relations that Pakistan has with the Taliban.

So you are telling me it's no big deal if Pakistan tells me later today it is going to cut off relations with the Taliban?

SHAMSHAD AHMAD, PAKISTAN AMB. TO U.N.: Yes. I think it is not a big deal in the sense that the compliance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, we have scaled down the size and strength of our embassy in Kabul, and after the 11th of September incident, we have withdrawn all of our personnel from Kabul. So (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the strength of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad has been reduced many fold. And the maintenance of diplomatic relations is only a cosmetic aspect.

And if the world community feels so strongly, we will obviously abide by the wishes of the world community, because we are part of the international consensus and coalition in coping with the current crisis, and if our closure of diplomatic relations with Afghanistan serves the cause of resolving the crises, we will obviously be in the forefront of that.

ZAHN: So essentially, what are you saying, is there is no contradiction is that Pakistan continues to talk with the Taliban at a time it has pledged cooperation with the United States. Can you guarantee this morning that there are no arms going through the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan?

AHMAD: Actually, this has been a thing we have been hearing for a long time. In fact, if there has been a flow of arms, it has been in the other direction. It has been from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Our society was totally arms-free until the Afghan War was started in 1979 by the free world, because Afghanistan was chosen as a battleground for the last battle of the Cold War. And so, there have been absolutely no arms from Afghanistan going into Afghanistan, but on the contrary, we have been victims of receiving mostly Russian arms which have been stockpiled in Afghanistan, and they are finding their way to Pakistan. So most of our socioeconomic problems are a result of the aftermath that we have been facing for the past two decades resulting from the Afghan War, where the free world fought to humiliate and to defeat the evil Soviet empire, which eventually collapsed, and after which, the Berlin Wall collapsed, and after which we saw a new East Europe emerging, and today, the free world would not have been the same if that last battle, indecisive battle of the Cold War had not been fought in Afghanistan by the Afghan people for the sake of the free world, and Pakistan obviously had been frontline state in that war.

ZAHN: There are factions within your country that do not support your government's position to join the U.S. in some sort of alliance. How vulnerable is your president politically?

AHMAD: Well, first of all, let me make it clear that extremists elements are in every society. They are even in United States. You have radicals here. After all, there are people who are vehemently opposed to government policies, and sometimes acts of madness are also committed by those elements. So these dissidents are people with different convictions, different philosophies in every society, so we do have a small minority of people, and this was admitted by our president, President Musharraf, the other day, when he addressed the nation, when he talked the nation into confidence, and subsequently when he appeared on CNN, Christiane Amanpour. So he did emphasize that yes, there is a small minority in Pakistan, but the overwhelming majority of the people of Pakistan support the decision we have taken being on the side of what is right and what is just.

ZAHN: Ambassador Ahmad, thank you for hanging around. Sorry for making you wait for a half hour to get back to the second part of this.

AHMAD: Thank you.

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