By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : The UN cannot assist in investigating Benazir Bhutto’s assassination unless a request is made by the Pakistan government, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, rejecting a suggestion that the world body should act on the basis of a demand by her family.
Answering questions at his first press conference in the New Year at the UN headquarters here Monday, the secretary general said the UN has not yet received any request from the Pakistani government for help in the case and Britain’s Scotland Yard was already helping with the probe.
On demands for a UN probe from Bhutto’s family, he said: “I am not in a position to comment on a request at any private and personal level.”
He also declined to comment whether the UN should be the organisation to investigate such political assassinations.
Rejecting comparison with the probe the UN conducted into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the UN official pointed out that a formal request was made by the government concerned.
On setting up special tribunals for trying the suspects, the secretary-general said it was for the Security Council and the member states to decide. In Hariri’s case, he said, there was consensus among the Council members on this.
Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and her husband Asif Ali Zardari have been demanding a UN probe into the Dec 27 killing of the former premier on the ground that the Pervez Musharraf government’s investigations will not be fair.