Date & Time Dsk Vers Slug Status Dur'n St Jan 21 13:50 C* PARTITION: Tape 84 -:OK 16:59 R* By; *** Mod; 255 Lang; Tape 84 Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, interviewed in exile at her flat in London SW7 by AW - 20/1/00 (recorded on minidisc: cassette copy is listening copy) AW: To what extent do you think that all the problems besettingS Asia ... are traceable back to the partition settlement 53 years ago? BB: Two of the most important issues, the issues of proliferation and the issue of the Kaskmir issus or conflict, is directly related to the partition. The partn was savage, the partn left unresolved the K issue, the unresolved K issue led to a massiave arms race in the sub-con, the entire regional itn has been held hostage to the K issue. AW: Yet Pak got wha it wanted. It got an independent state based basically on religion, which was probably more than Jinnah ever expecte to get. Now, having achieved that, Pak is still blaming the settlenment for the problems it's facing today. BB: Well, that's an interesting way of putting it. Whether Pak sd have been satisifed that a state had been created in the name of religion is one way of putting it. I see it differently. Partition was seen by the founder of the co as a way by which the Hindus and the Muslims of the sub con cd live in peaceful co-existence. But because there was the matter of the unfinished business of partition, that is the reolution of the K dispute, the promise of living in harmony and brotherhood never was fuflilled. And I think it is imp for us now to go back to the founding principles of Pak and realise that somewhere down the line we have strayed in failing to build the relationship between the two countries. AW: Talking about K, have you ever been able to go to the Kashmir valley? BB: I've never been able to go to Kashmir. I would love to go. I have hardly been able to go to India. I've only been twice. Once when my father was PM of the co, and once when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. The aunt after whom I'm named is buried in India. My maternal grandmother is buried in Ind. I have relatives there, but like many other Pakistanis, I cannot cross the borders. That is one of the reasons why now, I'm thinking, and my party's thinking of how we can change this. We do have a dispute over K, but we think the time has come to have open borders, open exchanges, to free our people. Maybe if we free our people, something better can be achieved than all the govts of the past. AW: This is not a policy which you pursued when you were in power. BB: You'r right, it's not a policy I pursue when I was in power and I regret the lost opportunity. Not for myself, because there was many other things I was able to do for the people of Pak. I