ISLAMABAD: Heraldo Munoz, the head of the UN inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said Friday that his team’s mandate was to gather relevant information regarding the circumstances leading to her murder and it would not seek to name culprits, lowering expectations from the outset.
The three-member team arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for its first visit as part of a probe into the circumstances surrounding the attack that killed Bhutto after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi city on Dec. 27, 2007.
Conspiracy theories abound over who was behind the assassination, but Munoz, sought to play down expectations about what it would ultimately publish in its findings at the end of December.
“If you think that there will be smoking guns in terms of names, our report is not that,” Munoz told reporters in the Pakistani capital.
“We will try to establish the truth.... anything else is beyond our realm,” he said.
Any criminal investigation will be up to Pakistani authorities, but the commission’s findings will hopefully be able to complement the government’s efforts, Munoz said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set up the commission at the request of the coalition government, led by Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
The previous government, headed by allies of former President and army chief Pervez Musharraf, blamed Pakistani Taleban leader and Al-Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud for Bhutto’s slaying.
Munoz and his team on Thursday met with Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is now Pakistan’s president after leading the PPP to victory in elections in early 2008.
Speculation lingers that Bhutto was the victim of a plot by allies of Musharraf, who did not want her to come to power.
Munoz did not rule out attempting to interview Musharraf, but stressed that any cooperation with his team would be voluntary.
“He ... is a prominent figure of recent Pakistani history, and he would probably have important things to say,” Munoz said.
The commission on Friday also visited the site of the gun and suicide attack.
Munoz said new leads obtained by the Pakistani authorities would help in their inquiries and appealed for help from the general public.
The UN official said an e-mail address and telephone number would be provided should anyone wish to come forward and provide information.
“We cannot be fully successful without the help of the people of Pakistan... We are approaching the work in a transparent and open-minded manner to clearly establish the truth surrounding this tragedy,” said Munoz.
— With input from agencies
