UN probe into Benazir Bhutto's death 'unlikely'
Agence France-Presse
January 02, 2008 
The Daily Telegraph
Original Source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22997379-5001028,00.html
FRENCH Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said today he saw little prospect of a United Nations investigation into Benazir Bhutto's killing.
Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party had called for an investigation similar to that into the death in 2005 of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, where an international court in The Hague will try suspects. 

Pakistan has rejected calls for an international investigation. 

The first high-ranking overseas government figure to visit Islamabad since the gun and bomb attacks that claimed the life of the country's opposition leader, Mr Kouchner said he was speaking formally on behalf of the 27-member European Union. 

President Nicolas Sarkozy's envoy said European efforts would, rather, be focused on leading the fight against extremism. 

If you are talking about a group of international experts, why not, we will be happy to contribute, Mr Kouchner said at the start of a two-day visit to Pakistan. 

If, though, you're asking for an international investigation in the UN sense of the term, there are conditions which, unfortunately, are not so easy to fulfill. 

`An international commission is one thing, a UN commission is quite another - because that pre-supposes the involvement of a third-party (country). 

In the case of Hariri, the presumption was that another country was implicated, whereas here, we can't say that with any certainty. 

As a consequence, unless UN rules were suddenly re-written, it would appear to me to be difficult. 

Islamabad has said that local agents linked to al-Qaeda were behind the assassination. 

Ms Bhutto's party accuses the government of covering up the events surrounding her death. 

Mr Kouchner said his visit came specifically at the behest of Slovenia, which formally assumed the EU presidency today. 

(Bhutto) was assassinated by an extremism that we, France and the European Union, have decided to fight, he said. 

It would not be surprising if it was Islamist terrorism since I know that it makes its bed in the tribal zone of Pakistan. 

Officials have postponed key general elections set for early January following Ms Bhutto's death which sparked days of unrest.