France, EU offer Pakistan help in Benazir probe

France and the European Union on Wednesday offered Pakistan help in investigating the martyrdom of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

Kouchner, the first high-ranking foreign official to visit Pakistan since Benazir was martyred at election rally last week, met President Pervez Musharraf to offer the help of France and the 27-nation EU bloc.

Pakistani government officials have rejected calls for an international investigation into her martyrdom but have left the door open for assistance conducted from outside the country.

“Today we proposed to President Musharraf to provide French or European experts,” he said after meeting the president in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where Benazir was martyred in a gun and suicide attack.

“Mr Musharraf responded that the idea was interesting,” Kouchner said.

The minister also delivered a letter from French President Nicolas Sarkozy which he said expressed his country’s solidarity with Pakistan in the wake of the “horrible crime”.

He said the letter also underlined Sarkozy’s “support for what must be democratic efforts in the continuation of the election process as well as the fight against terrorism and extremism”.

An AFP reporter who was present said Musharraf quickly read the letter and told Kouchner: “I totally agree with this.”

The minister was to meet officials from Benazir’s party later in the day and pay his respects at the site where she was killed last Thursday.