The husband of slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto says his wife's murder has exposed the risks of traditional political campaigning in his country. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated Dec. 27 as she left a political rally. There are no real alternatives in Pakistan to such mass rallies.
被刺杀的巴基斯坦反对党领导人布托的丈夫表示，他妻子的遇刺暴露了参加巴基斯坦传统的政治竞选活动的危险。布托女士在12月27号离开一个政治集会时遇刺身亡。但是，巴基斯坦没有其他可以真正代替公众集会的竞选方式。
In a telephone interview with VOA News, Asif Zardari said candidates in Pakistan will have to find new ways of campaigning that will not put their lives in jeopardy.
布托的丈夫扎尔达里在接受美国之音电话采访时说，巴基斯坦的政治候选人必须寻找新的竞选方式才不至于让他们的生命处于危险的境地。
"In our present time we have to change our way of electioning," said Asif Zardari. "We have to find ways and means of securing ourselves better. And that is the demand of the time, the demand of the situation because the present existing government has been in power for the past seven to eight years and they are totally incompetent. They've managed to worsen the situation rather than save it."
扎尔达里说：“我们现在不得不改变我们的选举方式。我们不得不寻找更好的自我保护方式。时代和局势都要求我们这么做，因为现在的政府在过去的7、8年里一直掌握着政权，这是个完全不能胜任的政府。这个政府不是在拯救巴基斯坦，而是使局势变得更糟。”
Benazir Bhutto was campaigning for parliamentary elections when she was murdered as she left a mass political rally in Rawalpindi. Her husband has now taken over day-to-day running of the opposition Pakistan Peoples' Party.
布托在离开拉瓦尔品第的一个政治集会时被人刺杀，当时她正在参加议会选举的竞选活动。她的丈夫现在取代布托管理反对党--巴基斯坦人民党的日常工作。
Zardari says his wife repeatedly asked the government of President Pervez Musharraf for increased security, especially after an earlier attempt on her life when she returned to Pakistan in October. He says that had the requests been heeded, she would still be alive.
扎尔达里说，他的妻子曾多次要求巴基斯坦总统穆沙拉夫增加保安，尤其是在她10月份返回巴基斯坦时有人对她暗杀未遂之后。他说，如果这些要求得到重视的话，布托就不会死。
"There is no reason we could not have saved her if we had the security measures in place, if we had the equipment we asked for, had the relevant permissions to get important advisors on security planning who would advise us on security planning," he said. "Because today's world has become very dangerous we need experts to solve and to assist and to help security. But all that we were denied. I'm 100 percent sure that if we were given that assistance she would be with us today and not with God."
扎尔达里说：“如果我们有适当的安全措施、获得我们所要求的设备，相关部门允许我们得到重要的安全计划顾问，由他们给我们提供安全计划的建议，我们没有理由救不了布托。由于当今世界变得非常危险，我们需要专家解决安全问题，并在这方面协助我们。但是，我们所有的要求都被拒绝了。我可以百分之百地确定，如果我们得到了帮助，今天布托应当还与我们在一起，而不是和上帝在一起。”
Mass rallies and processions are the traditional modes of campaigning in Pakistan. In the wake of the Bhutto assassination, the government has urged opposition parties to refrain from such rallies ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 18.
公众集会和游行是巴基斯坦的传统竞选方式。由于布托被刺，巴基斯坦政府敦促反对党避免在议会选举之前举行这类集会。巴基斯坦议会选举定于2月18号举行。
But, despite the security risks of such events, candidates have no real alternative. Political advertising on radio and television is virtually nonexistent in Pakistan, especially, analysts say, because of government curbs on broadcast media.
但是，尽管举行这类集会有危险，各政党的候选人没有真正的替代方式。分析人士说，由于巴基斯坦政府限制着广播媒体，巴基斯坦的广播和电视上没有政治竞选广告。
Christine Fair, a Pakistan affairs analyst at the Rand Corporation, says the Musharraf government uses its control over security resources as a political tool.
兰德公司的巴基斯坦事务分析家费尔说，穆沙拉夫领导的巴基斯坦政府把它对安全资源的掌控当成一种政治手段。
"If the state really wanted to secure these rallies, they could do a better job," said Christine Fair. "I'm not saying they would be able to prevent violence altogether. But let's also be very clear. There's a degree to which the state uses security provisions selectively to continue to intimidate. Now I was not, as you know, a fan of Ms. Bhutto. But I did hear, and was appalled to hear, that sometimes they would just pull her security away to remind her that she is safe at the behest of the state."
费尔说：“如果巴基斯坦政府真想确保这些集会安全的话，他们可以在这方面做得更好一些。我并不是说他们能够防止所有的暴力发生。但是我们必须清楚的是，一个国家选择性地使用保安力量持续进行威胁应当有个限度。我并不是布托女士的追随者，但是，我非常惊讶地得知，巴基斯坦政府有时候撤去对布托的安全保护，以提醒她在政府的指挥下她是安全的。”
Fair says that the religious parties have a political forum that secular parties do not have.
In Pakistan I don't really see alternatives [to rallies]," she said. "Now the Islamists actually have alternatives, and they're called mosques and madrassas [schools]. So they're able to mobilize one vote at a time.
Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan told the government-run Associated Press of Pakistan, which is not affiliated with the worldwide Associated Press news agency, that Benazir Bhutto was given an unprecedented level of security for a politician. He added that Zardari is not under the same threat as his wife and that the government could not give him the same amount of security.
巴基斯坦临时政府的内政部长纳瓦兹对巴基斯坦国营的巴基斯坦联合通讯社说，政府为布托提供了政界人士从来没享受过的高级别的安全保护。他还说，扎尔达里没有面临和他的妻子一样的威胁，因此巴基斯坦政府不能为他提供与布托同等的安全保护措施。 |