Rendezvous With Destiny

PRESIDENT REAGAN APPARENTLY enjoyed his trip to Latin America--and especially his chance to embrace the man responsible for the slaughter of thousands in Guatemala--so much that he decided to bring a bit of the road show back to Washington. This week, Reagan met with the visiting President of Pakistan, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, once more making it clear that his Administration will tolerate even the most heinous affront to human rights from foreign governments as long as they line up on the Right side of the political spectrum.

Zia has maintained his power in Pakistan through a program of violence and intimidation which he initiated five years ago with his military takeover of his benefactor Prime Minister Zulitgar Ali Bhutto. Many of his political opponents and critics reportedly have been jailed and tortured without trial or charges, while others have simply disappeared. Last year Zia fired 19 Supreme Court and provisional high court judges after they refused to endorse Zia's "constitutional order." This so-called order outlaws all rival political parties and enables the President to amend the Pakistani constitution at will. Yet in light of this record, Zia insists--with a straight face, no less--that he is still dedicated to his five-year-old pledge of restoring a democratic government. In a recent interview with the Christian Science Monitor. Zia explains that he's still "looking for a time which is conducive for holding peaceful elections."

Despite Zia's actual rule by terror instead of mandate, Reagan still reaffirms U.S. support for his regime in the form of 40 F16 jets and $3.2 billion in military aid over the next six years. Reagan's recent rendezvous with the Pakistani dictator explicitly reveals his eagerness to distort and ignore reality in order to preserve a clicked belief that all anti-Communist leaders share the same values as the United States. For example, only a day before Zin's visit, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reviewed evidence indicating that Pakistan has continued its efforts to develop nuclear weapons for nuclear energy and enriching facilities. Instead of recognizing the threat such a policy poses to American efforts to check nuclear proliferation, the Administration has reduced the complex nuclear question to a deceptively simple black and white one. Referring to Zia's verbal denial of interest in developing his country's nuclear weapons capability, one Administration official announced. "We accept that the President of Pakistan is telling us the truth."

The over-simplification and self-deception used by the Administration to defend the likes of Zia obscures some technical issues like nuclear arms development. But on the question of human rights, only the truth--and with it our guilt--can prevail. In Pakistan, General Zia's martial law (Regulation 53) declares the death sentence for "any offense liable to cause insecurity, fear, or despondency amongst the public," and presumes the accused guilty until proven innocent in front of a military court. Yet in the end, America's military and economic support for such human rights violators will haunt us long after the political motives of the day have been forgotten.