Washington, D.C. - U.S. Representative Allyson Schwartz joined 11 of her congressional colleagues in calling upon Secretary Rice to endorse an international investigation by the United Nations into the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The letter was signed by Reps. Allyson Schwartz, Steve Israel, Joseph Crowley, Ron Klein, Carolyn Maloney, James McGovern, Donald Payne, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Loretta Sanchez, Ron Kind, and Adam Smith.

The letter sent to Secretary Rice follows below.

December 31, 2007

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Madame Secretary:

We are deeply concerned with recent Administration statements with respect to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

It troubles us that the White House today said that the matter of the assassination of Ms. Bhutto is an internal matter for Pakistan.

However, that is certainly not the position of our government with respect to Lebanon and Syria conducting an internal investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

Furthermore, there are serious questions and contradictions emerging regarding the circumstances of Ms. Bhutto's death, including statements by doctors who examined her and videotape that clearly shows that she was shot by a bullet. These contradictions demonstrate thee need for a vigorous and independent international investigation into her cause of death.

With respect to the upcoming elections, the leaders of Pakistan's largest political parties have joined in calling for the elections to go forward as scheduled on January 8th. The White House has stated that the scheduling of the elections should be determined by the political parties, the largest of which have demanded that the elections go forth as planned. Yet the White House also said that if the election is postponed, it should be postponed to a date certain.
This is not the right message to send, as it is practically an open invitation to postpone those elections.

As you know, Congress has withheld $50 million in aid to Pakistan in this year's appropriations process. Without being satisfied that an investigation is truly impartial and independent, and with the belief that elections were postponed in order to further setback the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people, we will focus intently on the status of these funds already withheld and may seek additional restrictions in the future appropriations bills.

We urge you and President Bush to clearly call for elections to take place as scheduled, and to endorse an international investigation by the United Nations of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Our support for future aid to Pakistan is at stake over this issue.

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