M A I N   N E W S

Hurriyat’s no to US suggestion
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 13 — The Hurriyat Conference has rejected a suggestion made by a team of American Embassy officials for accepting the offer for talks from the Government of India.

Informed sources said that the American Embassy team, led by the Second Secretary, Mr Donald Lu, had met the Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, JKLF Chief, Mohammad Yasin Malik, and the chief of the Democratic Freedom Party, Shabir Ahmed Shah, in Srinagar separately. The US Embassy team had conveyed to these leaders that it was in the interest of peace in the subcontinent that they should accept the Government of India’s offer for holding talks.

Geelani is said to have informed the American Embassy team that bilateral talks in the past had proved a meaningless exercise as far as the resolution of the Kashmir dispute was concerned. He is stated to have referred to the series of Indo-Pak talks held in the past and the 1975 Indira-Sheikh Accord which failed to settle the dispute.

Geelani has suggested to the US Embassy team that if it was interested in seeing the talks prove fruitful, Pakistan should also be involved in the parleys. The US team members are said to have suggested to Geelani and the others that Pakistan could be involved at a later stage once the Hurriyat-Government talks made some headway. This was not accepted by Geelani.

Informed sources said that Mohd Yasin Malik insisted that no preconditions should be laid by the Government for talks. In this connection, he drew the attention of the US officials to the recent statement of the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, in the Rajya Sabha in which he had said that talks would have to be held within the framework of the Constitution of India.

Shabir Ahmed Shah, who no longer is a member of the Hurriyat Conference, is stated to have told the US officials that the Government of India had not needed his request, made two years ago, that he should be allowed to act as a bridge between India and Pakistan. He too favoured tripartite talks.

In the meantime, the Executive Committee of the Hurriyat Conference, which met in Srinagar recently, decided to adopt a wait and watch policy. Though the majority of the members supported tripartite talks it decided to make no firm commitment till the Government of India sent a formal invitation for offer for talks.

Some of the Hurriyat Conference leaders wanted the party to adopt a cautious approach because there was no visible improvement in the security-related matters. They informed the Executive Committee that militants were not prepared to accept any ceasefire offer nor were they interested in talks if Pakistan was not involved in them. This was evident from a threat dished out recently to Azam Inquilabi, chief of Mahazi Azadi, in which he was warned of dire consequences for suggesting ceasefire on both sides. The threat had been issued by the Hizbul Mujahideen, saying that “jehad” and not talks could solve the Kashmir dispute.