Friday,
May 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Armitage, Pak discuss Kashmir
- Musharraf says terrorist camps will be gone, if any.
- Favours ‘minimum’ nuclear deterrent.
- Infiltration down from last year, claims Armitage.
- Denies US pressure on Pak, India
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Islamabad, May 8
President Pervez Musharraf today assured the USA that any terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) “would be gone tomorrow”, while claiming at the same time that there were no such camps. He said Pakistan does not want to become locked in a nuclear arms race with India, but it will stock enough weapons to maintain a ‘minimum’ deterrent.
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf (L) greets
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Islamabad
on Thursday.
— Reuters photo |
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who held a 90-minute meeting with Mr Musharraf, told reporters that the Pakistani President had given him “absolute assurance that there is nothing happening across the Line of Control”. Mr Armitage said Mr Musharraf told him that there were no militant training camps in PoK and “if there were camps they would be gone tomorrow”. The US Deputy Secretary, who will be visiting New Delhi tomorrow, said Washington was not carrying any proposal for resolution of the Kashmir issue and denied that it was exerting pressure on both India and Pakistan to resolve it. Expressing cautious optimism about the fresh peace initiatives by India and Pakistan, he said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made far-reaching statements in Srinagar which led to a nascent beginning of a dialogue after Pakistani Premier Mir Zafarullah Jamali spoke to him over phone a few days later. Mr Armitage, who also held talks with Mr Jamali, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and other senior officials, said that infiltration of militants across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir had come down compared to last year. “The infiltration and the cross border violence and the lethality are down from this time last year,” he said, adding but that does not “fill me with great enthusiasm as any suffering is a cause of concern for us all”. Mr Armitage, who is
accompanied by Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca, said considering the sensitivities between India and Pakistan, the two countries should first concentrate on political and economic confidence-building measures
(CBMs). “There have to be serious CBMs on political and economic issues” before the two countries which had “general confrontational stands” take up issues like arms control, he said adding “they can not be expected to take far reaching decisions on matters of arms control”. He denied the impression that the USA had pressured India and Pakistan into the peace process. “I want to dispell the notion that there is pressure from USA. It is not our stand to pressure Pakistan or India. If we can be helpful to begin dialogue, it will be helpful,” he said. Without going into the details of the talks he held with Pakistani leaders on Indo-Pak issues, Mr Armitage said “my discussions here would be faithfully carried to our Indian friends” for them to study and decide on their course of response. Besides Indo-Pak ties and the Kashmir problem, other issues that came up for discussion included situation in Afghanistan, fight against terrorism and US-Pak relations, official media reported. The US officials were visiting the region in the backdrop of the recent
announcement of a series of steps by India and Pakistan aimed at defusing tension between them. Both the countries have announced their intention to restore full diplomatic relations and India has already asked Pakistan to approve the name of its new High Commissioner to Islamabad. Even as Mr Armitage began his talks in Islamabad, a 13-member Pakistan parliamentary delegation walked across the Wagah check post into India as part of an un-official peace initiative. In reply to a question, Mr Armitage said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made a “far-reaching statement in Srinagar. His motives are his own, I have no doubt on his motives. He (Vajpayee) himself is a man of peace and he wants to have peace for India and Pakistan.” Asked whether the USA had any concrete proposal on resolving the Kashmir issue, Armitage, said “the USA is not making any proposal in this regard”. Maintaining that he could not blame either India or Pakistan for the Kashmir problem as it was brought about by 50 years of history, Mr Armitage said it was for the parties involved to decide whether it was core issue between them.
Agencies
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