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July 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Summit betrayed us: PoK groups UK media plays up failure Militants vow struggle after talks failure
USA declines to comment China not to harm Russia’s interests: Jiang
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| LTTE rebels enter Colombo Colombo, July 17 The Tamil Tiger rebels have sent suicide bombers to the Sri Lankan capital in an attempt to assassinate political leaders amid the current political instability, the government said today. Pilot killed as Russian jet crashes
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Summit betrayed us: PoK groups London, July 17 “The Pakistani side conveniently bypassed our struggle and the Indians failed to bring it up either,” the leader of a prominent Kashmiri group told IANS on telephone from Pakistan on Tuesday. He said he did not want to be identified after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf ordered a crackdown on a number of Kashmiri groups struggling for rights within Pakistan. The leaders of many such groups were arrested in Rawalpindi earlier this year when they took out a procession to hand over a charter of demands to the U.N. office. The crackdown led to protests by Kashmiri groups within Pakistan and outside. In Britain leaders of international sections of these groups picketed the Pakistani High Commission twice in protest. The demonstrations followed the arrest of 14 pro-independence leaders in Rawalpindi on February 12. The arrested leaders include Shaukat Maqbool Butt, president of the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front (JKNLF) and the son of Maqbool Butt who was hanged in an Indian prison in 1985. The struggle of these people was “completely ignored” during the Agra summit, the Kashmiri leader from Pakistan said. “Our struggle has grown over the years and we are now fighting from a common platform,” the leader said. Several of these Kashmiri groups have formed the All Parties National Alliance (APNA) to fight for the rights of Kashmiris on the Pakistan side. “In occupied Kashmir a Kashmiri cannot fight an election without swearing allegiance to Pakistan,” the leader said. “And nobody is raising a voice over the state of 1.5 million people in 28,000 square miles area of Gilgit and Baltistan,” he said. In this area there have not even been “token elections” in the last 53 years, he said. This denial of even basic rights makes a complete mockery of Pakistan’s demand for self-determination in Kashmir on the Indian side,” he said. “It suits Pakistan to crush us but why didn’t India raise this issue,” he said. The main newspaper in Gilgit K2 has been closed down by the Pakistani authorities, the leader said. Journalists were detained and public protests were banned. But little attention was paid even by the media to the suppression of basic rights in the Pakistani side of Kashmir, he said. The concerns within occupied Kashmir were voiced by demonstrators in London earlier. “Kashmir is not Pakistani property,” the demonstrators shouted outside the Pakistani High Commission. Some placards there read: “What right have you got over Mirpur”, “Give people of Gilgit and Baltistan their civil and democratic rights,” “Release APNA detainees now,” “Kashmir is for Kashmiris” and “Mirpuris are not your slaves.” A memorandum handed over to the Pakistani High Commission said: “This blatant disregard for and suppression of the basic human rights of the citizens of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, including Gilgit and Baltistan, stands in marked contrast to the claims of your administration for a durable political solution of the Kashmir issue.”
IANS |
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UK media plays up failure London, July 17 Reporting on the collapse of the summit, The Guardian said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had planned to present a nine-point declaration late last night but after a day of tension and bitterness they could not agree on the words. “It was insistence on the part of India to include the words cross-border terrorism and objections by the Home Minister L.K. Advani which prompted the collapse,” it said. The report quoted Pakistan’s chief spokesman Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi as saying “it appears there is an invisible hand which is creating obstructions repeatedly.” “The joint declaration had been approved by the President and the Prime Minister. The two Foreign Ministers had approved it. But when they came back from Indian officials, there were changes,” he said. ‘The Times’ daily reported that when the two leaders entered their fourth round of direct talks, the sides were close to agreeing a settlement on Kashmir that would have paved the way for the normalisation of relations between the two countries. Problems are thought to have arisen when India objected to including the word “settlement” without getting a commitment to end violence from Pakistan. The final outcome of the talks was expected to include progress towards annual summits and biannual meetings of the countries’ Foreign Ministers, at which peace and security, confidence building measures, Kashmir and narcotics and terrorism would feature, the report said. The Daily Telegraph in its editorial said the first Indo-Pakistan summit in more than two years lasted longer than expected, raising hopes that the parties would conclude last night with a joint declaration on future bilateral relations. “In the event, they could not agree on the wording and President Musharraf left the talks with little to show for his visit,” the editorial commented. “Mr Vajpayee wanted a commitment by his guest to stop terrorism across the border between Pakistan and Kashmir. General Musharraf enquired in return a pledge by his host that the future of the state be settled according to the will of the Kashmiri people. “To accept the first without agreement on the second was for the President to skirt the problem. For the Prime Minister, to cede on the second was tantamount to accepting the plebiscite for which the UN called more than 50 years ago.
PTI |
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Militants vow struggle after talks failure Islamabad, July 16 Sayed Salahuddin, supreme commander of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen group, said the Kashmiris were now convinced that the path to the settlement of the Kashmir issue was through military action. “Our armed struggle will continue as long as Indian forces are in Kashmir,” he said, blaming India for what he described as the failure of talks between Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Agra yesterday. “What happened was not unexpected...India has shown its stubbornness for the past 53 years and hardliners prevented any deal yesterday,” Salahuddin added. Another Kashmiri militant group, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, said the Himalayan territory would now only be “liberated” through a jihad (holy war). “It should be evident to the international community that India is not sincere in a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue,” a statement by the group said. “Now Kashmir issue can only be resolved through jihad,” the statement, quoting a spokesman of the militant group, added. The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen spokesman accused India of trying to use the talks as a ‘’ploy’’ to get the militants to surrender and end their struggle in Kashmir. “Therefore, the possibility of the success of the talks was turned into its failure because of its (India’s) stubbornness,” he said.
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USA declines to comment Washington, July 17 State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said, “We are not a party to these talks”. “We are not going to specify what the agenda should be,” he said while replying to a question on USA’s view whether Kashmir should be on the agenda of the summit. The spokesperson said while the USA was not involved in setting this (summit) up, it supported strongly the sustained engagement at a senior level between India and Pakistan. This is the best way to address long standing bilateral disputes and to make real progress towards a reduction of tensions and a resolution of their differences, Mr Boucher added.
UNI |
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China not to harm Russia’s interests: Jiang Moscow, July 17 Addressing students at Moscow University, Mr Jiang praised a friendship treaty with Russia signed the day before and assured Moscow it would bring no problems. The treaty, signed in the Kremlin by Mr Jiang and Russian President Vladimir Putin, aims to keep bilateral relations free of the twists and turns of interchanging alliances and rows of the past 40 years. The pact has been generally welcomed in both countries, but has still fuelled worries among influential nationalist groups in Russia, which fear Moscow’s economic weakness could expose its interests to Beijing’s ambitions in the new partnership. “China will consistently support Russia’s efforts to revive its economy and defend its rights and interests,” Mr Jiang said. “China will never do anything which could harm Russia’s interests.” Mr Jiang, who studied in Russia in the 1950s along with tens of thousands of Chinese specialists, delivered his speech without difficulty in Russian. In an unusual gesture for such addresses, it was attended by Mr Putin, who described it as “the first public presentation of the new friendship treaty.” The new treaty replaces a Soviet-era pact of 1949 — a failed plan of the Cold War Communist alliance. WASHINGTON: The USA has said it is important for Russia and China to have a good relationship with each other. According to a Novosti report, official spokesman for the US State Department Richard Boucher told journalists on Monday that the Bush administration was aware of Russia and China’s effort to work out a friendship treaty, which was signed during Chinese leader Jiang Zemin’s Moscow visit. The US appreciates the fact that the treaty deals with “friendship, not alliance”. “It does not imply joint defence or anything of the sort,” pointed out the spokesman. Mr Boucher added that the USA thinks it was necessary to maintain a friendly relationship with both Russia and China. UNI,
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LTTE rebels enter Colombo Colombo, July 17 The government’s Special Media Information Centre said the separatist LTTE guerrillas had already infiltrated into Colombo in readiness to carry out suicide attacks. “Suicide bombers with instructions to assassinate political leaders and military commanders have been sent to Colombo and suburbs to take advantage of the present political situation,” the centre said. It said the guerrillas were trying to capitalise on the political crisis, but gave no details of how the authorities uncovered the LTTE plan to carry out their trade-mark suicide bombings. The government statement came two days before opposition parties were due to bring large numbers of supporters to Colombo to pressure the government to step down after losing its parliamentary majority on June 20. Last week President Chandrika Kumaratunga shut down Parliament for two months in an apparent bid to stave off a defeat of her minority government in a no-confidence vote. The Opposition has accused Ms Kumaratunga of moving towards a dictatorship and agreed to impeach her after legislators were blocked from entering the Parliament building yesterday. Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who defied the suspension of the Assembly by leading MPs into the barricaded Parliament building, said he expected the impeachment to be ready in two weeks.
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Pilot killed as
Russian jet crashes Moscow, July 17 The twin-engine fighter crashed near Ostrov, 550 km north-west of Moscow, after it had performed figures and headed for landing, the Russian Navy said in an official statement. The pilot, Gen Timur Apakidze, was badly injured in the crash and died on the way to the hospital, emergency officials reported from the area. The number of crashes of Russian military aircraft has increased in recent years. Most of them have been blamed on inadequate maintenance and training stemming from lack of money.
AP |
41 DEAD IN CHINA BLAST SARAH BLAMES PHILIP FOR BREAKDOWN KURSK SALVAGE WORK UNDER WAY PHILIPPINE CARGO VESSEL SINKS CATHOLICS CLASH WITH PROTESTANT MEDAL OF HONOUR FOR WAR VETERAN WEDDING AT TITANIC’S
WRECKAGE 8 MILLION ‘BEEDIS’
SEIZED
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Ahmad Hamza, vice-chief of the pro-Pakistan Al Badr Mujahideen guerrilla group speaks to reporters in Rawalpindi
on Tuesday. Hamza said the failure of the Agra summit has proved the correctness of the Mujahideen's stance that India never
wanted to solve the (Kashmir) issue through negotiations. The resolution of this
was only possible through Jihad (holy war). —Reuters photo
