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Rumsfeld coming to defuse tension

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington May 30. The United States President, George Bush, today said the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf "must stop incursions across the Line of Control" and announced that he was sending his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to the Indian sub continent early next week.

Next week, the Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, will be travelling to India and Pakistan. The White House has said there will be no change in this part of the plan; and that the objective of both the Armitage and Rumsfeld missions is to reduce tensions in South Asia.

"...we're part of an international coalition applying pressure to both parties, particularly to President Musharraf.

He must stop the incursions across the Line of Control; he must do so. He said he would do so. We and others are making it clear to him that he must live up to his word,'' Mr. Bush said during a photo opportunity at a Cabinet Meeting at the White House.

He made it clear that it was impressed upon both India and Pakistan that war was not in their interests.

Asked if there were plans to evacuate American civilians and troops from India and Pakistan, he said, "...both Secretaries are analysing what it would take to protect American lives, if need be. Secondly, we are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests.''

Mr. Bush said the Al-Qaeda should not have derive any benefit from a conflict between India and Pakistan. "...they (Al-Qaeda) shouldn't think they're going to gain any advantage as a result of any conflict that may be — or talk of conflict between India and Pakistan — because we're still going to hunt them down. This is a long war.''

The Pentagon is convinced that the impact of the rising India-Pakistan tensions is already being felt as far as the hunt for the Al-Qaeda and top lieutanents of Osama bin Laden. The Defence Department is worried that Pakistan has shifted much of its troop concentration from its border with Afghanistan to the Kashmir areas. At the same time, there is the compelling argument here that much of the Al-Qaeda remnants, including perhaps Osama bin Laden, are in Pakistan.

The USA Today is reporting that a U.S. government team is in India to plan for the possible evacuation of troops and citizens from both India and Pakistan. There are an estimated 1000 U.S. forces in three bases in Pakistan and another 100 Commandos currently in a Joint Training Exercise with Indian forces in Agra. The report quotes a Pentagon official "close to war planners'' as saying that the presence of American troops in Pakistan and India might be deterring the rivals from launching a war.

Officials of the State Department and the U.S. Pacific Command have started drawing up evacuation plans for between 50,000 to 60,000 American citizens — virtually all of them from India. An airlift of this magnitude "would dwarf the evacuation of Americans from Vietnam,'' the paper quotes a military official familiar with airlift capabilities as saying.

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