International

Kashmir may become another Palestine, warns Musharraf

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JUNE 24. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, has warned of "another Palestine in the making'' if the Kashmir dispute is not resolved, and said that he has taken the first step towards creating conditions for resolving the tangle by stopping infiltration across the Line of Control. He dismissed as "cosmetic'' the measures which India had taken recently to ease the tension.

In an interview to The Independent, Gen. Musharraf repeatedly claimed that "there is nothing happening across the Line of Control'' and made it clear that in return, he expected the world community to put pressure on India to move on the Kashmir issue. He said he favoured a peaceful resolution but "if the other side does not want to resolve it, then we are stuck again.''

``I keep telling the United States and everyone: we must understand the dangers of the region. These dangers can only be averted if we resolve the Kashmir dispute. We must do that. Otherwise, there is another Palestine in the making,'' he warned.

He denied that he had "sold out the Kashmiris'' under international pressure the way he had disowned the Taliban. "Absolutely not,'' he said, and insisted that the "cause of Kashmir must be resolved.'' He reiterated Pakistan's demand that the U.N. Security Council resolution relating to Kashmir must be implemented.

Gen. Musharraf claimed that he had the "assurance'' of world leaders that "we need to address the Kashmir dispute and move forward on it.'' And added: "So all I've done is that there is nothing happening across the Line of Control, and move forward towards its (Kashmir) resolution.'' He denied that he had acted under pressure from the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage.

``We had a congenial and good interaction where he understood exactly our point of view. No, there has been no threat whatsoever. There was no question of a threat,'' he said. He defended the reversal of policy towards the Taliban, saying it was in Pakistan's national interest. "Our national interest is with Afghanistan, not with the Taliban. We would like to have peace in Afghanistan, we would like to have stability and unity in Afghanistan, that is in our national interest,'' he added.

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