The Hindu : Terrorist violence still taking place: Powell

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 27, 2002

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International

Terrorist violence still taking place: Powell

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JULY 26. The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that while there was "some reduction'' in infiltrations across the Line of Control, terrorist violence was still taking place. And, one of the objectives of his visit to the sub-continent was to see whether any measures could be taken to reduce the violence or the potential for it.

"There has been some reduction in infiltrations across the Line of Control but it is still unfortunately the case that there is violence. There is terrorist violence that takes place,'' Gen. Powell said in response to a question after his meeting with the Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah.

"And in my conversations with the Indians and the Pakistanis, I will see if there are any other actions that can be taken to reduce the level of violence or the potential for violence, and I am sure we will have discussions on the possibility of a dialogue at some point in the future between the two sides that will deal with the question of Kashmir'', he added.

Gen. Powell said he was travelling to India and Pakistan to review bilateral relations with each one of the countries. Washington had good relations with both the South Asian nations and it was important for the Secretary of State to regularly travel to the two "very important'' countries. "Of course, I will also talk about the current tension in the region,'' he added.

For his part, Mr. Abdullah said his country would like to see decreased tensions in all these regions and in the neighbourhood. "We would like to see an end to the conflict in that part of the world and an end which will be acceptable for both sides.''

Infiltration down: Boucher

The State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said on Thursday that the bottom line as far as infiltrations across the Line of Control into India was that they were "down''.

Asked repeatedly that while he said that the infiltrations were down "significantly'', Gen. Powell had remarked earlier in the day that the U.S. had seen "some'' reduction. '' On whether "significantly" and "some" were synonymous, Mr. Boucher said: "It is down. I do not think I can be too precise in this matter. It is down since the Deputy Secretary, Richard Armitage, was out there. It is down since the commitment was made to end the infiltration along the Line of Control. I am not able to go more precisely into the specific information.'' Asked if the American view on infiltrations had been altered at all by New Delhi's continuous claims that it is not down to a "significant'' amount, he said, "I have seen different statements from the Indian side. We obviously keep in touch with both the parties about the situation there and we obviously are interested in any information that might be available. But I am afraid beyond saying it is down, I cannot go into the kind of information we may have or may not have''.

On whether the situation in the region had deteriorated since Mr. Armitage's visit six weeks ago, Mr. Boucher maintained that both Pakistan and India had taken a number of specific steps on the infiltration front and in the subsequent responses by India. "So, there certainly were positive developments that lowered the level of violence, that lowered the level of tension.

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