The Hindu : U.S. to take 'active interest' on J&K issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002

International

International

U.S. to take 'active interest' on J&K issue

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JULY 29. The U.S. State Department has maintained that Kashmir is on the international agenda and that the United States and others are trying to play a role to encourage a resolution of the problem.

"As the Secretary said, Kashmir is on the international agenda and the United States and other countries are going to take an active interest in encouraging resolution," the Deputy Spokesman, Philip Reeker, said in the course of a regular briefing here this afternoon.

Earlier the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, briefing the media on his plane to Bangkok clarified what he meant by saying that Kashmir was now on the international agenda.

He was asked if his reference to Kashmir was "some sort of a code word'' which India has long resisted.

"No. I just meant the way I said it. It is on the international agenda. Everybody is now focussed on it. Everybody understands that we had a close run thing about a month or a month-and-a-half ago, and the ultimate cause of that potential conflict was Kashmir," Gen. Powell replied.

Internationalising the Kashmir issue will not get the dialogue between India and Pakistan going because of New Delhi's resistance to the idea, he said.

"So now everybody in the international community, I think, is focussed on the need to get this tension down, to get de-mobilisations back to original positions, but then in order not to see it all start over again, we need to get the two sides into a discussion on Kashmir. If you try to internationalise it at this point, it will not move forward because of Indian resistance to that," the Secretary of State remarked.

At the State Department, the Deputy Spokesman said that the Kashmir dispute must be resolved through a "healthy political process'' and a "vibrant dialogue'' between India and Pakistan; and once again reiterated that Washington was willing to facilitate talks should the two sides agree.

"We do not seek a mediator's role. We are prepared to provide facilitative assistance if the parties agree and the Secretary outlined that in his talks with leaders in both Capitals," Mr. Reeker said.

Powell `satisfied' with

S. Asia mission

AFP reports from Bangkok:

Gen. Powell said that he was ``satisfied'' with his weekend South Asian peace mission, despite hard talk from rivals India and Pakistan. He was hopeful of a resumption of dialogue over Kashmir in the coming months, he told reporters on his plane ahead of his arrival here.

Gen. Powell said that his talks in New Delhi and Islamabad had not been aimed at achieving a breakthrough but rather at keeping reduced tensions low. And he hinted that conditions for a resumption of dialogue could be in place before the end of the year, perhaps after the local elections in Jammu and Kashmir and the parliamentary elections in Pakistan, both scheduled for October.

``I am satisfied with the visit, it was not as though we were on the eve of war,'' Gen. Powell said as he flew to the Thai capital from Islamabad. ``This was just an effort to keep the momentum moving.''

He was also pleased with the messages from the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, even though public comments from the two sides during his trip had been strident. The Indian officials, Gen. Powell said, had reiterated their commitment to resolving the Kashmir dispute through dialogue although New Delhi was not yet ready to resume such talks. ``On the Indian side, I was pleased that there was a solid commitment to dialogue,'' he said. ``I would say that by the middle of the fall, if things go well across the Line of Control and we actually do see what President Musharraf is assuring us of, and if the election unfolds in a reasonable manner, then I think there is very good opportunity to really press for that dialogue to begin."

The Pakistani officials had restated their new policy of cutting off support to Muslim militants across the LoC in Kashmir. ``I was able to make sure that the commitment from the Pakistani side remained solid... to end cross-border infiltration.''

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