Friday, Sep 13, 2002
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By Amit Baruah
Leaving no window of an opportunity for reconciliation between India and Pakistan, Gen. Musharraf used the General Assembly to put forward most of his old arguments against New Delhi, but significantly added Gujarat to his long list. "Last February, an estimated 2,000 innocent Muslims were massacred in Gujarat with the complicity of BJP State leaders... The international community must act to oppose extremism with the same determination it displayed in combating terrorism, religious bigotry, ethnic cleansing and fascist tendencies elsewhere in the world," he said.
Empty noises: India
In an immediate response, the Indian Foreign Office spokesperson, Nirupama Rao, said that this attempt to "defame India will misfire on Pakistan". She said that a country which had abandoned democracy was making "empty noises" about freedom and self-determination. Pakistan, she said, was conjuring up external threats to "wish away the rot that engulfs the Pakistani polity". Claiming that Islamabad was "determined" not to allow anyone to use its soil for terrorist acts inside or outside Pakistan, Gen. Musharraf said that misusing the rationale of the war against terrorism, India had sought to delegitimise the Kashmiri "freedom struggle", tarnish Pakistan with the brush of terrorism and "drive a wedge between it and its coalition partners". India's "threatening posture" on the border would not frighten Pakistan into "compromising" its principled position on Kashmir. Stating that the "conflict" in Kashmir was being waged by the Kashmiris, the General alleged that India's "planned elections" in Kashmir would once again be rigged. "Such elections, under Indian occupation, will not help peace; they may set it back. The people of Jammu and Kashmir must be allowed to determine their own future in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council," he maintained, restating Pakistan's traditional position. According to him, peace in South Asia was hostage to one accident, one act of terrorism, one strategic miscalculation by India. "In this dangerous situation, crisis management should not be allowed to become a substitute for conflict resolution". Almost as an after-thought, Gen. Musharraf called for the mutual withdrawal of the forward deployed forces by India and Pakistan, observance of a ceasefire along the Line of Control and "cessation of India's state terrorism against the Kashmiri people". "Simultaneously, a dialogue must be resumed between India and Pakistan. The structure for such a dialogue was agreed between Prime Minister Vajpayee and myself at Agra. The Kashmiris should be fully associated with the dialogue on Kashmir and should be allowed to freely travel to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir," he said. "To ensure sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, a Kashmir solution should be accompanied by agreed measures for nuclear restraint and a conventional arms balance between India and Pakistan. India's ongoing massive military build-up reflects its desire for domination over South Asia and the Indian Ocean. In the interest of regional and global stability, this must be discouraged,'' he said. Stating that Pakistan had made major sacrifices in the war against terrorism, he said Pakistan had interdicted infiltration by the Al-Qaeda elements into Pakistan. "There is need to redress the root causes of terrorism... When a people's right to self-determination and freedom are brutally suppressed by foreign occupation, they can put up resistance by all means at their disposal. Terrorist acts must be condemned. But acts of terrorism by individuals or groups cannot be the justification to outlaw the just struggle of a people for self-determination and liberation from colonial or foreign occupation. Nor can it justify state terrorism," he said without naming Kashmir, Kashmiris or India.
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