Come up with ideas, Sattar tells New Delhi

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 7. The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, has urged India to come up with ideas to resolve the Kashmir conflict if the formulation put forth by Pakistan was not acceptable to it. In an interview with The Hindu here today, Mr. Sattar expressed disappointment with the reaction of the Indian Government on the formulation made by Pakistan for a dialogue on Kashmir in its December 2 statement.

``My disappointment with the Indian statement (December 6) is that it does not engage in exploration of any openings. It simply shuts the door on the ideas and openings we sought to inject in the December 2 statement,'' the Minister said.

Mr. Sattar praised the ceasefire decision of the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and said Pakistan responded to it positively as it firmly believed that the ``good decision'' of Mr. Vajpayee needed to be sustained and strengthened. ``Our proposals would launch India and Pakistan on a course of permanent settlement of the Kashmir issue.''

`Not despondent'

Maintaining that Pakistan was disappointed but not despondent over the Indian response, Mr. Sattar said the continuing stalemate was very easy to resolve. The rest test of human ingenuity is in terms of discovering ideas that lead to a forward movement in the given situation.

Asked if Pakistan was prepared to address the Indian concerns on infiltration from across the border and continuing violence in Kashmir, Mr. Sattar denied the charge. In support of his contention he quoted the statement of the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, to the effect that Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the largest militant organisation, consists of indigenous Kashmiris.

``We believe that the allegations made by India against Pakistan seem to be an evasive tactic designed to prevent a forward movement towards a settlement of the issues,'' he said. On being pressed whether or not Islamabad would exercise its authority on the militant outfits and urge them to give a chance to the new initiatives in Kashmir, the Minister frankly said Pakistan alone was not in a position to bring about a ``conversion or transition from militancy to peaceful means''. Unless India was prepared to take steps to create an atmosphere in which people regained confidence on the effectiveness of peaceful means of protest, peace would not return.

Mr. Sattar said the best way of moving away from militancy is to open up the peace process.

(Text of interview in International section)

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