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New Delhi not to allow international observers

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 28. India today made it clear that it would not allow international observers to either investigate or certify the coming elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Foreign Office spokesperson told presspersons that India did not object to diplomats or others visiting Jammu and Kashmir on an individual basis. Whosoever was able to obtain visas for India could travel to the State, she stressed.

Interpreting the remarks made on observers by the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, at his press conference today, the spokesperson claimed that the General did not make a pitch for international observers. She made it clear that NGOs would not be permitted to monitor the elections. This position had been conveyed to all interlocutors, including the United States.

Referring to the meeting between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Gen. Powell, the spokesperson said Mr. Vajpayee conveyed to him that infiltration across the Line of Control was continuing. Pakistan had also not dismantled the infrastructure of terrorism.

India was committed to holding free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir but it was necessary to bring down the levels of violence there. Attempts to sabotage the elections, she said, must not be permitted to succeed. Any dialogue with Pakistan would depend on the policies it pursued — how it dealt with infiltration and the dismantling of the terrorism infrastructure. She made it clear that India would closely monitor Pakistan's approach to the elections.

During the discussions Gen. Powell had with his Indian interlocutors today (which included the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brajesh Mishra) there was a clear effort not to allow Indo-U.S. relations to be circumscribed by Indo-Pak. issues.

Asked if the General had been prescriptive in his fairly detailed comments on the situation in the sub-continent, the spokesperson said no such attempt had been detected.

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