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Spotlight on diplomatic options

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI July 15. The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, telephoned the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, late last night to express his condolences on Saturday's terrorist attack.

Gen. Powell joined the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the French Foreign Minister, Dominique Villepin, in personally calling Mr. Sinha to condemn the incident.

Sources said that Gen. Powell told Mr. Sinha that the U.S. would continue to pressure Pakistan on reining in terrorist outfits that could be involved in the Jammu massacre.

The Danish presidency of the European Union also strongly condemned the senseless attack on innocent civilians which took place near Jammu.

``The European Union deplores the loss of lives and expresses its condolences with the bereaved families and the Government of India. The attack underscores the importance of the international community coming together in the fight against terrorism worldwide,'' a release issued here said.

Japan, too, has used phraseology similar to the European Union in condemning the killings. ``The Government of Japan expresses its deepest condolences to the victims, the bereaved families, and the people of India,'' the Japanese statement said.

``The Government of Japan resolutely condemns terrorism in any form as we reconfirmed in our Japan-India Joint Declaration, signed by Japanese and Indian Prime Ministers in Tokyo, on December 10, 2001,'' it added. The condemnation of the dastardly killings, though important, has become a ritual especially after the September 11 terrorist attack in New York and Washington. While their condemnation is important in itself, the Jammu killings place under the spotlight of the diplomatic approach to Pakistan and Kashmir to be taken by New Delhi as well as the American-led Western world.

As the Government statement on Jammu is awaited in Parliament, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is only that much that the U.S., Britain, the E.U. and Japan can do to pressure Pakistan further.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan and its President, Pervez Musharraf, have had to withdraw from openly backing the Kashmir ``jehad'' as he did soon after taking power in October 1999, following the diplomatic pressure mounted by India through the U.S. and its allies. But a ``permanent end'' to infiltration, which has been quite rightly sought by India, is quite another thing.

In the post-September 11 world, supporters of violence, to achieve any aim, are unlikely to make much headway as Gen. Musharraf may have found. Institutional support to terrorism from Pakistan has definitely come under pressure, but this could well be a tactical shift to appease the U.S. and its allies. Given the diplomatic measures already taken against Pakistan following the December 13 attack on Parliament House, India may find that there is not much to ``add'' as far as punitive diplomacy is concerned. While any drawdown of these punitive measures may well be on hold following Saturday's carnage, the U.S. and their allies will also have to stretch their diplomatic initiatives to keep up the pressure on Pakistan on the issue of terrorism.

The killing of French technicians and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi also indicate that the regrouping ``jehadis'' are directing their ire towards internal, Pakistani targets in a big way.

The General will definitely point to this ``problem'' that he is facing when he meets with top British and American visitors to Islamabad in the near future.

The debate on whether Gen. Musharraf and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate are in a position to control the movement of each and every ``jehadi'' element will prove to be an endless one.

For America and its Western allies, Pakistan is a key element in the battle against the Al-Qaeda and in possible initiatives to nab Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

While backing the Indian position, it remains to be seen how far the Western world is prepared to go in pressuring Gen. Musharraf on Kashmir without jeopardising Pakistani support to the ongoing operations against Al-Qaeda within Pakistan.

Pakistani credibility on what it does and claims not to do in Kashmir may be extremely low, but India could well realise that putting all the eggs in the Western diplomatic basket may not yield the desired results in curbing terrorism.

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