Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002 |
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
"The perpetrators of this heinous act are proving once again that they do not have the interest of the Kashmiri people at heart but rather seek to undermine efforts to ease tensions in the region.'' The White House on Sunday condemned the massacre. Gen Powell is due to visit the sub-continent on July 27 and 28 on his way to the ASEAN Regional Forum Meeting in Brunei. The visit is seen as a determination on the part of the Bush administration to remain actively engaged with India and Pakistan and in the context of the heightened tensions in that part of the world. The administration has been making the point in the last few weeks that both India and Pakistan had taken steps to reduce tensions in the region; but that the tensions were still high. Gen. Powell's visit to South Asia is seen in some quarters as part of the American effort to "further'' defuse tensions generally and in particular put more pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on terrorist camps in a permanent fashion. Terrorism, global and regional, was discussed last week between India and the U.S. at the Fifth Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism. Although terrorist activities across the Line of Control was not specifically part of the discussion agenda, the two sides did in fact address the subject in a general fashion, especially as it pertained to Pakistan's commitments to the U.S. What is being pointed out here is that in the first four weeks after May 27 there had been a perceptible decline in infiltration into India from across the Line of Control; but between June 24 and 30 there had been at least three large attempts to infiltrate from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. In fact there is a realisation that "all'' infiltration will not come to an end, but that stage has not come about. The United States has said that it will continue to look for ways to keep the momentum going on the decline in infiltration across the Line of Control with a view to seeing Pakistan carry out the pledge of permanency in this matter, besides other steps such as the elimination of terrorist camps.At the State Department on Monday afternoon, the spokesman, Richard Boucher condemned the killings in Jammu and Kashmir saying that Washington had made it clear that terrorist killings of innocents must stop. ``It is our view that infiltration across the Line of Control is down significantly. We'll continue to look for ways to continue the momentum so that the Pakistanis carry out the pledge to make that permanent and eliminate camps and things like that'', he remarked. The spokesman said the administration sees the continued steps by India and Pakistan to ease the tensions and this issue will be taken up by Mr. Powell, when he visits the region. Mr. Boucher said the terrorist attacks were ``awful'' and ``it needs to stop.'' ``These kinds of attacks are heinous and they prove really that those that carried them out don't have the best interests of the Kashmiri people at heart because it makes it much more difficult to resolve this situation through dialogue'',he said.
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