SOUTH ASIA: India Sees Early Win in Diplomatic War

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, May 29 2002 (IPS) - India is basking what it sees as an early diplomatic win over Pakistan in their battle to win international approval, after visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated Wednesday that the onus of defusing the military standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbours rests with Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Addressing press persons immediately after consultations with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, Straw said that Musharraf has already had enough time to act on the promises he had made in January to contain “cross-border terrorism”.

“There is already enough time President Musharraf has had. It is vital he recognises the urgency of the situation,” Straw explained.

Straw appeared to dismiss assertions made by Musharraf in a televised speech Monday that infiltration across the border into Indian Kashmir had stopped. “The test is by action and not words. The international community looks to Musharraf for full implementation of the promises made by him,” he said.

Musharraf may have spoiled Pakistan’s case by persisting with tests of a series of nuclear-capable missiles that started Saturday and ended on Tuesday, while Straw was in Islamabad on his current tour as part of efforts by top international diplomats to defuse the crisis on the subcontinent.

“The United Kingdom stands four square behind India in its fight against terrorism,” Straw declared. “The definition of terrorism has been laid down in international law as per the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373, which includes cross-border terrorism and branding of terrorists as freedom fighters.”

As if to remove ambiguity on where his country stood, Straw said he would ” reiterate that the United Kingdom stands with all civilised governments, particularly India”.

On Tuesday, Singh described as “disappointing and dangerous” Musharraf’s Monday speech, in which the military ruler claimed that Pakistan was “doing nothing across the Line of Control” that runs through Kashmir, the possession of which is at the heart of the 52-year-old dispute between the two countries.

“Disappointing as it merely repeats some earlier reassurances that remain unfulfilled,” and “dangerous because of deliberate posturing,” Singh said of the speech, adding that it added to, rather than reduced, tensions between the two countries.

Singh said India was ready for a dialogue with Pakistan, but “you cannot put a pistol of terrorism to my temple with the finger on the trigger and say, “Dialogue with me or I will release this trigger of terrorism”.

Singh said that until there is proof on the ground that “cross-border terrorism” had stopped, India would not enter into dialogue with Pakistan — and that includes the Asian summit at Alma Aty in Kazakhstan next week.

News reports from Islamabad said a diplomatic counter-offensive was being put in place by Musharraf to convince leaders in key capitals that Pakistan does not want to go to war and has already taken several steps toward de-escalation but was getting little response from New Delhi.

“The purpose of launching the diplomatic offensive is to elucidate that Pakistan is not responsible for the prevailing tension with India,” an official was quoted by the Pakistan-based ‘The News’ as saying.

Leading a team of special envoys would be Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, former high commissioner in India who was expelled by New Delhi last week to express its displeasure at continuing ‘jihadist’ strikes across the border by Pakistan-based militants.

Qazi was reported to be heading for Washington, along with former Pakistan’s former foreign secretary Najumuddin Sheikh, on a mission to explain the stand of a country that happens to be host to U.S. troops looking for the remnants of the al-Qaeda network flushed out of Afghanistan after the U.S.-led bombings of the country and the fall of the Taliban.

On Tuesday, Singh warned that the presence of U.S. troops in Pakistan would not deter strikes by Indian armed forces across the border. “The physical presence of U.S. troops in certain parts of Pakistan is clearly known to us and it is not an inhibiting factor in any policy determination.”

But news reports said Washington is concerned at Pakistan’s moves to shift troops away from its western border with Afghanistan, where its helping to mop up elements of the al-Qaeda, to its eastern frontier with India.

“Attention and troops that cannot be focused there (Afghanistan border) because they are focused elsewhere (India), that’s a concern for us because we need as much assistance as possible in guarding that very porous border,” Victoria Clarke, a spokesman, was quoted as saying in Washington.

India’s Defence Minister George Fernandes claimed Tuesday that most of the al-Qaeda members had traversed Pakistan and are now posed to cross the LoC into Kashmir.

“We have information that a number of terrorists who are on the other side of the border (LoC) are people who have fled from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda men and Talibanis,” Fernandes told television interviewers.

According to Fernandes, Singh and other top Indian leaders, Pakistan has for more than a decade been running a “low intensity war”, arming and financing militant groups against India in an effort to prise Kashmir out of the control of an adversary that has three times its military strength and resources.

They say that those efforts have suffered a serious setback after the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and that the international community no longer countenanced militant activity of any kind.

Musharraf, who insists that Pakistan has never supported or financed militant groups, has nevertheless said Pakistan would continue to support the fight for freedom in Kashmir.

But Straw said Wednesday that India and Britain share the same definition of terrorism and that includes “terrorism dressed up in the form of freedom fighters”.