Powell Lauds Pakistan's Efforts Against Extremists
By TODD S. PURDUM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 16
— Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell emerged tonight from a
meeting with President Pervez
Musharraf and other top Pakistani
officials praising their efforts to
crack down on violent extremists
and vowing to do all he could to
help defuse tensions with India over
the disputed Kashmir region.
But Secretary Powell repeated that
while "President Bush would like to
do everything he can do to get the
two sides talking to one another
again on all of the issues that are
between them," only direct
discussions by the two nations
could resolve the monthlong
standoff in their half-century
dispute.
"The important thing now is for
both sides to make a political
judgment that the way out of this
crisis is political and diplomatic,
and not through conflict," the
secretary said at a news conference
at General Musharraf's residence
with Pakistan's foreign minister,
Abdul Sattar. "We need a campaign
against terrorism, not a campaign
with these two countries fighting
one another."
Like a doctor on an extended
diplomatic house call, Secretary
Powell is headed for India on
Thursday, hoping by his sheer
presence and hand- holding to help
end the crisis.
The situation between India and
Pakistan began to ease last weekend
with General Musharraf's pledge to
reorient Pakistani society away
from cross-border violence, and his
subsequent detention of some
1,900 suspected extremists.
In a further sign that Washington's
relations with Pakistan have warmed
considerably since General
Musharraf took power in a
bloodless coup in 1999, Secretary
Powell said today that President
Bush had invited the general to Washington "in the very near
future."
Washington appears to be hoping that a constant flow of
such visits will help avert any war.
India's home affairs minister was in Washington last week,
and its defense minister is there now. If leading actors are
engaged with the United States, or a figure like Secretary
Powell is in the region itself, it seems more difficult for open
warfare to break out.
Mr. Bush met briefly with General Musharraf at the United
Nations last fall, but this would be the Pakistani leader's first
trip to Washington since taking power.
Secretary Powell made clear that he now wanted to explore
the willingness of Indian officials to begin reopening borders,
commerce and diplomatic relations that were severed after a
deadly attack on the Indian Parliament on Dec. 13 that Indian
officials blamed on Pakistani extremist groups.
"I think we want to start seeing whether or not both sides
believe enough progress has been made that we can find ways
to de-escalate politically and diplomatically," said the
secretary
India and Pakistan have massed hundreds of thousands of
troops along their common border, and Mr. Powell added,
"In due course, hopefully, there will be a military de-
escalation as well."
Indian officials have offered uncharacteristically warm words
for General Musharraf's speech, with Home Minister L. K.
Advani, considered a hard-liner, calling it "path- breaking"
today.
But each side has said it is now up to the other to take
concrete actions, and Mr. Advani also said Indians were
bound to be skeptical of the general's pledges unless they saw
him living up to them.
"Today Pakistan is a financier of terrorism," Mr. Advani said.
"It is arming terrorists, providing them shelter, training them
and infiltrating them" into India.
The Indians have demanded the surrender of 20 suspected
terrorists and clear proof that General Musharraf intends to
stop cross-border incursions, while the Pakistanis want India
to ratchet down its military mobilization along the border and
allow international involvement in negotiating the future of
Kashmir.
Tonight the Pakistani foreign minister, Mr. Sattar, suggested
that the next move was India's to make.
"I want to assure you, on behalf of the government of
Pakistan, we will immediately respond to any initiative that the
government of India takes toward de-escalation and
disengagement," Mr. Sattar said.
Since Sept. 11, General Musharraf has become a vital ally in
the American war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, severing
relations with the Taliban and allowing the United States to
use Pakistani bases for staging the war.
Moreover, by moving to denounce terrorist violence in his
own society, he has shed a fresh international spotlight on
Pakistan's position on Kashmir, a region that looms deeply in
Pakistani culture — color advertisements in The News here
tout a brand of canola oil called Kashmir.
At the same time, India has seized on Mr. Bush's vow to rout
global terrorism to argue that it can no longer tolerate terrorist
violence committed in the name of Kashmir, and to press the
Bush administration to keep up the pressure on Pakistan for a
crackdown.
One senior administration official, describing the goal of
Secrretary Powell's trip this week, said, "We're not going to
either side at this point with ultimatums." Instead, the official
said, the secretary's dogged efforts at diplomacy — first by
telephone and now in person — are an effort to smooth the
way for renewed Indian-Pakistani dialogue.
"If you're going to bake a cake, you've got to go to the store
to get some ingredients," the official said, "and we hope this
helps find some of those ingredients.
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