While Tim worries about 'surveys' ....
The headline is the 'good news' it's all downhill after that. Pretty soon we need to ask the agnostics and atheists to start praying.
Pakistan President Tries to Stave Off War
Musharraf Promises to Restrain Militants in Kashmir
By Sharon LaFraniere
And Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 27 (Monday) – In a speech by turns defiant and conciliatory, Pakistan's president Gen. Pervez Musharraf tonight tried to stave off the threat of war with India, promising to keep Pakistani militants out of the Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir.
But he also accused India's leaders of irresponsible and aggressive behavior toward Pakistan, and asked the world to investigate atrocities that he said are being committed against Muslims in Kashmir under India's rule.
Although some Pakistani analysts said Musharraf seemed to want to pacify India without appearing too weak, political leaders in New Dehli said the Pakistani general failed miserably. Rather than averting war, they said, Musharraf made it more likely for the two nuclear-armed nations.
"There is absolutely nothing for us to work with in this speech," said India's deputy foreign minister, Omar Abdullah. "He's categorically told the world, that as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing that I need to stop."
Abdullah said the Pakistani president's strident tone suggests there is little room for further negotiations with Pakistan. "I had believed there was still a lot of diplomatic options available to us," he said. "But today he has closed down a lot of that space."
With nearly a million Pakistani and Indian soldiers massed along an 1,800-mile border, Musharraf is under heavy pressure at home and abroad to ease tensions with India lest a full-scale war breaks out. Firing along the Line of Control dividing the two parts of Kashmir is now a daily occurrence, with deaths of civilians mounting. Tens of thousands of villagers on both sides have fled the border region.
Musharraf, who seized power three years ago, said repeatedly that Pakistan would not allow itself to be used as a staging area for insurgents who want to drive India out of its portion of Kashmir. Musharraf made a similar promise Jan. 12 when the two countries were at a similarly dangerous junction.
First in Urdu, then in English, Musharraf said, "We do not want war. We want peace in the region. Pakistan will never allow the export of terrorism anywhere in the world from within Pakistan."
He noted that Pakistan had also suffered terrorist incidents, and suggested the two countries are victims of the same extremist groups. Again condemning a May attack that left more than 30 people dead in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, he said, "We believe that whoever is involved is also endeavoring to destablize Pakistan."
But he also accused India of trying to intimidate Pakistan, stirring up an atmosphere of near hysteria and failing to respond to Pakistan's "bold steps" to stop extremism. "I would like to state that this aggressive naming and blaming from the Indian leadership is extremely irresponsible," he said.
And while he vowed to stop any incursions across the Indian border, he said Pakistan would never give up the struggle for Kashmir's independence. "Kashmir lives in the heart of every single Pakistani," he said, and Pakistan will fulfill its "moral, political and diplomatic commitments" for Kashmir's freedom.
"I think this is about the maximum he could have said," said Najam Sethi, editor of the Islamabad newspaper Friday Times, who was one of a number of journalists who met with Musharraf last week.
"He really stuck his neck out this time. He said Pakistan will never export terrorism, and he said it not once but five times. This is very strong stuff."
But Abdullah, the Indian deputy foreign minister, and another senior Indian official, I.D. Swami, the deputy minister for home affairs, said the Pakistani president offered no concessions. They said the speech would strengthen India's resolve to use military force to attack what it alleges are militant training camps in the Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir, an action that could precipitate full-scale combat.
"Now there's no scope, no room left," Swami said. "It looked like nothing worked, not even American pressure. He's saying he just doesn't bother about the world."
As Musharraf addressed his increasingly nervous nation, the violence on the border continued to escalate after a relative lull last week.
Indian mortar fire today killed six civilians and wounded at least 16 more near the Pakistani town of Sialkot on the southern part of the border that divides Kashmir between the two nations. Four more died and 12 were wounded in the same area Sunday. India, which has suffered fewer civilian casulties, reported that one soldier died and three were wounded in heavy fire Sunday night.
The Pakistani and Indian military accuse each other of firing anti-tank weapons and heavy artillery, despite the thousands of villages that lie close to each side of the border. The narrow roads that lead away from the border carry a steady flow of fleeing villagers, their wagons piled high with their belongings.
Leaders of both nations are under intense international pressure to restrain their armies. President Bush called Sunday on Musharraf to fulfill his January promise to control Pakistani militants.
Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, landed in Pakistan tonight in a bid to defuse the crisis. He is scheduled to travel to India later in the week. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, is scheduled to travel to the region next week. Senior Pakistani officials said the Islamabad government decided Thursday to do everything necessary to stop the incursions into India's territory, and Musharraf claimed in an interview Saturday with The Washington Post that the raids have stopped.
But Indian officials claim 50 to 60 fighters crossed over into Indian-controlled Kashmir from Pakistan in the past month alone.
Swami, the Indian deputy minister for home affairs, said he was unconvinced by Musharraf's pledges. "I don't know how far we can continue to believe him and how far he can continue to befool the world," Swami said.
He said India now has little reason to delay before commencing military strikes. "I don't think there's anything left to wait for," he said. "We've already been suffering with terrorism for two decades. I don't think India is left with any other choice."
But other officials and analysts said India would continue to spend the next several days trying further diplomatic sanctions and pressure to avert a military confrontation. Although India already has expelled Pakistan's ambassador to New Delhi, Indian officials are seriously considering breaking off all diplomatic relations with Pakistan, a step that has never been formally taken since Pakistan was partitioned from British colonial India in 1947.
"There's still room for a last-ditch international effort to avoid war," said Brahma Chellaney, the head of strategic affairs at the Center for Policy Research, a think-tank in New Delhi. "War still isn't imminent."
But Chellaney said Musharraf's stance would increase domestic pressure on India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to go to war. "He is perceived right now as a man who is only engaged in talk but no action," Chellaney said. "This speech was like waving a red flag at a bull."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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