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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (32775)	6/20/2002 12:30:08 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

India Says Rebel Incursions in Kashmir Nearly Over Jun 20 7:09am ET SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India said on Thursday infiltration of militants from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir had nearly ended but troops would remain on the border as long as needed. "There is not much change in the situation in the valley, but infiltration across the border has nearly ended," Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters in Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. "Our past experience tells us we will have to wait. As long as necessary, troops will remain on the border." India, which has massed its army on the Pakistan border, accuses Islamabad of training and arming Muslim militants and pushing them into Indian Kashmir to fight New Delhi's rule. India has told Pakistan to halt infiltration as a condition for pulling back its troops that have been mobilized along the border since an attack on the Indian parliament in December that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based guerrillas. Pakistan denies the charge but President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to stop militant incursions across a cease-fire line dividing the disputed Himalayan region. Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have eased after India pulled back warships from the Arabian Sea and removed a ban on overflights by Pakistani commercial aircraft following intense U.S.-led international efforts to defuse the crisis. But fears of a conflict between the South Asian foes, which exchange almost daily fire in mountainous Kashmir, have not died completely. Islamabad has repeatedly urged resumption of talks to resolve the 55-year-old dispute over Kashmir, but India has refused dialogue with Pakistan until it ends what it calls cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Asked about reports of the presence of al Qaeda militants in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Fernandes said: "It is not a report, it is a fact... we have proof." He did not elaborate. India has alleged that fighters from Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, forced out of Afghanistan by the U.S.-led war on terrorism, have moved to Pakistani Kashmir. Fernandes said militant training camps still existed in Pakistani Kashmir despite India's demand that Islamabad dismantle all rebel camps in its territory. "Before September 11 there were concrete (militant training) camps there (Pakistani Kashmir) but these camps are now in makeshift tents," he said. About a dozen rebel groups are battling Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state where officials say more than 33,000 people have been killed since a rebellion broke out in 1989. Separatists put the toll near 80,000 siliconinvestor.com

To: TimF who wrote (32775)	6/20/2002 7:39:32 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

He cautioned that such attacks could result in Israeli forces reoccupying Palestinian-ruled land in the West Bank under a new policy of responding to suicide bombings by retaking and holding such territory. His written statement was read out by an announcer on Voice of Palestine radio and published in newspapers. It referred to the "necessity to completely stop these attacks...to preserve the high national interest." Amazing what a little "land for peace", Israeli style, can accomplish with regard to getting Arafat to FINALLY get the message (or at least act like he's getting it).... Now he's FORCED into a situation where if he doesn't stop the violence, the Israelis will. Hawk