Author: Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah,
Tribune staff reporter
Publication: Chicago Tribune
Date: June 13, 2003
URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0306130358jun13,1,5317525.story
Introduction: In Chicago speech,
deputy premier lashes `state policy'
Pakistan's efforts to stop cross-border
terrorism are disappointing, Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani
said Thursday in Chicago.
The two nuclear rivals are considering
reviving peace talks, but Advani said that for meaningful dialogue to take
place, infiltration by terrorists who India says enter from Pakistan must
be reduced. Further, Pakistan must stop backing these Islamic militants,
he said.
"The support to such organizations
has since the early '80s become a matter of our neighbor's state policy,"
he said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
In an interview with Tribune editors
earlier in the day, he implied that Pakistan was capable of dealing with
its border-crossing militants but was choosing not to do so.
"I don't think in Pakistan it's
a question of inability because all weapons and finances, all facilities
are produced officially," he said.
Advani was in Chicago as part of
a 10-day trip to the United States and Britain. He was in Washington earlier
in the week, meeting with President Bush and high-level officials, including
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld. The talks centered on India's call for peace negotiations with
Pakistan and the fight against terrorism.
Advani said Bush showed "warm appreciation"
for India's taking steps toward peace.
He said Bush also promised that
when he meets Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf later this month he
will "impress upon" him the need to create a climate conducive to peace
talks.
India and Pakistan have been fighting
for more than 50 years over the region of Kashmir.
Pakistan says the Indian province
with its Muslim majority belongs in Pakistan. India says all of Kashmir,
including the slice that Pakistan gained in the first of three wars between
the countries, belongs in India.
Pakistan calls militants fighting
in Kashmir "freedom fighters" and says it offers them only moral support.
In 2001, tensions increased after
a deadly attack on the Indian parliament. New Delhi blamed it on Pakistan-backed
militants, and the two countries posted hundreds of thousands of troops
on their border. International mediation defused the situation.
In April, Indian Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee called for peace talks. No date has been set, but
so far the two nations have agreed to restore air, rail and bus links that
were cut after the parliament attack. They have also named ambassadors
to fill posts that have been vacant more than a year.
On Thursday, though, some were skeptical
of Advani's words about fighting terrorism. About 200 protesters gathered
outside the Chicago Hilton & Towers, where he was speaking. Banners
called for Pakistan to stop supporting "Hate-Mongers." Others proclaimed
"Save India from Racism."
Inside, Rev. Jaswant B. Singha,
a Christian originally from India, said he was disappointed Advani didn't
take questions from the audience.
"He is talking about fighting terrorism,
but his own party is responsible for the carnage in Gujarat," Singha said.
Advani's government has come under
criticism for its role during Hindu-Muslim clashes in Gujarat last year,
during which 2,000 people died. The riots erupted after a Muslim mob allegedly
torched a train that killed 58 Hindus.
The government is accused of failing
to quickly quell the riots.
Advani said Thursday that the day
of the Gujarat riots was the "saddest day of his life."
Advani has been accused of using
Hindu nationalist rhetoric that led to the destruction of the Babri Mosque
at Ayodhya in 1992. Late last month, his country's top investigative agency
filed charges against him and seven others for inciting mobs that led to
the mosque's being torn down.
Since then, there have been calls
for Advani to step down.
On Thursday, he said he has no such
plans. Advani, 65, is considered by many to be Vajpayee's successor as
party chief and possibly the future prime minister of India. National elections
are planned for next year.
At the speech and reception Thursday,
dozens of local Indians showed up to see Advani. Illinois has an Indian
population of 124,723, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and Indians are
the largest group of Asian immigrants in the state.
Prashant Shah, publisher of the
India Tribune, one of four local Indian papers, said Advani is popular
in Chicago among Hindus because of Hindu nationalist rhetoric.
"When he talks, he talks from the
heart," Shah said. "He is very bold, and he has a very persuading nature."
But Rasheed Ahmed, the vice president
of the Indian Muslim Council, says Advani is involved in nothing short
of "domestic terrorism" in India.
"The United States is trying to
work with India on counterterrorism, but [Advani's] background and his
statements incite terrorism within India."
(Tribune staff reporter Grace Aduroja
contributed to this report)
