Author: Sridhar Krishnaswami
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 27, 2003
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/06/27/stories/2003062704970100.htm
The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf,
has said that India being the larger country should show "magnanimity"
and make more compromises if a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem
is to be realised.
Gen. Musharraf dismissed the idea
that the Line of Control (LoC) could be turned into an International Border
as a way of achieving permanent peace.
"We have fought three wars on this
Line of Control. You are proposing a solution which is the dispute itself.
How can a dispute be a solution," he asked in response to a question.
Gen. Musharraf was participating
in an afternoon session organised by the United States Institute of Peace
here.
He said that in his view Kashmir
was the only issue between India and Pakistan and warned that New Delhi's
insistence on the status quo would not be facilitating a peace process.
"If, instead of a peace process,
India insists on the permanence of an unjust status quo in Kashmir, when
this status quo has been the problem from the very outset, then it would
be creating obstacles to a peace process, rather than facilitating it,"
he said.
"The onus or initiative for reconciliation
and accommodation is always shown by a larger country... if Pakistan during
mediation (takes) steps to compromise, it is seen as a sellout, it is seen
as a sign of weakness. While if the same thing is done by a larger partner,
India, it is seen as a sign of magnanimity and a sign of greatness," Gen.
Musharraf observed.
On a high profile visit to the U.S.
that included a summit meeting on Tuesday at Camp David with the President,
George W. Bush, Gen. Musharraf said that he was extremely encouraged by
the recent overtures of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and said
that he looked forward to the resumption of the dialogue process.
"Despite many disappointments and
differences of the past, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and I are ready
to acknowledge Prime Minister Vajpayee as a partner in a historic peace
process. This should be aimed at altering negative public attitudes and
stereotypes on both sides of the border while moving towards a broad range
of cooperation and a just and mutually acceptable resolution of Jammu and
Kashmir and other issues," Gen. Musharraf said.
While the onus was on India, Pakistan
was willing to play its role, Gen. Musharraf said but warned that there
were principles that could never be compromised with.
Gen. Musharraf reiterated his four-step
peace process that he originally proposed at the Agra summit in 2001 -
envisaging a meaningful dialogue; acknowledging the centrality of Kashmir
in the India-Pakistan dispute; discarding unacceptable positions; and,
finally, focussing on win-win scenarios acceptable to all parties, including
the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
"I believe this is the only way
forward. I have long expressed my readiness for dialogue at any level,
time and place," he said. "We are committed to a peace process. We do not
believe in violence as (a) means to peace... We realise our stake in better
relations with India. If India can adopt a similar attitude towards relations
with Pakistan, then our efforts to resolve our differences on Kashmir and
other issues need no longer tread the barren paths of the past," Gen. Musharraf
maintained.
`Cannot give guarantee on infiltration'
In a conversation with the reporters
and editors of The Washington Post, Gen. Musharraf said that there was
"no mathematical answer" to cross-border terrorism and that his country
had done all it can and cannot be held responsible "to ensure, to guarantee
that not a bird will fly across the Line of Control". He was replying to
a question on his assessment of the situation on the LoC.
" ...this cross-border terrorism
has no mathematical answer, there is no mathematics involved... I can't
answer you how much infiltration is going on, I don't know. For me there
is no infiltration going on... ."
Gen. Musharraf said he would not
be able to give a guarantee that nothing was taking place across the LoC.
But, at the level of the Government, the Pakistani leader argued, it had
been ensured that nothing ought to be happening across the LoC. "... Pakistan
cannot be held responsible to ensure, to guarantee that not a bird will
fly across the Line of Control. It's not humanly possible. Let the 700,000
troops of India do it. Why aren't they doing it? They've got 700,000 troops.
Because it's not possible, Gen. Musharraf said.
