In a bid to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, President Bush on Wednesday phoned the leaders of the nuclear-armed nations and urged them to “draw back from war” over the disputed Kashmir region.
Bush repeated demands that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf abide by pledges to rein in Muslim separatist militants in the region, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
Bush’s phone calls were part of an urgent push by the United States, Russia and European allies to back the South Asian rivals away from a potentially devastating conflict. India and Pakistan have massed a million troops, backed by armor and artillery, along their borders and the Kashmir cease-fire line.
The stepped-up pressure came as India made its first conciliatory gesture in the standoff.
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Speaking in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he had been attending a regional security summit, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee proposed joint patrols with Pakistan along the so-called line of control in Kashmir. The aim would be to prevent militants from Pakistan or Pakistani-controlled Kashmir from attacking soldiers or civilians in India or Indian-administered Kashmir.
“We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of cooperation,” Vajpayee said before leaving the summit, which Musharraf also attended.
“Pakistan was not ready to stop cross-border terrorism,” the Indian leader said. “They are ready now–at least they say they are.”
Pakistan looks askance
Pakistan responded coolly to the offer, describing it as “not new” and saying that relations between the two nations are too hostile for joint patrols to work. Nevertheless the proposal was seen as a significant shift away from the threatening tone of the past two weeks.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is to visit both countries next week, said he believed the two nations “may very well be looking for ways to tamp things down rather than see things escalate.”
The Indian suggestion came amid intense diplomatic pressure on both countries to find a way to resolve their differences peacefully.
The question of verifying Pakistan’s claims that it has stopped infiltration across the line will be crucial to any eventual settlement of the dispute. There are fears that even if Musharraf is serious about his pledge to stop terrorist infiltration, Pakistan will not be able to control the militants seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir or to prevent further terrorist attacks by groups already there.
On Tuesday, Musharraf said that India should not be “the accuser and the judge” of infiltration across the line and proposed monitoring by the United States or the United Nations. India has rejected international mediation in the dispute, but it appears now to be acknowledging the need for some form of mechanism to verify Pakistan’s promises.
On his return to New Delhi, Vajpayee indicated he was willing to be flexible on the issue, saying “there are many proposals for verification of which joint patrolling is one.”
Underscoring that the risk of war remains high, however, the U.S. strengthened its warning to American citizens to leave India and Pakistan, saying that Washington “strongly urges” them to depart. Last week, the warning merely said they were “encouraged” to leave.
“Tensions have risen to serious levels, and the risk of intensified military hostilities between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out,” the warning said.
Continued fierce artillery duels were reported Wednesday between the forces of the two armies across the line of control and, for the first time, Pakistan held civil defense exercises in the province of Punjab, which borders India.
In their talks with Indian and Pakistani leaders, Rumsfeld and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who is also headed to the region, are to try to convince the two sides that the human cost makes a full-blown war unthinkable.
“To both leaders, the president stressed the need to choose the path of diplomacy,” Fleischer said. “South Asia is a region of tremendous potential. Armed conflict will do nothing to improve the lives of the people in India or in Pakistan. It will, instead, block the future of both nations.
“They understood the president’s message. They appreciated the president’s message. And what’s important now is that both parties take the actions to reduce the tensions–on the side of Pakistan, to do everything in its power to stop the incursions . . . and India to take steps to de-escalate.”
New height of tension
Tensions between India and Pakistan have reached their highest point since the nations in 1998 tested nuclear bombs, joining the short list of countries possessing such weapons.
India has bristled as militants with alleged ties to Pakistan’s security service have conducted numerous attacks across the line of control. In December, for instance, an attack on the Indian parliament in New Delhi left eight people dead and also the five suicide attackers. More than 30,000 people have been killed over a decade of conflict.
“Progress is going to be measured day by day,” Fleischer said.