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Armitage
said Musharraf assured him "if there were camps they would be
gone tomorrow"
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Additional
reporting by Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
May 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As India turned down
Thursday, May 8, its proposal for a nuclear-free South Asia, Islamabad
ruled out the existence of any camps in Pakistan-controlled Kashmiri
training Kashmiris fighting Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking
at a news conference following his talks with Pakistani officials,
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said President Pervez
Musharraf has given him an "absolute assurance that there is
nothing happening across the Line of Control."
He
added that Musharraf told him there were no militant training camps in
Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, as India alleges and that "if there
were camps they would be gone tomorrow."
India
has been alleging that Pakistan-backed fighters were trained in these
camps before being pushed into Kashmir.
These
camps, as alleged by New Delhi, were located on the Pakistani side of
the bloody Line of Control which divides Pakistani and Indian parts of
Kashmir.
Pakistan
has always denied existence of such camps and ruled out any role in
anti-India movement going on in Kashmir since late 80s.
Armitage,
who held separate sessions with Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah
Jamali and the foreign minister during his two-day visit, acknowledged
that cross border infiltration into Indian-controlled Kashmir was
going down.
"The
infiltration and the cross-border violence and the lethality are down
from this time last year," he told the news conference.
To
a question on Iraq, the U.S. envoy said he was confident that weapons
of mass destruction were hidden somewhere inside Iraq.
"We're
absolutely confident of our information," Armitage said.
"Never
have I seen intelligence agencies in my government, and by the way
allied governments, so united on any one issue as ... the presence of
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq", he claimed.
Armitage
along with other senior U.S. officials including Assistant State
Secretary Christina Rocca, are in the region to hold discussion with
the leaders of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Sri lank on regional
and bilateral issues.
In
Pakistan and India, Armitage is to augment the process of lowering
regional tensions which was kicked off Friday, May 2, by Indian Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who announced the restoration
of full diplomatic relations and air links with Pakistan as part of
his “efforts to leave a legacy of peace with Pakistan”.
“We
are committed to the improvement of relations with Pakistan and are
willing to grasp every opportunity for doing so,” Vajepayee told the
Indian parliament.
Reciprocating
the Indian gesture, Jamali announced Tuesday, May 6, his country would
soon resume all air, rail and bus links with New Deli.
He
asserted that "encouraged by the recent positive developments and
in order to set a stage for meaningful dialogue with India",
Islamabad decided to take a series of confidence-building measures.
But
past experience of such talks only prove the two sides, even willing
to talk need encouragement from the U.S. to think more positively in
terms of increasing the prospects of peace talk.
No
Nuclear Disarmament
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"Pakistan's
nuclear program is India-specific, but our own nuclear program
goes beyond that," Vajpayee said
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Vajpayee,
however, turned down Thursday Pakistan's proposal for a nuclear-free
South Asia and said the Iraq war and political changes in Kashmir
prompted the two rival neighbors towards amity.
"Pakistan's
nuclear program is India-specific, but our own nuclear program goes
beyond that," he claimed.
"Our
concern is about other nations as well ... Our nuclear doctrine is of
no-first-use while Pakistan has no such provision but they call for a
no-war pact," he told parliament, which was debating new peace
overtures with Islamabad.
The
two South Asian rivals conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May
1998, sparking concerns in the international community that their
animosities over Kashmir could lead to a catastrophic exchange of
weapons of mass destruction.
Musharraf
said Sunday, May 3, that if the dispute over Kashmir were resolved
"and there is peace and security in the region, South Asia could
be de-nuclearised, mutually by India and Pakistan".
Vajpayee
said the recent U.S.-led war in Iraq and the September-October
landmark elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir were two issues that
spurred the neighbors to end their military hostility.
"The
elections in Kashmir were a watershed and then came the war in Iraq
after the United Nations was made impotent and so smaller nations,
developing nations and non-aligned nations now must think of their
future.
"The
elections and the war appear to be separate issues but they are
interlinked. The world today is surrounded by new perils and there
would have been trouble had we not decided to go ahead (with peace
overtures)," he said.
"But
I assure you we will be cautious in every step we take as we are now
experienced," he said.
India
and Pakistan have fought two of three wars over Kashmir and came
dangerously close to a fourth war in 1999 when alleged Pakistan-backed
forces occupied strategic peaks in the disputed Himalayan state.
Indian
legislators earlier Thursday voiced support for peace overtures with
Pakistan but cautioned against hasty bilateral talks, as the
opposition alleged the government initiative was caused by foreign
pressure.
