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SRINAGAR (AFP) - Kashmiri leaders in Indian-controlled Kashmir held talks Tuesday with a French-led troika of European ambassadors visiting the troubled region on a fact-finding mission. Abdul Ghani Bhat, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference - an amalgam of two dozen Kashmiri parties - said the talks lasted more than an hour. "Obviously these were professional diplomats, but from what I could glean there is a change in attitude among foreign parties who are putting more stress on the need for a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir conflict," Bhat told AFP. "They agreed that the nuclearization of India and Pakistan made a swift and peaceful resolution even more critical," he added. The European team, led by French Ambassador Bernard de Montferrand, included the ambassadors of Belgium and Norway, as well as EC ambassador Michel Caillouet. "These sort of visits have become more important in the wake of recent statements by U.S. President Clinton that tensions in South Asia can be eased out not by war, but by a purposeful dialogue," Bhat said. The ambassadors also met Tuesday with leaders of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, who urged the envoys to increase international pressure on New Dehli to accept a trilateral peace dialogue involving India, the Kashmiri people and Pakistan. India has refused to resume a frozen dialogue with Pakistan until it ceases to sponsor what New Delhi describes as "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir. The ambassadors also met top police and civil officials, who insisted that Pakistan was the driving force behind the Muslim insurgency in Kashmir that has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989. |
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