-Caveat Lector-
India, Pakistan close to the edge
By Ben Barber
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Fighting in Kashmir raged unabated yesterday in spite of
President Clinton's intervention on the weekend, and analysts say
the peacemaking effort may have served only to destablilize the
government in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
"The crisis has only just begun," said Stephen Cohen, a former
White House official and expert on Pakistan's military who is
currently with the Brookings Institution.
"Pakistan's army thinks that having nuclear weapons equalizes its
relations [with the larger and more powerful India] and therefore
they can push and poke the Indians without a full war breaking
out.
"They are dancing close to the edge."
By pledging to Mr. Clinton Sunday at Blair House that he would
withdraw 700 Islamic fighters from Indian-held territory,
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ignited fierce
criticism at home and raised the perennial question of whether
the government controls the army or vice-versa.
In Washington, Pakistan
Embassy spokesman Malik
Zahoor Ahmad obliquely raised
the specter of nuclear war
yesterday, saying Mr. Sharif's
visit had been intended to
"eliminate the risk of a fourth war
between India and Pakistan."
-- Continued from Front Page --
"As nuclear powers, both
[India and Pakistan] have a
responsibility to resolve all
disputes and not slide into a
conflict that could have dangerous
consequences for both countries,"
he said in an interview.
Mr. Cohen and many other
observers of Pakistan say its
British-style army remains a
power independent of the civilian
government. They also note that
the more restrained army chief of
staff, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, was
replaced in October with Gen.
Parvez Musharraf, a former
special forces officer with a more
aggressive attitude.
Mr. Ahmad, however, insisted
the army was under civilian
control. He also denied that
Pakistan had control over the
militant invaders and rejected
Indian claims that they included
Pakistani troops.
The Indians "have not proved
anything," he said, insisting that
the fighters who are holed up and
resisting fierce Indian air, artillery
and infantry attacks were mainly
native Kashmiris. He said Mr.
Sharif would try to withdraw any
Pakistani militants among them.
Pakistan's army chief was
quoted in a Pakistani newspaper
yesterday as saying the
government would ask the 1,500
to 2,000 "Kashmiri freedom
fighters" to withdraw, but that the
final decision would be theirs.
"It still has to be seen what
their answer will be," Gen.
Musharraf told the Urdu-language
Jang newspaper.
Indian army spokesman Col.
Bikram Singh said yesterday there
were "no indications on the
ground" that any of the infiltrators
were withdrawing.
Instead, a hail of artillery fire
from Pakistan thundered over the
16,000-foot peaks along the Line
of Control dividing Kashmir
between India and Pakistan.
An oil tanker truck was hit and
exploded while plying the steep
zig-zagging road through the
evacuated town of Kargil, on its
way to supply isolated towns and
army posts as remote as Ladakh,
Indian officials said.
The attack halted a 4-mile-long
column of supply trucks. India
needs to bring fuel, food and
other supplies to the remote
region during the few summer
months when the road is free of
snow.
If India was stymied in its
efforts to oust the Muslim fighters
from their caves and bunkers atop
the ridges overlooking Kargil,
Pakistan was feeling instability
from the region's fighting.
The major Islamic
fundamentalist party,
Jamaat-I-Islami, called for street
protests yesterday to oppose Mr.
Sharif's pledge to Mr. Clinton to
end the fighting and to reject any
withdrawal from Kashmir.
The party, which has no seats
in parliament, failed to muster
large crowds, but analysts said
Pakistan's civilian government
may face a bigger threat from its
own army.
Mr. Cohen said he believed
the Pakistan army sparked the
fighting because it wanted to
force India to discuss Kashmir at
meetings such as a February
summit in Lahore.
A prominent South Asian
diplomat agreed, saying, "This
fighting will show that unless we
discuss Kashmir, nothing can be
achieved."
The fighting in Kashmir began
in early May when India launched
a massive military operation to
evict armed militias who had
crossed the disputed border and
set up heavily armed mountain
bunkers on the Indian side.
According to official Indian
figures, 283 Indian soldiers have
been killed since the fighting
began, compared with 542 on the
other side.
Meanwhile, India and Pakistan
traded charges of abducting their
respective embassy employees in
New Delhi and Islamabad.
The Pakistan High
Commission claimed two of its
staffers, Rao Akhtar Hussain and
Mohammed Boota, were seized
late Monday from a shopping
complex by Indian intelligence
agents.
India said one of its employees
at its embassy in Islamabad was
abducted by Pakistani intelligence
agents near his house in front of
his wife.
U.S. efforts to defuse the
situation have been "too little, too
late," said Mr. Cohen.
"It's crisis diplomacy. We
should have been involved earlier.
Instead we were too involved in
treaties and the [Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty] while
President Clinton was distracted
with other events."
Copyright © 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
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Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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