|
|
|
| April 2, 2002 | Tuesday | Muharram 18,1423 |
Musharraf tells India not to treat Pakistan as ‘scum’
NEW DELHI, April 1: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday warned India against treating his country like “scum” and called for a UN role in de-escalating military tensions which left the South Asian nuclear rivals on a war-footing.
In a lengthy interview with the Hindu newspaper, Musharraf blamed Indian intransigence for the continued border face-off and confessed he could see no way out of the current impasse.
India and Pakistan have massed hundreds of thousands of troops on their common border since an attack on the Indian parliament in December which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.
India has ruled out any immediate troop withdrawal, saying Pakistan must first curb “cross-border terrorism” and hand over 20 alleged criminals named in an Indian government list.
Musharraf slammed India’s attitude as “offensive” and said Pakistan would never accept being treated “like dirt, as if we are some kind of scum, a very weak country which cannot handle itself.”
India has justified its tough stance as part of the international war against terrorism — a position Musharraf described as unacceptable.
“Neither are we Afghanistan nor should India think it is the United States,” he warned.
“We don’t crawl. We’re not going to crawl,” he added.
Musharraf also called for a UN force to be deployed on the disputed Indo-Pakistan border in divided Kashmir to determine the validity of India’s claims that Islamabad was continuing to sponsor cross-border terrorism.
“Let the United Nations force be the judge. Certainly, we won’t like the Indians to be the judge.”
The president said Islamabad had done everything it possibly could to de-escalate the current tensions, including initiating a crackdown on extremist groups, but had yet to receive any positive response from the Indian side.
“I really don’t know where to go from here,” he said, while adding that Islamabad remained committed to finding a peaceful way out of the current crisis.
“But if India thinks I am saying so because it is going to bleed us, they are sadly mistaken,” he said.
“You want to stay one year or two years or five years on the border, we are prepared to stay five years on the border.”
The Pakistani leader said both countries had come dangerously close to war early this year, before he announced a crackdown on alleged religious extremists in a landmark speech on Jan 12.
“There was a stage when the intention and the capability was also there. That was a critical time,” he said.
The spiralling tensions had sparked off worldwide fears of a nuclear conflict and brought a large number of western leaders to the region, including British Prime Minister Tony