US keeping eye on border situation: Rocca fears accidental war
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, April 10: The United States is closely watching the India-Pakistan border because it remains seriously worried about an accidental war breaking out between the nuclear foes, US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Speaking to a few journalists at the US Embassy after a round of meetings with Indian officials, Rocca responded to a query about President Pervez Musharraf’s reported threat to use nuclear weapons against India, by saying: “We’ve urged both countries to moderate the rhetoric, and we continue to make that point.”
Rocca was asked to comment on General Musharraf’s plan to hold a referendum later this month to legitimize his rule. She responded: “We favour and support a full return to a democratic system in Pakistan. The issue of referendum, its legality, is for the people of Pakistan and the courts to decide.”
She also admitted that the situation in Afghanistan was volatile ahead of a transition to a formal government in Kabul, but said Washington never thought that the move was going to be easy. “We hope to see the Loya Jirga takes place peacefully,” she said. The traditional Afghan council is expected to set the course for either the confirmation of Hamid Karzai’s government or to suggest an alternative when its term expires in June.
Stating that the India-US “relationship and cooperation is solid”, Rocca also rejected reports that the Pakistan government was not giving hundred per cent to the battle against Al Qaeda within its own boundaries. “These reports are erroneous. We are getting full cooperation from the government of Pakistan,” Rocca said.
Earlier, Christina Rocca, the seniormost US pointperson for South Asia in the State Department, met External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and discussed the entire range of bilateral issues and ways to further strengthen Indo-US relations.
During their hour-long interaction, Rocca, who flew in from Islamabad on Tuesday, briefed Singh on her talks with Gen Musharraf in the context of the three-month-long military stand-off between India and Pakistan and the progress in the global campaign against terrorism.
She also met Indian Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer and had extensive parleys with her Indian counterpart Jayant Prasad, Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry.
Rocca has held talks with India’s Special Envoy on Afghanistan S.K. Lambah and senior MEA officials dealing with Nepal on the situation in the Himalayan Kingdom, which has been rocked by intensified Maoist violence.
The US official had to abruptly cut-short her visit last month and rush to Islamabad from Agra ahead of her official engagements in New Delhi in the wake of a grenade attack on a church that claimed five lives including two Americans and left at least 45 injured.
Rocca also confirmed that India and the United States would have a politico-military dialogue in New Delhi on April 30 on a range of issues including global war on terrorism and the country’s security situation.
As part of the dialogue, there will be an exchange of views on security challenges in Asia and strategic priorities and US armed licensing processes and procedures, sources in External Affairs Ministry said. US Assistant Secretary of State Link Bloomfield will participate in the dialogue.
Meanwhile, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought the FBI’s help in the extradition of 20 wanted criminals and terrorists that New Delhi says are sheltered in Pakistan.
The request was conveyed to Rocca by CBI Director P.C. Sharma at a meeting in New Delhi.
Official sources claimed Sharma pointed out to Rocca that as terrorism was acknowledged as an international problem, the US should help India and its agencies in getting the 20 criminals and terrorists from Pakistan.
Amidst newspaper reports that FBI had seized some documents including a railway ticket of suspected hijackers from a house in Kabul during the US-led raids on Taliban, the CBI director also asked her that the US agencies might wish to share with CBI or any other agency of India the information gathered by them by interrogating several persons in Afghanistan and by conducting probe there.—JN
