June 11, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1423

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LUXEMBOURG, June 10: European Union governments on Monday promised to help defuse the immediate crisis between India and Pakistan and said they would also support efforts to achieve a lasting resolution of the two countries’ differences.

In a rare public criticism of India, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg also called on India to improve its human rights performance in Kashmir.

An all-out conflict between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India would have “devastating consequences for the region and beyond,” warned Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique. Spain currently heads the EU.

Using unusually strong language, EU ministers said President Pervez Musharraf must take “visible, decisive and verifiable” steps to seal the Line of Control, stop supplying arms and equipment to militants and restrain their activities in Kashmir.

Islamabad was also asked to close militant training camps on the Pakistani side of the LoC.

But for the first time in recent months, EU governments also told India to “take steps to improve its human rights record” in Kashmir and said planned elections in the territory must be “free and inclusive.”