WASHINGTON, Oct 28: Scholars at a seminar on Monday described Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as “a real statesman” who wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully.

Speaking at a gathering of American and Pakistani scholars, diplomats and journalists at the Brookings Institute, they urged the United States to play a more active role in resolving disputes between India and Pakistan, including the core issue of Kashmir.

“The US should be taking more active role for solving the Kashmir problem,” Dr Rodney W. Jones, who heads a local think-tank, Policy Architect International, told the seminar.

He described Kashmir as “the most dangerous place on earth” and said even a conventional war there could lead to a disaster in South Asia as India and Pakistan were equipped with nuclear weapons.

“Though, recently they have shown some flexibility, they have not changed their basic positions,” said Dr Jones. In this situation, he said, international mediation was needed to make them accommodate each other.

He said Kashmir’s economy had not collapsed because “the Indian military is up there, spending money. But that’s not exactly a natural economy.”

Dr Jones said the end of the cold war and the US-led war on terrorism had weakened Pakistan’s position on Kashmir, as the international community no longer supported armed struggles for freedom.

He reviewed various options available to resolve the Kashmir dispute, such as dividing the valley between India and Pakistan with the Chenab river separating the two sides.

Dr Jones urged India and Pakistan to involve Kashmiris in discussions about their fate, as he believed that no solution would be durable without involving them.

Agreeing with Dr Jones, a scholar of South Asian affairs, Prof Marvin Weinbaum, said that unless the Kashmir issue was resolved, there would always be a danger that a conventional war in South Asia could lead to a nuclear conflict.

“The US role last time, when troops were deployed eyeball-to-eyeball, on the Pakistan-India borders, was highly valuable in dampening down the war tempers, but this time, the US will need a new set of rules to calm both India and Pakistan,” he said.

Political reality, he said, required India to make symbolic concessions to Pakistan. “President Pervez Musharraf is correct when he says that Pakistan can hardly do anything more,” said Prof Weinbaum.

He said it was imperative that India made offers that would give Pakistan a chance to reciprocate. “The initiative rests with New Delhi.”

The international community, he said, wanted peace and hoped that both India and Pakistan would realize that they had to make concessions to each other to resolve the problem.