WASHINGTON, March 8: There appears to be renewed American interest in the holding of free and fair elections in occupied Jammu and Kashmir as a step that can perhaps help in a settlement of the vexed Kashmir issue.
A senior administration official said on Thursday the United States would like to see fair elections in Kashmir in which everyone could participate, and he also underlined the need for leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to be able to travel wherever they wanted to go.
His reference obviously was to the last attempt made for talks between the Indian government and the Hurriyat which had broken down on New Delhi’s refusal to give permission to APHC leaders to visit Pakistan for consultations. They had also been prevented from travelling to Kathmandu recently for a South Asian peace conference.
The APHC has so far decided to boycott state elections in view of the heavy presence of Indian security forces which it considers to be intimidating and coercive, a position backed by Pakistan.
The senior official, who was briefing a group of South Asian journalists over lunch at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, replied to questions on “cross-border terrorism”, saying it was clear it had noticeably declined in recent weeks and said if this could be stopped and if India held free and fair elections in Kashmir, that ‘would be a start’. But the official reiterated the US stand that it was not willing to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue unless specifically asked to do so by both countries.
The American position is not likely to find an enthusiastic response in Pakistan, which feels that the Kashmir issue is being reduced to a problem of cross-border terrorism and state elections.
The administration official said the US had taken President Pervez Musharraf at his word on controlling cross-border activity. The general was an important ally and Washington would back him if he acted. But if Pakistan “plays games”, then there might be a problem.
The official said discussions were going on with both Pakistan and India on non-proliferation issues, including missile proliferation. He denied that there was any hitch in releasing military spare parts for US equipment already in Pakistan’s use. He said the procurement programme was proceeding according to agreement following the lifting of sanctions, and any delays encountered were merely procedural.
In reply to questions on the role of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and whether the US thought there were rogue elements in the organization, the senior official said he didn’t believe there were any such elements in the organization, which was part of the military administration and the military was under President Musharraf’s control. That didn’t mean that no officers in the military disagreed with the leadership, but there was no “rogue element” as such, the official stressed.
The general outlook for Pakistan-US relations was also briefly explored during the discussion with the senior official and the point was raised that the new warmth in ties was based on the Sept 11 incidents. If there had been no Sept 11, then perhaps Washington’s relations with Islamabad would have continued as they were.
The official said relations had begun to turn even before Sept 11, and after Pakistan’s decision to make a strategic change in policies, the US was now looking for a broad-based relationship, encompassing cooperation in education, trade, market access, technology cooperation and training for military officials. But he agreed with the proposition that Pakistan should gain internal strength to be able to retain long-term outside interest in its development.