India Considers Joint Monitoring Of Kashmir Border

June 5, 2002
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said Wednesday that India would consider jointly monitoring the disputed Kashmir border with its longtime rival Pakistan. In what could be a major step to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, Vajpayee said India and Pakistan should work together to patrol the Kashmir border and verify Islamic militants were no longer crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir to launch attacks.

"Joint patrolling can be held by India and Pakistan," Vajpayee said in a news conference in Altmaty, Kazakhstan that was shown live on Indian television. "There can be joint verification, but there is no need for third-party verification."

Vajpayee was referring to reports that Britain and the United States have offered to help monitor the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan province between the South Asian neighbors.

India and Pakistan have been on a war footing since December, with about 1 million troops deployed along their tense frontier.

The international community has been scrambling to avert a potential fourth war between India and Pakistan as fears of a nuclear confrontation have escalated.

"We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of cooperation," Vajpayee said Wednesday.

The prime minister spoke just before leaving Kazakhstan, where he attended an Asian security conference with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and leaders from 14 other nations, including Russia and China.

There were hopes that Musharraf and Vajpayee would have one-to-one talks at the forum, but the Indian leader declined, insisting dialogue would only resume after cross-border terrorism has ended.

"Indian citizens want that terrorism should stop and if these steps can be done through peaceful ways, then people will be happy," Vajpayee said. "Pakistan was not ready to stop cross-border terrorism. They are ready now — at least they say they are."

The prime minister said 3,000 Islamic militants were being trained in Pakistan-based militant camps, preparing to join the 12-year insurgency for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan. At least 60,000 people have died, most of them civilians, since the insurgency was launched in 1989.

"Once infiltration stops, terrorist camps are dismantled across the border and verification is done, we can consider other steps that will take us toward de-escalation," Vajpayee said.

It was the first indication in the latest standoff that India was willing to cooperate with Pakistan to find a solution to the dispute that dates back to independence from Britain in 1947.

"We are not against dialogue, but cross-border terrorism must end," Vajpayee said. "Pakistan claims that infiltration has stopped. We want to test the Pakistani claim."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/06/05/joint-monitoring.htm