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Musharraf goes anti-India at General Assembly

A day after US President George W Bush incorporated thinly veiled warnings to Pakistan in his address to the United Nations, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf stepped up the intensity of his anti-India tirade in course of his own address to the UN General Assembly.

Accusing India of commiting "state terrorism" in Jammu and Kashmir and asking New Delhi to "stop deceit" on the issue, Musharraf clubbed the Kashmir issue with disputes in Palestine, Bosnia and Kosovo and said "lack of progress in resolution" of these disputes created "a sense of hopelessness" among the people of those regions.

Musharraf alleged that Indian "security forces killed over 75,000 Kashmiris "attributing these killings to foreign terrorists. It is time India must stop this deceit."

Addressing the 56th session of the UN General Assembly, Musharraf argued that UN resolutions on Kashmir have remained unimplemented and "the question is whether it is people asking for their rights in accordiance with the UN resolutions are to be called terrorists or whether it is the countries refusing to implement UN resolutions who are perpetrating state terrorism."

Alluding to militancy in Kashmir as a "liberation struggle," Musharraf said while terrorism is to be condemned, "the world must not trample on the rights of the people and their struggle for liberation. A just and honourable solution to Kashmir and Palestine disputes are major burning issues," he said.

Answering his own rhetorical question on the genesis of terrorism, Musharraf told the UNGA, "To my mind it is the unresolved political disputes the world over: disputes in Bosnia, Kosova, Palestine and other places. Unfortunately all these disputes involve Muslims, and more sadly Muslims happen to be the victims in all, which tends to give a religious tinge to these otherwise political disputes. Lack of progress in resolution has created in them a sense of deprivation, hoplessness and powerlessness," he said.

A day earlier, in an obvious reference to Pakistan's dubbing of terrorism in Kashmir as a freedom struggle, US President George Bush told the General Assembly that neither national aspirations, nor remembered wrongs, can justify any form of terrorism. "Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends, will know the consequences," Bush warned in course of his speech.

Musharraf, meanwhile, told the General Assembly that Pakistan was ready to enter into a bilateral treaty with India for mutural ban on testing of nuclear devices.

"Pakistan is ready to discuss with India nuclear and missile restraint as well as nuclear risk reduction measures in a structured, comprehensive and integrated dialogue. We are ready to formalise a bilateral treaty with India for mutual test ban," he said.

In course of a press conference following his speech, Musharraf told the media that "Pakistan remains ready for resumption of a dialogue with India, and I look forward to restarting the process."

Accusing India of having gone back on a settlement at the Agra summit, he said "One can't clap with one hand."

"You ask exactly the same question to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee," he told a questioner who wanted to know why the two countries were not talking to each other. Musharraf said it was upto Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who have been invited to visit Pakistan, to make the trip.

President Bush for his part told the media, in course of a joint media conference with President Musharraf late on Saturday, that "We had a very good discussion on this subject (of resumption of Indo-Pak talks), and I assured the Pakistan President that my country will do what we can to bring parties together, to have good, meaningful discussion on Kashmir so that we can come up with a solution."

The US meanwhile indicated that it was not considering the release of F-16s to Pakistan, despite Musharraf's public request.

Musharraf, in an interview with The New York Times published yesterday, said he hoped for "gestures" from US President George W Bush in response to Islamabad's cooperation in the US-led war on terrorism.

Musharraf specifically said he hoped for the release of US F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan when it was an ally against the Soviet Union and then withheld because of the country's development of nuclear weapons.

"It is highly unlikely they will ask, and it's not under consideration," a senior US official in the Bush Administration told the media, hours before Bush and Musharraf were to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Agencies

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