The Hindu Business Line : Colombo Conference: Initiatives on Kashmir peace

The Government’s unwillingness to assert that there can be no troop reduction in J&K unless Pakistan’s terror infrastructure is dismantled, gives the impression that New Delhi can be persuaded to move ahead with redeployments.

G. Parthasarathy

Colonel V. Vasant and his radio operator Lance-Naik Ganapat Shashikant were gunned down while thwarting terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control in the Uri Sector of North Kashmir on July 31. Their deaths are mourned by all those who are moved by the sacrifices of our men in uniform. Our ruling political class, however, appears to be too busy empathising with the families of suspected terrorists, to take note of such sacrifices.

On the same day as the infiltration bid, a Pakistan national Abdul Wahab was arrested in Kathmandu airport while disembarking from a flight from Karachi. Wahab was carrying counterfeit Indian currency amounting to Rs 1 crore in five hundred and one thousand rupee notes. The Nepal police described Wahab as being part of an “organised network” smuggling counterfeit Indian currency from Pakistan. Barely two days earlier six people, including four Gujarati tourists, were killed and 26 injured in a terrorist bomb blast in Srinagar. Terrorism across our borders remains rooted in the Pakistani psyche.

These incidents occurred just after a Conference on Confidence Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir organised by the Nobel Prize winning Pugwash Conference.

Demilitarisation moves

The Colombo Conference was attended by senior political figures from all mainstream political parties in J&K, including the Congress, PDP, National Conference and the BJP, as well as a number of prominent separatist politicians. There was similar high-level participation from POK led by the former “Prime Minister” of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. Delegates from the Northern Areas (NA) also participated in the Conference.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has remained non-committal on demands for “demilitarisation” in Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in a widespread impression that he is not averse to early troop reductions as a gesture of “goodwill”. In Colombo, participants from some of the regional parties joined the separatists from the Hurriyat Conference, making a strong demand for “demilitarisation” and an immediate pullout of troops from urban centres such as Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramulla. Those representing national parties, including the Congress and the BJP, did not favour any precipitate withdrawal or reduction of forces.

Further, demands for troop reductions and removal from urban areas were largely from parties from the Kashmir Valley. People from the Jammu and Ladakh Region held very different views. A representative from POK held that it was ridiculous for the Pakistan President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to talk of “self-governance” as POK was effectively ruled by the bureaucracy and military from Islamabad, with “four families” enacting a charade of legitimacy. A recent report of the European Parliament, which had drawn attention to the absence of democratic freedoms in both POK and NA, was alluded to.

The unwillingness of the Manmohan Singh Government to categorically assert that there can be no meaningful redeployments or reduction of troops in J&K unless Pakistan’s infrastructure of terrorism is fully dismantled, is leading to the belief that New Delhi can be persuaded that it will move ahead with redeployments.

Ambiguity

Participants in the Conference suggested that the Manmohan Singh Government had hinted earlier this year to the Pakistan Government that troop reductions and redeployments in major towns in the Kashmir Valley were distinct possibilities, once the Himalayan snows melted.

Astonishingly, it has not been clearly understood that should “demilitarisation” be undertaken now, urban centres would be taken over by armed jihadis, who can then be evicted only in messy urban warfare, with heavy loss of civilian lives. At the same time, legitimate complaints from people of the armed forces having bunkered themselves in apple orchards, schools and other buildings will have to be addressed, by early redeployment in other locations.

One of the major achievements of the dialogue process on Jammu and Kashmir has been the opening of routes like the Srinagar-Muzzafarabad bus service. But here, again, the initiative has been so badly implemented, by introducing restrictive procedures making travel across the LOC virtually impossible, that New Delhi has only earned the wrath of people in Kashmir and exposed itself to justifiable Pakistani and international criticism about the wide chasm between its professions and practices.

In Colombo, detailed statistics were provided to show that the Srinagar-Muzzafarabad bus went practically empty because of absurd procedures introduced by our intelligence agencies that have little relation to reality. Surely a person travelling by the bus is hardly in a position to carry AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers or RDX. And subversion can be as easily achieved electronically, as by personal contacts. What purpose is, then, served by preventing travel across the LOC, contravening the entire spirit of what Dr Manmohan Singh has asserted?

A Working Group headed by former Foreign Secretary, Mr M. K. Rasgotra, has made a number of recommendations on simplifying procedures for two-way travel across the LOC.

These measures, though somewhat conservative, and moves to open new routes and permit exchanges of students, professionals, journalists and academics across the LOC need to be undertaken soon, if the Government is to retain credibility about its seriousness in implementing its stated policies. Similar measures for facilitating trade across the LOC need to be imaginatively pursued in consultation with the Chambers of Commerce concerned.

The Colombo Conference demonstrated the lack of imagination of our security agencies, which permit people to receive telephone calls from across the LOC, but ban calls from our side of the LOC, at a time when terrorists can easily use SIM cards issued in Pakistan along the LOC and when hundreds of satellite phones are now used in J&K. Perhaps those dealing with national security need to be reminded that we are not living in the Stone Age, but in the electronic age!

Anxiety in Colombo

Sri Lanka, now a haven for Indian tourists and unquestionably one of our friendliest neighbours, was a wonderful venue for a Conference to promote the peace process in J&K. But there is an undercurrent of anxiety and fear in Colombo, with apprehensions that the LTTE is set to strike after its losses in the Eastern province and moves by the Government to prepare for the use of military force to oust the terrorist outfit from its northern strongholds. Experiences worldwide suggest, however, that there are no military solutions to festering political sores. Credible measures on devolution of power are essential for peace to return to the strife-torn island.

While the Tamils in Sri Lanka are divided on many issues, there is virtual unanimity within Tamil Political and Civil Society organisations that President Rajapakse’s proposals for devolution to District Councils cannot be a basis for a settlement that addresses legitimate Tamil aspirations.

New Delhi will diplomatically have to act together with other international players to persuade Colombo to move forward in undertaking a serious quest for a political solution. Only then will the common purpose of isolating the separatist LTTE and eroding its political base be achieved.

(The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)