Leaders must meet to push for peace

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh (R) gestures as he chats with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri as they meet at the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), a forum of 22 Asian foreign ministers, in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao, 21 June 2004. The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met 21 June for the time since the new Indian government was sworn in last month, embracing before and after a two hour meeting. PHOTO: AFP

Kasuri, who met Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh for the first time Monday, said it was essential that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf hold talks with new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The leaders of the two countries have to meet," he said.

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"We have to find a solution which they can both live with and which lives up to the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.

"I'm not talking of concessions, I'm talking of a statesman-like resolution of the dispute in which everybody wins, most importantly the people of Jammu and Kashmir, apart from the people of India and Pakistan."

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir and came to the brink of a fourth in 2002 but were pulled back by frantic international diplomacy.

India accuses Pakistan of fomenting an Islamic revolt in Indian-administered Kashmir that officials say has claimed more than 40,000 lives since it erupted in 1989. Separatist groups in Kashmir say the toll is at least 80,000.

Islamabad denies the charge but says it gives moral support to what it calls a "legitimate Kashmiri freedom struggle."

The two sides began a fragile peace process in April 2003 when India's then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee offered a "hand of friendship."

In February, the two countries resumed bilateral talks on all issues including Kashmir after Pakistan pledged not to let its territory be a base for "terrorism."

Kasuri said involving the people of Kashmir in the peace process was the road to successfully resolving the dispute.

Asked by reporters what prospects he saw for peace in the war-ravaged region, he replied: "We want durable peace. The sooner we involve the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the peace process, the better it will be.

Meanwhile, after successful weekend talks on reducing nuclear confrontation, India and Pakistan were preparing yesterday to discuss the sharing of water from rivers in disputed Kashmir.

With the peace process between the arch rivals gathering momentum, a Pakistani team arrived in New Delhi yesterday for the talks beginning today, an official from the federal water resources ministry said.

The dispute over water in Kashmir has only arisen in the past few years, after India announced plans to build dams on the Jhelum River, which feeds into Pakistan.