Posted on 04/19/2003 6:34:10 AM PDT by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Saturday it was willing to go more than half-way to hold talks with India and said discussions could cover all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri was responding to an offer for talks by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday, a breakthrough in the tense relations between the two countries, which almost went to war last year.
He told Reuters that Vajpayee's statement in Srinagar on Saturday reiterating the need for peace was significant because it showed his remarks were "well thought out" and not just "off-the-cuff".
"When you say where do we go from here, our position is very clear. We are prepared for a composite dialogue with India on all outstanding disputes including the Kashmir dispute," Kasuri said in a telephone conversation from Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
"If India is serious about a dialogue, India will find that Pakistan is willing to go more than half the way to meet India."
Kasuri was in Riyadh on an official visit and was speaking soon after Vajpayee told students in Srinagar that the region was at a turning point and that peace was in the offing.
"I think what we have to do is to accept each other's declarations at face value, that both of us want a peaceful resolution of this dispute, and that it cannot be solved by just wishing it away," Kasuri said.
Kashmir has bedevilled ties between India and Pakistan since the two countries were born out of British colonial India in 1947. They have twice gone to war over Kashmir.
A separatist movement in Kashmir has killed at least 38,000 people since 1989. India says the rebels are trained, financed and armed by Pakistan but Islamabad says it only gives the movement moral support.
On Friday, Vajpayee called for talks with Pakistan over the war-torn Himalayan region and Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali welcomed the statement.
Kashmir Infiltration
Vajpayee did not spell out how or where talks would be held with Pakistan and under what conditions.
New Delhi in the past insisted that Islamabad must end infiltration of militants from across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
"As far as the government of Pakistan is concerned it is very serious in implementing the promises that President Pervez Musharraf had given to the international community," Kasuri said.
"And with that end in view, some (militant) parties are banned, the collection of funds in (training) camps was also stopped by the government," he added, referring to Kashmiri militant groups.
He said even the United States could not effectively monitor movement across its border with Canada or Mexico.
"What do they expect us to do? We have gone an extra mile, we are prepared to accept any international monitoring on both sides of the Line of Control. This is an offer I am making.
"We are serious about stopping cross-border activity as much as we can, but for it to completely stop, we have to give hope to people who have become so hopeless that they are prepared to give up their lives and I am talking about the people of Kashmir," Kasuri added.
He said India had hundreds of thousands of troops in Kashmir and about 250,000 troops on the Line of Control.
"That means for every three metres there is an Indian soldier. If they can't stop it, what Aladdin's lamp have we got... that we can stop every move?" he said.
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