The Hindu : U.S. Senator for accelerating peace process

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 26, 2003

International

International - India & World

U.S. Senator for accelerating peace process

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JULY 25. Welcoming the recent thaw in India-Pakistan relations, a senior member of the United States Congress has called for acceleration of the peace process even while making it known that a solution to the problems is not going to be an easy one.

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa pointed to the latest killing of 16 persons in Kashmir as one that demonstrated the "urgency of the situation" and called upon the leaders of India and Pakistan "to accelerate the pace of discussion".

Mr. Harkin was one of the hosts of a conference on Kashmir organised by the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers and the Kashmir American Council headed by Ghulam Nabi Fai.

He recalled the Sense of Senate Resolution he introduced in 1998 urging the U.S. Government to promote peace and stability in South Asia and assist in the normalisation of relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. 0"I pointed out that Kashmir is considered by many international security experts as a nuclear flashpoint. There have been missed opportunities to realise peace and we have, unfortunately, lost an entire generation. Till this issue is resolved, no one in the South Asian continent is secure. I am hopeful that the leaders of India and Pakistan will seize the moment at hand to take concrete steps for the resolution of the conflict," Mr. Harkin said.

"I know a solution will not be easy but continued dialogue will help move this process forward and despite many setbacks, a peaceful solution can and will be found... resolving this conflict will, first and foremost, benefit the people in the region. It will also benefit the United States and the rest of the global community," he added.

Congressman Joseph Pitts, who co-hosted the conference — boycotted by official India — stressed that the goal of the meeting was to explore the varying perspectives of the Kashmir issue and avenues of dialogue and other means for peaceful resolution of the conflict.

"The tension over Kashmir needs to be resolved sooner rather than later, not only, and importantly, to end the humanitarian suffering but also to end opportunities for mavericks on any side of the issue to continue the violence for their own ends. The current increase in terrorism around the world with extremists in various religions manipulating those religions for their own ends makes it imperative that a solution to the tensions over the Kashmir conflict be found," Mr. Pitts said.

The Pakistani perception was put forth by its Ambassador to the U.S., Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who said that a peace process was not a "status quo process" and that long-standing impasses of "vexed" problems such as Jammu and Kashmir could not be pronounced as their own solutions.

"A peace process is a process of acceptable change. If one side refuses to accept this it will signal its lack of interest in a peace process even if it continues to rhetorically assert an interest in peace. If, on the contrary, both countries agree to work towards mutually acceptable change they can change the world for their peoples and help realise the fabulous potential of South Asia," he said.

One of the prominent Indians participating in a private capacity was Rajmohan Gandhi, now at the University of Illinois, who stressed that the conference should also address the violence and terrorism in Kashmir. He said the Kashmir issue should be seen in political, not religious terms. In welcoming the initiatives of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, he called for the involvement of the Kashmiri people as well.

Critical of the evolving tendencies in India which were serious, troubling and threatening to change the environment of the country, Mr. Gandhi said there could be no forward movement unless the Governments of India and Pakistan address the issue of growing religious intolerance.

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