NEW DELHI: In a conciliatory gesture by the United States on the Kashmir issue, a Senior Clinton Administration official has conveyed to India that the dispute could best be solved through negotiations between India and Pakistan on the basis of the Simla Agreement.
The US, however, felt that the negotiations need to “take into account the wishes of the Kashmin people,”
The latest US position was conveyed in a letter by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Peter Tarn off to Indian Ambassador Siddhartha Shankar Ray last week.
Even as Tarn off sought to undo the damage caused recently by another senior US administration official, he mentioned that the US had for the past four decades consistently held that Jammu and Kashmir was “disputed territory.” Tarn off’s letter came in the wake of Ms.Robin Raphel’s statement that the US did not recognize the instrument of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India.
Tarn off said the Clinton Administration placed “considerable value” or Indo US relations and treated India as a friend with whom the US shared common democratic traditions and a “commitment to face the issues of the day in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.”
Stating that the US “always ‘supported India’s territorial integrity,” Tarn off said it was important that India and Pakistan narrow and ultimately resolve their differences over Kashmir through “pragmatic, food faith negotiations,”
“It is of course a historical fact that the parties to the dispute differ in their interpretations of the various documents resolutions and accords that address the Status of Kashmir.
Supporting the Rao Government’s effort to end the standoff at the Hazratbal mosque in Srinagar without further bloodshed, the senior US official reiterated his Government’s “firm commitment to strengthening our already good bilateral relations.”
Ray said he had appraised Mr.Tarn off of the storm Ms; Raphel’s remarks had caused in India and noted that the fallout was across the board.
“I told him that India wants good relations with the US, what dos the US want?” Where do we stand? Where do we go from here?”
Ray said tarn off had acknowledged that he could appreciate the fallout the remarks had caused “and he was very accommodating, very conciliatory.
‘The fact that he was written such a nice letter shows that the US is committed to having good relations with us.”
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was being taken around town’ by Embassy officials to meet with senior Administration officials and Congressional legislators to inform them of the proxy Pakistan was waging, against India in Kashmir. He said the only way he saw any end to the conflict’ was for Pakistan to hold onto its part of Kashmir and for India to hold on to its part of Kashmir and “for the people in Jammu and Kashmir to be given greater autonomy” but within an’ integrated and united India. Dr. Abdullah said the US could Wield pressure on Pakistan to stop fomenting the inaccuracy in Kashmir and warned that if this was not Stopped, a Situation similar to the. former Yugoslavia could result.
Dr. Abdullah said he was waiting for the day he could return “to the paradise on earth” that is Kashmir and take the displaced Pandits back with him.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 12, 1993
