Armitage begins US diplomatic drive over Kashmir

ISLAMABAD - United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrived in Pakistan yesterday as part of a fresh diplomatic initiative by Washington to prevent war between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

His visit follows an appeal by President George W. Bush asking the leaders of the two nuclear-armed rivals to step back from the abyss.

Armitage is scheduled to meet the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar before flying to New Delhi today to meet Indian leaders.

Bush telephoned Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. It raised the profile of an international diplomatic offensive to head off war as the US and Britain urged their citizens to leave the region.

India has an estimated 100 to 150 nuclear warheads; Pakistan 25 to 50.

The warring neighbours have massed a million troops, backed by armour and artillery, along their borders in their dispute over Kashmir. India demands that Pakistan ends incursions by Muslim guerrillas that have stoked a 12-year rebellion in Hindu-dominated India's only Muslim-majority state.

The two countries again exchanged machinegun and artillery fire yesterday.

"The President reiterated to President Musharraf that the US expects Pakistan to live up to the commitment Pakistan has made to end all support for terrorism. The President emphasised to Prime Minister Vajpayee the need for India to respond with de-escalatory steps," Fleischer said.

Pakistan earlier rejected an Indian proposal for joint patrols along the disputed mountain border in Kashmir to stem the infiltration of Pakistan-based militants.

A statement from Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said: "Given the state of Pakistan-India relations, mechanisms for joint patrolling are unlikely to work."

Vajpayee declined to meet Musharraf at a regional security meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, saying he would only do so once India saw a conclusive end to infiltration. Defence Minister George Fernandes said there were no signs of that so far.

"Whatever information has so far been coming, it does not indicate there has been any substantial or noticeable reduction in infiltration," Fernandes said.

Musharraf said Pakistan would try to avert war but would not allow anyone to tarnish Pakistan's "national prestige and honour".

"I have always said that our strategy is not only defensive; it is defensive-offensive," Musharraf said in defiant comments broadcast on Pakistani television.

"We, with the grace of the God Almighty, will not only defend - we will take the war across the border."

Fears that millions could be killed in the first atomic war between nuclear-armed states have prompted world leaders to step up diplomatic pressure to pull India and Pakistan back from the brink.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to follow Armitage to Pakistan and India in the next few days in a last-ditch effort to prevent the skirmishing from escalating into the fourth war between the old foes.

"The US has important relations with each of the two countries," Rumsfeld said in London after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"We have a stake in those two countries not setting themselves back," he said, adding that prolonged tensions between India and Pakistan could hurt the US war on terrorism.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said there were signs tensions between India and Pakistan were easing slightly, but it was too early for a summit between the two leaders.

There were indications that Musharraf's pledge to rein in militants in Kashmir would be carried out.

"I think we have seen a little bit of improvement but the tension is still very high," Powell said.

"This is still a very dangerous situation. It is still a crisis. But he added: "There is nothing inevitable about war."

An Indian defence official said the two armies this week traded fire from armoured vehicles across the border, the first such exchange. There were no reports of casualties, and no comment from Pakistani officials.

Thirteen people including nine rebels have been killed in fresh separatist violence in Indian Kashmir this week.

In Almaty, Vajpayee said Islamabad had to dismantle militant camps on the Pakistani side of the line. Pakistan maintains there is no infiltration across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir and has called for independent observers, such as United Nations monitors, to be allowed to verify this.

Graphic accounts in magazines on the aftermath of a nuclear strike and equally horrific discussions on television are driving the message home that India and Pakistan, their immediate neighbours and other Asian nations are on "nuclear notice".

A steady exodus of rich Indians abroad to the West has already begun, while others are beginning to migrate within India to the hilly regions, believing these places to be immune from a nuclear fallout.

"I'm petrified," said Malvika Rajkotia-Luthra, a leading New Delhi lawyer.

"I am beginning to wonder why I work and invest my money when it's all going to go up in smoke in a nuclear mushroom.

"But my primary concern is for my children and their future," she added as she made arrangements to leave for Simla, the former colonial summer capital.

But for a people ruled by karma, most are resigned to their fate should a nuclear war break out.

"If it is our kismet [destiny] to survive we will," housewife Shakuntla Devi said.

"If not, there is little we can do to change our destiny."

- REUTERS, HERALD CORRESPONDENT

Feature: The Kashmir conflict