[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (5 June 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #1
5 June 2000

------------------------------------------

#1. A thousand British women are trapped inside forced marriages in Pakistan
#2. India: How to rewrite history, RSS-style
#3. India: Hinduva Jerks plan Jaipur-Ayodhya yatra
#4. India: Date for Ram temple construction to be decided in Jan 2001
#5. Time for Alternatives to Violence in Kashmir

__________________________

#1.

Independent | news | World
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Asia_China/2000-05/pakistanmarry3105=
00.s
html
31 May 2000

On the run in Pakistan
A thousand British women are trapped inside forced marriages in Pakistan.
But the most surprising thing is what the British High Commission is doing
to help...
By Sue Lloyd Roberts in Islamabad

31 May 2000
There is an air of expectancy among staff at the British High Commission
in Islamabad. The "safe house" has been made ready, the flight booked, the
operation to repatriate a British subject in fear of her life is ready to
go. They know that Koheema, the girl they want to rescue, will arrive
accompanied by family members who have no idea of the plan and will
actively resist if they get a hint of it. Everyone is careful not to arouse
suspicion. The deputy head of the consular section, Mark Kettle, casts a
casual eye over the queue of people waiting in the fierce sunlight,
clutching their settlement application forms =96 the women with scarves
pulled over their heads and both sexes wearing the traditional
shalwar-kameez.
I had met Koheema by chance in the waiting room of the women's hospital in
Mirpur, the area from which many Britons of Pakistani origin come. I knew
that hundreds of young British girls are currently being held in the area
against their will and I wanted to know whether there was anyone they could
turn to for help. My translator knew a sympathetic woman doctor at the
hospital who might be a start. There were two women sitting opposite us and
the younger one was obviously listening in as we discussed our findings so
far. She was becoming increasingly agitated.
Her mother left to find a toilet and the young woman leaned across, "Can I
talk to you?" she asked. The story spilled out in breathless snatches,
interrupted by nervous looks round for the returning mother. She told us
how she had just finished a science degree at Bradford University, and had
been tricked into coming to Pakistan to attend a cousin's wedding. Her
parents had been nervous about her studying with English boys and girls and
were afraid that she might "be led astray".
As soon as she got to Mirpur, however, she realised that the wedding being
prepared by the extended family was in fact her own. She tried refusing to
marry the cousin chosen for her but was physically beaten into submission.
She was now expected to apply for the right to settle in the UK for the
husband she loathed. "Do you want us to help you?" we asked. "Yes, please,"
she said. "What would happen if your parents knew that you were trying to
escape?" "They would kill me," she replied.
I tipped off the staff at the High Commission and, by keeping contact with
the girl through a third party, organised a day for her to turn up at the
High Commission, allegedly to make a settlement application for her
husband. Once he had her alone in a private interview room, Mark Kettle
explained that they could get her immediately and safely out of Pakistan
and then there would be one of the network of refuges in the UK for Asian
women in her situation to choose from.
But she refused the offer. "I'm really grateful for all that you've tried
to do," she told me later, apologetically, "but I've decided not to accept
your help. I've run away before and they've always found me and beaten me.
If only I had had somewhere to go to before they married me, I would have
run away, but now it's too late. Now that I have been forcibly married,
they'll never let go. It may take two, three years, but they'll find me
even in the UK and they'll kill me."
Mirpur is by far the richest region in an otherwise depressed area which
spans the Punjab and Kashmir. Building contractors do a brisk trade in
classical columns and there are more marble mansions per square acre here
than anywhere else in rural Pakistan. They are built from the money sent
back to the region by successful immigrants in the UK, either for the
benefit of parents and extended families left back home or as future
retirement homes. Camels and herds of goats are driven down Mirpur high
street and past a succession of smart-looking bank fronts, the Bank of
Pakistan, the Islamic Bank and so on, all promising "swift foreign money
transfers". The accents among those queuing in the post office to make
phone calls to the UK are West Yorkshire, and there is a branch of British
Airways. The only thing missing is a Barclays.
No wonder every young man here dreams of marrying a girl from Bradford.
And all too often his family is obliged to make the dream come true.
The first Mirpuris arrived in Britain en masse in the Sixties after the
construction of a dam on the Punjabi-Kashmir border flooded a huge swathe
of agricultural land surrounding the town of Mirpur. The first flights were
paid for out of compensation received from the government. Now many
families who clubbed together to buy those first air tickets are asking for
daughters back in return.
One Foreign Office official told me in confidence that there are probably
more than 1,000 girls in situations like Koheema's, in transit between
Pakistan and the UK at any one time. Officially, the figure is "in the
hundreds". When I eventually found a human-rights activist in Mirpur who
was trying to help the girls, he had several hundred names on his files who
had contacted him in the Mirpur region alone, and he believed there were
many more elsewhere in Pakistan. "Why doesn't the British Government do
something to help? After all, they gave these girls British passports and
so they should help them. There should be some place here in Mirpur where
they can turn for help."
So why doesn't the British High Commission have a presence in Mirpur, some
kind of agency or even an honorary consul to whom these girls can turn?
Mark Kettle explained that there was the problem of dual nationality.
According to Pakistani law, a British girl of Pakistani origin is regarded
as a Pakistani when in Pakistan. "We cannot go out and get her," he says.
She has to get to the High Commission, to the patch of British soil, behind
a barbed wire fence in the diplomatic enclave in
Islamabad before HMG can do anything to help. Joining the long queue of
would-be immigrants and visitors outside the High Commission can be
dangerous in itself, as two sisters from Bradford discovered last year.
=46leeing the prospect of forced marriages, they made the difficult journey
from Mirpur to Islamabad only to find that the uncle who had threatened to
kill them was waiting in the queue for them. He had got a guard at the High
Commission to tell him when the girls turned up and he was armed.
Eventually, after many narrow escapes, the girls were safely repatriated
and the guard has since been fired.
But there are other tales of strange behaviour among High Commission
staff. Nazish had caused her parents to worry when, at 17, she was
discovered taking afternoons off her school in Leeds. To discipline her,
her parents took her to Pakistan to "attend a cousin's wedding". She fell
into the same trap as Koheema. "During the ceremony, my mother was holding
onto one arm and my grandmother the other. They were hurting me and telling
me that unless I went through with it, my grandfather, who had a weak
heart, would die."
Nazish, 23, once dreamed of becoming a nurse. She cries as she tells the
story of how instead she was forcibly married to a man who spoke no
English, who was 30 years older than her and who sexually abused her. "He
would watch pornographic movies in the morning and then come back at midday
and rape me. It happened every day and it was always rape."
Her mother-in-law treated her little better. "She made me clean up after
the animals =96 the goats and buffaloes. I had never even seen a buffalo
before! I had to cook with pots and open fires. I would burn my hands and
she would yell at me." Ironically, Nazish was at a family wedding when she
took her chance and ran away. She telephoned the High Commission.
"When I was really scared and I needed some support, the first thing that
came into my mind was to contact the High Commission. I was so relieved to
hear a British voice on the end of the phone. The man asked if I was a
British national and I said I was. He then said, 'But you are a Pakistani,
you have a Pakistani name.' I said, 'Yes, but I have a British passport.'
He said, 'Sorry, we can't help you,' and put the phone down. I went to
pieces after that." Nazish has been on the run for three years now. What
would her family do if they found her? "They would almost certainly kill
me."
When I relayed the story of the telephone call to the deputy consul, Mark
Kettle looked embarrassed, as if the story was one he had heard on other
occasions. "That should not have happened," he said, "and we shall look
into it."
In the Foreign Office in London, the head of the consular department,
James Watt, denied that this was another example of institutionalised
racism among British civil servants. "Islamabad is one of the most
difficult of posts for Foreign Office employees," he says, "we've had
problems with the staff which we are trying to sort out and there is a real
problem of underfunding."
The economics do not make sense. A little more time and attention paid at
the High Commission could surely save hundreds of tragedies played out back
in the UK. The majority of people queuing at the settlement application
counter at the High Commission are unaccompanied men, applying to enter the
UK. Their wives, who as British citizens are the sponsors, are not required
to come in person to lodge the application. Why not? Immigration secretary
Anna Pitt says that, "The rules say they don't have to, it would be
expecting too much for some families to make the journey." Given that we
now know that there are hundreds of unwilling brides out there who have
been forced to sign application forms, would it not it be a good idea to
insist? "Yes, I suppose it would be," she concedes lamely.
The West Yorkshire police say they deal with some 300 cases a year of
women who ask for help to escape from marriages which they never wanted to
enter in the first place =96 and the numbers are increasing. The force
employs two full-time officers dealing with these cases alone.
Nazish's husband is working as a waiter in Leicester. Now that they are
divorced, he is likely to re-marry. Thanks to the wife he abused, he is now
a British citizen. Razia Sodegar, who runs One Voice in Bradford, which
campaigns to protect Asian women from forced marriages, says that laws
should be introduced to stop abusive husbands from using wives to gain
entry to the UK.
Ms Sodegar, whose family is from Mirpur, has been invited to discuss the
issue with Mike O'Brien, the Immigration minister. She will be asking him
to provide safety nets for Asian girls both in the UK and back in Pakistan.
In the UK, she wants all families who apply for visas for Pakistan to
attend a marriage to be questioned. "Time and again, we are told that we
are going to the wedding of a distant cousin, only to find that we are the
intended and unwilling bride!" she says. And she wants the Government to
consider some way by which wives who have returned to the UK with unwanted
husbands can appeal for them to be sent back to Pakistan.
But most of all, she argues, a safety net should be provided in Pakistan,
to stop these marriages in the first place. "It's disgusting," she says.
"The British Government say they want to help these girls. They should
start by opening some kind of Government presence in Mirpur to whom the
girls can turn. After all, there's a British Airways there, why not a
consulate?" It is already too late for Nazish and Koheema and hundreds of
British Asian girls who are already married against their will. But it's
not too late to help the many more who will be boarding flights to Pakistan
in the future only to find themselves duped and forced into a union they
don't want.
Some names have been changed to protect identities.
Sue Lloyd Roberts' filmed report on forced marriage can be seen on
'Newsnight', on BBC2 at 10.30pm on Wednesday 31 May 2000
<http://www.independent.co.uk>

_______

#2.

The Hindustan Times
5 June 2000

HOW TO REWRITE HISTORY, RSS-STYLE
New Delhi, June 4

(Apratim Mukarji)

THERE ARE thousands of children in the country who are acquiring a
unique perspective of Indian history and culture, thanks to a 'special'
series of textbooks.

=46or example, they learn that it was Maharaj Kush, son of Lord Ram, who
built the first temple to the Hindu God at Ayodhya. They also learn that
Chandragupta Vikramaditya (AD 380-413) built the present Ram temple.

And which Mughal invader destroyed the Ram temple in 1528? Easy
question, for who doesn't know that it was Babur? But why is the Babri
Masjid not a mosque? Because Muslims "have never till today offered
namaz there," says a textbook published by Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya
Shiksha Sansthan.

This textbook is part of the curriculum in the 6,000 (according to an
unofficial estimate, 14,000) schools run by the organisation that is
closely identified with the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The
organisation says that it is engaged in providing to the young
generation education in religion, culture and nationalism.

The textbooks, "Sanskriti Jnan Pareekhsha" (Culture Knowledge
Examination) and "Sanskrit-Jnan Pareekhsha Prashnottari" (Culture
Knowledge Examination Question-Answers) are used in an all-India
examination conducted by the organisation.

Interestingly, the National Steering Committee for Text Book Evaluation,
which evaluated these textbooks, "shares the concern expressed over the
publication and use of blatantly communal writings in the series
entitled 'Sanskriti Jnan' in the Vidya Bharati schools and agrees that
the series is designed to promote bigotry and religious fanaticism in
the name of inculcating knowledge of culture in the young generation."

Now that Sri Lanka is in the news, the following geographical
description of the country should be interesting, "What is the name of
the island in the south which touches the feet of Bharat Mata and which
reminds us of Sri Ramchandra's victory over Ravana and which was a part
of our country at one time?" The almost innocuous jab at the truth is
typical of the deliberate untruths and distortions of historical facts
that abound the textbooks.

Congress Member of the Rajya Sabha Eduardo Faleiro has accused the
publishers of the textbooks of spreading religious bigotry and
denigrating Christianity and Islam.

Consider this: "It is because of the conspiratorial policies of the
followers of (Christianity) that India was partitioned. Even today,
Christian missionaries are engaged in fostering anti-national tendencies
in Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala and other
regions because of which there is a grave danger to the integrity of the
present-day India."

QUIZ TIME:Question: How many devotees of Lord Ram laid down their lives
to liberate the Ram temple between 1528-1914?

Answer: Three lakh fifty thousand.

Question: How many times did the foreigners invade Sri Ramjanambhoomi?

Answer: Seventy-seven times.

Question: Why will November 2 1990 be inscribed in black letters in the
history of India?

Answer: Because on that day, the then Chief Minister, by ordering the
police to shoot unarmed kar sevaks, massacred hundreds of them.

_______

#3.

The Asian Age
5 June 2000

VHP PLANS JAIPUR-AYODHYA YATRA

By Venkatesh Kesari
New Delhi, June 4

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, has decided to reactivate the Ram mandir issue after downplaying
it since the BJP government came to power.

The Sangh Parivar constituent is working on a plan to start a yatra
between Jaipur and Ayodhya after the monsoon season. "The replica of the
proposed temple measuring 21 feet in length, 11 feet in height and 8
feet in width, would be displayed during the yatra, which will be led by
the leaders of Hindu religion, besides the Sangh Parivar," sources said,
adding that the yatra would begin either in the Shravan mas or during
the Navaratri but not later than December.

The VHP sources are giving clear indications that the organisation wants
to go on the offensive on the Ram temple issue. However, they refuse to
comment whether the Sangh Parivar is really committed to the cause and
are ready to take on the Vajpayee government, if necessary.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has swept its favourite issues - Ram temple,
uniform civil code and abrogation of Article 370 - under the carpet in
order to garner support of non-Congress parties in the ruling coalition.
The party is shying away from these issues and is using the pretext of
the NDA manifesto to avoid a controversy.

However, the VHP's programme is likely to help the BJP in Uttar Pradesh
which is facing the prospect of Assem-bly polls. However, the VHP
leaders are refuting the charge that their Ram temple yatra is
politically motivated.

The VHP vice-president, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, said in Jaipur on
Sunday that a date and method to begin construction of the Ram temple in
Ayodhya would be decided at a Dharma Sansad in Allah-abad during the
Kumbh Mela in January.

Nearly 1,30,000 cubic feet of stone is required to build the structure
and only 25,000 cubic feet stone has been cut, he said, adding that the
stones were being "prepared" at Pindrawada in Rajasthan and in Ayodhya
and the task would need at least 10 years to complete.

Mr Kishore has made it clear that the VHP had collected Rs 9 crores for
the temple from the people, maintaining that not a single paisa was
received from foreign countries. Of the total collection, about Rs 1.25
crore was spent in preparing the stones and the rest Rs 7.75 crores was
deposited in the bank and invested with the Steel Authority of India
Limited.

The fund had grown to Rs 10 crores with the accruing interest. However,
another VHP leader, Mr Janneshwar Mishra, said at Udipi in Karnataka
that 40 per cent work on the proposed temple was over and the ground
floor would be completed next year.

Mr Mishra, the VHP's dharmacharya sampark pramukh, said dharmacharyas
would meet in Goa on October 10 and 11 to discuss inter alia conversion
and the government's "attempt for direct control" over temples through
legislations. He said the sadhus were planning to march to Delhi from
Hardwar on July 31 to protest against the proposed Tehri dam.

______

#4.

Rediff.com
4 June 2000

Date for Ram temple construction to be decided in Jan 2001

A date and method to begin building a Ram temple at the disputed site in
Ayodhya will be decided at a dharma sansad (religious parliament) in
Allahabad during the Kumbh mela in January next year, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(World Hindu Council) vice-president Giriraj Kishore said today.
Nearly 130,000 cubic feet of stone are required to build the structure and
only 25,000 cubic feet have been cut, he told reporters in Jaipur,
Rajasthan.
Kishore said the stones are being prepared at Pindrawada in Rajasthan and
Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The task will need at least 10 years for
completion, he said.
In Udipi, Karnataka, the VHP's Jeenvaneshwar Mishra told the
organisation's central margadarshak mandal meeting of the southern states
that 40 per cent of the work on the proposed temple is over and the ground
floor will be completed next year.
Kishore asserted that the organisation had collected only Rs 90 million
from the people for the temple. He maintained that not a paisa was received
from foreign countries and added that foreign funding is not possible
without the home ministry's clearance.
Of the total collection, about Rs 12.5 million was spent on preparing the
stones. The remaining Rs 77.5 million was deposited in banks and invested
with the Steel Authority of India. This fund had grown to Rs 100 million
with the accruing interest.
Mishra, the VHP's dharmacharya sampark pramukh (chief liaison officer for
religious leaders), said religious leaders would meet in Goa on October 10
and 11 to discuss, among other things, conversions and the government's
"attempt for direct control" over temples through legislation.
UNI
______

#5.

EPW Commentary May 13-19, 2000
Time for Alternatives to Violence in Kashmir
by Balraj Puri

One of the first prerequisites for fruitful talks between the government
of India and the dissident leaders of Kashmir, which are being speculated
about in the media after the release of the Hurriyat leaders, is
de-escalation of violence in the state. Or that should be the first item of
the agenda of the proposed talks. The recent tragedies at Chhatisinghpora
and Pathribal should make the government and the leaders of the Azadi
movement realise that violence can go out of control and become
self-defeating for either side.
If the massacre of 35 innocent, unarmed and uninvolved Sikhs on March 20
at Chhatisinghpora caused universal outrage, including among Kashmiri
Muslims against continuing violence, the killing of five persons at
Pathribal claimed by the security forces to be militant killers of the
Chhatisinghpora massacre but later found to be innocent local civilians,
followed by killings of eight demonstrators, protesting against the latter
killings neutralised the local anger against the militant violence and even
created doubts about the identity of the killers of the Sikhs.
A number of instances can be recalled where the use of violence hurt the
interest of the side that used it. The classical example is that of firing
on the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Mohd Farooq, widely suspected to have
been killed by militants, in the early stage of militancy. The firing
diverted popular wrath against them towards the Indian government. It was
excessive and indiscriminate use of violence which turned militancy into
mass insurgency and invited international sympathy for the secessionist
movement. It may also be noted that the state government=92s action in
suspending those responsible for the police firing at the Barakpora
demonstration, exhuming and identifying the bodies of those killed by the
security forces at Pathribal and appointing an inquiry commission
comprising a retired Supreme Court judge for the first time reversed the
unpopularity graph of the Farooq Abdullah government in Kashmir.
In any case, it should by now be obvious to the central and state
governments that basically the problem of Kashmir is political, arising out
of discontent of the people on various grounds, though the violent form of
its expression with the help of arms and armed militants from Pakistan has
certainly complicated the situation. But without attending to a host of
internal problems which cumulatively assume the form of the Kashmir
problem, mere use of violence, which often becomes indiscriminate, not only
adds to local alienation but also weakens the country, politically,
economically, diplomatically and morally. The agenda for action for Indian
statesmanship =96 not for government alone =96 includes release of pending
detained political leaders, confidence-building measures, strict observance
of human rights and better understanding of diverse aspirations and
interests of various regions and ethnic communities. Above all, a more
humane and intelligent approach to the entire problem is required.
But the leaders of the Azadi movement are perhaps in greater need for
rethinking, if not on the ends, at least on the means they have adopted so
far. Over a decade ago they could argue that a violent secessionist
movement was the only course for the expression of their aspirations. The
system that did not honour the verdict of the assembly election of 1983 and
did not allow the people to elect the government of their choice through
the use of the ballot in the election of 1987 forced them to opt out of the
system and turn to the method of the bullet. The militant movement may also
claim credit for reviving and internationalising the Kashmir problem which
was almost dead for the preceding two decades. Within the country, too,
there were persons whose conscience was disturbed over the way the centre
had dealt with the affairs of the state, in general, and with the situation
in the initial phase of the insurgency, in particular.
But before long, the limits of violence became manifest. To be sure,
international concern over the Kashmir problem and sympathetic liberal
Indian voices proved inadequate to get justice to Kashmir. But violence
dictated an unintended course for the movement which caused a gradual
decline in outside concern and sympathy.
First, it was not easy for the violent movement to retain its autonomy in
view of its exclusive reliance for arms and training on Pakistan. Pakistan
had offered support to the Azadi movement, which was inspired by
sentiments of Kashmiriat, but soon diverted it to the pro-Pak and extreme
Muslim militants. The earlier group was almost wiped out as withdrawal of
arms supply by Pakistan made it vulnerable to the Indian security forces.
Simultaneously the new brand of militants took a toll of eminent
personalities of Kashmir, who were sympathetic to the pro-Kashmiriat
militants like Mirwaiz Moulvi Mohd Farooq, Abdul Ahad, A A Guru and H N
Wanchoo. The Kashmiri nationalist militants could not fight on two fronts.
Having declared war against India, with the help of Pakistan, they could
not afford to open another front against the latter. Gradually pro-Pak and
Pak-based groups took over the militancy movement. Its over-ground
leadership, too, became increasingly dependent on the directions of the
Pakistan government. Before it could secure Azadi from India, it lost its
independence to Pakistan.
A more serious blow to the independent character of the secessionist
leadership was struck by the course the new brand of militants, mostly
non-Kashmiris, independently adopted. Mass killings of innocent Hindus,
more persistently since 1998 (e g, in Wadhama, Prankote, Doda and Kishtwar)
were followed by bomb blasts in Hindu areas taking varying toll. Hindu
killing was not entirely a new phenomenon. But earlier victims were
individuals who were described as informers or working against the interest
of the movement, but now they were being killed in groups simply because
they were Hindus. From anti-India, the dominant militant group turned
pro-Pakistan and anti-Hindu. The goal of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the leading
militant outfit in the state, as its leader Fazal-ur-Rehman put it bluntly,
"is to wrest from Hindu majority India its part of Kashmir, which is
dominated by Muslims, and merge it with Islamic Pakistan. If that takes a
holy war with India, so be it."

The spate of mass killings has damaged the cause of the militant movement
internationally, as is eloquently evidenced by the reactions of the
governments, media and human rights organisations as also locally, as
evidenced by vocal protests, including by Muslims. It has isolated the
movement from liberal Indian opinion and increased communal tensions within
the state which would make any resolution of the Kashmir problem more
intractable. It has deprived the leaders of the movement of their main
plank =96 based on allegations of human rights violations by the security
forces =96 to justify their demand for Azadi.
Whosoever may be responsible for the present situation, whatever might
have been the compulsions of the Kashmiri youth to take up the gun and
whatever achievements may be claimed for the militants, the use of violent
means is becoming increasingly counter-productive. Kashmiri Muslims
themselves have suffered colossal losses physically, politically,
economically and culturally. The sense of outrage displayed by Kashmiri
Muslims over the recent killings of Sikhs does indicate that Kashmir's soul
is not yet dead. But if the vicious circle of communal hatred and violence
grows, this sense would gradually diminish. With the consequent
brutalisation of Kashmiris, who can guarantee that the soul would remain
unaffected? Would Azadi, which has so far been illusory, even if achieved,
be worth its while for the price paid and the inestimable price that it may
still demand, in terms of human lives and values?
Even if leaders of the Azadi movement are unconvinced about giving up
their objective, which has already been distorted from its original form,
they cannot afford not to give up the means that they have used so far.
Perhaps a reference to Gandhi may be helpful in the present context. When
he found that the movement against British Raj led by him in 1922 went
astray as an excited mob, provoked by police firing, burnt a police station
along with 22 policemen at Chaura Chauri, he called it off. It is not easy
for Kashmiri leaders to display that much courage. The risk too for them is
greater, most of all from the militants. But they have hardly any
alternative except to think of alternatives to violence. Non-violence is
not only morally superior but also leaves room for argument and debate
between adversaries. It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the
opponents. It may also help in starting a process of regenerating the civil
society in Kashmir brutally damaged by forces of violence and hatred.
I am in no position to predict how the government of India would respond
to a non-violent offensive from Kashmir. Nor I am here absolving it of its
responsibility for creating the present situation in the troubled state. It
is a humble suggestion to both =96 Indian and Kashmiri leaders =96 for a
minimum review of their approach, in their own respective interest as also
of the people of the state. Even a unilateral decision by either side would
be to its advantage.
______________________________________________
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