[sacw] SACW (14 July 01)

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Sat, 14 Jul 2001 01:53:34 +0100


South Asia Citizens Wire
14 July 2001
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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

[1.] Applications invited: Funding For Research and Training on 
Issues of Global
Security and Cooperation
[2.] India: Call on National Human Rights Commission To End Psychiatric
Abuse Against Homosexuals

**Articles re India Pak Summit **
[3.] Poverty Should Be a Shared Basis for Progress at Taj Mahal Summit
[4.] Kashmiris See Light In a Crack At Border; India's Plan Elicits Hope Along
Line of Control
[5.] A General From Pakistan Could Do the Subcontinent a Favor
[6.] Messengers of peace, friendship - What school children from 
Pakistan have to say about improving ties with India?
[7.] Can there be peace between India and Pakistan?

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

#1.

The Global Security and Cooperation Program of the Social Science 
Research Council is pleased to announce 4 new funding opportunities 
for research and
training on the underlying causes and conditions of conflict and 
insecurity. There are no citizenship or nationality requirements.

Grants for Research Collaboration in Conflict Zones
Applications are invited from teams of researchers working or living 
in a zone of widespread or intractable violent conflict for short 
research projects of up to
6 months in length.Each team must have a designated team leader with 
at least 3 years of professional experience. Maximum 
award:$12,000.Deadline: February
1,2002.

Research Fellowships for Professionals Working in International Affairs
Applications are invited from practitioners (NGO 
professionals,activists, journalists,lawyers etc.) to conduct a 
research and writing project for 8-18 months
under the supervision of an academic mentor in a university or 
research institute. A significant piece of writing is expected as a 
result.Applicants should have
5-15 years of experience working in issues related to international 
security and cooperation.Maximum award:$38,000 per year. 
Deadline:December 1,2001.

Postdoctoral Fellowships on Global Security and Cooperation
Applications are invited from scholars holding PhDs or the equivalent 
for 8-18 months of support.The first half of the fellowship is to be 
spent working in a
nongovernmental,international or multilateral organization outside 
the applicant's country of residence and involved in peace and 
security issues. The second
half should be spent conducting a research project informed by that 
experience. Maximum award:$38,000 per year. Deadline:December 1,2001.

Dissertation Fellowships on Global Security and Cooperation
Applications are invited from students working towards the PhD or 
equivalent for a two-year fellowship. The first year must be spent 
working at a nongovern-mental,
international or multilateral organization involved in peace and 
security issues outside the applicant's country of residence. The 
second year should be
spent conducting a research project related to that experience. 
Maximum award:$19,000 per year. Deadline:December 1,2001.

For more information and application forms please contact:
FUNDING FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING ON ISSUES OF GLOBAL
SECURITY AND COOPERATION
810 SEVENTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10019
tel: 212.377.2700/ fax: 212.377.2727
GLOBAL SECURITY & COOPERATION
email: gsc@s... web: www.ssrc.org

________

2.

From: Daniel Lee <daniel@i...>
Date sent: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 10:59:17 -0700
Subject: [lgbt_india] IGLHRC Alert: End psychiatric abuse 
against homosexuals in India

Please forward and disseminate widely: advocacy letters are urgently
needed by July 18

EMERGENCY RESPONSE NETWORK
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)

************************************************************************
ACTION ALERT

INDIA: CALL ON NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO END PSYCHIATRIC
ABUSE AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS
************************************************************************

SUMMARY

On May 29, 2001, the Milan Project, a program of the Naz Foundation
India Trust focusing on human rights and sexual health issues for the
community of men who have sex with men in Delhi, filed a formal
complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC).
Complaint diary 3920 concerns a case of reported psychiatric abuse
involving a patient at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) who received almost four years of treatment aimed at the
conversion of his homosexuality. The treatment reportedly involved
two components: counseling therapy and drugs. During counseling
therapy sessions, the doctor explicitly told the patient that he
needed to curb his homosexual fantasies, as well as start making
women rather than men the objects of his desire. The doctor also
administered drugs intended to change the sexual orientation of the
patient, providing loose drugs from his stock rather than disclosing
the identity of the drug through formal prescription. The patient
reports experiencing serious emotional and psychological trauma and
damage, as well as a feeling of personal violation, due to these
actions.

Case 3920 illustrates the necessity for formal standards to prevent
discrimination and abuse on the basis of sexual orientation in
medical and psychiatric care. No doubt, in the absence of these,
physicians cannot be held accountable for human rights violations
against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals occurring
in psychiatric and medical contexts throughout India. This case also
underscores the urgent need for the explicit laws preventing
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation to address abuse
and inequalities in all sectors of society.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission joins the
Milan Project of the Naz Foundation in Delhi in demanding that the
National Human Rights Commission of India formally recommend to the
relevant psychiatric bodies in India the formal issuance of a
statement declaring that homosexuality is not a disease requiring
treatment or a cure. In light of this complaint, we also call upon
the NHRC to recommend to the National Commission to Review the
Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) the inclusion of a clause in the
Indian Constitution ensuring non-discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation. This Commission was established last year to
recommend revisions to the Indian Constitution, including issues
related to fundamental rights. Its current invitation for final
suggestions (prior to the closure of the committee) presents a
critical opportunity to recommend legislation that will prevent
further cases of discrimination and abuse on the basis of sexual
orientation in all realms of society.

ACTION (DEADLINE: July 18, 2001)

Please send support letters, faxes, and/or e-mail messages (a sample
letter follows) to the address below calling on the National Human
Rights Commission to thoroughly investigate Case 3920, to formally
recommend to all relevant Indian psychiatric bodies the issuance of
an official statement that homosexuality is not a disease that
requires a cure, and to recommend to the National Commission to
Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) the inclusion of a
clause in the Indian Constitution providing protection from
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Please act
quickly, as this case is slated for a final hearing on July 18. 

By mail:
Justice J. S. Verma
Chairman
The National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhawan
Sansad Marg
New Delhi 110001

By fax: +91 11 334 0016

By e-mail: nhrc@r..., nhrc.del@x...

Please send copies of your correspondence to:
The Milan Project
c/o Naz Foundation
D-45, Gulmohar Park
New Delhi 110049
INDIA

E-mail: milanproject@h...

SUGGESTED TEXT OF LETTER:

Honorable Chairman:

I am writing to express serious concern regarding a complaint of
alleged psychiatric abuse on the basis of sexual orientation filed on
May 29, 2001 by the Milan Project of the Naz Foundation in Delhi. I
call upon the National Human Rights Commission to thoroughly
investigate the case and, moreover, to prevent further instances of
psychiatric abuse of this nature by formally recommending that all
relevant Indian psychiatric bodies issue official statements
declaring that homosexuality is not an illness or disease requiring
treatment. I also request that the NHRC ask the National Commission
to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) to recommend
legislation providing protection from discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation.

Complaint diary 3920 concerns a male patient at the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who reportedly received
treatment, over the course of almost four years, designed to
'convert' his homosexuality through counseling therapy and the
administering of psychotropic drugs. The patient allegedly suffered
severe emotional and psychological trauma and damage due to his
doctor's actions.

This form of psychiatric treatment, reflecting an understanding of
homosexuality as a disease, represents a serious contravention of
internationally recognized psychiatric guidelines and human rights
standards. Indeed, it is critical to recognize a strong consensus in
international medical standards, reinforced by over 35 years of
research, that homosexuality is not a disease, mental disorder, or
emotional problem requiring treatment--and, moreover, is not
changeable. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed
homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders, concluding
that homosexuality itself has no association with impairment in
judgement, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational
capabilities. The World Health Organization adopted a similar
position in 1993, as did the psychiatric body governing Japanese
standards in 1995 and, most recently, the 8000-member Chinese
Psychiatric Association in March 2001. In the latter case, members
regarded this decision as an important and necessary first step to
promote more openness and tolerance in society. 

Dismissing these psychiatric standards as a mere "social issue",
rather than taking it seriously as a human rights violation, would
constitute a grave mistake. Non-self-selected medical or psychiatric
treatment designed to alter a person's sexual orientation or gender
identity is a violation of fundamental human rights under
international law, including protections enshrined in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by
India in 1979. These include the right to freely pursue one's
economic, social, and cultural development (Article 1); right to life
(Article 6); right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment (Article 7); right to liberty and security
(Article 9); right to privacy (Article 17); right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion (Article 18); right to freedom of
expression (Article 19); and right to nondiscrimination (Article
26). Moreover, involuntary medical treatment designed to change a
person's sexual orientation is a form of torture, defined by the
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, ratified by India in 1997, as "any act by
which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person . . . for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind." It is also worthy to note that those
actions undertaken by the physician in this case also violate the
patient's right to consent in medical treatment and right to
competent medical care.

These issues of psychiatric standards and medical abuse strike at the
core of the mission of the National Human Rights Commission to work
against discrimination and redress situations of abuse. As a member
of the international human rights community, I ask that the NHRC
thoroughly and immediately investigate the case and recommend to all
relevant Indian psychiatric bodies the issuance of a formal statement
that homosexuality is not a disease that requires a cure. I also ask
the NHRC to recommend to the National Commission to Review the
Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) the inclusion of a clause in the
Indian Constitution ensuring non-discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation.

The goal of human and civil rights standards is to protect all
persons equally, without distinction or discrimination. Recognizing
the need for protection against sexual orientation-based
discrimination and abuse is an indispensable means by which the
promise of universality can be fulfilled. I support the NHRC in its
active promotion of the human rights of lesbians and gays, and
ultimately all individuals and groups, in India--and respectfully ask
that the NHRC notify me in writing about the actions it intends to
take to address this serious human rights situation.

Thank you very much for your attention.

************************************************************************
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

GENERAL RESOURCES ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND PSYCHIATRY/PSYCHOLOGY
American Psychological Association fact sheet: Questions and Answers
about Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality:
http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html

American Psychological Association Policy Statements on Lesbian, Gay,
and Bisexual Concerns: http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbpolicy/homepage.html

General fact sheet on homosexuality and psychology:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html

Fact sheet on the issue of changing homosexuality:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_changing.html

BACKGROUND ABOUT RECENT CHINESE PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION DECISION TO
DEPATHOLOGIZE HOMOSEXUALITY:
Los Angeles Times, "Chinese Psychiatrists Decide Homosexuality Isn't Abnormal"
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates2/lat_chigay010306.htm

Associated Press, "China Decides Homosexuality No Longer Mental
Illness" (two different sites with same information)
http://www.king5.com/world/storydetail.html?StoryID=15297

SUBMISSION BY THE INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS
COMMISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE (in
particular, see section on "Medical Abuses"):
http://www.iglhrc.org/issues/UN/UN_Torture2001Jun.html

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF
INDIA: http://www.nhrc.nic.in

************************************************************************

----------------------------
Daniel J. Lee
Regional Program Officer: Asia and the Pacific
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
1360 Mission Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94103 USA
Tel: 1-415-255-8680, Fax: 1-415-255-8662
Check out our website at http://www.iglhrc.org/

The mission of IGLHRC is to protect and advance the human rights of
all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the
basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.

________

3.

Los Angeles Times
13 July 2001
Commentary

Poverty Should Be a Shared Basis for Progress at Taj Mahal
Summit

MANSOOR IJAZ

(Mansoor Ijaz, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has been
active in Kashmir diplomacy as a private U.S. citizen for the past 18
months )

This weekend, an extraordinary summit will take place in the shadows of
Moghul grandeur as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and
Pakistan's new president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, meet at the Taj Mahal.
The Agra summit will be a rare opportunity for two men who publicly
lectured each other about democracy and terrorism 18 months ago to
demonstrate political maturity in addressing their myriad problems.
The dispute over Kashmir, a region that has thrice driven these two
nuclear-capable nations to war, will ostensibly take center stage. But
taking on the most vexing problem that unrestrained militarism has sown in
South Asia--abject poverty--will define the real agenda at Agra. Let's
examine the situation facing both countries.

India needs inexpensive natural gas from Iran to fuel its burgeoning
energy needs. An overland pipeline carrying Iranian gas through Pakistan
at one-third the cost of both surface and underwater ocean routes is the
optimal solution. But Vajpayee cannot easily take the risk that comes from
paying transit fees to Pakistan's military regime, money that might be
used to finance Kashmiri resistance fighters to kill Indian soldiers.
Soldiers coming home in body bags from Kargil in 1999 forced his
government from office once before.
Pakistan needs the money to avoid bankruptcy. Up to $700 million a year
from transit fees coupled with the removal of U.S. economic sanctions and
the resumption of full-scale International Monetary Fund relief are hefty
incentives to improve neighborly relations. Oil and gas refineries
providing cheap products to the Indian marketplace would transform a
nation on the path of radicalization into the transit and distribution hub
for Central Asian energy reserves. Musharraf has publicly guaranteed the
security of any gas pipeline that would pass through Pakistan. During the
summit, he should privately assure Vajpayee that the days of Islamabad's
unqualified military and financial support for overzealous militancy and
violence in the Kashmir Valley are over. The Indian leader should respond
by agreeing to reduce significantly the huge number of security personnel
there.

Also hidden behind Vajpayee's bravado in asking Musharraf to fly to India
is a complex web of geostrategic considerations born in the power
corridors of Washington. The timing of the Musharraf invitation is not
accidental. In return for a U.S. pledge to subtly elevate India's stature
on the world stage, New Delhi bought into the Bush administration's vision
for a strategic missile defense shield--hook, line and sinker--with one
caveat.

Vajpayee would have to find a way to resolve differences in his own
neighborhood that could become distractions from the U.S. business of
counterbalancing and containing China. And so an invitation to Musharraf,
the man Vajpayee once held responsible for the fall of his government and
the "theft" of Indian land at Kargil, was born out of economic necessities
at home buttressed by strategic considerations abroad. But for the summit
to achieve anything more than atmospherics, these two antagonists must
make bold proposals for peace that only their hard-liner status can sell
at home. They should start in Kashmir.

The dispute over the Siachen Glacier, a remote area in Kashmir where each
country has deployed innumerable troops and spent countless billions in
maintaining a futile presence, was theoretically resolved in 1989, but the
agreement was never signed or implemented. Both men should sign it and
implement it. Then they should earmark the peace dividends that $1.5
billion in annual reduced military spending would bring for domestic
social and economic welfare programs.

Both nations should agree to a framework for the long-term resolution of
the Himalayan conflict that includes Kashmiris on both sides of the Line
of Control as full partners for peace rather than pawns in South Asia's
nuclear chess match. There is no more tragic pre-summit result than the
canceling of India's unilateral cease-fire in May, just as the Musharraf
invitation was being readied. For 18 months prior to that, New Delhi had
vigorously sought rapprochement with the Kashmiris.

For Musharraf, the stakes are no less than the survival of a nation.
Failure would certainly usher in an era of rule by radicalized Muslim
zealots. Vajpayee will never again have the chance to make peace with a
man so committed to changing Pakistan's failed ways.

________

4.

The Washington Post
12 July 2001

Kashmiris See Light In a Crack At Border; India's Plan Elicits Hope Along
Line of Control

Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service

URI, India, July 11 -- Indian artillery nests line the highway into this
remote town in the Himalayan foothills. Convoys of army trucks pass
constantly, blaring their horns at horse-drawn apple carts. Pakistani
shells land periodically on surrounding villages, sending field workers
scrambling for cover and setting huts on fire. Residents cannot attend
family weddings or funerals only a few miles to the west without obtaining
a Pakistani visa and making an expensive, circuitous journey via New
Delhi. 
Uri lies just three miles from the Line of Control that divides Kashmir
between India and Pakistan, and its residents live every day with the
stark realities of being geographically close but politically distant from
people who share their blood, religion and ethnicity.
This week, the first official cracks appeared in the 53-year-old barrier.
In a goodwill gesture before the India-Pakistan summit scheduled for this
weekend in Agra, India announced it would open a travel checkpoint at the
Line of Control near Uri within three months, along with a second post in
another location.

If Pakistan agrees, the new arrangement will allow Kashmiris from both
sides to cross after minor formalities, and traffic will resume along the
old Jhelum Valley Road that was once the region's main commercial
lifeline.

"Our main hope for the summit is that it will open the road," said
Rajmohammed Khan, 65, an Uri resident whose father is buried in Pakistani
Kashmir. "Our families have disintegrated over the years; we have been
divided in both happiness and mourning. Everyone here wants to reunite. It
would bring the life back to our town."

Across Indian Kashmir, much larger hopes are being pinned on the summit
between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India and the Pakistani
president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The people have endured a decade of
violent conflict between Indian security forces and Muslim separatist
guerrillas supported by Pakistan, and virtually every family has lost a
relative to the fighting.

The anticipation is tempered by the knowledge that periodic meetings
between Indian and Pakistani leaders over the past 30 years, most recently
in the spring of 1999, failed to resolve the stubborn Kashmir dispute. The
region is claimed by both countries, and they have fought three wars over
it since it was "temporarily" split between them under U.N. auspices in
1947.

Expectations also have been soured by India's refusal to allow Kashmiri
opposition leaders to participate in the talks, a condition to which
Pakistan reluctantly agreed. It is not even certain whether India will
permit separatist leaders to briefly meet Musharraf, who has invited them
to tea Saturday at the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi. Today in New Delhi,
some partners in Vajpayee's ruling coalition said they would boycott the
gathering.

"They say they want to discuss Kashmir, but they don't want Kashmiris to
be part of it," complained Abdul Ghani Lone, a senior official of the All
Parties Hurriyet Conference, the umbrella group of Kashmiri separatists.
"How can we expect anything from the summit if India can't even tolerate
half a dozen guests among 800 people at a tea?"

Nevertheless, many Kashmiris say they are exhausted by the years of
violence, and are so pessimistic about their region's future if India's
virtual military occupation continues that they are praying for a miracle
when the leaders of South Asia's two nuclear powers meet Sunday at the
site of the majestic Taj Mahal.

"I know there is no logical reason for optimism, but nobody expected the
Iron Curtain to fall, either, so perhaps something dramatic can happen
here, too," said Majid Lone, 50, a school principal in Srinagar, the
scenic summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. "We Kashmiris
are pawns in a game of chess between two countries, but the subcontinent
has bled too much. We all want this meeting to succeed."

There are some discordant notes in the prayerful chorus. Although the
largest Kashmir-based insurgent group has expressed support for the
summit, several Islamic militant factions based in Pakistan have recently
attacked army convoys here and have vowed to continue their "holy war"
against India despite the leaders' meeting.

Although security forces have killed more than 200 insurgents since May,
when India canceled a six-month-old cease-fire and invited Musharraf for
talks, state police officials said the brisk pace of cross-border
infiltration by newly trained fighters has replenished the supply.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed," said Ashok Bahn, inspector general
of the state police. "Everyone wants peace, but the terrorists are still
there, the killing is still going on. Whatever else happens at the summit,
as long as Pakistan does not stop sending terrorists here, the problem
will continue."

While most Kashmiris said they want the summit to improve Indo-Pakistani
relations, many are equally fearful that the two countries' leaders may
forge an agreement at their expense, easing restrictions on bilateral
trade and travel without tackling the fundamental dispute that has kept
Kashmir burning for so many years.

Ironically, India's offer to open the Line of Control for local travelers
has added to that concern. By bringing the two Kashmirs closer and
allowing normal traffic across a border that India has zealously guarded
against infiltration for a decade, some activists said India may ease the
pressure to take bolder, more meaningful steps.

"It will be nice if they open the road so families can visit, but these
leaders have to address the real problem, which is Kashmir," said Javed
Mir, 45, a pro-independence leader who has been in and out of prison since
the age of 16. "We have made many sacrifices, but we do not want another
generation of Kashmiri youth to become suicide bombers. We want them to
have educations and careers."

Most people in the Kashmir Valley, which is 80 percent Muslim, favor
independence from both India and Pakistan. Few trust Vajpayee, the leader
of a Hindu nationalist party, to represent their concerns. By the same
token, many suspect Pakistan of exploiting the Kashmir cause to further a
religious and military crusade against India.

"We need to be free from both countries, not act as agents of either one,"
said Khaliq Parvez, 65, a shopkeeper in Baramula who was exiled to
Pakistan for eight years because of his anti-India activities but returned
home disillusioned with the feudal mores and regional divisions he found
there. "My dream is that all of Kashmir will become a united, independent
buffer state, like Switzerland."

But in semi-abandoned towns and villages along the Line of Control, where
people have borne the brunt of a half-century of Indo-Pakistani animosity,
abstract concepts of Kashmiri autonomy are less important than the
intimate and practical concerns of everyday life.

To such Kashmiris, the ability to hop on a bus and visit a sick relative,
or to drive a load of apples 70 miles to Rawalpindi in Pakistan rather
than shipping them more than 400 miles to New Delhi, would mean
everything. If nothing else, the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit seems likely to
make that possible.

"I only want to see my brother once more; then I can die in peace," said
Safdar Ali Qureshi, 80, a resident of Uri whose family has been divided
between Pakistani and Indian Kashmir since 1947. "If they open this road,
I think my heart would burst for joy."

Copyright 2001, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

________

5.

International Herald Tribune
13 July 2001

A General From Pakistan Could Do the Subcontinent a Favor

Zafar Masud IHT
Friday, July 13, 2001

PARIS In the final days of May this year, Prime Minister Atal Bihari 
Vajpayee sprang the surprise of inviting Pakistan's military ruler, 
General Pervez Musharraf, to come to India for talks. And on June 20, 
the general dismissed the largely ceremonial head of state, Rafiq 
Tarar, and crowned himself president of Pakistan.
.
This latter move would normally have appeared as the general's 
inevitable surrender to the Orwellian temptation that none of his 
military predecessors had been able to resist in the past. But it 
could also be seen as an attempt to bolster his legitimacy ahead of 
the summit talks this Saturday in the Taj Mahal city of Agra.
.
The deed could justify itself if the outcome of this meeting were 
peace and cooperation between neighbors who have fought three wars in 
their 54 years of existence and are both nuclear powers today.
.
The Indian prime minister has laid an enormous burden on the braided 
shoulders of the Pakistani general.
.
The summit may be a mere formality on a number of economic, cultural 
and diplomatic issues, for which agreements have been hammered out by 
aides in advance. But Pakistan's stand on Kashmir can still make or 
unmake it.
.
Mr. Vajpayee is the majority leader in a legitimate democracy with 
well-defined constituencies. General Musharraf, in seizing the 
presidency, annulled the constitution and thus the Parliament and 
other institutions that had existed only on paper in any case. At the 
Agra summit, India's prime minister will be at ease in give-and-take 
negotiations.
.
General Musharraf will have to give more than he takes, if the talks 
are to make any sense.
.
The last significant initiative to mend fences was taken by Mr. 
Vajpayee himself on Feb. 21, 1999, when he crossed the border in a 
bus and met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in the 
historic city of Lahore.
.
The 1999 round of talks took into account a range of bilateral 
issues, from economic cooperation and free movement of goods and 
people to the release of fishermen jailed for alleged spying.
.
That nascent peace effort soon went up in smoke because of a 
disastrous operation in the Kargil region of Kashmir by Islamist 
guerrillas backed by the Pakistani army.
.
The holy fighters were eventually forced by the Indian troops to beat 
a retreat, many of them in body bags. By the end of the year Prime 
Minister Sharif had been overthrown by General Musharraf, and contact 
with India was lost.
.
Now General Musharraf has said he is visiting India with an "open 
mind" and will try to "change history."
.
Why the sudden eagerness on both sides to sort out differences? The 
nuclear neighbors are being urged by the United States to move toward 
the test ban treaty that both have long delayed joining. Their reward 
could be an oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian that would pass 
through southern Afghanistan and could eventually benefit both India 
and Pakistan.
.
Islamabad has been distressed by what its regards as a gradual 
American tilt toward New Delhi on the issue of Kashmir. In Agra, a 
dialogue on Kashmir is inevitable. It remains to be seen how flexible 
Pakistan's military leadership dares to be.
.
India has previously treated the crisis in its Himalayan state as 
strictly an internal affair, thus refusing to discuss it with 
Pakistan. Now that it has put Kashmir on the summit agenda, the two 
countries have much to gain from the spirit of open-mindedness that 
General Musharraf talks about.
.
General Musharraf is answerable to the army high command and also has 
to face a "Kargil lobby" of powerful generals who were behind the 
fateful offensive in the spring of 1999 and the hijacking of an 
Indian airliner later and who still believe that the only way to deal 
with India is to seize part of Kashmir.
.
The lobby has helped to arm and finance fanatical guerrilla groups 
that can plunge Pakistan's cities into chaos should they disagree 
with the general's open-mindedness at Agra.
.
A protest that began in 1989 in Kashmir against the excesses of 
Indian troops was hijacked by these groups. A peaceful democratic 
movement turned into a bloody guerrilla war that has so far resulted 
in more than 35,000 dead.
.
If General Musharraf, despite his handicaps, could bring Pakistan a 
step closer to reconciliation and cooperation with India, it would be 
a very good thing for the 1.5 billion long-suffering inhabitants of 
the subcontinent.
.
The writer, a Pakistani journalist, contributed this comment to the 
International Herald Tribune.

________

6.

The Hindustan Times
13 July 2001

Messengers of peace, friendship
Tarannum Manjul
Lucknow, July 12

IMAGINE WHAT schoolchildren from Pakistan have to say about improving 
ties with India?

"Love ke liye kuchh bhi karega (Any thing for love)", says Sara, a 
high school girl from Islamabad. Sara is an ardent Hindi movie fan. 
The last film she saw was Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

Sara is a part of the 13-member Pakistani group of schoolgirls 
visiting the city of Nawabs. Asha, a local NGO and the UP chapter of 
Indo-Pak Forum for Peace and Friendship invited the girls.

"The only difference between the two countries are the sign boards. 
While in Pakistan, they are in Urdu, here in India it is Hindi," says 
Farheena.

She says Lucknow looks a lot like Islamabad. "We have felt at home 
ever since we stepped into the city. We are in a city that we have 
read so much about".

Incidentally, the group's visit coincides with the Pakistani 
President Pervez Musharraf's visit. "We hope that the two countries 
become friends, just like we have become friends with the people 
here", says Lyla.

The delegation is keen to see Taj Mahal, the venue for the Indo-Pak 
summit. Besides Agra, they will visit Kanpur.

"Contrary to our expectations of hostile behaviour, the people have 
been very sweet. The great cultural tradition of welcoming guests is 
very much alive here," says Hazra, principal of the Khalduniya High 
School in Islamabad, where these girls study.

_______

7.

>From SAMAY, July 13th 2001:
http://www.yidream.org/samay

By Rohit Tripathi

The Summit: Can there be peace between India and Pakistan?

July 15th could either be a historic day in Indo-Pak relations or just
another piece of theatrics that has hitherto characterized their relations
over the last five decades. Being the eternal optimist it is not my usual
thinking to be cynical but the two heads of states carry so much political
baggage that it is hard to see light at the end of this tunnel that they
boast of finally getting through together. Yet there is hope.

The conflict that exists today is multi-dimensional. It is more than
evident that superficial issues besides Kashmir dominate the
conflict. And even on the matter of Kashmir both sides lack the authority
or legitimacy to deliver peace to the Valley without true Kashmiri
representation. Today, unfortunately, both nations have leaders who
represent factions of their respective societies that have thrived on
mutual-hatred. Their political existences owe a great deal to the tense
atmosphere that has prevailed for decades now. The BJP and its RSS
Godfathers in India and the Army in Pakistan in association with the
highly fundamentalist clergy of that country have continually poisoned the
atmosphere of goodwill in South Asia. Hence, now a move to meet does lead
a state of ambivalence. The sincerity of both sides is in serious
doubt. The real motives hidden. Two of the poorest nations on the planet
are coming together to talk of security as masses of their populations
struggle for the most meager meal every single day. 

It would be incredible if the leaders decide on collaborating on matters
that can uplift their countryfolk out of this abyss called poverty. There
are so many developmental challenges that are common to both nations. Many
social problems too are shared. A joint front to tackle them would be
infinitely more meaningful than to sign a meaningless no-war
pact. Why? Because war is not an option for either. It's like signing on a
pact saying that I will not fly out of the 20th floor of a building. You
know you'll plunge to your death. The no-war pact in the nuclear situation
is similar. 

Kashmir cannot be solved without real Kashmiri representation. The
existing views on both sides are clearly irrelevant and
irreconcilable. The lack of coherent Kashmiri representation too makes
this attempt a first for any of such kind but doesn't do justice to the
aspirations of the people in the Valley. An ever-increasing
representation of Kashmiris is essential for peace.

In conclusion, the two leaders have barely throughout their political
careers shown any affinity towards the basic issues that confront their
people and so a sudden propensity for their welfare is hard to expect. In
all likelihood it seems to be a meeting of two elites with their own
agendas. The poor Pakistani in a remote village in Pakistan and its
counterpart in India will continue their struggle for survival
unaltered. But in the spirit of reconciliation, how superficial this may
be, any coming together of India and Pakistan is a very heartening
event. Let's hope and pray for the best of both nations because stranger
things have happened.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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