Finger clearly points to Pak, says Clinton

The surprisingly direct assertion comes on the heels of a series of statements from high US officials tending to implicate the current Pakistan military junta in the stepped-up terrorist violence in Kashmir. There were similar indications soon after the hijack crisis last December when US officials suggested sections of the Pakistani government were in cahoots with the hijackers.

The officials, as also President Clinton, avoid using the word “terrorism” and still leave an escape hatch for the military dictatorship by suggesting that only some elements are supporting it. But privately, many officials say they are not convinced that maverick forces in the Pakistan government can keep up the sustained support to violent subversion in Kashmir without clearance from the highest levels.

In his ABC interview to anchor Peter Jennings, Clinton also revealed the approach he would adopt in Pakistan, where he is expected to tell the leadership to not be obsessed with Kashmir.

“I don’t think that this is the way to deal with Kashmir and I don’t think it’s a good enough reason to drive, in effect, the whole existence, the whole policy of the Pakistani government,” he said. “I think… They (Pakistan) have to have a non-violent plan for resolving their differences with India.”

Clinton’s elaboration of a new and gradually emerging US position on Kashmir came after he suggested at a brief press conference yesterday that he agreed with India’s stand that it was not possible to hold talks with Pakistan as long as it indulged in what India calls “cross-border terrorism”.

The rapidly evolving US stand also surfaced in Clinton’s address to Parliament which again linked Islamabad with the violence in Kashmir, and shared India’s concerns and disappointments over the course Pakistan was taking.

“I share your outrage over the recent violence. I know it is difficult to be a democracy bordered by nations whose governments reject democracy,” he said.

At the same time, the US President also hinted that he expected New Delhi to talk to the military dictatorship if it scaled down the violence, saying, “But I also believe India has a special opportunity as a democracy to show its neighbours that democracy is about dialogue.”

Clinton’s statements reflecting the nuanced US position on Kashmir in the light of Pakistani belligerence is already causing consternation in Islamabad. US officials are working to schedule a direct address by the President to the Pakistani people, but reports from Islamabad suggest the military junta is nervous about the prospect. Clinton is expected to meet Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar, but the key meeting will be with military dictator Gen. Musharraf.

“It is going to be a very sharp and short meeting,” one analyst was quoted by Reuters as saying. The Clinton administration, says many commentators, now believes that Gen. Musharraf is throwing the kitchen sink in Kashmir in an effort to consolidate his power and keep the country united.

“In his struggle to retain power and maintain order, he has invested everything in the fight for Kashmir. He hopes that the struggle will unify the nation, appease Muslim extremists and galvanise the armed forces,” Jennings said in a one-hour program on the region broadcast on ABC Monday night.

Jennings, one of America’s most sensitive and insightful television journalists, is in New Delhi these days with the US President. He is the only major TV anchor to make the trip, and over the past two days, has broadcast his evening bulletin World News Tonight, from New Delhi.