No Reason To Doubt Gujrals Statement On Prithvi: Raphel Us

The Clinton Administration said it had no reason to doubt Prime Minister I K Gujrals assertion that India has not deployed its Prithvi missiles within striking distance of the Pakistani border.

Assistant secretary of state for South Asia Robin Raphel categorically stated here, the Indian government has said, and the Prime Minister has confirmed that some Prithvi missiles were only being stored in Jalandhar and have not been deployed.

We have no information contrary to that, she said.

She also said that the US had no intention of getting involved in the Kashmir dispute.

However, Raphel warned that missile deployments and missile programmes in South Asia have a great potential to be destabilising.

 

They do not necessarily enhance the security of either India or Pakistan and we certainly hope that high on the list of the kind of issues that India and Pakistan will be talking about when they get down to their serious dialogue will be the whole of security and particularly their missile programmes and nuclear programmes, she said.

On the question whether the US will slap China and Pakistan with sanctions for Beijings sale of M-11 ballistic missiles to Islamabad, some of which, according to intelligence sources, have been deployed while others are in storage at Sargodha, Raphel said, We have made no decision or come to any conclusion on the stories regarding M-11s in Pakistan.

In a farewell briefing at the Foreign Press Centre, where she made her controversial debut almost four years ago with the statement that the US does not recognise the Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, Raphel said the US, despite Pakistans entreaties, had no intention of getting involved in the Kashmir imbroglio as a mediator or broker.

Asked if she would, in retrospect, state her views on Kashmir differently or if she had not changed her mind regarding what she said at the time, Raphel said, the issue is not my views on Kashmir.

The issue is, she explained, US policy. Ive said it here at the first briefing I gave, (and) Ive said it numerous times since then and our basic policy has not changed. Our policy is that Kashmir is disputed territory.

Raphel reiterated that our basic assessment of what needs to happen there hasnt changed but over the last three of our years the situation on the ground has evolved.

Four years ago, Raphel said, insurgency was at its height. Now insurgency is less intense. By no means is it entirely gone, and I realise that there are periods of more activity or less activity, but it is certainly less active than it was. Raphel declared, there is disillusionment in the Valley with insurgency. Also disillusionment thats been growing for a long time with the Government of India.

But, she said, I think the election in Kashmir demonstrated that the people were really for a change. Ready for something different. They were tired of the status quo with all sorts of very good reasons and were hoping that by restoring some accountability to local state officials they might gain more control over their lives.

However, she acknowledged that it was too early to predict whether the opportunities will be seized by all sides. The jury is still very much out of it.

Raphel noted that the Farooq Abdullah government had its work cut out for it and had a large agenda in terms of education and health. It also includes political dispensation between the state and the Centre, she added but emphasised that in the final analysis the underlying problem had to be resolved by India and Pakistan.

This is an issue on the agenda of India and Pakistan, (and) we have no intention of getting in the middle of these talks, she said.

However, she noted that we have been encouraging new formulations, new ideas rather than getting stuck in the old concepts. She said Washington had been encouraging New Delhi and Islamabad to take advantage of the new opportunities.

She said that many problems in other areas had been sorted out with the demise of the Cold War and it is about time India and Pakistan does the same.