17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569 |
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No meeting of minds
Although India "lauded" Pakistan's promise to ban cross-border terrorism, the threat of war totally eclipsed the SAARC regional summit. Sudhanshu Ranjan writes from Katmandu
Dark clouds of uncertainty enveloped the eleventh summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a regional organisation comprised of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The meeting in Katmandu, Nepal -- which coincided with British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to South Asia and took place just before US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the region -- was totally bogged down with the Indo-Pakistani dispute.
Arrested members of militant Pakistani Islamist organisations behind bars are guarded by a police officer in their detention cell in Karachi, following a nationwide sweep operation ordered by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
(PHOTO: AP)
Massive troop build-ups on both sides of the India-Pakistan border and the possibility of bilateral talks between the two countries completely hijacked the agenda of the SAARC summit. Other topics of discussion were reduced to nothing more than window- dressing.
Tension in the region has acquired such a gargantuan dimension that there could be neither a full-scale summit nor an Indo-Pakistani dialogue. Pakistan did send signals, though not through diplomatic channels, that it wanted a dialogue with India to defuse tension on the border between the two nuclear neighbours. India, however, maintained throughout that the atmosphere was not conducive to talks as it was not convinced of Islamabad's commitment against terrorism directed at India. Underlining the tough Indian stance on terrorism, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh did nothing more than merely shake hands and smile for the cameras when he met his Pakistani counterpart Abdul- Sattar in Katmandu on 2 January. He did not initiate any formal or informal dialogue despite intense international pressure, particularly from the US, to ease tensions.
India is deeply disturbed by Pakistan's response -- "show us the evidence" -- to the list it submitted of 20 men wanted for terrorist acts in India who are believed to have taken sanctuary in Pakistan. India wants Pakistan to take action against those named in India's "most wanted" list under the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 that enjoins all countries to extirpate the cancer of terrorism. New Delhi's efforts have not been confined to the list, however. India is intent on making the world aware that Pakistan is part of the terrorism problem and not the solution.
Nevertheless, the Indian government expressed guarded praise for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's recent banning of two militant Islamist organisations, and his actions in outlawing the launch of terrorist attacks on Indian targets from Pakistani soil. The praise was tempered by official statements, however, including Jaswant Singh's comment that New Delhi still awaits "concrete action."
Pakistan, keen to build up diplomatic pressure on India and project itself as the more sensible nation, has maintained throughout that it is willing to sort out the problem across the negotiating table, despite India's staunch refusal to provide even a shred of evidence against terrorists allegedly operating from Pakistan. Regarding New Delhi's demand that Islamabad should extradite 20 individuals wanted in connection with terrorist and criminal activities in India, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdul-Sattar told an Indian newspaper that even though India and Pakistan did not have an extradition treaty, Islamabad was of the view that the 1987 SAARC document on extradition provided a framework for Pakistan to heed India's request.
Sattar also made several conciliatory statements suggesting that Pakistan was willing to address India's concerns about cross-border terrorism. Reports from Islamabad on 3 January, however, suggested that Musharraf had ruled out extraditing the 20 wanted men, declaring that they could be prosecuted under Pakistani laws after examining the evidence that India would provide against them.
New Delhi finally responded to Islamabad's repeated calls for evidence when Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh announced to a packed news conference on 3 January that Pakistan had consistently refused to take notice of evidence presented in reams of documents dating back to 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai. Singh emphasised that India was not attending the SAARC meeting to further a dialogue with Pakistan.
Singh's list began with evidence going back to March 1993 that conveyed India's frustration with Pakistan's refusal to act against those accused of carrying out the Mumbai blasts. The minister went on to document similar inaction in connection with the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 two years go, terrorism in the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and cross-border drug trafficking. "I have cited these examples only to illustrate that the subterfuge of seeking evidence is not acceptable," Singh said.
The Pakistani camp received New Delhi's charge sheet without much discomfiture. In an attempt to deflect the issue, a senior Pakistani official even asked India why it did not take further action against Maulana Masood Azhar while he was incarcerated in Jammu. Azhar, one of the militant leaders who New Delhi blames for an attack on its parliament, was freed by India from his Jammu jail cell in return for the hostages from the hijacked IC-814 plane.
Such acrimonious trading of charges meant that already slim chances of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf meeting Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee became even bleaker. The postponement of the SAARC summit by a day -- due to a delay in Musharraf's arrival in Katmandu -- meant that the probability of a one-on-one meeting evaporated almost completely. Musharraf did not reach Katmandu in time for the summit's inaugural session on 4 January, due to adverse weather conditions at Chengdu airport in China.
This, at least, was the official version proffered by the organisers of the summit. In Katmandu, however, speculation was rife that the delay may well have been related to the arrest of an employee of Nepal's Pakistani embassy, Siraj Ahmed Siraj, a day earlier for allegedly possessing fake US and Indian currency. The Nepalese authorities released the employee under intense pressure from Pakistan. Islamabad is believed to have made it clear that the participation of Musharraf in the summit proceedings would be compromised unless the matter was swiftly sorted out.
Musharraf's late arrival resulted in the cancellation of the retreat of the leaders of the SAARC nations at the Nagarkot holiday resort which was scheduled for 5 January. The retreat would have been the only opportunity away from the glare of the media for Vajpayee and Musharraf to resume dialogue.
Leaders of the seven South Asian countries finally met on 5 January. Musharraf managed to pull off another television coup and hogged the headlines when he walked across the podium at the end of his address to shake hands with Vajpayee. Concluding his address, Musharraf said that he was extending to Vajpayee "a genuine and sincere hand of friendship" and followed it up by walking up to Vajpayee and extending his hand.
A somewhat surprised Vajpayee got up and shook hands with him to a deafening applause at the Birendra International Convention Centre. The entire performance, with its dramatic finale, created a flutter in the ceremony with the rest of the agenda given over to speculation about Vajpayee's response to the gesture.
Responding to the "hand of friendship" extended by Musharraf, Vajpayee departed from his prepared speech to say: "I am glad that President Pervez Musharraf extended a hand of friendship to me. I have shaken his hand in your presence."
"Now President Musharraf," Vajpayee warned, "must follow up this gesture by not permitting any activity in Pakistan or any territory controlled by it today which enables terrorists to perpetrate mindless violence in India." Vajpayee also recalled how Pakistan had, in his words, "repaid" India's peace initiatives at Lahore and Agra with the Kargil aggression and later the attacks on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and Indian Parliament House. The Indian prime minister seemed disappointed by Musharraf's failure to refer to the 13 December attack on the Indian Parliament. At a news conference the next day, however, Musharraf condemned the 13 December incident as a terrorist attack.
In the afternoon of the inaugural day a scaled-down retreat was organised at a hotel in Katmandu itself but Vajpayee did not attend. Instead, Jaswant Singh represented India. Several news agencies, quoting Pakistani diplomatic sources, reported that Vajpayee, Musharraf and their foreign ministers held confidential talks at the hotel where they were staying. Vajpayee, however, quashed the rumour, saying that there were no bilateral talks but only an exchange of courtesies.
On the concluding day of the session, TV cameras captured shots of Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser to the Indian prime minister, exchanging papers with Abdul-Sattar. Neither India nor Pakistan confirmed the exchange, however. Nevertheless, an abrupt change in temperature was evident on 6 January from the tone and tenor of Musharraf, who seemed to exercise extreme self- restraint in his replies to newsmen's queries. At the concluding ceremony Musharraf made a brief speech stressing the need for "durable peace to realise the dream of SAARC."
In fact, all the leaders at the conference dwelt extensively on the need to stamp out terrorism for the prosperity of the region, which accounts for one- fifth of the world's population and is also the poorest. In a highly academic speech, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumartunga tried to diagnose the genesis of terrorism. "Hopes betrayed transform into bombs," he said.
All leaders also agreed that SAARC had progressed little while other regional bodies like ASEAN and the European Union were marching ahead. Even the summit itself was not being held regularly; the eleventh summit took place after a gap of approximately three and a half years.
The leaders stressed the need for economic integration in South Asia. Recognising the need to move quickly towards a South Asian Free Trade Area, they directed the association's Council of Ministers to finalise the draft treaty framework by the end of 2002. They also emphasised the need to promote synergetic partnerships among national governments and the sharing of best practices and experiences in different fields among the member states. The summit adopted the Convention for the Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution and the Convention for Child Welfare. The final declaration of the Katmandu meeting also incorporated four paragraphs on the need to eradicate the scourge of terrorism.
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