India and Pakistan must talk

India and Pakistan must talk

The Jakarta Post published a news item on June 21, in three
columns captioned India wins G-8 support over Kashmir spat. The
intro of the story said that India won key diplomatic support
from the G-8 group of major powers on Sunday in its battle with
arch-foe Pakistan over Kashmir.

The headline of this item and introduction are totally
misleading and incorrect because in the whole story which was
circulated by news agencies there is no mention of India winning
support as suggested in the headlines. To put the record straight
the G-8 summit said "we are deeply concerned about the continuing
military confrontation in Kashmir following the infiltration of
armed intruders which violated the Line of Control. We regard any
military action to change the status quo as irresponsible. We
therefore call for the immediate end of these actions,
restoration of the Line of Control and for the parties to work
for an immediate cessation of fighting, full respect in the
future for the Line of Control and the resumption of the dialog
between them in the spirit of Lahore Declaration".

Pakistan spokesman in Islamabad expressing satisfaction over
the statement of G-8 on the situation in Kashmir said it amounts
of virtual endorsement of Pakistan's stand which it had taken in
the Sartaj-Jaswant meeting on June 12, 1999. The spokesman said
that India's rejection of the dialog process has been clearly not
acceptable to G-8. On the other hand, Pakistan's stand that the
hostilities in Kashmir should be halted, the Line of Control
mutually respected and the dialog be resumed for peaceful
solution has been upheld by G-8, the spokesman added.

SYED AYAZ AHMED PIRZADA

Press Attache

Embassy of Pakistan

Jakarta