India and Pakistan raised new hopes of a historic peace accord yesterday when officials from the two countries met in Islamabad to discuss the terms for fresh negotiations.
The renewed peace process comes two-and-a-half years and one major military stand off after the last round of talks collapsed over the disputed region of Kashmir.
The latest round of low-key meetings will last for three days; they are widely expected to agree to an already drafted agenda for higher-level discussions, to begin as early as next month.
Monday’s discussions between senior diplomats from both countries were conducted in a ”cordial atmosphere and constructive manner,” according to Masood Khan, spokesperson for the Pakistani foreign ministry.
”There is realisation in India and Pakistan that war is not an option, that you have to look at ways to find peaceful resolution of the outstanding disputes between the two countries,” said Khan. ”There’s a new momentum, and this momentum must be maintained.”
The peace talks were scheduled after an unexpectedly amicable meeting between the countries’ leaders, Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf and India’s prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at a regional summit in Islamabad last month.
Many analysts now expect the talks that began on Monday to lead to negotiations on eight key contentious issues, including the status of Kashmir — two-thirds of which is controlled by India — and Pakistan’s traditional support for Islamist terrorist groups operating there.
Monday’s breakthrough became possible after Vajpayee agreed to discuss Kashmir and General Musharraf agreed to stop supporting the terrorists.
According to a western diplomat in Islamabad, a draft declaration announcing the peace talks had already been agreed in a series of low-level diplomatic meetings between the two countries in recent weeks.
”It looks like they are assuming that there will be further talks, which is as positive a development as we can hope for,” the diplomat said on Monday.
Other analysts in Islamabad echoed his wary optimism. ”I think both sides at least want to show the world that they are responsible states,” said Samina Ahmed of the thinktank International Crisis Group. ”It seems there will at least be another round of talks — that’s the optimistic view.”
The status of Kashmir has been the main focus for animosity between the two countries since their partition in 1947. Both countries claim the territory, with Pakistan historically calling for a referendum on its status, and India refusing to discuss the issue.
Most Kashmiris would favour independence from both countries, according to a recent poll. Above all, the pollsters found, Kashmiris wanted an end to the terrorist attacks and army reprisals that have claimed 65,000 lives in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. In the latest outbreak of violence, a local politician was shot dead in the main town of Srinagar yesterday by suspected Islamist terrorists. A policeman was killed and an other wounded after they opened fire on the assassins.
Across the frontline in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, more than 500 people demonstrated against the peace talks and for Kashmiri independence on Monday.
”These negotiations are being held to end the Kashmiris’ struggle,” said Ghulam Nabi War, of the independence-seeking Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.
”The two countries are not interested in people of Kashmir. They don’t respect their wishes.”
Since coming close to start ing their fourth major war 18 months ago, India and Pakistan have moved gradually towards normalising their relations.
Rail links have been restored, though not direct flights between the two neighbours. In November, troops stopped shelling each other across the line of control.
Next month, India’s cricket team is set to tour Pakistan for the first time since 1989 — a prospect consuming as many column inches of the country’s newspapers as the renewal of peace talks. – Guardian Unlimited Â