Bush to send Rumsfeld to ease India-Pakistan tensions

By George Gedda

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Thursday urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to “live up to his word” and stop cross-border attacks in Kashmir. He also will send Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to help ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has already announced that his top aide, Richard Armitage, will go to the region next week as part of a broader international effort to prevent a war between the nuclear-powered neighbors.

Armitage will hold talks in Pakistan and India next Thursday and Friday, with Rumsfeld due soon afterward, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

“We have no desire to make ourselves the mediator,” Boucher said. He said any solution of the dispute over Kashmir requies direct dialogue between India and Pakistan.

“We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests, “Bush said after a Cabinet meeting. “We are part of an international coalition applying pressure to both parties.”

In particular, he said, Musharraf must keep his promise to stem attacks in the disputed, predominantly Muslim Kashmir region.

“He must stop the incursions across the line of control. He must do so. He said he would do so,” the president said. “We and others are making it clear to him that he must live up to his word.”

Flanked by Powell and Rumsfeld at the polished Cabinet Room table, Bush said Rumsfeld will go to the region next week.

Later at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said he had not decided which days he would be in India and Pakistan and he declined to discuss who he would meet with or what message he intended to deliver. He said the situation was so sensitive that any public comments he made might be misinterpreted.

“My instinct on this subject is to simply recognize that the two countries are clearly in a situation where they are not talking directly to each other and they have substantial disagreements,” he said.

Rumsfeld said he had made no decision on whether any U.S. troops based in Pakistan or India would be withdrawn out of concern that the two countries might go to war.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Rumsfeld will visit both countries and unspecified other countries.

“The mission is to reduce the tension and help President Musharraf and (Indian) Prime Minister Vajpayee to find a way out, to reduce the tension,” Fleischer said.

With tensions skyrocketing, Bush responded to a report in USA Today that the government was making plans for the possible evacuation of 1,100 U.S. troops and up to 63,000 U.S citizens from both countries.

He said Rumsfeld and Powell are “analyzing what it would take to protect American lives if need be.” He did not elaborate.

But Fleischer said there are standing plans for protecting Americans around the world in any conflict.

“Those plans – at times of tension rising – get looked at and made sure they are as effective as they can possiby be,” Fleischer said.

Senior White House officials stressed that while plans were being made in the event that evacuations became necessary, there were no immediate plans to do so. The officials say there are several steps both the State and Defense department take before getting to that worst-case scenerio, such as ordering home employees’ families or allowing them to leave voluntarily, and many of those steps have not been taken.

Bush also pledged to continue efforts to track down al-Qaida members in Pakistan.

“We’re doing everything we can to shore up our effort on the Pakistan-Afghan border,” Bush said. “We for Powell to order all but essential U.S. employees to depart. This was done in Pakistan after an attack last March on a church in Islamabad frequented by Westerners. That stripped the U.S. Embassy of all but a core contingent.

Bush has made the region a top priority for his diplomats, Fleischer said, and is stressing to India and Pakistan “the importance of taking steps to reduce the tensions and avoid a war.”

Bush was satisfied with Musharraf’s recent pledge to do more to halt terrorist operations, and “will continue to urge additional actions and ongoing actions by Pakistan, as well as by India, to reduce the tensions,” Fleischer said.

In the Indian capital, New Delhi, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had determined after meeting with leaders from both sides that war is not inevitable.

The border region of Kashmir has been hotly contested since British India was partitioned in 1947 and Kashmir went to Hindu India despite its overwhelmingly Muslim populace. The current phase of the crisis began two weeks ago when suspected Islamic militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir and killed more than 30 people, including 10 children.