Pakistan president says nuclear weapons are an option

By Laurinda Keys

Associated Press

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf refused Tuesday to renounce first use of nuclear weapons, as efforts to bring him together with his Indian counterpart and defuse tensions over Kashmir appeared to fail.

Asked to state Pakistan’s nuclear policy and explain why it will not renounce first use of nuclear weapons as India has, Musharraf said, “The possession of nuclear weapons by any state obviously implies they will be used under some circumstances.”

He said, however, that it would be irresponsible for a leader to discuss such things, and that Pakistan’s “deeper policy” is for denuclearization of South Asia.

Earlier Tuesday at an Asian summit in Kazakhstan, India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said: “Nuclear powers should not use nuclear blackmail.” On Monday, the Indian Defense Ministry said India “does not believe in the use of nuclear weapons.”

Tuesday morning, the leaders of India and Pakistan angrily blamed each other for more than five decades of conflict, exchanging stony stares across a table while their troops fired at each other in the disputed Kashmir region.

Russia and China pressed India and Pakistan to enter face-to-face talks to prevent the Kashmir conflict from exploding into a fourth full-scale war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Although the effort failed to bring the Musharraf and Vajpayee together for a direct meeting, Musharraf said he had accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation for possible talks in Moscow.

“India is continually threatening Pakistan for an attack and also refusing dialogue,” Musharraf said after meeting with Putin. He said he didn’t know whether Vajpayee, who also met Putin shortly afterward, would come to Moscow for talks at an unspecified date.

“Everyone was desiring a meeting between me and Mr. Vajpayee,” Musharraf said. “I think the whole world is disappointed that we two did not talk and meet here.”

Vajpayee said Tuesday he is willing to have a dialogue with Pakistan, but there must be a halt first to cross-border terrorism, which India says is carried out in its part of Kashmir by Pakistan-based Islamic militants who have been fighting for 12 years.

After meeting both leaders, Putin said they showed “positive signs” and that neither intends to use force to solve their problems. India had repeated its policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, Putin said earlier, while Musharraf has “said on the territory of Pakistan there won’t be militants. This is what the whole world eagerly awaited from the two leaders.”

But with no breakthrough in sight, some of the 1 million Indian and Pakistani soldiers posted along both sides of the 1,800-mile frontier unleashed fresh artillery and gunfire at each other in Kashmir on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but eight civilians died in shelling Monday.

Earlier Tuesday, as Musharraf sat about 15 feet across from the Indian leader at a rectangular, horseshoe shaped table in the Kazakh city of Almaty, Musharraf insisted his country didn’t want the conflict to erupt.

“We do not want war. If war is imposed on us, we will defend ourselves with the utmost resolution,” he said.

“The people of South Asia continue to pay a heavy price for the refusal by India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with resolutions of the United Nations and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”

In response, Vajpayee rejected Musharraf’s repeated assurance that “Pakistan will not allow its territory to be used for any terrorist attacks outside or inside its boundaries.”

Vajpayee said violence in India’s portion of Kashmir and infiltration of Islamic militants from Pakistani territory had not decreased since Musharraf first made that assurance Jan. 12.

“We have seen in the following months that cross-border infiltration has increased, violence in Jammu and Kashmir has continued unabated and terrorist camps continue to operate unhindered across our borders,” Vajpayee said.

“We have repeatedly said that we are willing to discuss all issues with Pakistan, including Jammu and Kashmir,” Vajpayee said of India’s northernmost state. “But for that, cross-border terrorism has to end.”

Vajpayee and Musharraf both sat with pursed lips and stony stares as the other spoke. With the 14 other delegates, they signed a declaration condemning “all forms and manifestations of terrorism” and promising “to strengthen cooperation and dialogue.”

When delegates mingled and greeted each other as the conference ended, the two stood on opposite sides of the room and did not interact.

Vajpayee and Musharraf met separately with several of the leaders at the summit, including Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

“We cannot but be concerned about the explosive situation in the relations between Pakistan and India, which threatens to destabilize the situation in the whole Eurasian continent,” Putin said at the summit, adding that world leaders would make every effort to defuse the crisis.

India says Islamic militants crossing the frontier from Pakistan have carried out terror attacks, including a deadly assault on the Indian Parliament in December and on an Indian army base in Kashmir last month, which left 34 dead, mostly wives and children of army officers.

Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon insisted Monday that the militants had not come from his nation’s part of Kashmir and said his country had stepped up monitoring of the Line of Control, the 1972 cease-fire line that divides the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. Both nations claim all of it and the dispute has caused two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, said he had encouraged Musharraf this weekend to “restrain all activity across the Line of Control.” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected in the region this weekend, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is due to visit Pakistan and India this week.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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