TOI News Service
Times of India
June 5, 1999
Title: India vindicated : US tells Pak to get out of Kargil Author: TOI News Service Publication: Times of India Date: June 5, 1999 NEW DELHI: Pakistan may have succeeded in bringing back Kashmir into international focus by escalating tension along the Line of Control (LoC), but Islamabad's generally well-oiled propaganda machine appears to have backfired this time round. The United States which sets the tone for Western reaction has for the first time in an India-Pakistan conflict not tilted towards Islamabad. In fact, Indian officials are happy that the Americans have understood New Delhi's compulsions on Kargil and the need to flush out Pakistan-backed infiltrators from Indian territory. A spokesman of the external affairs ministry said on Friday that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had received a letter from US President Bill Clinton. The spokesman did not give details of the letter but said that Mr Clinton mentioned that he had advised Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to defuse the crisis and respect the LoC. The crisis was triggered by Islamabad sending in heavily armed infiltrators into Kargil in a blatant violation of the LoC. A Washington report published in a Calcutta daily on Thursday reinforced the view that the US appears to realise India's position. Secretary of state Madeline Albright, in a telephone conversation with Mr Sharif, is reported to have asked him to get the intruders out of Kargil and re-establish the LoC. According to the newspaper, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Karl Inderfurth, followed through Ms Albright's tough talk by summoning Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, Riaz Khokkar, to give the same message. Agencies add: In New Delhi, ambassador Richard F. Celeste said the US wants ``intruders'' in Kargil to be withdrawn and the Indian military action scaled down for defusing the crisis in the region. He also said the US would not like to intervene in the crisis ``at this stage.'' ``We will support the two governments in scaling down the conflict... We do not want the issue to spill over and the Government of India is working very hard in that direction,'' Mr Celeste said. He said the US ``wants both sides to maintain restraint and move towards the Lahore Declaration.'' Responding to a question on his views on the Indian stand against third party intervention in the issue, the US ambassador said, ``The best course of action would be that both India and Pakistan have a direct high-level dialogue.'' In Washington, state department spokesman James Rubin said the Clinton administration wants India and Pakistan to enter into a dialogue and work out an arrangement to stand down from the current conflict in Kargil. ``We certainly would want them not to take steps to expand the conflict beyond the current Kargil area. That is examples of restraint,'' Mr Rubin said. In reply to a question, Mr Rubin confirmed that Ms Albright did telephone Mr Sharif and India's minister for external affairs Jaswant Singh on Saturday. ``The message was that we wanted to share our views with them on the current situation, that we wanted to express our concern about the developments and the potential for their spinning out of control, and urge restraint by both sides in preventing them from getting out of control,'' he said. Mr Rubin said the US was in touch with the Indian and Pakistani governments to urge them to show restraint and to urge both countries to work together to reduce tensions. He did not want to discuss in public the nature of the talks that Ms Albright had with Mr Sharif and Mr Singh. ``We think the best course of action for our diplomacy and for avoiding the chance of this spinning out of control is to leave our views on subjects like this private,'' he said.
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