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US to ask India, Pak to stop 'provocative' actions

Concerned over the artillery exchanges across the Line of Control in Kashmir, the Clinton administration has decided to despatch shortly formal messages to India and Pakistan, asking them to refrain from ''provocative'' actions and rhetoric with a view to preventing the escalation of tension in the volatile region.

It also made an appeal to the two countries to resume their ''senior-level dialogue as soon as possible and to approach these talks imaginatively and constructively.''

''We are willing to assist the parties in this process at the request of both parties. We don't offer to mediate unless requested by both sides,'' said state department spokesman James Rubin while commenting on the recent development along the LoC in Kashmir.

Asked whether the US intended to send a special envoy to New Delhi and Islamabad to deliver the messages to the two governments, he said, ''I'm talking about a diplomatic message from our government to the Indian and Pakistani governments, not a new trip or a new envoy or anything.''

Rubin agreed with a questioner who characterised the situation ''as an across-the-board deterioration'' in the region.

He said clearly the meetings between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief in Colombo last week were not ''fully successful.''

He, however, said, ''We have been in touch with both the Indians and the Pakistanis in a very intense discussion in recent weeks.''

In this context, he made it a point to refer to the meetings that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her deputy Strobe Talbott had with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh.

''Albright had some opportunity to do that on her trip, and obviously Talbott has gone through extensive discussions with the two sides,'' Rubin remarked.

''He's going to continue to do that, and there are additional meetings planned in the coming weeks. So that is the diplomatic effort that we're doing, and we believe there is enough reason for optimism to continue working on it,'' he added.

With respect to the fighting along the LoC, he pointed out the information that he had received was that ''it tends to go up and down at this time of year. This was a particularly intense outburst of fighting with a particularly tragic loss of life, but it has calmed down today (Monday) and yesterday (Sunday).

Rubin said, ''There are firing incidents along the Line of Control almost daily during the summer, but the recent exchanges were particularly intense. Adding to the tensions are continued killings of civilians inside Kashmir and now in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.''

When asked as to whom he considered more inflexible than the other -- Indian or Pakistan -- he said, ''At this point, I haven't gotten the kind of report from Talbott that would encourage me to make that kind of a judgment.''

UNI

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