ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Kashmir is the main issue: Musharraf

Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has said India would find him more than cooperative if it showed goodwill in trying to settle disputes between the two countries.

Gen Musharraf, who gained control of Pakistan in a bloodless coup in October, made his comments on India in separate interviews with Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television and the official Qatari News Agency.

Gen Musharraf arrived in Qatar yesterday for a two-day visit, the first leg of a three-nation tour which will also take him to Turkey and Kuwait. He met the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and members of the Pakistani community.

''India-Pakistan ties are not allowing this Asian region to develop economically like the rest of the world,'' Gen Musharraf told Al-Jazeera, which aired excerpts from the interview today.

''We must resolve all our differences within this context. When I say resolve all our differences, then I really mean it. Kashmir is part of these differences and it is the main issue,'' Musharraf said.

''I ask the Indian leadership to express their goodwill in this issue and to step forward to resolve all issues, including Kashmir, and they will find me more than cooperative,'' he said.

Gen Musharraf said he was willing to talk to India on a bilateral basis but that a third party was necessary to ensure that major issues were not ignored.

''We definitely accept any sort of mediation in the issue, but the Indians have a unique way of defining bilateral ties,'' he said.

The Pakistani general had said early this month he wanted to settle all disputes with India, including the Indo-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir.

But he warned New Delhi that ''hostility will be met with hostility.''

The official Qatari News Agency said Gen Musharraf ''expressed his regret because India did not respond to his initiative but added that despite this he was not really disappointed.''

''He stressed his desire to reach a solution to settle the Kashmir problem adding that he will continue his policy to reduce the number of Pakistani troops on the borders between the two countries ... And wondered if India was willing to cooperate with Pakistan on this issue,'' the agency said.

Reuters

Tell us what you think of this report