Posted on 05/31/2002 6:44:01 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
***Breaking - State Department Tells
Diplomats in India to Leave!***
Per FOX News Channel Breaking News announcement.
I will post further updates, if any from FOX News Channel........
WASHINGTON — U.S. citizens may be asked soon by the State Department to leave India as it inches ever closer to a war with neighboring Pakistan.
Diplomats and their dependents would be advised to leave, as would the 60,000 or so Americans who live in the South Asian country.
A Bush administration official said Secretary of State Colin Powell's decision is imminent. Other officials said it is percolating through the bureaucracy.
India regularly warns the State Department of preparations for war with Pakistan because of the influx of Islamic extremists into the Indian side of disputed Kashmir, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While India has not indicated a timetable, the administration takes the warnings seriously.
On Thursday, President Bush dispatched top American officials to the region.
"We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests," he said.
Powell will send his deputy, Richard Armitage, to India and Pakistan for talks next Thursday and Friday, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to arrive shortly afterward, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"We have no desire to make ourselves the mediator," Boucher said. He said any solution to the dispute over Kashmir depends on dialogue and taking into account the wishes of the people of the territory.
Bush also demanded that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf "live up to his word" and crack down on Islamic extremists' cross-border attacks in Kashmir. Pakistan is a major ally in the U.S. war against the Al Qaeda terror network.
While the State Department said it still had no assessment whether Musharraf was making good on his promise last winter to deny Pakistani territory to terrorists, Bush took the initiative as India and Pakistan teetered on the brink.
Locked in a dispute over the Kashmir border district, and with 1 million troops in a standoff at their frontier, India and Pakistan continued to alarm the world with their troop movements and their rhetoric, their nuclear armaments looming always in the background.
Under rules guiding the 1947 partition of British India, overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmir went to Indian control because its Hindu maharajah wanted it. The first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir resulted in a cease-fire line, which became a "line of control" under a 1972 agreement, with Hindu India controlling three-fifths of the fertile, predominantly Muslim Himalayan region.
The United Nations has been on record since the late 1940s that Kashmir's political status should be decided by its people, including a series of Security Council resolutions demanding plebiscites. Pakistan's position is that the resolutions should be implemented.
India has rejected the resolutions, for reasons including that no test of the people's will was required in other British India principalities divided because of their leaders' wishes and that Pakistan has not withdrawn from territory it controls.
The Bush administration has focused its diplomacy on trying to pry the two armies apart.
Powell said Thursday "there is nothing active" for the two sides to discuss in the way of a settlement. And, he said on PBS' NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, he did not think there was a role for the United States or another outside mediator at this point.
Asked if nuclear weapons would be used by India or Pakistan if conflict came, Powell said: "I can't answer that question, but I can say this: In my conversations with both sides, especially with the Pakistani side, I have made it clear that this really can't be in anyone's mind."
"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 across Kashmir's internationally established dividing line.
"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."
Despite Pakistan's assertion that it already has begun moving troops away from the Afghan-Pakistan border because of the tensions with India, Rumsfeld said U.S. officials had as yet seen no signs of a redeployment.
Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Pakistan had begun moving equipment and weapons away from the Afghan border area but, as of Thursday, had moved no troops.
Even if Pakistani troops are moved, Bush pledged to continue efforts to track down members of the Al Qaeda terror network in Pakistan
Rummy's 'visit' must have not worked..
Diplomats and their dependents would be advised to leave, as would the 60,000 or so Americans who live in the South Asian country.
A Bush administration official said Secretary of State Colin Powell's decision is imminent. Other officials said it is percolating through the bureaucracy.
India regularly warns the State Department of preparations for war with Pakistan because of the influx of Islamic extremists into the Indian side of disputed Kashmir, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While India has not indicated a timetable, the administration takes the warnings seriously.
On Thursday, President Bush dispatched top American officials to the region.
"We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests," he said.
Powell will send his deputy, Richard Armitage, to India and Pakistan for talks next Thursday and Friday, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to arrive shortly afterward, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"We have no desire to make ourselves the mediator," Boucher said. He said any solution to the dispute over Kashmir depends on dialogue and taking into account the wishes of the people of the territory.
Bush also demanded that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf "live up to his word" and crack down on Islamic extremists' cross-border attacks in Kashmir. Pakistan is a major ally in the U.S. war against the Al Qaeda terror network.
While the State Department said it still had no assessment whether Musharraf was making good on his promise last winter to deny Pakistani territory to terrorists, Bush took the initiative as India and Pakistan teetered on the brink.
Locked in a dispute over the Kashmir border district, and with 1 million troops in a standoff at their frontier, India and Pakistan continued to alarm the world with their troop movements and their rhetoric, their nuclear armaments looming always in the background.
Under rules guiding the 1947 partition of British India, overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmir went to Indian control because its Hindu maharajah wanted it. The first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir resulted in a cease-fire line, which became a "line of control" under a 1972 agreement, with Hindu India controlling three-fifths of the fertile, predominantly Muslim Himalayan region.
The United Nations has been on record since the late 1940s that Kashmir's political status should be decided by its people, including a series of Security Council resolutions demanding plebiscites. Pakistan's position is that the resolutions should be implemented.
India has rejected the resolutions, for reasons including that no test of the people's will was required in other British India principalities divided because of their leaders' wishes and that Pakistan has not withdrawn from territory it controls.
The Bush administration has focused its diplomacy on trying to pry the two armies apart.
Powell said Thursday "there is nothing active" for the two sides to discuss in the way of a settlement. And, he said on PBS' NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, he did not think there was a role for the United States or another outside mediator at this point.
Asked if nuclear weapons would be used by India or Pakistan if conflict came, Powell said: "I can't answer that question, but I can say this: In my conversations with both sides, especially with the Pakistani side, I have made it clear that this really can't be in anyone's mind."
"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 across Kashmir's internationally established dividing line.
"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."
Despite Pakistan's assertion that it already has begun moving troops away from the Afghan-Pakistan border because of the tensions with India, Rumsfeld said U.S. officials had as yet seen no signs of a redeployment.
Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Pakistan had begun moving equipment and weapons away from the Afghan border area but, as of Thursday, had moved no troops.
Even if Pakistani troops are moved, Bush pledged to continue efforts to track down members of the Al Qaeda terror network in Pakistan.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/05/31/national0947EDT0542.DTL
(05-31) 06:47 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
The State Department on Friday advised all but essential American diplomats in India to leave and urged about 60,000 Americans there to quit the country as well because of rising danger of conflict between India and Pakistan.
"Tensions have risen to serious levels" and conflict between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out, the State Department said.
About 60,000 U.S. citizens in India also were urged to depart. "Conditions along India's border with Pakistan and in the state of Jammu and Kashmir have deteriorated," the State Department said in its travel warning.
Dependents of nonessential U.S. personnel in the embassy in New Delhi and U.S. consulates in Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai also were encouraged to depart at U.S. government expense.
©2002 Associated Press
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.