Kashmiris Demand Role in Peace Talks

The leader of moderate Kashmiri separatists warned Thursday that lasting peace between India and Pakistan was impossible unless his people were seated at the negotiating table.

During more than a year of talks with Pakistan, India has refused to let Kashmiri leaders have a direct role in possible solutions to the 57-year-old conflict over Kashmir.

Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq insisted Thursday that “historic realities,” such as a guerrilla war against 1 million Indian troops deployed in the region in 1989, meant three-way talks were the only way to end the dispute over the divided territory.

“Kashmiris have expressed themselves in red-hot blood for the last 15 years, and this reality cannot be ignored, neither by India nor Pakistan,” said Farooq, who heads a loose coalition of separatists called the All Party Hurriyat Conference. “So, if anybody believes that you can have a bilateral agreement on Kashmir, they are highly mistaken.”

The official death toll for the Kashmir insurgency is more than 45,000, but Kashmiris say the real number is more than double that.

Almost 1,600 people have died in the conflict this year. Indian authorities said about half of the dead were militants, 456 were civilians and 269 were members of security forces.

In January, then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government began talks with Kashmiri separatist leaders, but two rounds of discussions brought little progress.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been slow to resume negotiations with Kashmiri leaders since defeating Vajpayee in May elections.

Singh repeated Wednesday that Kashmir was part of India, and insisted any peace deal with Pakistan could not redraw international borders or divide Indian territory along religious lines.

Kashmiri leaders fear those are new conditions for negotiations, and a hardening of India’s position.

But Singh insisted his door was open for any Kashmiris who shunned violence.

After considering the offer Thursday, Hurriyat leaders said that they wanted a formal invitation from the Indian government that set out specific proposals for negotiation -- and that a third round of talks with India’s government couldn’t start until it agreed to let Kashmiri leaders visit Pakistan to discuss peace proposals with its government and guerrilla commanders in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, Farooq said.

“Both things have to be addressed,” he told reporters after insisting that Hurriyat leaders were not setting conditions for resuming negotiations.

Farooq said Hurriyat leaders would travel to New Delhi next week to meet visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is expected to discuss new efforts to advance the peace process that began last year.

According to Farooq, Aziz plans to discuss recent proposals by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for a settlement, which might include granting autonomy to the divided region or putting parts of it under joint rule by India and Pakistan.

After hearing Kashmiri leaders’ views, Aziz would then present the proposals to India, said Farooq, who called Musharraf’s suggestions “a step in the right direction.”

“The Hurriyat has three road maps for resolving the Kashmir issue,” Farooq said, without providing details. “And we are ready to discuss all three, with both the Indian and Pakistan governments, so that a way forward can be charted that is acceptable to all.”