HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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[The only thing I like of CWB is that, at least, he's
not so hypocritical as this "human being": We all remember how well
did he choose in 1999]
Choose politics not terror, Blair tells
leaders
By Kate Kelland
BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair says "only
politics, not terror" can solve the tense stand-off between India and
Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
In a speech in India, Blair said Kashmir would be high on the agenda
of his talks with leaders of India and Pakistan in the coming days, and
he urged them to move toward dialogue.
"One thing is clear -- only politics, not terror, can solve issues
like this," he said. Blair said the starting point of any dialogue must
be "total and absolute rejection" of terrorism.
"Terrorism is terrorism wherever it occurs," he said. "The
indiscriminate and deliberate murder of civilians to cause chaos and mutilation
defiles any political cause."
Relations between the two countries have nose-dived since an attack
on the Indian parliament on December 13 in which 14 people were killed.
New Delhi blames the attack on two Pakistan-based militant groups
fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Since then, India and Pakistan have reinforced their border forces in
the biggest such build-up in 15 years.
The two countries, which have fought three wars since gaining
independence from Britain in 1947, have scaled back diplomatic ties and
cut cross-border transport services.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf joined other regional leaders on Saturday at a summit
of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the
Himalayan kingdom of Nepal.
The leaders shook hands at the start of the conference, taking place
in Kathmandu.
"CALMING INFLUENCE"
Welcoming Blair to his country, Indian minister for information
technology and parliamentary affairs Pramod Mahajan, suggested that it
was Pakistan, not India, which would benefit from the "calming
influence" Blair has said he wants to have on the two nations.
"People say that you have come to cool us down," he said. "We have
been cool enough for 50 years."
Referring to the global coalition against terror that Blair has
helped build since the September 11 attacks on the United States,
Mahajan said: "There cannot be one set of rules for one and another set
of rules for another.
And mentioning Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of Pakistani-based
Kashmiri militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad which India blames for the
attack on its parliament, the minister added: "There cannot be one rule
for Mullah Omar (the leader of Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime), and
another for Maulana Azhar."
"AN ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY ITSELF"
Blair slammed the "appalling" attack on the Indian parliament, saying
such acts were the work of "fanatics".
"I view an attack on your parliament with every bit as much outrage
as I would an attack on the parliament in which I sit," he said.
"It was an attack on democracy itself."
After visiting Bangalore in southern India, Blair was to head to
Hyderabad in central India and then onto New Delhi on Sunday for talks
with the Indian Prime Minister before travelling to Pakistan.
Blair has warned that tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad could
erupt into a wider conflict that would threaten the stability of the
whole world.
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