General warns Pakistan of war

KARACHI, Pakistan — A top U.S. general and commander in chief of the
strategic Central Command (Centcom), Gen. Anthony Zinni, has air-dashed
to Islamabad in a last ditch attempt to prevent Pakistan and India from
going into a no-holds-barred war, involving the use of nuclear arms.

Zinni was closeted in talks yesterday with Pakistan’s joint chiefs of
staff committee chairman, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the latter’s office
in Rawalpindi. Those present in the talks included U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for South Asia Gibson Lanpher and the U.S. Ambassador
to Pakistan William B. Milam.

President Clinton has instructed Zinni to persuade Pakistan to
withdraw the “armed infiltrators” from Kargil, according to the State
Department. U.S. Ambassador Milam had earlier on Wednesday said, without
naming Pakistan, “that those who had sent the fighters to Drass and
Kargil, would have to call them back.”

The U.S. State Department has made it clear that Zinni’s visit was
“Pakistan-specific.” One Washington-based diplomat was cited as saying
that Zinni was carrying a “warning” that India was determined to cross
over the line of control if Pakistan did not call back the intruders
from Kargil in Kashmir.

Zinni’s intimacy with the military and civilian leadership can be
gauged by the fact that he was in Islamabad on the night of Aug. 20 last
year. This was when U.S. cruise missiles flew over Pakistan’s
territories to target the base camps of the CIA’s most wanted man, Saudi
multi-millionaire Osama Bin Laden, in Afghanistan. In spite of Gen.
Zinni’s friendships in Islamabad, as if in defiance of the U.S. demands,
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to the mountainous areas along
the line of control to ask about the welfare of the troops and those
injured in the on-going war. He reiterated Pakistan support for the
Kashmir militants.

The Centcom chief’s visit takes place as war clouds darken over South
Asia, with India putting its army, navy and air force on alert and
moving its defense formation closer to the border. Pakistan’s forces are
similarly war-ready, and anti-aircraft guns and missiles have been
deployed at sensitive installations and strategic points throughout the
country. A red alert has also been announced in the megalopolis of
Karachi, the country’s economic nerve center. Though Pakistan’s army and
civilian leadership were playing down the threats of war, army chief
Gen. Pervez Musharraf has come on record to say that he is preparing for
the worst. His Indian counterpart, Gen. V.P. Malik hinted in no
uncertain terms Wednesday that New Delhi might exercise its right of hot
pursuit and have his men cross over the Pakistani side of Kashmir.

Islamabad was visibly annoyed yesterday that Zinni was carrying just
a single-point agenda — that Pakistan must pullout the militants from
Drass and Kargil. Pakistan’s official spokesman Tariq Altaf told newsmen
in Islamabad that “viewing the Kargil issue in isolation from the
overall Kashmir problem” would do precious little to further the cause
of Kashmir. He said Pakistan was of the view that such a stance would
embolden New Delhi to carry out its atrocities on, what Islamabad calls,
the freedom fighters in Kashmir.

The Indian army appears to be under considerable pressure to cross
the line of control, which serves as a temporary border between the two
belligerent, nuclear neighbors. The South Asian twain have fought two
out of their three wars over Kashmir. The single agenda that Zinni, who
has long had a close working relationship with the army top brass in
Pakistan, is that of withdrawal of the armed mujahideen. Indian and
Western media had initially said that the current war in Kashmir’s was a
handiwork of the Pakistan army. These reports suggested that the top
brass of the army had been annoyed over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s
summit with his right-wing counterpart from India, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
For all practical purposes, this view appeared to be shared by the U.S.
State Department and Pentagon.

Though Pakistan denies that its forces were involved in the fighting
inside Indian Kashmir, analysts in Pakistan are of the view that the
current operation was of long-term geo-strategic benefit to Islamabad.
Pakistan wants to drive home the point that if the international
community failed to intercede in Kashmir, the region might as well be on
the threshold of a nuclear conflagration.

One reason why the foreign minister air-dashed to China was that
Islamabad was furious that a U.S. spy satellite had picked up the
wireless conversation between Pakistan’s army chief and his senior
general in charge of the Kashmir front and the CIA’s Langley office
passed on those tapes to India.

Former prime minister and Pakistan’s main opposition leader, writing
from self-exile in Dubai, is of the view that the international
community should step in to help resolve the Kashmir imbroglio just as
it had done in the case of Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Benazir
Bhutto’s write-up was carried by the influential national daily Dawn
yesterday, coinciding with Zinni’s visit for obvious reasons.

She writes: “At this late juncture, however, the best path to real
and lasting peace may come only when the United States and China jointly
initiate a peace process for Kashmir, with these two great powers
applying the successful models of Camp David and Northern Ireland.”
Bhutto warns, “It is time for the international community, and
specifically the United States and China, to recognize that bilateral
diplomacy between India and Pakistan alone will not bring peace to
Kashmir.”

In the charged atmosphere, it is most likely that Zinni would return
empty-handed — taking back a list of Pakistan’s grievances to President
Clinton that the U.S. policy was not even-handed.