Updated 38 minutes ago Updated Feb 10, 2011 07:19PM New Delhi • India and Pakistan agreed Thursday to resume formal peace talks that were broken off after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The decision could ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and was welcomed by the Obama administration.The United States has urged the Indian government to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, in part because their rivalry undermines efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. There has been a string of meetings in the past year between officials from both sides, but Thursday’s announcement of a dialogue “on all issues” marks a significant step forward, regional experts said.It also represents something of a concession by India, which had been pressing Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, India’s financial hub, when gunmen stormed luxury hotels and a Jewish center, killing 166 people.Retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who has convened informal talks involving retired military and foreign service officials, as well as opinion leaders, from both countries, said India had realized how hard it was for Pakistan to comply with that demand, given the reluctance of judges there to prosecute suspected militants and the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.“The conditions India imposed in the aftermath of Mumbai were dictated by domestic political compulsions,” Mehta said. “Now that more than two years have passed, we ourselves have realized the conditions have to be watered down, and that is precisely what we have done.” Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
India, Pakistan Agree to Resume Peace Talks - Salt Lake Tribune
India, Pakistan Agree to Resume Peace Talks The Washington PostFirst published 1 hour ago
Updated 38 minutes ago Updated Feb 10, 2011 07:19PM New Delhi • India and Pakistan agreed Thursday to resume formal peace talks that were broken off after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The decision could ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and was welcomed by the Obama administration.The United States has urged the Indian government to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, in part because their rivalry undermines efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. There has been a string of meetings in the past year between officials from both sides, but Thursday’s announcement of a dialogue “on all issues” marks a significant step forward, regional experts said.It also represents something of a concession by India, which had been pressing Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, India’s financial hub, when gunmen stormed luxury hotels and a Jewish center, killing 166 people.Retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who has convened informal talks involving retired military and foreign service officials, as well as opinion leaders, from both countries, said India had realized how hard it was for Pakistan to comply with that demand, given the reluctance of judges there to prosecute suspected militants and the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.“The conditions India imposed in the aftermath of Mumbai were dictated by domestic political compulsions,” Mehta said. “Now that more than two years have passed, we ourselves have realized the conditions have to be watered down, and that is precisely what we have done.” Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\Check Todays News\Google News Feed\)
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Updated 38 minutes ago Updated Feb 10, 2011 07:19PM New Delhi • India and Pakistan agreed Thursday to resume formal peace talks that were broken off after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The decision could ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and was welcomed by the Obama administration.The United States has urged the Indian government to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, in part because their rivalry undermines efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. There has been a string of meetings in the past year between officials from both sides, but Thursday’s announcement of a dialogue “on all issues” marks a significant step forward, regional experts said.It also represents something of a concession by India, which had been pressing Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, India’s financial hub, when gunmen stormed luxury hotels and a Jewish center, killing 166 people.Retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who has convened informal talks involving retired military and foreign service officials, as well as opinion leaders, from both countries, said India had realized how hard it was for Pakistan to comply with that demand, given the reluctance of judges there to prosecute suspected militants and the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.“The conditions India imposed in the aftermath of Mumbai were dictated by domestic political compulsions,” Mehta said. “Now that more than two years have passed, we ourselves have realized the conditions have to be watered down, and that is precisely what we have done.” Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
India, Pakistan to hold talks on all issues - The Hindu
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India, Pakistan to hold talks on all issues
Sandeep Dikshit The agreement was reached between Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir in ThimphuSecretary-level talks will be held on eight subjects
Issues include counter-terrorism, Kashmir and Siachen
NEW DELHI: Short of calling it composite dialogue, India and Pakistan have agreed to hold wide-ranging talks on all issues they were discussing before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, according to a simultaneous announcement in both countries.
The agreement was reached during a 90-minute meeting on Sunday between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Thimphu on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting. The details were revealed on Thursday after both sides had briefed their governments.
Secretary-level talks will be held on eight subjects which will be followed by a wrap up round between the Foreign Secretaries. These will be followed by a meeting here between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi by July.
The subjects on which talks will be held are counter-terrorism (progress in Mumbai trial included), humanitarian issues, peace and security, including confidence building measures, Jammu and Kashmir, promotion of friendly exchanges, Siachen, economic issues and the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project. The issue of Sir Creek will be discussed at the level of Additional Secretaries or Surveyors-General.
Composite dialogue covering these issues was resumed in 2004 after a summit meeting, incidentally, on the sidelines of a SAARC summit in Islamabad. After completion of four rounds and considerable narrowing of differences as well as progress on many issues, it was put on hold by India following the Mumbai attacks.
With the law of diminishing returns having set in on India's insistence of comprehensive action against Pakistan-based perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and India's moral high ground having been eroded by the complicity of its nationals in the Samjhauta Express blasts that killed 42 Pakistanis, the Indian side has been consistently indicating a “new approach” in which “all issues will be discussed.”
Afghanistan
Interestingly, speaking to the media in Thimphu, Ms. Rao had hinted at the talks incorporating a new subject — Afghanistan. “Why not? One of the ideas that came up was that why should we be just stuck with discussing these issues, why cannot we discuss more issues? Why cannot we discuss the situation in our region,” Ms. Rao said when asked whether both sides were prepared to discuss coordination of positions on Afghanistan.
Indian officials refused to get stuck in terminology and maintained that while this was no composite dialogue, bilateral ties were such that all issues had to be discussed. “And when you say all outstanding issues are going to be discussed, you will obviously have to discuss every outstanding issue. Therefore, who discusses the outstanding issues? There are a number of stakeholders. A number of government departments would be concerned. So, it has to be a comprehensive exercise, put it that way,” reasoned Ms. Rao.
The decision to resume dialogue on all subjects following the Rao-Bashir meeting is being termed the second Thimphu thaw. The first took place in April last year when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani directed their Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries to hold talks aimed at reducing the trust deficit between the two countries.
While Mr. Krishna and Mr. Qureshi did meet in Islamabad in July, their concurrence on some issues was lost in a post-interaction acrimony. The two sides then kept minimal contacts until the Foreign Offices began consulting each other regularly over the past few weeks in the run-up to the Thimphu meeting between Ms. Rao and Mr. Bashir.
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Monday, February 7, 2011
Bush cancels Swiss visit over arrest fears - Times of India
WASHINGTON: Former US President George W Bush has reportedly cancelled a visit to Switzerland amid concerns that he could be arrested for allegedly authorising the torture of prisoners.
The former American leader was due to speak at a charity gala, making the keynote speech at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner in the city of Geneva on February 12, the 'Sky News' reported online.
Human rights groups in the country, however, have been calling for the Swiss government to arrest Bush over allegations he had ordered the torture of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
Court officials have said criminal complaints against Bush have been lodged in Geneva, but Swiss officials said that he would enjoy diplomatic immunity as a former head of state, the report said.
In his memoirs and television interviews, Bush has admitted to ordering use of waterboarding, which simulated drowning, as an interrogation technique.
Waterboarding is considered a form of torture which is a crime under international law, and human rights experts say absolute prohibition is very clear. Some left-wing groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit.
Even Keren Hayesod's organisers said they felt the atmosphere had become too threatening.
"We didn't want to put people and property in Geneva at risk. The gala is maintained but George Bush will not take part. The criminal complaints did not weigh in the decision," the group's lawyer Robert Equey was quoted as saying.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Nepal to get new govt after president's return - Times of India
KATHMANDU: Nepal's ruling communist party, whose chairman Jhalanath Khanal was elected the republic's new prime minister after a seven-month-long crisis, said on Friday that the new premier would take oath of office after the President, Dr Ram Baran Yadav, returned from his 10-day visit to India on Saturday.
The presidential visit will give Khanal, a former school teacher, time to come up with a small cabinet by Sunday, when the new government is likely to be sworn in. Though the 61-year-old urged the political parties supporting him not to sit in opposition, the Nepali Congress, his former ally, however ruled out joining Khanal's government. Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, flaying Khanal's last-minute poll alliance with the Maoists, called it a ploy by the former rebels to capture power and said his party would support the new government issue-wise, depending on their merits and demerits.
But an ethnic party from the Terai plains – the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum – on Friday said it could join Khanal's government. Though the Forum had supported Khanal's rival from the plains, Bijay Kumar Gachhedar, on the eve of the prime ministerial election, it had however skipped the vote. It was another salutary lesson for Nepal's feuding parties as the Forum had been split by Gacchedar in 2009 because he had wanted to join a communist-led government while party chief Upendra Yadav had supported the Maoists.
As Khanal's residence in Dallu experienced a carnival with supporters and well-wishers flocking in to congratulate him, conspicuous among the well-wishers was the Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Qiu Guohong. Khanal said both Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who congratulated him on phone last night, and the Chinese envoy told him that they wanted to improve and expand ties with Nepal. Khanal said he himself too wanted that and his government would seek equi-distance from both Nepal's giant neighbours.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the election of a new PM, saying the UN stood ready to support all efforts to complete the country's peace process, including the adoption of a new constitution by May 28.
"The Secretary-General... believes this development will give a significant boost to efforts to fully implement their outstanding commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord and the interim constitution, notably the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants, democratization of the army and adoption of a new constitution," a statement issued by his office in New York said.
The Maoists, fighting a feud among themselves with a faction opposing the union with Khanal, began consultations about who they would send to the cabinet. Media reports said their former minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who last year torpedoed Prachanda's chance of winning the election after he was recorded during a phone conversation as seeking money from a Chinese businessman to buy MPs' votes, is rumoured to be the new deputy prime minister as well as foreign minister.
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