Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 24, 2002
Russia has suggested that foreign
aid to Islamabad should be in proportion to its concrete efforts to combat
terrorism and said any improvement in Indo-Pak relations was 'impossible'
unless Pakistan closed down all terrorist camps.
In an interview with Itar-Tass news
agency. Russian deputy foreign minister Vyacheslay Trubnikov also said
that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was also not in full control of
the country's omnipotent Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
With regard to Indo-Pak relations,
he said that Gen Musharraf was pursuing a 'double character' policy and
asserted that it was high time for the military ruler to think how he would
build his relations with India.
"So far it is done in a wrong way."
Observing that stopping the infiltration across the Line of Conrol (LoC)
in Jammu and Kashmir under US pressure is only a 'miser measure', Mr. Trubnikov
underscored the need for closing all the terrorist training camps in Pakistan
and the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
"Any changes for better are impossible
without such categorical steps," said Mr. Trubnikov, who chairs Indo-Russian
and US-Russian joint groups on Afghanistan on combating international terrorism.
He also said that any further foreign
aid to Islamabad should be 'proportionate' to its concrete efforts in combating
terrorists.
He dubbed the changes in the top
brass of the ISI by Gen Musharraf as 'ethereal' as it mostly comprises
"those who created the Taliban and thrived on drug-trafficking.
"They will not give it up," Mr.
Trubnikov, former chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR),
said. Mr. Trubnikov reiterated Moscow's backing for Delhi's opposition
to internationalise the Kashmir issue and said "both are nuclear states
and their conflict has international implications. We don't want a nuclear
fire to beign."
Expressing doubts about Gen Musharraf's
control over ISI, the Russian minister said, "some changes may have been
made in its top brass but their commitment is suspect, being the creators
of the Taliban."
