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Kashmir solution key to peace in South Asia: Musharraf |
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May 29, 2000 ISLAMABAD, MAY 28 (AP) - Marking the second anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests Sunday, Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf said South Asian neighbors, India and Pakistan, have to settle the protracted Kashmir dispute to remove "the threat of a nuclear holocaust."
He told a public gathering in the federal capital that Pakistan was not interested in embarking on a nuclear arms race. However, he warned that Pakistan would not be left behind if neighbor India forged ahead with nuclear weapons development.
The military chief, who seized power from Pakistan's civilian rulers last October, said he has repeatedly offered talks with neighbor India to settle the Kashmir dispute, but he warned New Delhi not to take the offer as a sign of weakness.
"Our offer to talk on Kashmir is to remove the problem of Kashmir. We don't want the people of South Asia to live under the threat of a nuclear holocaust," Musharraf said. "But India shouldn't take our offer as a sign of weakness."
Both India and Pakistan lay claim to a united Kashmir, which was divided between the two uneasy neighbors after British rule of the subcontinent ended in 1947.
The two countries have gone to war twice over Kashmir and last summer they waged a bitter border battle that many people feared would escalate into all-out war.
Musharraf said Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests in May 1998 in response to tests conducted by India two weeks earlier.
Pakistan possessed the nuclear know-how to declare itself a nuclear power 10 years early, but refrained from doing so "in respect of international norms," said Musharraf.
"But then India tested and they followed it with hostile threats we were forced to conduct our tests to restore the strategic balance in the area," said Musharraf.
He saluted Pakistan's nuclear scientists for their achievements. Dr. A.Q. Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, said it's time for Pakistan to use its scientific know how to improve its society, a society where barely 30 percent of its 140 million people can read or write.
"We have to improve our social development now," said Khan.
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