Pak claims of defusing tension not earnest, says Jaswant Singh

Appeared in "The Economic Times" on June 12, 1999

 

India today raised serious doubts about Pakistan’s commitment to tomorrow’s talks. An angry external affairs minister Jaswant Singh took the floor today to declare Pakistan’s claims of defusing tension as false since it has become evident that Sartaj Aziz was taking orders from the Pak army.

The government released tapes of conversations between Pervez Musharraf, chief of Pakistan army staff and Mohammed Aziz, chief of general staff on May 26 and 29, when the former was visiting China. Mr Singh said the conversations clearly point to the complicity, support and active participation of the Pakistani establishment, who has been pulling the strings on the enterprise in Kargil and what "Pak gameplan" is.

In other words, the contents and aims of Mr Aziz’s visit was divulged before the talks, which is sure to embarrass Mr Aziz when he lands in Delhi tomorrow morning. Today’s disclosures puts the talks in serious jeopardy, notwithstanding their actual occurrence. Mr SIngh said if the agenda of the talks earlier was only one-of Pakistan vacating the intrusion, after yesterday, it will have a second, of the brutality meted out to captured Indian soldiers.

The government also released the post-mortem reports of the six Indian soldiers who were brutally tortured before being killed by the Pakistan army. In both instances, the government covered their flanks. Confining themselves to charges and allegations until now, India had been under fire especially from overseas about the veracity of their claims. The tapes released today had undergone voice authentication and voice printing with evidently superior technology since they were virtually free of the normal hiss, crackle and pop that accompany bugged conversations. The post-mortem of the six soldiers was done in the presence of two independent observers — the Red Cross (ICRC) and the forensic head of Safdarjung Hospital.

The conversations reveal several things — first, that the operation was planned by the Pakistani army in ``utmost secrecy’’, (Aziz: ``... the entire reason for the success of this operation was this total secrecy. Our earlier efforts failed because of lack of secrecy. So the top priority is to accord confidentiality, to ensure our success.’’)

The Pakistani army was conducting every aspect of the operations, down to regulating the escalation of the conflict. This doubt had been raised by the minister for Kashmir affairs, Malik Saheb, who feared an outbreak of war. But, as Gen Aziz answered, ``there was no such fear as the scruff of their (militants) necks is in our hands, whenever you want, we can regulate it.’’

The conversations also put the lie to Indian assessments that Nawaz Sharif did not know until much later. Gen Aziz said, recounting events, ``Zafar (acting army chief) said we (Pak army) had briefed the PM earlier and given an assessment,’’ adding he was ``confident, just like that’’. It becomes equally clear the Pakistani army was confident of not merely success, but also of being able to manage every aspect of the conflict. The doubting Thomases appear to be only two persons, the minister for Kashmir affairs, Malik Saheb, and the DG ISI.

They cleared another doubt — that the Mi 17 helicopter which was shot down by a Stinger missile on the 29 May was not done by militants as earlier claimed but by the Pak army, under the noses of its generals, not merely soldiers. The army took credit in the fact that they had passed on the blame to the militants (``We have got it claimed through the mujahideen.”)

The LoC debate purportedly started by the Pak foreign minister, too, appears to be under the strict guidance of Gen Musharraf and his army. Gen Aziz briefed the foreign minister to say that the latter should keep the dialogue option open, but ``in their first meeting, they must give no understanding or commitment on the ground situation.’’ Mr Aziz has been instructed to say that the Pak army had been occupying the posts on the LoC for a while. (``Emphasise that, for years, we are here only.’’) Even Pakistan’s diplomatic and political handling of the situation has been virtually puppet-strung by the army.

The tapes raise numerous questions on the authority of the Pak government, or its position to do anything vis-a-vis India. Mr Aziz has been told by Gen Musharraf that he should not ``even accept ceasefire, because if there is ceasefire, then vehicles will be moving’’.

Mr Aziz has responded like a well-trained puppet — his public statements on the LoC, telling India that it should deal with the Mujahideen by itself, claiming complete ignorance and telling India there was no justification for tension along the LoC, matching perfectly with the army prescriptions.

The conversations occurred on international telephone lines, which are invariably linked through satellites. A recent report had revealed that a few countries have the capacity to monitor all conversations and faxes that use telephone lines in the Indian Ocean region. To access the mass of data that flows through this region, all the concerned agency has to do is to pass conversations through sophisticated search engines.