'No Reason To Disbelieve Him'

Revelant excerpts from the daily press briefing, June 24,2002

Question: Will you comment on the interview by President Musharraf to(inaudible) in The Washington Post and Newsweek in which he denies that heever told the State Department that the cross-border terrorism will stop permanently; allthat he said was that there's no movement across the line of control; and secondly, thatthey did not even discuss the issue of terrorist training camps.

From here, US stated and also others have stated that there was a categorical assuranceby the president that the cross-border terrorism will stop permanently. Can you confirmthat?

Richard Boucher: I can indeed. And rather than try to comment on an interview, letme review the situation and tell you what we know and when we heard it.

Deputy Secretary Armitage was given assurances by President Musharraf on June 6th thatending of infiltration across the line of control would be permanent. These assuranceswere also given to the Secretary of State, to the President of the United States, in theirconversations, as well as repeatedly to our representatives, our Chargé and Ambassador,in Islamabad.

In fact, we've seen positive results from that commitment, and we've also seensignificant positive steps by India since then. We continue to believe that Pakistaniactions on the camps are important follow-up steps to keep this process moving forward.The United States will continue to work with both sides to reduce tensions and tofacilitate a dialogue on the underlying issues.

President Musharraf reiterated his commitment to the Secretary in a telephone callyesterday, and again in meetings with our Chargé in Islamabad. So it's a commitmentthat's been made very clear, and President Musharraf has made very clear to us that hestands by it.

Question: You get this phone call due to these reports came out, or it wasscheduled before, or something else?

Richard Boucher: I guess I would describe it as a chance to compare notes on thepresent situation, and obviously this interview and the reaction it was causing in variousquarters was one of the topics that they discussed.

Question: Did you say who called whom?

Richard Boucher: The Secretary called President Musharraf.

Question: I think you mentioned something about follow-up steps on training camps.Have you seen any signs of any action on that front to date?

Richard Boucher: I don't have anything particular that I'm able to describe foryou. But I would say first and foremost we have seen a positive result from the commitmentthat President Musharraf has made, in fact the significant decline that we saw ininfiltration across the line of control.

Question: Last month there was a story in India Globe and I asked you aquestion on June 6th that infiltration was only for one month, that's what the terroristswere told, and they told the Indian authorities in Kashmir. And now the stories comingthrough today and (inaudible), and you told me that on June 6th that no, it is permanentand it's a promise --

Richard Boucher: And I told you that again today.

Question: No, but what I'm saying is really what are you doing? What the US will donow, because he's not following? And we have been saying this all along, that he will notfollow you.

Richard Boucher: Well, first of all, the United States has heard this commitmentquite clearly from President Musharraf. We have seen him carry it out, and he hasreiterated it to us. So we have no reason to disbelieve him. I know you may -- you may notbelieve anything he says, but frankly he has made quite clear what his commitment is, andhe has carried it out. And so from that point of view, we think the facts rather show thathe is standing by his commitment and taking action.

There are other actions he needs to take. There are other actions that both sides needto take to reduce the tensions and keep moving towards a dialogue on these underlyingissues.

Question: Extremely briefly back on India-Pakistan. Have you told the -- do youknow if the people -- US diplomats have gone to the Indians and said, "Listen, thisinterview is not -- what was said in this interview doesn't accord with our understandingor what we're seeing on the ground"?

Richard Boucher: I'm not quite sure if we've done that yet. I'll have to check andsee when we do it, because previously we did. Secretary Armitage and others did pass thoseassurances on to make sure the Indians understood that we'd heard them. And obviouslywe're continuing to work with both sides on reducing tensions. So I just don't know ifyesterday's phone call or what our Ambassador heard today has been passed on.

Question: One more, if I can go back on India and Pakistan. Astrologically inIndia, war should or may break within two weeks, between now and July 3rd. And my questionis that assessment so far from these high-level visits from the United States are notworking, and the astrologers are still saying unless the US presses --

Richard Boucher: Are you saying "astrologers"?

Question: Yes.

(Laughter.)

Richard Boucher: I thought so, but I just wanted to make sure. I'm not --

Question: But they are saying also that unless the US presses hard on Pakistan tostop terrorism into India --

Richard Boucher: Okay.

Question: So what I'm saying is really if these high-level visits have not workedso far, what tactics or what message the US is going to use now?

Richard Boucher: Well, I'm not reading the charts on this. (Laughter.) I'm watchingthe news. And the news is you guys are reporting to me, as well as my own people, thattensions have been reduced. You are reporting that infiltration across the line of controlis down significantly. The Indian Government has said that. You are reporting to me thatIndia has taken a number of steps to reciprocate and to reduce tensions. You are reportingto me that both sides have said they want to avoid war and are taking steps to do so. Somaybe I ought to read a different section of the newspaper.

Question: But Richard, Prime Minister Vajpayee said no, it has not stopped.

Richard Boucher: Well, I realize there's a lot of statements from both sides. WhatI'm trying to say is there are facts on the ground, there's commitments by the parties,there's actual steps the parties have been taking. By no means would any of us stand uphere and say the danger is completely over and don't worry, but I think we have made quiteclear that things are going in the right direction, and we look to the parties to continuecarrying out their commitments. And we have told the parties we are going to stayinvolved, we are going to try to help you facilitate continued steps and facilitate adialogue.

Question: Can we correctly assume that the phone call by the Secretary was theresult of reading the Newsweek-Washington Post article?

Richard Boucher: I think it would be correct to assume that that was one of theelements. The Secretary does talk to President Musharraf from time to time about thesituation. This was one of those phone calls where they talked about the whole situation.But yes, the interview was one of the things they discussed because the article itself hadraised some questions. And President Musharraf, as I said, made quite clear to us that hehad made clear commitments, he knew it, and he was going to stand by them.

Question: Richard, I don't know whether you had maybe an answer in the earlierweek, but in the resignation from Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar. It will makeany difference between what's going on between India and Pakistan?

Richard Boucher: I don't have any conclusions like that to draw. I don't think wetried to do that. It was a matter for the government in Pakistan to decide.

Question: Thank you.

Richard Boucher: Okay. Thank you.