Relevant excerpts from the daily press briefing, July 15, 2002
Question: New subject? How concerned are you about escalating violenceonce again over the Line of Control? India is now considering a response to the killing of-- I don't even know what the death toll is now -- 27, something like that.
Mr. Boucher: I would make clear, first of all we condemned that -- thosekillings over the weekend in Kashmir, and we have been very clear that the terrorism andkilling of innocents needs to stop. It is our view that the infiltrations across the Lineof Control are down significantly, and we're continuing to look for ways to continue themomentum so that the Pakistanis carry out the pledge to make that permanent and toeliminate camps and things like that; and second of all, that we see continued steps onboth sides to ease the tensions.
So the Secretary will be taking that up when he goes ten days from now to the region. Andwe continue to push in the meantime for further steps.
Question: But these numbers are -- people are killed. I mean, obviously theinfiltration isn't down far enough. The Indians don't just want to see a decrease ifthere's still this many people being killed.
Mr. Boucher: No. It's awful and it needs to stop. And we've made quiteclear that these kind of attacks are heinous and they prove, really, that those who carrythem out don't have the best interests of the Kashmiri people at heart, because it makesit much more difficult to resolve this situation through dialogue. And we have made quiteclear our condemnation of this sort of attack.
Question: Has the Secretary made any calls on this?
Mr. Boucher: On this? No. But he issued a statement yesterday afternoon,which I think you have.
Question: He didn't call the Indian Foreign Minister over the weekend?
Mr. Boucher: Let me double-check. Did I put it in my notes? Did anybodyelse put it in their notes?
Question: Reuters put it in its notes. (Laughter)
Mr. Boucher: Reuters put it in its notes? (Laughter.) All right, let medouble-check again. I guess my notes only go through last Thursday. I'll double-check foryou. I'm trying to remember when he last talked to the Indian Foreign Minister. It mayhave been over the weekend.
