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No stopping till the last intruder is driven back: Vajpayee

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today ruled out third-party mediation on the Kargil issue and said military operation would continue till the last intruder was driven back.

''At the same time, we are willing to give diplomacy a chance if that will enable us to achieve our objective,'' he said addressing a conference of chief ministers in New Delhi.

He said some concern has been expressed in the country that the government will accept mediation or internationalisation of the Kashmir issue. ''I will tell you categorically that this will not happen,'' he asserted.

The chief ministers' conference was convened at the behest of the prime minister, after an all-party meeting late last month.

Vajpayee said that, during its interaction with international community, India had conveyed that Pakistan had violated the Line of Control and that it must withdraw the armed intruders from the Indian side of the LoC.

Admitting that India had made 'some' contact with Pakistan in recent weeks, Vajpayee said the objective was ''only complete and unconditional withdrawal of the intruders from our side of the LoC. There is no other objective and no other subject that we are discussing.''

Referring to India's diplomatic successes, he said while Russia had expressed support for the Indian cause, the United States had clearly named Pakistan as the country responsible for the incursion.

The US is trying to persuade Pakistan to withdraw the intruders. In pursuit of this, Marine General Anthony Zinni, visited Pakistan recently and held talks with military and civilian leaders, he said.

''More recently, Nawaz Sharief has been to Washington. We were informed that Pakistan had agreed to withdraw. We will watch for results on the ground and in the meantime, our operations shall continue,'' Vajpayee said.

Pointing to the stand taken by the G-8 countries, he said all this indicates to the success of the Indian diplomacy and the correctness of the decision to engage the outside world more actively.

He said the country had to rely on armed forces to deal with the situation and other challenges that were bound to come up. ''This also obliges us to take a close look at our defence-preparedness in the future.'' Vajpayee said and noted that defence spending in real terms fell between the 1980s and 1990s.

Whle the defence spending was around 3.5 per cent of GDP in the 1980s, it fell below 2.5 per cent in the 1990s, which is considered among the lowest in the world, he said.

''My government raised the defence budget last year, shortly after taking over. We must be realistic and recognise that our security requirements need to be met and that we are confronting an enemy who is resolute and unwilling to see reason,'' he said.

Appealing to chief ministers to upgrade counter-terrorism capabilities and vigilance in their respective states, Vajpayee said it was time to take resolute measures and deal firmly with a situation, that is threatening to escalate.

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

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