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Kashmir rebel group calls for guarantor
in peace talks with India

The frontline separatist group in Jammu and Kashmir Hizbul Mujahedeen on Monday said it would not hold fresh peace talks with India without an "international guarantor."

The precondition came a day after Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said New Delhi was willing to renew dialogue with the dominant guerrilla group.

"We had provided an opportunity to India with our unilateral ceasefire (last summer). Our stand is that there should be an international guarantor if talks again happen so that they can be meaningful," a Hizb spokesman told AFP by telephone.

The group announced the unilateral ceasefire on July 24, but it collapsed 15 days later as India turned down Hizb's demands for the inclusion of arch-rival Pakistan in the peace talks.

A Hizb spokesman said Advani's demand that militants must first lay down arms before talks was unacceptable.

"We reject any offer for talks which has conditions that we lay down arms first," he said. "Advani is misleading the world as well as Indians," he added.

Advani on Sunday told reporters here that his government was open for talks with any Islamic militant organisation.

"We are ready to hold a dialogue with those elements who are willing to lay down arms before coming to the negotiation table," Advani said, and attributed the collapse of the Hizb ceasefire in August to a Pakistani plot.

"Pakistan saw to it that the dialogue was subverted," he said, adding that the people's reaction to the ceasefire reflected a demand for lasting peace in the two parts of divided Kashmir.

AFP

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