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Indo-Pak opinion makers start first peace dialogue

Vajpayee calls for an end to bloodshed

AFP, Islamabad
Public representatives and opinion makers of India and Pakistan opened a conference here yesterday to ease tension in volatile South Asia with Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee calling for an end to bloodshed in the region.
"Violence and bloodshed can not provide any enduring solutions. We can live together only if we let each other live," Vajpayee said in his message to a gathering attended by more than 100 delegates from rival neighbours.
The first two-day peace gathering sponsored by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), brings both hawks and doves together.
"This is the first time that right, left, hardliners and moderate parties
from India and Pakistan are participating in the dialogue," Indian MP Laloo Prasad Yadav said.
The conference aims at building confidence between the mutually hostile neighbours, who have fought three wars since their 1947 independence, two of them over the dispute of Kashmir which is divided between them and claimed by both.
The 60-member Indian delegation includes some 30 ruling and opposition party legislators in addition to journalists and former diplomats.
Pakistani ruling party and religious and secular opposition parties including those who had been advocating hatred have joined the discussions which will focus on ways to promote "understanding, confidence-building and conflict resolution" in South Asia, SAFMA's
Pakistan president M. Ziauddin said.
"The meeting and the themes for discussion are a forceful reiteration of the popular desire in both our countries for a normal, peaceful, friendly and cooperative relationship," Vajpayee said.
"We must use this common yearning for greater interaction to lessen the misperceptions and mistrust between us. Cooperation rather than confrontation, is the answer to our common problems of development and poverty alleviation."
India and Pakistan should heed the winds of change in today's world, he said adding that "we should not defy logic and distort reality to avoid mutually beneficial cooperation."
Vajpayee said if the deliberations
encouraged a movement towards a cooperative future for Pakistan and India, the meeting would serve a "noble cause."
The conference follows a series of exchanges by unofficial Indian and Pakistani delegations since Vajpayee offered "a hand of friendship" to Pakistan during a visit to Kashmir on April 18.
His initiative resulted in a thaw in bilateral relations and the two countries restored diplomatic and road links after an 18-month break.
But the two countries have not yet started official-level dialogue to resolve their outstanding issues.
The nuclear-armed neighbours came close to war after December 2001 attack on Indian parliament which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad backed militants, a charge denied by Pakistan.