Ex-US envoy backs Zardari on Kashmir

NEW YORK - A former American ambassador to Pakistan has endorsed President Asif Ali Zardaris view that there would be no lasting peace in South Asia unless the Indo-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir was resolved, but disagreed with his suggestion that US had exploited Islamabad in the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
This (the Kashmir issue) seems now to be on the back burner, but it should not be forgotten, wrote Ronald Spiers who served as US envoy in the early 1980s when Washington began supplying weapons to anti-Soviet Afghan Mujahideen with the help of former president Zia-ul-Haqs military regime.
President Zardaris statement that 'there cant be permanent regional peace in South Asia without addressing Kashmir is correct, Ambassador Spiers said in a letter to The New York Times published on Sunday.
He was commenting on last weeks article by President Zardari in The Times in which the Pakistani leader underscored the importance of the Kashmir dispute and sought US help in settling it.
About the implication of Zardaris remark that the US had exploited Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he said the Zia government was wholeheartedly in favour of the programme, and their suspicion of Soviet intentions seemed genuine.
American participation in this effort was managed out of the hip pocket of William Casey, the CIA chief, and on-the-ground liaison was handled by our station chief, he went on to say. I was present whenever a clandestine Casey visit reviewed the programme with President Zia and his intelligence chief.
The American team occasionally raised doubts about help to more extremist elements of the Mujahedeen (some of whom are still around), but the answer was usually that they were the most effective.
Also, Spiers added, it is unfair to imply that we supported President Zias 'iron rule. Although no democrat, he was far from Saddam Hussein image of a brutal dictator. Although we tried to dissuade President Zia from pursuit of a nuclear capability, it was clear to me that it would be unavailing as long as India was on the same path.