[R-G] U.S. Removes Kashmir from Envoy's Mandate; India Exults

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903737.html>
U.S. Removes Kashmir From Envoy's Mandate; India Exults

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 30, 2009; A09

NEW DELHI, Jan. 29 -- Inside a chandeliered ballroom Thursday, Indian
diplomats and business leaders and American officials held forth about
a new "Cooperation Triangle" for the United States, China and India.
But little mention was made at the Asia Foundation's conference on
Indo-U.S. relations of the Indian government's recent diplomatic
slam-dunk.

India managed to prune the portfolio of the Obama administration's top
envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard C. Holbrooke -- basically
eliminating the contested region of Kashmir from his job description.
The deletion is seen as a significant diplomatic concession to India
that reflects increasingly warm ties between the country and the
United States, according to South Asia analysts.

Indian diplomats, worried about Holbrooke's tough-as-nails reputation,
didn't want him meddling in Kashmir, according to several Indian
officials and Indian news media reports. Holbrooke is nicknamed "the
Bulldozer" for arm-twisting warring leaders to the negotiating table
as he hammered out the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in
Bosnia, a peace that has stuck.

"I think it is time for us -- having fobbed off Holbrooke -- to sit
quietly and ask where are we and how do we manage the situation," said
C. Raja Mohan, an Indian strategic analyst who served on India's
national security advisory board in 2006.

Mohan's comments captured the public glee many Indians feel over their
country's latest diplomatic success. It follows the government's
victory in securing a deal with the United States that gives India
access to civilian nuclear technology, even though it is a not a party
to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India and Pakistan have made slow but steady progress on Kashmir over
the past four years, but relations quickly chilled after the November
attacks in Mumbai; India accused Pakistan of aiding in the three-day
assault.

Few places represent the region's complexities more than Kashmir, a
territory that has been disputed since the 1947 partition of India and
Pakistan. The nuclear-armed nations have fought two wars over Kashmir,
and the United States stepped in to head off a third one in 2001. Both
countries claim Kashmir and both control parts of it, with the United
Nations monitoring a cease-fire line between them.

"No matter what government is in place, India is not going to
relinquish control of Jammu and Kashmir," Brajesh Mishra, India's
former national security adviser, said in reference to the territory's
Indian-administered sector. "That is written in stone and cannot be
changed."

During the U.S. presidential campaign, Obama said the Kashmir issue
was central to any stability in the region.

But India is suspicious of third-party intervention in the dispute.
Kashmir is an internal issue and shouldn't be a part of any outsider's
mandate, many Indian officials here say.

The country's Outlook magazine ran a cover story this week showing
Obama dancing with his wife at an inaugural ball with the headline:
"Should India fear him? What India must do to ensure Kashmir won't get
caught in the crosshairs."

Last week, Mohan warned Holbrooke against "any high-profile
intervention" in Kashmir. The topic is so politically sensitive here
that it is referred to as the "K-word."

At a news briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood
said Kashmir was not part of Holbrooke's mandate.

"His mandate is to go out and try to help bring stability to
Afghanistan, working closely with Pakistan," Wood said. "India has
some very clear views as to what it wants to do vis-a-vis dealing with
the Kashmir issue, as well as the Pakistanis."

When asked whether Holbrooke would play a role if there were
heightened tensions again over the Mumbai attacks, Wood said, "I don't
want to speculate in terms of what he may or may not do, but his brief
is focused solely on, as I said, Afghanistan-Pakistan."

Holbrooke was originally tasked as the special envoy for Afghanistan,
Pakistan "and related matters," code for India and Kashmir, according
to a U.S. official in Washington who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak publicly. But
on the morning Holbrooke's posting was announced, "related matters"
had been deleted from the description.

Wood said at a briefing Thursday that Holbrooke would stop at the
Munich Conference on Security Policy on Tuesday before heading to
Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the border region is a haven for
Taliban fighters and where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have yet to comment on the Kashmir decision.
But other South Asia experts say that taking Kashmir out of
Holbrooke's hands may upset Pakistan and that there may be
back-channel negotiations anyway.

"Intellectually, it is impossible to disentangle these problems from
each other," said Daniel Markey, a South Asia expert at the Council on
Foreign Relations in Washington. "The smartest thing is to work on
this behind the scenes."