No surprise here. Peace offers are only accepted by jihadists if they can be used as stepping stones to greater concessions or future military victories. But this is a lesson that Western officials refuse to learn. “United Jihad Council attacks Musharraf peace offer,” by Praveen Swami in The Hindu:
SRINAGAR: A coalition of terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir has lashed out at President Pervez Musharraf’s new offer for a resolution of the India-Pakistan dispute over the State, describing his four-point charter as a “unilateral concession.”
“Kashmiris cannot compromise on their right to self-determination,” a spokesperson for the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council said in a press release faxed to newspaper offices in Srinagar late on Tuesday.
Referring to Gen. Musharraf’s suggestion that India-Pakistan supervise the autonomous or self-governed states of Jammu and Kashmir that would be created if his proposals are accepted, the UJC said that “options like joint control can only be acceptable if they are a stepping stone for the right to self-determination.”
UJC leaders have become increasingly critical of India-Pakistan dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir in recent months. “Freedom is our goal,” Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief Mohammad Yusuf Shah in an October 30 interview, “and we will not accept anything under the Indian Constitution.” He described plans for self-rule “” a formulation that figures in General Musharraf’s new proposals “” as “a document of slavery.”