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Leave india pakistan { May 31 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1021991223164&p=1012571727085http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1021991223164&p=1012571727085
Foreigners told to leave India and Pakistan
By Edward Luce in New Delhi, Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad and Krishna Guha in London
Published: May 31 2002 20:54 | Last Updated: May 31 2002 20:54
The US and UK governments advised all their citizens in India and Pakistan on Friday to leave despite a relaxed mood in the two nuclear-armed states ahead of intense diplomatic initiatives in the coming days.
Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged moderate to heavy fire again along the line of control - the de facto border in Kashmir, a region that has sparked two of the South Asian neighbours' three wars.
The US move, which included authorisation for all non-essential diplomatic staff and all dependants to leave India if they wished, follows the announcement that Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, is to visit New Delhi and Islamabad next week on a peace mission.
There are an estimated 60,000 Americans in India. However, a US official in New Delhi said: "There are no plans for the evacuation of US citizens because they can quite easily leave by normal commercial means."
The US stepped up the pressure on India and Pakistan not to go to war over Kashmir. Paul Wolfowitz, deputy US defence secretary, said: "So far we haven't seen signs of this crisis de-escalating. Most of the signs point in the other direction."
An official at the British foreign office said Jack Straw had reached the decision to advise UK citizens to leave India after returning from his trip to the region on Wednesday night.
Other countries, including Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, have issued similar advice to their citizens.
However, the US said it has had indications that Pakistan has started to act to crack down on militants' incursions across the border of Indian-controlled Kashmir - a key demand by India.
Growing international fears of a war between India and Pakistan is in stark contrast to the mood in both countries, where war is still seen as a distant prospect.
Although there has been a sharp rise in the price of gold, which people often buy in times of uncertainty, there are no reports of people shopping for emergency provisions.
"The mood is surprisingly relaxed," said PR Chari, a leading defence analyst in New Delhi. "Even on the Indo-Pakistan border, life is continuing as normal. Nobody is fleeing their home except at points where there has been cross-border shelling."
Pakistani officials said the situation remained dangerous although some believed that international diplomatic pressure on both countries had finally begun restraining them from launching a wider conflict.
"There is still a very intense exchange of fire but the pressure is increasingly strong on India and Pakistan to find a way out of this other than fighting a large war," said one Pakistani official.
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