Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 12 May 2006 Version of attached le: Published Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Misra, A. (2000) 'Siachen Glacier ashpoint : a study of Indian Pakistani relations.', Working Paper. University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham. Further information on publisher's website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/sgia/ Publisher's copyright statement: Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk University ofDurham Centre for Middle Eutern and Islamic Studies SIACHEN GLACIER FLASHPOINT: A STUDY OF INDIAN PAKISTANI RELATIONS ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• by Ash"tosh Misra Durham Middle East Poper No. 65 Jun.e 2000 - 8 NOV 2000 Durham Middle East Papers ISSN 1357-7522 No.65 The Durham MIddle EaSI Pape~ scnes covers all aspccIs of the economy. pohIiC$. socIal SClcnce, hIstOry, Illeralure and languages of the MIddle Easl Authors are Inviled 10 ~ubmlt papers 10 Ihe Edltonal Board for conslderauon for publicahon. Series editor: Dr Neil Quilliam Editorial board: Dr Ali Ansari Dr Anoush Ehteshami Dr Fadla Faqir Dr Tom Najl'm • Dr Paul Starkey Puhlished by: Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Uni\'ersity of Durham South End House South Road Durham DBI 3TG United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1913742822 Fax: +44 (0) 191374 2830 All ni/ns 'l:Srt\'.:d 1'0 p.1rt of IhlS pubhc~lIon lTIIy be reprodl>CCtl. stoI<'d In. """"""J system. 00­ lraflSfllUll:d. I1l :Illy form Of by any means. dccuvrnc. mcchanlC2.l, pho\ocopYIIll- rttordllli. 00­ 0IhcI'w,,,,, (Olha iNn shor1 UlrXlS for !he I"'fl"llR' or ~).....thout thII ~ """~ pemIIW(m "flhe ('<11= roo "l,ddle EaoICm and Isl~1TlIC SlI>d,es. l'nn"n'Slty of Oul1Iam '200Q A,hulo,1I M"'" nncltllc Un,vc<>uy 0' IJulll.m About the author Dr MIsra IS Execu!1ve AssIstanl al lhe UNU Jlllcmallollal LeadershIp Academy. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Centre for Imernatlonal Polmcs. Ot'gan153uon and DIsarmament. School of Imcmal10nal StudIes. JawabarlaJ Nehru lJnI\"ersll)', ~el'o Deih,. HIS thc-:sis was lllied Cooperation ,n Enrlurmg Conflicl ~ GUl' Study ofIndia-Poimon "egol/o/loar. whIch sheds light 011 how t\!,0 Tlvals can ncgOl1alC successfully despllc mutual SUspICIons and antagonisms. Dr Misra also held the prestigIOUS Jawaharlal Nchnl Memorial Award for the years 1997 and 1998 for his doctoral work, It was due to hiS docloral work lhal he was made member of the lr'aCk two dIplomacy of lodia and rakls~n. III 1997, :md has been SlTlCC altl'rldlllg dialogues III Snlanh WIth his coumerpans. Dr MIsra also holds a Masler of PhIlosoph)" from Jawaharlal "'ehru Llllverslly, and wrolC a dlsscnallon on IAEA lafeguards 1111ed llller/wliollol Aromic t:tII:rgy Agenc.\' H(lrlle~MIIg Iile Alom ill Ih.. Nuclear Agl', In 1991. Dr Misra was awarded a scholarshIp by SIDA (0 ~\lldy 31 the Dcpanmcm of Peace and ConflIct Research, Uppsala UniversIty, Sweden. Ill' has a \Iaste", deg~ III history from the Banaras Ihndu L1UI'CfSlI)", where he was awarded gold medal for securmg lop posmon HI his batch, InCIdently, Dr MIsra was a panJnpanl III me lnlemalLonal LeadershIp Course IlLC·3) III \999, held at UNUiILA, Amlllan • Contents Introducthm 1 The Dispute , A Brief Riston' of the Confliel 6 ,rililary Con/roll/olioll on 'h~ Gfarirr 8 Wh~'l~ Siachen Vital to Indilln SeC"ril)"? 12 India 'I' Official Stalld 13 PlIkisl:l1I'S Contention 17 P%iwlII's Official Stand 18 '1rgOlialcd Efforts: Eight Rouods 21 The Pasl Endea"ours: An Analysis 29 elln the Conflict Be Resolved',' 32 Conclusion 38 Bibliograph~ Books " Articles " /ntcr\'ie"'li " INTRODUCTION The ovcrall relahonshlP bctv.ecn IndIa and Pal,stan has b«n bmer c:~'c:r since the legacIes of colomal rule torc: them asunder In 1941. In the hl$1 five decades Illdla and PaklSlan have fought four 'Wars (excludmg the proxy war In KashmIr slllee 1989 aud Ihe regular heavy sbelhng 011 the border), causmg enormous 10$5 of humun lives and rcsource~_ -11\(~ connlet conllnucs lO date, ThIS pafll.'T looks at how, despllc a h05U1c rela!lonshlp. India :Iod PakIstan have hoeen negOllallng on the pending dlspute'S_ 1bc papcr looks at the Slachen GlaCier dlspute:md analyses the role: ofkadel1;htp In II 13clween 1988. when the fir.;\ round oftalks were held under Rajll' Gandhi and Benmm Rhul1o, and 1998 elghl rounds of negollal\OnS have taken place but wllhom sllbslanllal results_ Aller the assasslnatlon of RaJlv Gandln (1991) and {jl-enhrow of Ikn37.lr (1990 and 1996), peace eITorlS had oc.,n Slruggling 10 tiI~e ofT unul I K_ GUJral and >;a ...al Shanfbecame prune mlnlslers_ 11Ierc was a greal deal or opllmlsrn prenllmg on bolh SIdeS on Ihl:" premlsc thai both I"ader~, hemg Punjab!s, share a common ongm (PunJab), and therefore. understand each other I\ell_ QUIlC e~pt1:ledly, both look Imllau\,cs to restan the stalled talks_ Unfortunately. GUJrlll did nOt remain m office fOl long. and was succeeded by De\'e Gaud. under whom some progress On talks was madc In [ndlll. there have been slgmficant pohlical de,-e1opmem5 causmg frequem changes In leader,;hlp after 199;_ PakIstan. on the olht'f hand. has been was somewhat stable pohtlcally under Nawaz Shanf. who had sholl'n an mltresl m unpro\'mg relanons With [ndla TIle advent of Bhanlya lama Party (I3JPj. the 'Tlght wm!: HlIldu nalionahsr party' under the leadership of Awl Behan VaJpayee. to power 1Il India aroused fears m Pakistan However, VaJPayee'~ first tenure lasted only II months. but hiS sccond tenure. III 1998, proved otherwlsc_ TIlls nme leading a coahnon govemmenL \"aJpayee was deterrmnal 10 pro"e hIS eTlllCS. bolh m IndIa and PaklSlan....·rung. by makmg eITons to booSI tiCS But he also had his domesllc agenda to meet_ So he worked oul hiS dOlllCSIIC and e"terna] agendas III tandem. On the one hand. m tllay 1998. he took the deCISIOn [0 go ahead wuh nuclear lests \11 I'okhran (Rajasthan) and advance lhe missllt: programme, on the other hand, he e"tended the oh~'e branch 10 Pakistan In return, Pakistan also responded by cllplodlng 11$ firsl e~'l'T-nuclear devu;e In the Chagal hills and carrylllg out a senes of missile tests. Amidst these developments VaJpayee made a hIStoric bus tnp. tn February 1999, to Lahore through the Wagah border. and lhe two pnme ministers Signed the Lahore Deciantilon In lahore The eITons of the two leaders evoked favourabk responses In the two countnes. aud were hailed by the mtcmatlon:tl community as well Dut while tht: people had st:tned hopmg for a lransformanon In the hOSI,I" relalions. a se:~"r" lOll was gi~'en 10 these: peace eITons In the follov.lllg :\fay. Pakl:5lanl regular soldIers. along WIth lIIuJ"/mlec/I fighters. Illtruded almost 15 10 20 kilometres inSIde the Indian tt:rntory III Ihe Kargil region of Jammu and Kashnllr slale and occupied mOSt of Ihe IndIan posts Ikcause of the harsh weather condlllons In ~vmler. Indian troo(l5 always vacated tline fIO$IS. whIch aTl: sItuated at hIgh allltudcs It is beheved that the~ Illtruders had OCCUpIed thest: posts III wmter. bUI It came 10 thc Ill,)l1ce or Indians only III lI.'Iay. when they renlmed. As a rt:sull the 111'0 sldcs engaged l1J a two-month long fierce banle thai evcntually baltered the already fragile peacc fabnc Whal ~'orsened lhe rclallOl1S cOllsldt:rably was Ihe mlhtary coup 111 October 1999. which bfllUght down the delllOCral1cally elected 'a....v Shanf go\'ernmem punmg hIm 111011£ ~\lIh othcr minIsters undt:r bouse arreSI Alarm bells rang. m lmita hecaust: both countries "ere no\\ believed to be possessing nuclcar weapons_ A llnlllary coup In such a situa\]on \\ould havc been lhe lasl lhmB India would ha\c wan led BeSides. Indm behl'ved lhat lhe Paktstanl ..... ml" Ch,ef General Par'\"ez \'Iusharraf had mastenmnded lhl:" enllre Karsll mtruslon. As he became tbe 'Chief F"ecutl\-c' of PakIstan. after the coup. India had no reasons to feel opnmlslLc aoom lIS relaUons \\Ith PakiSlan_ As e"peeled. tIllhe artermath of the Kargtl war. Pakistan llItenslfied the proll)' war. \\hICh II has "aged SIllCI! 1989. b) SIC'pplDg up militancy III lhe Kashrrur ~'allcy and the nonh...,.asl regions of IndIa Rccenlly. lies betv.een the h'O countries have gone from bad to wor,;,c. and lhen: !>terns to be no sIgns on lhc hOrizons of any peace efforts belllg made. But the logIcal qucsllon to ask here IS: whither Indo-Pak15tan relatIons'.' And whal would happen to the pendlllg dlsputr> on .... hlch progress has becn made III the past" Would all those efrons and hard work put In by Ihe negotiators go In Yam? , < lIfisrf/I:> 1<:>_ DURHAM U lbe Kargll war has apm hlghhghted ttH: straleglc Importance of the Siachen region.