HURRIYAT UPBEAT ABOUT MEETING WITH PM SINGH AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 003130 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR MILLARD E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PBTS PINR KDEM PHUM KISL PK IN SUBJECT: HURRIYAT UPBEAT ABOUT MEETING WITH PM SINGH AND PROSPECT OF FURTHER DIALOGUE WITH DELHI NEW DELHI 00003130 001.2 OF 004 Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt for Reason 1.5 (B,D) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The moderate separatist Kashmiri Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq was quite pleased with their May 3 meeting with Indian PM Singh and his commitment to dialogue on the full range of Jammu and Kashmir issues and to improved human rights. The Hurriyat are also gearing up to begin a regular detailed dialogue with Home Minister Shivraj Patil. While the Hurriyat leaders remained non-committal in public about joining the PM's May 25 J&K roundtable discussions, they told us privately they would carefully consider participating if the participants list was right. They also complained bitterly about fence-sitters such as Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah, whom they derided for being duplicitous, ego-mad, and not taking big risks -- as they had -- for peace through dialogue. They also lauded the transformed public opinion in India and Pakistan that earnestly seeks lasting peace. Interestingly, they were silent about the May 1 massacre of Hindus in Doda, reminding us of the blindspt Kashmiri Muslims have for the travails of non-Muslim, non-Valley citizens of J&K. END SUMMARY. PALAVER WITH THE PM -------------- ¶2. (C) Mirwaiz and Bilal Lone told D/PolCouns May 4 that PM Singh had told them he was available to talk to them at any time, and that, "for Kashmir, I always have the time to talk." Photos in the papers showed Mirwaiz wearing a big smile following the May 3 meeting, and their readout to us the next day revealed that the atmospherics had been excellent. Mirwaiz said the initial October talk with the PM had given them much hope, but the February roundtable with a broader set of all J&K regional representatives had worried them and diluted their hold on the dialogue. By meeting again with them, the PM had shown the importance of the Hurriyat and the separatist cause. This had given them confidence in his bona fides, and might prompt them to participate in the May 25 second round of the roundtable dialogue, but only if the invitation list was more selective (particularly difficult, they said, would be sitting side-by-side with National Conference leaders like Omar Abdullah whom their "vote bank" detested as Indian quislings). Bilal sniffed that political players were more important than NGOs and their ilk. The PM, they added, had acknowledged the human rights issues, saying his government was "trying its level best" and had taken "strong cognizance" of security force lapses. TIME FOR SERIOUS TALKS -------------- ¶3. (C) They were also upbeat about the PM's agreement to have the Hurriyat engage in expert-level talks with the Home Ministry, led by Shivraj Patil. Mirwaiz expressed enthusiasm that they could finally start conveying concerns about the very cumbersome modalities of cross-LOC bus service and other aspects of daily life in Kashmir. The Hurriyat will urge MHA to allow persons from both sides to use "state subject" certificates as a basis for bus usage, as opposed to the lengthy rigamarole currently in place, so that cross-LOC NEW DELHI 00003130 002.2 OF 004 traffic can be "like the US-Canada border". The PM, they said, had welcomed thoughts on such fixes, and urged them to use the MHA dialogue to accomplish such changes. The Mirwaiz Hurriyat will also push for both sides to reopen two miles of the Poonch-Uri road that are bisected by the LOC, so that residents can avoid a mammoth detour to travel what had been a well-frequented route before India divided. In the talks with MHA, Mirwaiz added, they must be able to show the people of the Valley concrete progress. To that end, they will seek expert advice in Delhi, Islamabad, and elsewhere on legal, security, and bureaucratic issues, but would keep in mind how violently allergic the GOI would be to any ideas that seemed to have come from Kashmiris based in the USA. SEA CHANGE ON BOTH SIDES AMONG MANY BUT NOT ALL -------------- -- ¶4. (C) Marvelling at how far they had come, Mirwaiz and Bilal said the PM's attitude reflected the transformed mood of the Indian public, and that the Pakistani people also have come to conclude that "it is time to move on." Musharraf, they relayed, had told them in a recent trip, "I will be happy with whatever you can come up with in working with PM Singh." The transformation of popular attitudes in Pakistan, they explained, had given them much more space to maneuver. The Mirwaiz said there were some who still did not get it, however, and relayed an anecdote about his visit to the Jamaat Islami in Muzzafarabad. There, JI leaders paraded a long line of family members of "martyrs" who had died in operations across the LOC. Mirwaiz, unimpressed, harangued them for "boxing us in with martyr's blood" when they needed to try new approaches to forge peace. The reaction, needless to say, was one of shock, added Mirwaiz. But overall, he said, Pakistani society was changing. On PTV the other day, Bilal and Mirwaiz had been shocked to hear Niaz Naik and Ayaz Ali condemn the "militants" (not/not "freedom fighters") who slaughtered 35 Hindus on April 30/May 1. Such a semantic shift was very important, they stressed. FENCE-SITTERS "DANGEROUS" -------------- ¶5. (C) Bilal got hot and bothered when discussing JKLF leader Yasin Malik and separatist Shabir Shah. Those "fence-sitters" are opportunistists who play a dangerous and cynical game, he argued. Mirwaiz agreed, saying he and his group were sticking their necks out for a negotiated improvement -- and he and Bilal had both lost dear family members to terrorists -- while Yasin and Shabir sit on a fence and criticize. Ultimately, Mirwaiz said, it required zero risk to do nothing yet attack any constructive efforts. Bilal said Yasin Malik is using his talks with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahedin to assert that he represents the true aspirations, but his was a dangerous game because he was also essentially endorsing the same people who continued to kill people. When D/PolCouns argued that Yasin had at least urged these groups to abandon violence and start dialogue, Bilal was dismissive, saying, "The ISI controls the gun in Pakistan. They turn it on and off, not the LET and Hizb." Mirwaiz and Bilal also attributed Shabir and Yasin's persistent refusal to join the dialogue process to their NEW DELHI 00003130 003.2 OF 004 inability to overcome the fact that neither would be first among equals. KASHMIR AS ROTTEN AS EVER -------------- ¶6. (C) Lamenting the dirty games of Kashmiri politics, Mirwaiz said all sides of the conflict had a vested interest in its perpetuation, from separatists to terrorists to security forces. New Delhi, he said, needed to rein-in their forces who had become too comfortable with making money there. The grenade blast April 24 in PDP strong-hold Pattan, he alleged, was a security force dirty trick to embarass Mehbooba Mufti. The recently-publicized sex scandal involving porn tapes of a young Kashmiri girl were not only revolting but the fact that four state Ministers and six senior police officials were involved (he alleged) proved that Kashmiri society and the state administration were rotten. Values had eroded. On the successfully-concluded April 24 election, they said the high turnout was because the campaign revolved around pressing municipal issues. HINDU MASSACRE? OH YEAH... -------------- ¶7. (C) As much as Mirwaiz and his ilk represent the positive face of peaceful Kashmiri separatism, their tunnel vision focused intently on Kashmiri Muslims was apparent again in our May 4 conversation as neither Mirwaiz nor Bilal even mentioned the massacre of 35 Hindus just a few days prior until we brought it up. After the massacre they had condemned it, but it was clear when we met that it did not preoccupy their thoughts. Proving the Kashmiri tendency to consider the Valley the center of the world, only Jammu shut-down in protest of the terrorists' actions. We have seen this sort of exclusivist thinking surface before when Kashmiris asked us, shocked, why the President had not made Kashmir the focus of his South Asia trip in March. When told that bilateral transformation with India was his focus, they shook their heads. COMMENT: PM SINGH CHARMED THEM -------------- ¶8. (C) Given how positive Mirwaiz was, it was clear that Manmohan Singh had again said all the right things. After his hawkish bureaucracy had thrown a spanner in the Hurriyat's works with the February roundtable -- which also showed Mirwaiz India's displeasure at his comments made from the Pakistani side of the LOC -- the Hurriyat had been frozen out for months. The decision to bring them back to Delhi and re-open direct lines of communication means the PM's vision of constant movement in forging lasting peace cannot be deterred. Delhi-Islamabad dialogue has been humming along, and Delhi-Srinagar dialogue just received an important jump-start. When asked, Mirwaiz said they no longer need to play Kabuki-theater on TV and in the media to get another invitation to Delhi. They now have a direct line, he said, to the PM. In that regard, Manmohan Singh has done the right thing yet again. NEW DELHI 00003130 004.2 OF 004 ¶9. (U) Visit New Delhi's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/sa/newdelhi/ MULFORD