Kashmir is still not ripe for settlement

Manoj Joshi
NEW DELHI: In the 1990s, Richard Haass, a charter member of the Washington rolodex that moves between academia and government, penned a small volume of essays on various conflicts around the world —Greece-Turkey in Cyprus, India-Pakistan in Kashmir, the Middle East and so on.
What Haass, who is now President of the Council on Foreign Relations, wanted to know was: Why is it that some international conflicts can be solved while others defy solution despite the best efforts of talented negotiators? His uncomfortable, almost tautological, answer was that conflicts are susceptible to settlement when they are ripe for it.Instead of wasting time trying to settle situations unripe for settlement, US diplomacy should work towards aiding the ripening process.
Is Kashmir ripe for settlement? The short answer is that it is still a bit raw. Musharraf''s tentative statement that he is willing to set aside the UN resolutions indicates that the ripening process is underway, as indeed are the recent moves towards peace between India and Pakistan.
To further ripen the process, three additional ingredients are needed.
First, a reduction, if not elimination of violence in the Valley.
There are indications that this process is underway, but with nearly 300 security force personnel killed last year, it is clear that we are still some distance from even a condition of near-normality.