Photo: AP

Daily ceremonial meetings of the Indian (left) and Pakistani (right) military at the border point of the Vaga show that the world between two eternal rivals in principle is possible

The plan of the Middle East settlement, known as the "road map", unexpectedly found followers - but not in Israel and Palestine, but in South Asia. At the end of October, India made a conciliatory gesture towards Pakistan and offered him her “road map” - a plan for improving relations from 12 points. Correspondents of the "authorities" who visited the Pakistan-Indian border appreciated the chances of reconciling the parties.

To a long list of traditional topics that this week during the next summit will be discussed in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bikhari Vajpai, another was unexpectedly added. A few days before the visit to Russia, on the eve of the Holy Hurry of the holiday, when it is customary to give each other gifts and light lamps, Mr. Vajpai put forward a peace plan consisting of 12 points, designed to derive relationships with a neighbor from a coma state. And he gave the Indians, perhaps an illusory, but still the hope that already next year they would celebrate the "Feast of the Lights", not fearing that the war with Pakistan would not have struck today-another war for Kashmir.

Photo: AP to get from India to Pakistan and vice versa by bus, but quite a few people on both sides and today would prefer to make this path on the tank

War
The Pakistanis call the part of Kashmir Azad Kashmir (free Kashmir) controlled by them, and the Indian - "Kashmir occupied by India." In India, the opposite is true: the Pakistani part is called the occupied, and the Indian one is Jammu and Kashmir, who is an integral part of India. (There is still a small part of Kashmir-Aksai-Chin, taken from India during the military operations of 1962 by China, but this uninhabited piece of land, almost completely consisting of mountain peaks covered with eternal snow, by and large, few people excite.)
The so -called control line that remained there since the confrontation of 1947 is shared by the positions of Indian and Pakistani troops in Kashmir. Actually, there is no line on Earth, and it was drawn very arbitrarily: someone just took a pencil and drawn the line on the map, not paying attention to the rivers, or mountain ridges, or other natural lines.

Photo: Boris Volkhon Border Pillage recalls that the neighbors have a lot in common - for example, the language of the former colonialist

There are no visible signs of the presence of the border (in fact, the line of control is one) on the terrain: neither the control strip, nor fence, nor barbecue wire. Separate positions and observation points are scattered very whimsical and almost completely merged with the surrounding landscape.
However, all participants in the confrontation know exactly the boundaries of their territory.
“You see, a mountain lit by the sun,” says Brigadier Ephthachar Ali Khan, the commanding of a part, stationed in the town of Chakotha, near the line itself. “She is already on the Indian side.”
According to the Pakistanis, the Indians on their side began to build something like a wall - in the image and likeness of the one that Israel builds around the Palestinian territories, and even, they say, with Israeli help. The goal is to prevent the penetration of militants from Pakistani territory into Indian. True, unlike the Israeli, the local wall is unlikely to make it continuous: after all, the area is replete with mountain ranges and narrow gorges. In the best case, the most convenient routes for the movements of the militants will be blocked.

Photo: Appakistan military are fond of collecting products of the Soviet defense industry, arriving from the Indian side, and in exchange willingly send their samples to Hindus

Having conducted a tour of the advanced positions and returning to the location of his part, purity and order reminiscent of the Soviet pioneer camp, General Iftihar gave a small lecture. Kashmir went to India completely illegally - contrary to the will of the Kashmirsev themselves and without taking into account both natural and historically established routes. The Hindu firing Pakistani territory and "create cruelty on the occupied part of Kashmir."
- When they shoot at our positions, we do not even pay attention to this. Here, you see, a funnel, here is another one - now roses grow in them, ”said the general and immediately cited the breathtaking numbers of mines and shells released by Indians in peaceful cities and refugee camps, and showed fragments in confirmation of his words.

Photo: Boris Volkhonsky

- How do you calculate their total number?
- Very simple. After all, we answer the fire and know how many shells we released. We believe that they are about the same.

A truce
However, they not only shoot at the Indo Pakistani border. This may be convinced by anyone who will attend the ceremony of the descent of state flags at the Vaga border point between the Pakistani Lahore and the Indian Amrititsar. It was in these parts, in the once unified Punjab, which was part of the British India and was divided into Indian and Pakistani units in 1947, after the division of India, almost the most bloody clashes between the crowds of Muslims moving to the west and the Hindus and Sikhs who were walking in the opposite direction passed.
Now, thousands of people from both sides come here to watch the ceremony daily, and for them it is a kind of theatrical spectacle or a sports competition-with fans, support groups, soloists and statists.

Photo: Boris Volkhonsky

The action begins shortly before sunset. But already a few hours before the start of the rostrum, built 50 meters from the border, filled. According to one of the officers of the Pakistani rangers guarding the border, at least 3-4 thousand people gathered on our visit to the Pakistani side. There are more on weekends. And with Indian usually even more.
The crowd waves flags, shouts welcoming slogans, the main of which (from the Pakistani side) - "Pakistan Zindabad!" ("Long live Pakistan!") And "La Hilahi Il Alla" ("There is no God, except Allah"). What shout from the Indian side is heard worse, but sometimes the cry "Hindustustan Zindabad!" ("Long live India!") Merges with him and begins to sound in unison - the languages of Hindi and Urdu are quite close.

Photo: Boris Volkhonsky passage - handshake - descent of the flag. This routine procedure attracts thousands of spectators only because the war for them seemed to end, but the world has not yet come

Closer to sunset on both sides of the border, soldiers appear, clearly selected for service in this section of the border according to external data - strong and high. The Pakistani rangers are dressed in a dark gray, almost black ceremonial shape, Indian-in khaki with variegated red-yellow belts. With a clang, the sash of the iron gate with Pakistan and Indian state symbols open. There are two officers on the neutral strip. A short handshake symbolizes that today the ceremony will take place in the spirit of friendship and understanding.
Then follows a series of ceremonial passages. Finally, on a neutral strip, a person gathers five on each side-at the same time, everyone seeks to shout something louder, puff up his cheeks and take as a threatening pose as possible. But then everyone calms down and one person on each side begins to spin the ropes that attach flags.
-Does it happen so that someone shouting, say, "Hindustan Murdabad!" ("Down with India!")? - asked the correspondent of "power" captain of the rangers named Hassan.
- We have clear instructions, and we carry out explanatory work with the public. So far, there were no such incidents.
The flags slowly slide off the flags. They are carefully turned and carried away - until the next morning.

Photo: Boris Volkhonsky

World
The main difference between the Indo-Pakistani "road map" from Israel-Palestinskaya is its origin. If the Middle East plan is the joint development of four international intermediaries (USA, Russia, the EU, the UN), then its South Asian counterpart is the Indian know-how. The official Delhi fundamentally does not accept mediation in a dispute with Islamabad-neither American, nor Russian, nor any other.

Photo: AP

The “road maps” unites the fact that both planes offer tactics of small steps, without giving an answer, how the most difficult issues of the relationship of old opponents will be resolved. As the forefront by silence by the question of the status of East Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, so the background does not contain a recipe for solving the problem of Kashmir divided between India and Pakistan and the question of what to do with people who are called freedom fighters, and others - terrorists.
The small steps that Delhi offers are mainly aimed at laying transport routes between the two countries - land, sea, air. It is proposed to open a bus message between the Srinagar, the capital of the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir, and Muzaffarabada, located in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, a ferry message between Indian Mumbash and Pakistani Karachi, resume negotiations on civilian aircraft flights and rushing trains between the Indian state of Rajastkhan and the Pakistani Province of Sind. In addition, it is proposed to mutually abandon the arrests of fishermen, detained by border guards of the other side in the coastal waters, and resume the matches of national teams in the cricket.

Photo: Boris Volkhonsky is vigilantly monitored by the military on both sides (in the photo - Indian rangers)

In India, they say that now the word is behind Islamabad. However, the reaction of Pakistan to Indian proposals was very cool. Islamabad expressed disappointment by the fact that in the plan there is no point on the resumption of a political dialogue, which involves a discussion of the problem of Kashmir. Nevertheless, the Pakistanis promised that they would study Indian sentences as seriously as possible.
In Delhi, they continue to hope that Pakistan will not leave the plan without attention. The influential Indian newspaper Pioneer even wrote that, having accepted Indian proposals, Pakistani President Perevez Musharraf, along with Atal Bikhari Vajpai, could well have claimed the Nobel Prize of the World. And indeed: if the prize at one time was given to Yasira Arafata, the worse the Musharraf Perevez?
Boris Volkhonsky, Sergey Strokan

Magazine "Kommersant Power" No. 44 dated 10.11.2003, p. 54

Authors:

Do not make yourself Kashmir