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Celebrities from India, Pakistan plead for a break from the past

More than 70 prominent citizens of India and Pakistan -- industrialists, politicians, military men, academics and journalists -- have made a joint appeal not to let the renewed talks between the two nations be 'destroyed by habits of anger and hatred'.

They said the India-Pakistan talks should not go the way of previous ones because of hatred that had frozen politics and politicians in both countries in irreconcilable postures.

''That misfortune must not recur. Neither side should walk away from the talks because of disagreement on any issue in protest against any statement or action by the other side...Differences should be eliminated whatever they can be, but where they cannot be, yet the effort to narrow them must be continued with patience and perseverance''.

The eminent citizens of the two countries said resolution of the problem of Jammu and Kashmir must be sincerely and vigorously sought in accordance with the interests of the people of both sides of the line of control and in a manner which guarantees broad based South Asian cooperation.

''But if disagreement on one count is allowed to scuttle attainable and mutually beneficial agreements on other counts then the process will collapse, and to rebuild it again may take more time than either country can afford. Delays may have been costly in the past as well. But they can be much, much more so in view of the recent events within and around both countries and the new nuclear juxtaposition between them.''

The Pakistani signatories to the joint statement included Ashraf Abbas, Latif Afridi, Prof Haroon Ahmad, Eqbal Ahmed, Ghulam Ahmad Bilor, Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhary, Khan Chamkani, Brig Rao Abid Hamid, Prof Zaki Hasan, Mubashir Hasan, Justice Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Dr Begum Jan, Tahir Mohammed Khan, Afrasiab Khattak, Asma Jahangir, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, M B Naqvi, Muhammed Haneef Ramay, I A Rehman and P K Sahani.

Among the Indian signatories were Lt Gen Dipankar Bannerjee, Ved Bhasin, Tapan Bose, Prithviraj Chavan, Pran Chopra, P K Dave, Rajmohan Gandhi, Dr Sayeeda Hamid, P V Indiresan, Ramaswami R Iyer, Inder Malhotra, Lt Gen V K Nayar, Vice Admiral K K Nayyar, Deepak Nayyar, Adm L Ramdas, Jug Suraiya, Ram Tarneja, L M Thapar, B G Verghese and Lt Gen A M Vohra.

UNI

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